Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic test by an athlete for athletes

You may be a little disappointed by activating the Always mode we. With this mode, the watch displays the time permanently. But that does not mean that it displays the Watchface constantly. Indeed, it is hyper consumer in energy, so after a few seconds, certainly the screen does not go out, but the display goes into frugal mode, that is to say in black and white and with only some basic info.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 test: a new bone and discreet improvements

With its Galaxy Watch 4 and the implementation of Wearos, Samsung offers a watch as ambitious by its finishes as by its software.

Presentation

Here is the Galaxy Watch 4, the new connected watch from Samsung presented in August 2021 and marketed in stride. Direct successor of the Galaxy Watch Active 2, whose features he takes up, this model still puts a little more accent on health. The electrocardiogram is now accompanied by a calculation of the impedance or the rate of oxygenation of the blood. Another novelty, Samsung abandons Tizenos, his house operating system, for the benefit of Wear OS 3.0, developed in partnership with Google.

In its 40 mm version, the Galaxy Watch 4 is currency at € 269 if Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are enough for you. For 4G, you will have to pay € 50 additional (€ 319). A 44 mm version was launched for € 299 without 4G and € 349 with. At these prices, Samsung obviously competes with the Apple Watch Series 7 and SE, but also to the Fitbit Sense.

For this test, we used the 40 mm version.

Ergonomics and design

Aesthetically, Samsung renews the winning formula of its Galaxy Watch Active series. We find a light (25.9 grams) and fine (9.8 mm) case. It is also very well finished and pleasant to wear. On its edge, the two elegant buttons have electrodes, used for health measures. Other electrodes are also present at the rear of the case alongside the heart rate meter.

The Galaxy Watch 4 has an OLED 1.19 inch OLED screen displaying in 396 x 396 px for a resolution of 330 pp. Offering real comfort of use, it is excellent and distinguishes itself as one of the strengths of this model. Bright enough to be perfectly readable in full sun, it is also capable of weakening a lot so as not to dazzle after falling night.

Finally, the Galaxy Watch 4 is IP68 certified. It is therefore able to withstand an immersion of 30 minutes in 1.5 meters deep without variation in significant pressure. No problem to swim therefore, but an intense nautical activity, like surfing, could damage the case. Finally, the bracelet of this fluoroelastomer galaxy Watch 4 turns out to be quite rudimentary, but does not irritate the skin, even during a sports outing.

Advertising, your content continues below

Interface

Among the new features of this Galaxy Watch 4, Wearos 3.0 is probably the most anticipated. It is accompanied by Oneui Watch, the overlay developed by Samsung. This offers an aesthetic close to what Samsung proposed on Tizenos, its home operating system.

Compared to the latter, the main contribution of Wearos 3.0 concerns the offer of available applications. With the arrival of the Google Play Store, the number of applications is much more provided. Whether for sport or entertainment, the American store displays more choices. What to rejoice, especially since the investments made by the G of the GAFAM suggests that the offer should continue to swell over time.

Apart from the Play Store, we are therefore faced with a Samsung watch in continuity of what was offered in the past. We thus find the fundamentals of the Korean brand, starting with the digital rotary crown. To scroll the notifications and the cards, just slide your finger at the edge of the screen. The maneuver remains much more natural than the simple sliding from right to left or from left to right. Thus, it is possible to quickly access its number of steps, the launch of a physical activity or a particular application. The sequence of “cards”, as Samsung calls them, is fully customizable from the watch, or from the smartphone via the Galaxy Wearable application.

By passing his finger from top to the screen, the shortcut shutter opens. Like that of a smartphone, it allows you to switch to plane mode, silent mode, adjust the brightness of the slab or even access the settings. These are many and allow real personalization. By sliding from bottom to top, the application cloud opens. Looking like that of Apple Watchos, it allows you to quickly view all the apps downloaded on the tocante.

In use, this supported wearos support from Oneui Watch is very convincing, among the best on the connected watch market. The notifications are quickly displayed, without problem of caesura, sporting the logos of the source application. All of the applications available, from Google Maps to Strava, via Spotify or City Mapper is very well optimized. The presence of a microphone allows the voice synthesis, to answer the phone or to contact the vocal assistant of Samsung, Bixby. Finally, it is always possible to respond to the messages of your loved ones, whether via automatic responses or the microphone, but it is still relatively gadget.

Advertising, your content continues below

Application

Before mentioning deeper the smartphone/Galaxy Watch 4 connections, it is necessary to remember that the Samsung watch does not offer the same experience with all the mobiles. First of all, it is only compatible with Android smartphones. IOS and Harmonyos users will therefore be able to go their way. Also, the electrocardiogram function is only available if the user has a Samsung smartphone. This was not the case as part of our test, where we connected the watch with a OnePlus 8T.

The Galaxy Watch synchronizes with the Galaxy Wearable and Samsung Health applications, available on Android. If the first allows you to immerse yourself in the various parameters and applications, the second offers a complete panorama of the data collected.

In Galaxy Wearables, the user can personalize the interface of his watch. From the home screen, with the application cloud, it is possible to change the colors, the order of the apps and the shortcuts. A wide choice of parameters gives the user the possibility to configure the notifications with precision, to activate the Always-on or to add music to his tocante. Overall, Galaxy Wearables is rather complete and practical.

For its part, Samsung Health lists all the health data collected by the watch. There is the number of steps, the minutes of activity, the calories spent, the average heart rate, sleep time or even body composition. The latter given estimates the amount of skeletal muscle, fat and the user’s BMI. It is also possible to add to it the food ingested and the amount of water drums during the day. An application, which obviously reminds of the Fitbit application offered by the eponymous American company and recently bought by Google.

Uses and precision

The Galaxy Watch 4 has a whole string of sensors. It has an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, a heart rate monitor, a GPS, but also a sensor dedicated to the electrocardiogram as well as another for the analysis of the body impedance.

Let’s start with GPS. The one proves to be an excellent invoice. It allows precise monitoring of the position, much more precise than that of a smartphone capable of some wanderings here and there. If the GPS sometimes takes more than a minute to activate, it is not necessary to wait to start its session. The location will automatically activate, as soon as it has found the signal. A good point. Another reason for satisfaction, the extremely reactive automatic break only takes a handful of seconds to detect the change of state.

For its part, the cardiofrequency meter ensures much less convincing performance. It will only be relevant during a sweet sporting outing, such as a walk or a jogging outing. Under these conditions, the margin of error is low compared to a Polar H10 pectoral belt, which serves as a reference. It is around 1 % on the average heart rate. On the other hand, the watch sometimes has difficulty keeping too high a rate and gives a maximum frequency sometimes 10 or 15 beats below the pectoral belt. These concerns crystallize during a split exercise, based on changes in regular and intense rhythms. Under these conditions, heart rate curves lose in relevance and therefore in interest.

Like many of its competitors, the Galaxy Watch 4 offers sleep monitoring. This is rather consistent, with many statistics related to the sleep cycle and the rest time. Unfortunately, it is difficult to judge the precision of these analyzes. In the same way, the measurement of the electrocardiogram (available only on Samsung smartphones), the oxygenation of blood and body impedance are fluid to use, but complex to assess.

Autonomy

With a 247 mAh accumulator, the Galaxy Watch 4 in 40 mm offers the most limited autonomy. The watch only holds 24 hours with sustained use including receipt of notifications and monitoring of heart rate, sleep and a sporting outing of about one hour. These results are very below what its competitors offer.

Equipped with induction charger provided by Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 4 recharges in 1 h 20 min.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic test by an athlete for athletes

Even more content on social networks: YouTube for videos, Facebook for exchanges, Instagram for current tests and Twitter for brand news. Subscribe.

You are free to click here to order my partner I-Run regardless of what you want to order. It won’t cost you more, it’s delivered in 24 hours and it’s a good way to support the blog.

What could seem like a simple version of version (going from 3 to 4) is actually a software revolution. In any case on the side of Samsung, who decided to abandon his Tizen bone to pass his new watches connected under Wear OS (the OS developed by Google). But that Samsung fans reassure themselves, the developers of the Korean brand have done everything it takes for users to find the interface they knew (even improved).

This change brings new capacities in terms of applications, music, virtual assistant, contactless payment, etc.

Technically, we should talk about Galaxy Watch4 (without space between Watch and 4). This is the branding chosen by Samsung, a bit like the Suunto Ambit3 in its time.

Article content Hide

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic test: the verdict

The revolution that may seem frightening at first glance is actually an advance. Samsung and Google managed to cooperate to get the most out of the 2 worlds.

FOR Excellent health follow -up More applications Graphic interface

AGAINST Autonomy Limited features with certain Android smartphones

What is new about the Galaxy Watch 4

• 2 versions: Galaxy Watch 4 Classic (the one used for this test) and Galaxy Watch 4
• Wear OS 3 replaces the Tizen operating system
• First connected watch under Wear OS 3 (all brands combined)
• One Ui Watch
• Access to the Google Play Store (downloading of applications like Google Maps or YouTube Music)
• Google Pay
• Google Assistant (coming in a next update)
• Internal memory goes from 8 to 16GB
• New optical cardio sensor
• Bioelectric impedance sensor (to measure body composition)
• Detection of snoring (without laughing)
• Autonomy divided by 2
• Incompatible with an iPhone

The different models of Galaxy Watch 4

In fact, no less than 8 models of Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 arrive on the market.

To start, there are 2 versions:

• Galaxy Watch 4 Classic which succeeds the Galaxy Watch 3 (with a rotary telescope)
• Galaxy Watch 4 which succeeds the Galaxy Watch Active 2 (without rotary telescope)

For each of these versions, the box exists in 2 sizes:

• Galaxy Watch 4 Classic: 46mm or 42mm box
• Galaxy Watch 4: 44mm or 40mm box

Finally, there is for each version an LTE version and a Bluetooth version (without LTE).

Is the Galaxy Watch 4 compatible with an iPhone ?

The answer is no. Unlike the previous Samsung connected watches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 are not compatible with Apple devices (iPhone, iPad or other device that runs under iOS).

It is difficult to explain, since Wear OS in itself is compatible with the iPhone (I have already tested several connected watches under Wear OS). But it’s not just iPhone, Huawei smartphones are not compatible either.

At the moment, we do not know if it is a firm and final decision of Samsung or if compatibility with the iPhone will be added later, by update.

Is the Galaxy Watch 4 compatible with all Android smartphones ?

Officially, Samsung announces compatibility with all smartphones that run under an Android 6 or more recent version.

But there are other limits:

• The Samsung Health application of the Play Store is only borne on Android 8 or more recent versions
• The electrocardiogram and the blood pressure measurement are only compatible with a Samsung smartphone (not the Android smartphones of other brands)

So in fact, we still lose features if we do not use a smartphone from the Samsung brand.

Presentation of the Galaxy Watch 4

Replaced by : Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

Above the range : none

Below the range : none

Visually, Samsung offers 2 connected watches with 2 very different looks:

• The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is more like a classic watch (as its name suggests), with a steel case and a telescope that surrounds the screen
• The Galaxy Watch 4 is more connected, more minimalist design, with an aluminum box and a screen that stretches to the edge of the box

Beyond the look, the use will also be a little different in the interface, since the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic telescope is rotary and can be used to navigate the menus and scroll the screens. On the Galaxy Watch 4, this aspect of the interface is controlled by a virtual function around the touch screen.

The case is waterproof to 50m and even meets the military standard of the US army (guarantee of shocking robustness, extreme temperatures, etc.).

The bracelet is easily withdrawn thanks to a pulp system. But the adjustment between the bracelet and the watch box is rotten. In fact, the bracelet does not pivot completely freely around its axis. There is a stop on the bottom which makes it almost horizontal instead of coming to tackle to wrap the wrist. I tested the little Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and really, the bracelet was poorly adjusted, the Wall Watch. The conclusion that must be drawn is that if you hesitate, avoid taking the big model and rather favor the little one.

Ah and then the pointed end is not tackled by the 2 passers -by who are supposed to hold in place the end of the bracelet which exceeds the loop. Suddenly, it is easily clinging everywhere everywhere. It’s boring. No frankly, this bracelet is not a success.

Samsung communicates only the weight of the Galaxy Watch 4 boxes, without the bracelet. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 42mm that I tested weighs 69g.

There is a big improvement in the resolution of the Super AMOLED screen. The size of the screen depends on the size of the case but there is no longer any distinction between Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and Galaxy Watch 4:

• Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 46mm and Galaxy Watch 444mm: 35mm screen and resolution 450 x 450 pixels
• Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 42mm and Galaxy Watch 4 40mm: 30mm screen and resolution 396 x 396 pixels

The screen is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass DX+window, which offers both scratch resistance and good readability.

Technically, the Galaxy Watch 4 is the first connected watch to embark Wear OS 3 (the latest version of the Google operating system). But if you are not told that the Galaxy Watch 4 is running on Wear OS, it would not have been so easy to notice it. The regulars of the previous versions of Galaxy Watch will easily find themselves. You have to understand the stack of software layers:

• Google provides the Wear OS operating system
• Samsung has developed its graphical interface over. From the user’s point of view, it is this graphical interface that we see when we sail in widgets and menus

It’s a bit like the McLaren team in Formula 1, whose single -seater is equipped with a Mercedes engine. Wear OS is the engine; Samsung is the stable.

Samsung even implemented One Ui Watch, which brings the watch interface to that of the smartphone when it is a Samsung smartphone. Thus, any new application installed on the smartphone will be installed automatically on the Galaxy Watch 4.

The 2 buttons are located on the right side. The upper one brings back to the Watchface display. Long support opens the virtual assistant. The bottom button is used to cancel / go back and long support opens up contactless payment. The functions of the 2 long supports are customizable in the settings.

It’s not a bit weird that ? In fact we have 2 buttons to go back what. Personally I liked the operation on previous generations of Galaxy Watch, with the top button which was used to access the applications.

There are therefore a few small differences, especially in terms of controls and gestures. For example, we make a swipe up to display the list of applications instead of pressing the top button as before with Tizen. A swipe from the right to the left makes the widgets (called tiles in Wear OS) scroll through.

The choice of tiles of the Wear OS connected watches was not folichon. To start, Samsung added its own tiles. It already makes a wide choice of tiles concerning the monitoring of daily activity. But the big novelty is that we can now add third -party application tiles. For example, you can have a Strava tile, which allows you to make some settings and launch the recording of a sports activity by choosing your sporting profile.

The case incorporates everything you need to ensure the features of a smartwatch:

• Bluetooth
• Wireless
• LTE (on LTE models)
• Loud speaker
• Microphone

At the same time, the Galaxy Watch 4 concentrates all the sport / health sensors that can be imagined on a connected watch in 2021:

• GPS / Glonass / Beidou chip
• Cardio optical sensor
• Blood oxygenation sensor (SPO2)
• Electrocardiogramme (ECG)
• Blood pressure sensor (still requires being calibrated for the first time with a medical device)
• Bioelectric impedance sensor (to measure body composition and stress)
• Barometric altimeter
• Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass

The list of sports profiles mixes sports such as running, bicycle to weight training exercises (squat, crunch, etc.). It’s been a little clutch at first. The idea of ​​having these muscular exercises is that we can chain them within the recording of a bodybuilding session. And then there are also other activities such as yoga. On the other hand, large absent are outdoor sports, such as skiing.

Far from the cliché of the connected watch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 offers some settings and features that are worth a mid -range GPS watch in a specialized sport brand, such as: for example:

• Personalization of data fields
• Up to 7 data fields per screen
• Running dynamics such as the balance of left / right contact time
• VO2max

Well, there are still gaps, in the first chapter of which the impossibility of coupling a cardio belt. At least in the basic configuration, because we will see later that there are several applications with which we can use external sensors in Bluetooth (even a Stryd if we want).

On the other hand, on the side of monitoring of daily activity and health, we are at the top of the top.

SPO2 measurement is now widespread on new generations of cardio optical sensors (the small red LED in addition to green LEDs). The ECG also develops, not too much on sports watches but rather on connected watches. The blood pressure sensor already existed on the Galaxy Watch 3 but requires being calibrated with a real device at the doctor.

The bioelectric impedance sensor is the novelty of the Galaxy Watch 4. Finally, in a way. The idea is not new since Tomtom had already integrated it into its connected bracelet TomTom Touch. But it has been a little forgotten and it resurfaces in 2021. I think it comes from improving hardware integration. On the Tomtom Touch, it was not very beautiful, we had a kind of large round button on the front, just below the screen, on which you had to place a finger. This time, Samsung was able to integrate it as the ECG sensor, using the bottom of the case and the buttons as an electrodes.

In terms of connected watch, the experience depends on the smartphone used. Personally, I used a Samsung S8 for the first time and I must admit that we see the difference. The watch fits perfectly with the smartphone, with many more features and especially the features that go in both directions (from smartphone to watch, such as smart notifications; but also watch to the smartphone, such as launching the download an application or listening to a voice message).

There are several options for the music player: MP3, Spotify or YouTube Music. This is a big step forward in relation to what was found before on the Wear OS connected watches.

Otherwise, well between native applications (contactless payment, virtual assistant, weather, calendar) and all that can be downloaded from the play store, well there is something to satisfy almost everyone.

Autonomy

If autonomy is your point of attention when you compare the connected watches, sit down before reading more. Samsung was distinguished so far with autonomies of 2 to 4 days, precisely thanks to the control of the electricity consumption of their Tizen bone. Well now, with Wear Os, it’s over.

Samsung announces a 40 -hour autonomy, both for the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and for the Galaxy Watch 4. If you plan to take advantage of the sleep tracking (and therefore wear your watch on the wrist at night rather than put it to charge), that means that you will be forced to recharge it every day. Like an Apple Watch what ..

Especially since these 40 hours of theoretical autonomy are evaluated in a “normal” use of connected watch. So of course, if you use the touch screen a lot, wifi, you will not arrive at 40 hours. Add an hour’s running session on this and for sure, it will be necessary to recharge it the same evening.

Obviously, if you use it little and make the right settings, you can pull up to 1 day 1/2.

These are the approximate consumption that I noted:

• 1 hour of sports with GPS: 15%
• 1 night without measurement of the SPO2: 20%
• 1 night with measurement of the SPO2: 25%
• 24 hours without sports session: 70%

It makes a maximum autonomy for an outdoor sports session of around 6-7h.

Activating Always mode We all day long that we can just hold 24 hours, without sports session.

Small refills will allow you to reinject 25% battery in 30 minutes. But for a complete recharge, it takes 2 hours. I still find it very handicapping. Samsung should have implemented a quick recharge which allows a substantial recharge of the Galaxy Watch 4 during meals.

The recharging is wireless, with a connector that is moving on the back of the watch and that you will have to take with you every time you leave for a weekend. Reverse charging, with a compatible smartphone is possible. Well, the thing is not bad is that the watch displays the time remaining until complete recharging.

Galaxy Watch 4 (all models)

Data fields

Allure: instantaneous, moy

Speed: Instant, Moy

Heart rate: instantaneous, moy, max

Last length arm movements

Last length

Running

There are 3 running profiles: normal mode, a mode with pre-recorded training sessions to target different objectives (calorie burning, light jogging, etc.), a carpet mode (without GPS).

On the basic profile, we can:

• Set a goal: duration, distance, calories
• Customize data screens (2 screens displaying up to 7 data fields)
• Car tour
• Car break
• Audio guide

What is surprising is that there are no fixed GPS. We choose the profile, the watch counts 3-2-1 and off we go. Suffice to say that it is not great for GPS precision. This is all the more surprising that when using a third -party app, the waiting time for the fixed GPS can last a few tens of seconds.

The instant look is stable and corresponds to what my other GPS watches were. On the other hand, the accuracy of the new optical cardio sensor is not worth that of the Galaxy Watch 3.

We find its training history in the Samsung Health application on the watch (on the smartphone too). I must say that the presentation of the data at the end of the exercise is really complete and pleasant to look at.

You will not be surprised if I tell you that I was skeptical about the reliability of the stride metrics of the Galaxy Watch 4. On paper, it is supposed to measure almost the same thing as the Garmin and Coros watches without any additional sensor (when it takes a cardio belt at Garmin and a pod at Coros).

In short, I have confirmation by comparing the metric of rigidity (a data usually provided by the Stryd sensor) on 2 outings running made on 2 very different fields: bitumen for the first, sandy undergrowth for the next. I obtained a rigidity score qualified as bad in both cases. Good…

Suddenly, what to think of other metrics: left / right asymmetry, floor contact time, time in the air, regularity, vertical oscillation ..

Wear OS’s best apps for sport

To go further than the Samsung application for sport, you can download:

• Strava: The live display is not terrible, we still cannot personalize the data screens, but the output will be transmitted directly to Strava. What makes the app interesting is that we can trigger from the La Beacon watch (live follow -up), a feature that Strava has switched to the free version recently.
• Komoot: good for the tracking of the route and the display of the cartography.
• Google Maps: In fact, this is the bad idea. Certainly Google Maps allows you to display cartography and be guided in turn by turn to go somewhere, but it is not an application made to create routes for sport.
• Sporty Go: Allows you to do a lot, with a dozen sports profiles, some of which fill omissions in the list of profiles available in the basic Samsung application (racing mat, outdoor sports). You can couple Bluetooth sensors (cardio belt, bicycle cadence sensor and even stryd), transfer sessions to other applications (Strava, Trainingpeaks, Final Surge), adjust the sensor survey frequency (1S, 3S, 5S, 10s, 30s, 60s), personalize the FCMAX and the FCREPOS. The only reproach I have to make him is the management of data screens. Frankly, it’s the bazaar, there are plenty of them and it’s hard to navigate.
• Ghost Racer: coupling of Bluetooth sensors, Carto Offline
• Outdooractive: Beautiful downloadable cartography for offline use, display of GPS coordinates, many routes accessible from the app (running, cycling, mountain biking, promenade.

When using a third -party app to record sports activities, pay attention to the automatic physical activity detection setting. It goes with certain apps (like Strava), but with others (like Sporty Go), it duplicates: we launch a manual recording and after 10 minutes, the watch warns us that an automatic recording has been launched.

Other sports

There are 3 lists of sports profiles:

• Favorites, accessible quickly from the watch
• The complementary list, accessible from the watch after clicking more
• The rest, accessible only from the Samsung Health application on smartphone and from which we can manually choose the sports that we want to transfer to the watch

These sports profiles, they can be classified in 2 categories:

• Sports (running, cycling, swimming, hiking, elliptical velo, etc.)
• The bodybuilding exercises (vertical draw, arm flexion, bellied developed, crunch, etc.)

For all bodybuilding exercises, the Galaxy Watch 4 will detect movements and count (more or less well) repetitions and series. Afterwards, we can continue with another exercise, then another, then another and everything will be recorded as a single session. The limit, well is the exercise library that is not very developed and may not cover all the exercises you are used to doing.

For swimming, there are 2 profiles: in the pool (without GPS) and in free water (with GPS).

For the bicycle, ditto: 1 profile with GPS for outside and 1 without GPS for the indoor bike.

There are other profiles for the room, such as circuit training or yoga.

All outdoor sports and collective sports are by default absent from the watch. You have to go to Samsung Health, review the hundred profiles to choose those you want to add in the watch. But roughly, there is everything: football, rowing, badminton, golf, skiing, etc.

GPS / Cardio accuracy

I have nothing to complain about regarding GPS precision. Except that you still cannot export the data recorded in Samsung Health and therefore I have few records to present to you (that those made with a third -party app that allows export).

Live, I found the instant look fairly fair. But the study of GPS traces shows that those of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic are still less reliable than those of other GPS watches.

Even in a straight line, he traces zigzague where that of the Forerunner 745 is perfectly straight.

In the forest, each turn is a more or less well managed difficulty.

Outside forest too ..

The behavior of the cardio is somewhat surprising (but confirms the interest of using a cardio belt for any sporting activity). Generally, follow-up is consistent when I stop taking a photo and my heart rate descends around 110-120. But as soon as the effort resumes, that it rises above 140, the values ​​displayed by the Galaxy Watch 4 are delusional (regardless of the application used).

I got a little better results by tightening the bracelet even more. Usually, I see the bracelet of all the cardio GPS watches that I test a notch compared to the “comfort” position that I use throughout the day. There, I tried to tighten 2 notches. We come back to this rotting problem of rotten bracelet that makes the watch floating on the wrist.

Daily / health follow -up

Monitoring of daily activity and health is really complete. To my knowledge, it is the most complete on the market. But beware, it will take on the one hand a Samsung smartphone to be able to take advantage of all the features and then, possibly adjust some settings according to what you want to follow and the impact it will have on the autonomy of the watch.

• We have 3 choices for recording the heart rate: continuously, every 10 minutes or on demand (occasional measure to be launched from the widget).
• Only two choices for monitoring stress: continuously or on demand (occasional measure to be launched from the widget).
• For the recording of the SPO2, it is either continuously at night or on demand (occasional measure to be launched from the widget).

Samsung has perfectly integrated the electrodes necessary to make the electrocardiogram. There is a metal plate at the back of the box and the other electrode is neither more nor less than the top button. To make an ECG, just space a finger on the top button and wait 30 seconds without moving. Well, when I say it is enough, it is the theory. It took me 7 tests to have a conclusive recording. Once it’s over, we have a result that appears on the screen and the data are transferred to Samsung Health, with the possibility of generating a PDF to export them.

The bioelectric impedance sensor makes it possible to deduce body composition. As with the electrocardiogram, the bottom plate of the case and the 2 buttons serve as an electrode. A very low current passes from one electrode (on one wrist) to the other (the other hand). It’s the same technology as some scales do that too. The difficulty is that it is necessary to place 1 finger on each button for 15 seconds, without these fingers touching the skin of the wrist.

It allows you to decompose your different parts, respectively muscles, bones, water and fat. Interest is to follow the transformation of your body due to physical activity by going a little more in detail than just the evolution of the weight. We all know that playing sports can burn fats without necessarily losing weight because at the same time we will gain muscle. The widget also displays the BMI (you have to get your size for that).

Sleep monitoring has been improved by increasing the frequency of measurement. Thus, blood oxygenation is now noted every minute instead of every 30 minutes previously. This is an important factor in moving from sleep to assessing the quality of recovery during sleep.

And now the Galaxy Watch 4 can even record the snoring. It’s a bit freaking out, no ? The idea of ​​Samsung is to combine the detection of snoring with the measurement of blood oxygenation in an attempt to detect sleep apnea. So, even if the Galaxy Watch 4 has a microphone, it is via the microphone of a Samsung smartphone that the records are made. It means that you have to sleep with your smartphone on the bedside table. I imagine that when you have your arm under a duvet, it must stifle the snoring noises and the watch microphone should not capture much. And you have to be careful, because it eats the smartphone battery, about 30% for the night (Bluetooth activated and wifi deactivated).

The funny thing is that the next day, we can listen to roar. In fact, the sequences with noise are not only identified during the night with the corresponding time, but they are also recorded and they can be listened to. It seems unnecessary but it confirms that it is a noise of snoring and not something else that triggered the recording.

The Galaxy Watch 4 is also one of the very rare connected watches that automatically records naps in sleep tracking. On the sleep tracking widget, you can with a 24 -hour circle with 2 time slots: 1 for the night and 1 for the nap.

I could not test the blood pressure measurement, because it is necessary to be able to calibrate the sensor of the Galaxy Watch 4 the first time (by going to a doctor for example, with his inflatable armband that he puts around the arm). It is only from there that you can then raise your blood pressure simply with the watch, without the need for another device.

Otherwise, we find what has been done for a long time, such as counting the number of steps, activity objectives (6000 steps per day by default), burnt calories, inactivity alerts (with a proposal to make some movements To move), automatic detection of certain activities such as walking, bicycle or running.

Connected watch

Unlike all previous WEAR OS connected watches, the Galaxy Watch 4 does not parameter via the Wear OS application but via the Samsung Galaxy Watch application. For monitoring sports and health information, you will have to download Samsung Health in addition.

To resume my analogy with Formula 1 cars:

• On the Suunto 7, Suunto took Wear OS and developed some tiles and applications. Basically, they took a car and changed some accessories like retro, headlights and rims
• For the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung was able to modify Wear OS much more in depth. A bit as if a manufacturer had only provided the engine of Formula 1 and that Samsung had developed the rest of the car: chassis, bodywork, shock absorbers, etc.

For the moment, the only traces of Google at the first launch of the watch are Google Maps and the Play Store. But ultimately, during the first configuration of the Galaxy Watch 4, we can choose between the Google ecosystem or the Samsung ecosystem. From this choice will result in the use of the contactless payment solution (Google Pay or Samsung Pay) and the virtual assistant (Google Assistant or Bixby).

In addition to the Samsung applications like Pay, Messages, Bixby, Health, we find Bousson Apps, Calendar, Weather, Find My Phone, Chrono, Alarm, Music Reader, Mémo Vocaux, Calculator, photo gallery, outlook, outlook, outlook, Outlook. This list can be enriched with applications downloaded from the Play Store.

The biggest difficulty in use, at the beginning in any case, is that the applications are no longer presented in a circular way as with Tizen but cover the entire surface of the screen in the form of a paving. The problem is that we only see the icons, the name of the applications is not displayed. So after a while, after putting the Galaxy Watch 4 in his hand, it goes; But at the beginning, when you explore, it’s not easy to know what we have on our connected watch.

The applications are presented roughly by lines of 3 and we scroll the screen vertically. In the end, I like this new formula because it goes faster than before to find the application that we are looking for. It is true that before, on the Samsung under Tizen, it was sometimes necessary to make a pack of tours before finding your app. Now it’s okay fairly fast.

Some applications do not support the rotary telescope to scroll through the menus. Damage.

You can have up to 15 tiles on the right of the Watchface screen. Here is the list of tiles I use:

• Sports profiles
• Music player
• Weather report
• Daily monitoring (number of steps, cardio, stress, sleep)
• Body composition
• Spo2ecg
• Challenge
• Calendar
• Komoot
• Strava

In addition to these, there are still 18 in stock. Of course, we add those we want, remove those we don’t want and we change their order as we want.

I tested the Galaxy Watch 4 with a Samsung S8 smartphone. Well I can tell you that it changes the connected watch experience compared to the previous Wear OS connected watches that I had tested with my iPhone.

The interactions are made between the Galaxy Watch 4 and the S8 in both directions (and not only from the smartphone to the watch). That is to say that you can launch the download of an app from the smartphone from the watch. The guidance launches automatically on the watch if you are launching a route on Google Maps on the smartphone. You can receive an incoming call alert, refuse the call and listen to the message, all from the watch without ever going out your smartphone. Yes yes, you can listen to messaging thanks to the watch speaker without taking your phone out of your pocket.

We can receive a notification of a message (SMS, WhatsApp or other) and answer it:

• By dictating a message
• By saving a voice message
• By sending an emoji
• By writing with the finger on the touch screen (letter by letter, it’s quite long)
• By typing a message with the keyboard

When you consult a WhatsApp message, you can put all the discussion thread on the watch, including emoticons and photos. You can also trigger a call from the watch, accessing the contact list.

On the other hand, I am not fans of the Watchfacces offered by default on the Galaxy Watch 4. And it took me a while by searching the Galaxy Watch app to find one that I like.

You may be a little disappointed by activating the Always mode we. With this mode, the watch displays the time permanently. But that does not mean that it displays the Watchface constantly. Indeed, it is hyper consumer in energy, so after a few seconds, certainly the screen does not go out, but the display goes into frugal mode, that is to say in black and white and with only some basic info.

We can perform some actions by hand movements. Technically, it is possible to refuse a call by shaking the wrist or to drop out by moving the hand from top to bottom. Well, I tried 1 time to get down and in fact it hung up … maybe read

The notifications are displayed by a swipe to the right or a rotation of the telescope in the anti-clockwise sense. Each notification is presented on a screen, whether it is a message, an appointment of the calendar or the achievement of a goal (number of steps, for example). If necessary, we can click to consult the entire message.

For the music player, 3 choices are available to you:

• Transfer MP3 pieces to the memory of the Galaxy Watch 4. You can do it very simply from the smartphone
• Download Spotify (which finally offers, with Wear OS 3, the possibility of listening to offline music) – requires a premium account
• Download YouTube Music – requires a premium account

For Galaxy Watch 4 LTE versions, Spotify streaming is possible via 3G/4G connection.

There are 2 safety features:

• Manual trigger of an SOS during a triple support of the bottom button
• Automatic trigger of an SOS when a fall is detected

In both cases, if you don’t have a galaxy watch 4 LTE, the smartphone will send the SOS. It is therefore imperative to take your smartphone, to let it connected in Bluetooth to the watch and to be under network coverage. Obviously you have to have defined an emergency contact list (at least one). Then there are 3 things happen:

• Sending an SMS “I need help”
• Telephone call to emergency contact
• Sending by SMS of a Google Maps link with geolocation

Be careful, if the SOS is triggered indoors, where your watch captures very badly or not at all the signal of the satellites, then the GPS position can be wrong of several tens of kilometers (I tested from my living room and there was 48km of error).

As long as we have manually stopped position sharing, the Galaxy Watch 4 and the smartphone will continue to send sms with geolocation if we move.

You can locate your watch from your smartphone, just as you can use your watch to locate your smartphone (as long as the 2 are coupled in Bluetooth).

Conclusion of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic test

With new sensors and the rocking on Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch 4 marks a big evolution for Samsung. Finally, in use, the impact of Wear OS is minimal for the user, because we find the Samsung interface. The positive side is that we have more useful applications; The negative side is the autonomy loss. I was going to say “so it’s a question of priorities” but in fact no, since all the Galaxy Watch 4 run under Wear OS, there is no more option with Tizen. So it will take a little time to adjust your settings.

Regarding the graphical interface, the Galaxy Watch 4 is quite different from other watches connected under Wear OS that I have already tested. In any case, the Samsung-Google alliance works well and I had no crash or bug to be deplored during my test.

You have found this test useful ? Support the blog by ordering with a partner.

When you consult a “test” article, always check that it contains real photos taken during the test. If it only contains images of the product on a white background, then it is not a test. The author of such an article wrote it without ever having had the product in your hands. I let you judge the relevance of his analyzes ..

A full test takes time. I am not paid to do it. If you are interested in buying sports equipment, you can support me by going through one of the links below. I will receive a commission, which will contribute to the future of this blog (and I thank you).

Galaxy Watch 4 (all models)

So, should you buy this Galaxy Watch 4 ? Well my answer is clearly yes. Certainly Tizen will still be supported for a few years by Samsung, but it will be especially for bug corrections and it will not be necessary to count too much on new features. Samsung has decided to base its future on Wear OS and therefore I recommend that you bet on the Galaxy Watch 4 to enjoy updates, applications and new features.