Samsung's newest smartwatch upgrades its screen and boosts battery life, but is the price hike worth it?
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 was the best Android smartwatch we'd seen in years, and it only needed a few targeted upgrades to make a good watch even greater. Samsung seems to have fixed almost every flaw of the previous generations with the Galaxy Watch 5, from making the screen more durable to improving those terrible charging times. Still, all those improvements have also upped the price. While the Watch 4 can now regularly be found for under $200, the Galaxy Watch 5 starts at a still reasonable $280.
That's a significant investment to make, even if you trade in last year's model, but depending on your lifestyle, it may be well worth it.
Let's start with the commonalities: the Galaxy Watch 5 uses the Exynos W920 just as the Watch 4 did, and RAM and storage match, too. The Bluetooth has been upgraded to 5.2 while the Watch 4 had 5.0, but outside a little improvement in connectivity, it doesn't amount to too much.
The health sensors are also largely unchanged, with the Skin Temperature sensor being the only new arrival — and even then, Samsung hasn't offered many details on it so far, so we'll have to see how it shakes out over the next weeks and months for baseline accuracy and continuous tracking.
Both watches come in 40mm and 44mm sizes, and their designs are almost identical. Samsung claims to have refined the curvature of the Watch 5 to improve contact with your wrist, which should help reduce the number of users who have issues with consistent readings because their wrist is too narrow. I experienced that frustration firsthand and am eager to test this claim on my own Watch 5.
The frames are still made of aluminum — only the Watch 5 Pro upgraded to Titanium — but the durability of the touchscreen was made 1.6 times stronger thanks to Sapphire Crystal Glass. Watches are on your wrist constantly and they get more beat up than you'd think, without a tempered glass screen protector; my dad's Watch 4 would be dead as a doornail by now without tempered glass screen protectors.
If you're someone who is very prone to banging your wrist against surfaces or tend to do a lot of strenuous outdoor tasks like lawnwork, woodwork, or sports, the Watch 5's Sapphire Crystal Glass will be more than worth the upgrade. However, if you're seriously accident-prone and already have a Watch 4, just ride it out until that inevitable shattering comes and then buy a Watch 5, or a Watch 6 if you make it to next year.
We're only just receiving our review units for the Galaxy Watch 5, so for now, it's our year of experience with the Watch 4's battery versus some boastful claims in Samsung's listings and specs. That said, if even half of these improvements are true, it will cinch the upgrade decision for many Watch 4 owners to trade up and finally get some faster charging.
Why is faster charging such a big deal? Well, the Galaxy Watch 4 had the same piddly USB-A charger that has been included with every Samsung watch from the Galaxy Watch Active all the way up to the Watch 4. For the Watch Active, with its tiny screen and equally small battery, it recharged fast enough, but as battery sizes expanded, charging times went down.
The Galaxy Watch 5 includes a new charger — a USB-C charger at that — and Samsung claims that it will take the watch from 0-45% in half an hour. An eight-minute charge will allegedly get you enough battery for eight hours of sleep tracking, but that might not be as important if Samsung's main battery claim is true.
Samsung claims the Galaxy Watch 5 will last 50 hours on a single charge. The Galaxy Watch 4 is lucky if it lasts 24 hours, and most users need a recharge before bed if they intend to use sleep tracking.
Again, these are claims that I'm looking forward to testing, as I once again want to reach the stage where my watch almost never runs down to zero, where I can simply top it off during my morning shower without having to wait an extra hour for it to finally hit full.
You'd think that the Galaxy Watch 5 would have some super-important, exclusive features that the Watch 4 is going to either miss out on or get months later, but that's simply not the case. The only new software features so far appear to be some new watch faces, and you could have those on your Galaxy Watch 4 right now if you were lucky enough to get into the Watch One UI 4.5 Beta, which will leave beta and arrive on the Galaxy 4 series very soon.
The same processor, RAM, storage, and operating system means these two watches should behave almost identically, so there's no need to upgrade in this department.
For current Galaxy Watch 4 owners, there are only two reasons to upgrade: a more durable screen and a better battery. For most of us, that means we'll be just fine with our current watch unless Samsung pulls out some ridiculous trade-in values. After all, you've already had a year to get used to the charging speed of the Watch 4, and you've likely already got a screen protector on it (or a case if you're really rough on your toys) to protect it from the chaos outside your door.
If you haven't bought a Galaxy Watch yet and are looking to finally get in on the best Android smartwatch on the market, absolutely buy the Galaxy Watch 5. Sapphire Crystal Glass and improved battery life are completely worth it, even if the Watch 4 is discounted these days.
Ara Wagoner is Commerce Editor for Android Police and a lover of all things cases, Chromebooks, accessories, and Disney. Overseeing our buyer's guides and product selection, Ara has spent 7 years honing her product-picking instincts and reviews while previously at Android Central, bringing a unique flair to her writing (and a lot of TV/anime references). She works full-time on a Chromebook, whether it's at home or while waiting for fireworks at Walt Disney World. Ara loves Android phones so much that she wears a shoulder holster to ensure they're never out of reach, and if you see her without headphones, RUN.