Samsung has officially unveiled their latest Wear OS smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, bringing premium materials and refinements to health features.
Last year, Samsung kicked off the comeback of Google’s Wear OS with the release of the Galaxy Watch 4 series. In addition to being the first wearables powered by Wear OS 3, those Galaxy Watches were also the only devices with the update until the Montblanc Summit 3.
Samsung has built upon the foundation of last year’s smartwatches to bring the refined Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro. The new watches see the return of Samsung’s BioActive Sensor chip, which combines three distinct sensors to offer a more complete picture of your overall health, including blood oxygen content, heart rate, estimated stress levels. The BioActive Sensor should be even more accurate this year, as the Galaxy Watch 5 offers a larger surface area for more skin contact.
The Galaxy Watch 5 series also brings back advanced health features like EKG and blood pressure monitoring. That said, Samsung has still not obtained approval for its blood pressure in the United States. Additionally, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro include Samsung’s “Sleep Scores” system and snore detection, along with a sleep coaching system to fix your nighttime schedule.
Spec chasers will be glad to know that the Galaxy Watch 5 series is powered by the Exynos W920 and comes with 1.5 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. To keep your watch running for longer, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro includes a whopping 590 mAh battery, compared to 284 mAh and 410 mAh in the smaller and larger Galaxy Watch 5 models, respectively.
Out of the box, the Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Pro will run on One UI Watch 4.5, which is based on Wear OS 3.5 from Google. We’ve already gotten a taste of what to expect from this update thanks to the One UI Watch 4.5 closed beta that Galaxy Watch 4 owners received earlier this year. The key highlights include a full QWERTY keyboard, dual-SIM cellular connection, more watch face customization options, and better accessibility.
On the hardware front, Samsung has opted to make their latest series of wearables more durable than its predecessors by equipping it with a sapphire crystal display, which should pair nicely with the watch’s fall detection. This is especially impressive for a watch that starts as low as $279.
Both sizes of the standard Galaxy Watch 5 offer a trio of colors for its “Armor Aluminum” casing. Meanwhile the Watch 5 Pro steps up to a more durable and more premium titanium case in one of two colors, and will set you back at least $449.
For the golf fanatics out there, Samsung has also produced a separate “Golf Edition” for each model in the Galaxy Watch 5 series, starting at $329. These “ultimate smart caddies” feature exclusive watch faces, a two-tone watch band, and an “unlimited” membership to the Smart Caddie app.
Galaxy Watch 5 & 5 Pro specs
- Dimensions:
- (40mm): 40.4mm x 39.3mm x 9.8mm
- (44mm): 44.4mm x 43.3mm x 9.8mm
- (Pro): 45.4mm x 45.4mm x 10.5mm
- Weight:
- (40mm): 28.7g
- (44mm): 33.5g
- (Pro): 46.5g
- Materials & colors:
- (40mm): Armor Aluminum case in Graphite, Pink Gold, or Silver
- (44mm): Armor Aluminum case in Graphite, Sapphire, or Silver
- (Pro): Titanium case in Black or Gray
- Durability: 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H
- Processor: Exynos W920 Dual-Core 1.18GHz
- Memory & storage: 1.5GB RAM + 16GB internal storage
- Operating system: Wear OS 3.5 with One UI Watch 4.5
- Display:
- (40mm): 1.2″, 396×396 Super AMOLED display w/ sapphire crystal
- (44mm): 1.4″, 450×450 Super AMOLED display w/ sapphire crystal
- (Pro): 1.4″, 450×450 Super AMOLED display w/ sapphire crystal
- Battery:
- (40mm): 284 mAh
- (44mm): 410 mAh
- (Pro): 590 mAh
- Sensors:
- Optical heart rate
- Electrical heart signal
- Bioelectrical impedance analysis
- Temperature sensor
- Accelerometer
- Barometer
- Gyro sensor
- Geomagnetic sensor
- Light sensor
- Connectivity:
- LTE (optional)
- Bluetooth 5.2
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4+5GHz
- NFC
- GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo
Images: Samsung
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