For the last few years, Samsung has been hitting the mark one watch after another. One of those successful smartwatches was the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic edition, which had a rotating bezel and reliable SoC. Now, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is on sale for $129 in both black and silver, down from over $300, bringing premium incredibly within reach.
Released in late 2021, the Galaxy Watch 4 series was the first to run the brand-new Wear OS variant built hand-in-hand with Samsung. The software was an interesting combination of both Samsung’s Tizen and Wear OS, branded under the One UI Watch name. With that, the Galaxy Watch 4 delivered a fantastic software experience that felt natural and easy to use.
As far as hardware goes, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is still one of the best-looking Wear OS watches on the market, in my opinion. The metal chassis and rotating bezel are key design elements that do more than tie the face together.
Throughout Samsung’s version of Wear OS, the rotating bezel is put to good use. The piece of hardware acts as a rotating crown, though it feels more natural for scrolling through apps and notifications. Rather than swiping to get anywhere, the bezel becomes second nature for navigation. There is currently no new version of the Galaxy Watch that has a rotating bezel, which makes the Watch 4 Classic one of the cooler variants.
The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic continues to hold its value today among Samsung’s newest watches, especially those competing for the $200 or less market. That includes watches like the Ticwatch E3 at $199, though it can be found for much lower. That watch, in particular, has a fully plastic design and basic features. Even now, Mobvoi hasn’t made any mention of upgrading the device to Wear OS 3, as it still runs the older version.
Other watches in this price range, like the Amazfit GTR 3, run lightweight software that simply isn’t as capable as a modern version of Wear OS, like Samsung’s take on Wear OS 3 on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Of course, the upside to that is that Amazfit’s watch has much better battery life, but you’re sacrificing a lot of functionality for that extra time off of the charger.
The Galaxy Watch 4 is promised four years of Wear OS updates. That means the Classic will keep active support until at least 2025. Samsung is at the top of the list currently when it comes to companies offering extended software support – something that’s unfortunately hard to find across the market.
Even the newer Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is somewhat hard to justify next to the Watch 4 Classic, especially at this price. From a design perspective, some might say the Watch 4 Classic looks better, as the new version feels much larger and looks oversized for a lot of users.
With that, the Watch 4 Classic still goes beyond what is generally needed in a smartwatch. The only true sensor addition on the Watch 5 Pro is the inclusion of a temperature sensor, though that feature is only just now being utilized.
Generally speaking, the Watch 4 Classic and the new Watch 5 Pro are the same watch. Each runs the same chipset, display resolution, and RAM. The only real difference is the type of glass – the Watch 5 Pro has sapphire crystal – and the battery life. The Watch 5 Pro has a massive battery at 590 mAh, and even that’s on the extreme side. The Classic’s 361 mAh is completely usable in most respects.
It’s hard to make a case for sub-$200 smartwatches when put up to a Galaxy Watch 4 Cassic at $129. Cheap smartwatches tend to reflect their price tags, and the Watch 4 Classic has internals and features that would beat them any day of the week, all while making use of that beloved rotating bezel.
Update: The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is on sale, yet again. This time around, Walmart has added the silver variant to the mix, which makes the offer even more compelling. When this article was first published (4/19) the sale site was only carrying one version, and the sale lasted for maybe a week. Now, it looks like stock is back and the seller is looking to stick with the same closeout pricing.
Once again, we have no clue how long the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic will be on sale. We do know that even when Samsung launches the Galaxy Watch 6 in the coming months, it’ll likely retail for several times as much as the Watch 4’s current sale price.
Buy the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic – $129
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