[review] Samsung Galaxy Watch Active — best budget watch in 2022 ⌚ ?
Oh Hi! That’s you. That one person who still reads my blog (sorry for the other one which reads it in Czech lol). I decided to switch to English and start with a review of an almost 3 years old watch — Galaxy Watch Active. And I can say for sure, after 4 months of using it, it’s awesome.
Not gonna lie, when I saw Canoopsy’s review of his Apple Watch Series 5 arguing to fuck on opinion “What’s newest is best” I decided to do the same thing. I’m not an Apple sheep, so I went for Samsung’s alternative and here I am! Happy, wearing Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. And to be honest, it was a really big upgrade from my previous Amazfit BIP U, which slowly started lagging, getting slower and slower until it was really painful to use them.
But enough about feelings. Are they really worth it, even in 2022?
Yes, they are. If you’re looking for some good budget watch, with a basic pack of apps like Spotify, Strava (btw, did you know that in my language strava is a word for diet - food 😂?) or Under Armour's apps, and great health measuring, here they are. Your dream watch, costing less than 3000CZK ($109.99 on Amazon). That’s a really good price for what you get. Sadly, there are only a few units left, and it’s really hard to get them. But back to the watch.
Features
As I said, besides that basic pack of apps, what features do they come with? Or should I say what features they don’t? Because they were announced in 2019, you won’t find anything like SpO2 measuring, ECG, or Body Composition Analysis in here. Besides that, you’ll find almost everything here. Rich sleep metrics, support for more than 30 different sports recordings, stress, heartbeat monitor, and more. Especially having an option to go for a walk without a phone but still with my favorites songs on Spotify is great (you just connect your Bluetooth earbuds, download some music and you’re ready to go).
System
What I haven’t thought that I’ll count as a big benefit is TizenOS. It is still getting security patches and a few more watch faces come out from Samsung occasionally. Especially “Big Number” from Watch4 is my favorite, even everyone that I meet with says how ugly it looks 😂. Speaking of watch faces, the amount of different and gorgeous variations in Galaxy Store is enormous. I’m gonna mention creator SamWatch, his watch faces are awesome and I sometimes end up wearing some of his creations. But not everything is beautiful as it seems at first glance. Things like Bixby, having opened more than ten apps at once, or Internet Browser, are slow and really not fun to use. When I just ask Bixby to set a timer or tell me what’s the weather, it takes her over a minute to answer me. Not even mentioning that her UI just sucks. What should I mention tho is auto-brightness. That thing is really good and it is working exactly how I expect it to do.
And that’s pretty much it. The fact that these watches are like 3 years old and still worth buying is amazing. Everything I can do is recommend you buying them, especially if you’re looking for some good budget watch. And now I’ll sound exactly like Canoopsy: You know what? Don’t buy them! Buy anything you want, even if you like it just for its design, price or whatever. Buy what you want, and don’t let anybody change your own preferences.
Disclaimer: This shouldn’t apply to EVERYTHING you buy, be aware to get good specs for price that you pay. And Watch Active are exactly that.
