If you've yet to dip your tech toe into the world of smartwatches, we think we've found your first pool. After two months of testing, we're singing the praises of Samsung thanks to their versatile and practical watch. We review the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active.
If you're unaware, a smartwatch is essential a watch that can connect to your phone via Bluetooth. Capable of operating independently as well, they can show messages, calls, and notifications, as well as tracking your movements and exercise activities. Oh, they tell the time, too. Smartwatches with cellular network sim cards are capable of operating independently as well.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is no exception to this common rule, but it does all that in a compact and subtle package. The watch's 'face' is a 4cm mini touchscreen, and the body itself raises just 1cm from you wrist. It's small, pretty non-descript, and simple in looks. But it works awesomely.
Linking with the Samsung Watch app, the Galaxy Watch Active will quickly establish itself as an annex to your phone. You can set which apps and functions of your phone will display notifications on the watch, and even fiddle with times to display. For example, you can set it not to send notifications if you're holding your phone already. Good, that.
The 4cm circular screen on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is crisp and clear, so messages will appear cleanly. The screen is so good that you can view photos on it, after sending to the watch from your phone. Yeah, they're small, but for custom backgrounds it's a great feature.
Other than showing stuff from your phone, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active excels at health monitoring. Obviously it counts your daily steps, allowing you to set goals to track, but it will also record different kinds of activity. Running, jogging, cycling and even weight lifting can all be recorded, and the watch will track your heartbeat as you do.
But we can still heartily recommend this for non sporty types. The watch lets you download specific Samsung apps for the likes of Uber and Spotify, letting you do more on your wrist. There's a music control app, a gallery, and even a way of keeping track of your coffee intake. We also loved the breathing function, which encourages you to take deep, calming, and regular breaths.
All this is controlled by the responsive touch screen (you've not lived until you've replied to a text on it - yes, using the good ol' T9 keypad, no less!) and two physical buttons on the side. There's no charging port to lower the waterproofing, which will give you 30 minutes protection in up to 1.5 metres of water, and instead a contact charger is included. With casual use, expect about 48 hours out of the battery.
With two different sizes of straps included, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is a perfect unisex watch. Your phone is unisex, so why can't your smartwatch? It's seriously a great piece and has become integral to our daily tech use - always the best sign of a good product.
£190
Available from www.amazon.co.uk