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Watches and wearables · Samsung Galaxy Watch

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

6owners with an opinion
20%of verdicts positive
1/3positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use and software; criticized for battery.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
I'm using a cheap samsung watch, maybe 4? It's ages old at this point, but I need it to get contactless pay, I'm a sucker for it. I have multiple company and personal and virtual cards on it, and I don't like carrying a wallet everywhere with me. What's specially shitty with using a wearos watch with an android phone is that clock's alarms etc do not sync, at least not between grapheneos samsung galaxy watch 4. I have to use use turboclock which has a wearos app to get wakeup alarms to my watch.
Likes it
Interesting that the alarm is such a far down feature for you. I use a galaxy watch 4, and i dont think i can ever go back from a silent alarm. Nicer to wake up to, and doesn't wake up everyone in the house as well
Doesn’t like it
I'm not very convinced of the utility of smart watches, at least not the wear os incarnations - I will not make a generic statement because I have no way to know if I would like the Apple Watches and I am not willing to buy an iPhone to get one. I have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and it's.. alright. I mean, the software works smoothly, I don't have any complaints to make in terms of defective behavior or UI. But past the time of novelty I barely use it as a smart watch. Just a watch I charge every day and which I won't replace once the battery ages too much or it breaks. I'll go back to a regular casio at that time. It works for checking notifications but in many cases I'll want to do something after a notification (like, if I get a message, most likely I'll want to answer it, at which point I am going back on the phone where typing is comfortable, and what value did the watch provide?) It doesn't add anything to some of my physical activities the phone didn't do - like tracking my bike rides on a map, and when I want to look at past results I'll also be using the phone - a bigger screen is always better. Tracking my heart rate - one of the watch exclusives - hasn't changed anything to my life. Anyhow, I will always be taking my phone with me anywhere I go, so the watch feels quite redundant. It can do things without having to take my phone out of the pocket, but do them worse for the most part. I'm sure Fossil's bad deals with Google and the rise of Samsung contributed to thei…
Neutral
This is pretty much my view of smart watches too. The way I see it, the coupling with the phone removes the purpose of the watch. I'll elaborate a bit: current smart watches seem to work a bit like a remote control for my phone: There's a Spotify app for wear os, but it only works if the watch is connected to the phone via Bluetooth, which means I have to bring the phone. Similarly, I can take phonecalls from my watch, but only if the phone is within Bluetooth reach. I'm not sure why I need a remote control for something that has to be in my pocket anyway.. If the watch was more independent, it would be more useful. There are times when I don't want a bulky phone in my pocket, but a watch on my wrist is acceptable. Mostly various sport activities. What would make a smart watch useful in my opinion is the following: 1. SIM card(preferably digital) so the watch has it's own data. 2. The ability to "disable" my phone so that all notifications and calls are forwarded automatically to my watch, even when the watch is not within range of the phone(this is gonna be a challenge technically, godspeed any engineer who tackles this) 3. "Full" apps, that work independently from the phone, so that my watch can in standalone do things like play music(probably via Bluetooth headphones) accept phonecalls, and bonus points if it can make phonecalls via voice control. Once I can leave the phone at home and replace it temporarily with my watch, the watch will be useful to me.
Doesn’t like it
I picked up a galaxy watch 4 on a whim and I gotta say wearos is a trainwreck. Half the value is getting notifications to your wrist but you have to have corresponding linked apps on both the watch and phone. And typing on a watch is a nightmare -- you're paired to my phone! Why aren't I using that keyboard!? Honestly the Pebble was not that high of a bar. Keep the screen on and send me my notifications and I'm happy.