Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 40mm – Not bad, could be better

I’ve tried a fitbit, garmin and now samsung for several months each for everything from running/cycling workouts to general activity tracking and health monitoring. Early impressions are that the galaxy active is easily the nicest watch out of any of the non apple options. Unfortunately though, garmin has it easily beat for sport and fitbit is still some way ahead in terms of accurate and reliable activity monitoring. A few quirks i’ve noted with the galaxy active:- the sleep algorithm is dreadful. It’ll start tracking ‘sleep’ from the moment i sit and relax on the sofa in the morning, more worryingly it continues to think i’m asleep in the morning when i’ve taken it off and put it on charge. – strava integration was much advertised but in reality is really poor. The actual strava app is very flaky and the link between samsung health and strava can take days to transfer data. The samsung and strava forums are full of the same issues. – if i tell the watch i’m doing a cycling workout it’ll record it just fine, but in the background the step count feature is still working away recording hundreds of false steps, again a poor algorithm.

If you’re the kind of person who wants a watch that will last for days of use without charging then this isn’t for you, i’d say the average battery life is between 1-2 days which to be honest, is poor for a smart watch. It does however look really sleek and i get a lot of compliments for it. The apps are good and the notifications never let me down, the watch faces are cool and all in all i really like it as a gadget. The strap is very comfortable and appears to be high quality, it’s never come undone in the 3 months i’ve had it.

The display is crystal clear. I never miss calls or texts now. I love the spotify functions and the quick dial contacts is a life saver. My only tiny gripe is i dont recieve whatsapp messages on it despite all setting being switched on as my messenger ones are. it looks great, i switched out the strap (im not a pinky pink person) with ease. Samsung do a huge range of coloured straps. This watch is perfect it tracks hiit workouts and runs well and battery last well over 2 days in constant use (dependabt on settings) oh and its lightweight.

So far, i’m very happy with my decision to go for the samsung galaxy watch activei set out looking for a watch mainly for running (i do several 5ks a week, looking towards 10ks soon) but also for swimming at some point in the future. Standalone spotify as well as gps were two of the main features important to me, which is quite hard to find at a price-range of around gbp 150. Moreover, a nice design as well as an intuitive and user-friendly ui were very important to me. When doing my research, i read some mixed reviews on the gps accuracy and overall running/ workout features of the watch. I was torn between several models, including some much more expensive ones and i almost went for the newer samsung galaxy watch active 2 or a garmin vivoactive 4s. But so far i’m very happy i didn’t, as the watch delivers exactly what i was looking for:- i went for my first 5k yesterday and the watch did a superb job of tracking my route and regularly updating me with kpis needed throughout. There is also the option of having the display ‘always on’, which is very useful. A very accurate map can now be viewed on the watch as well as in the samsung health app on my phone, so the gps actually works really well- standalone spotify works perfect.I was able to download my favourite playlists to the watch and the sound quality is just as good as on my smartphone.

Bought this after researching the best smart fitness trackers – this got consistently good reviews and lives up to its reputation. I use it to track my steps and gym activity but it’s got some really neat extras – being able to download a spotify playlist is particularly useful. Some much cheaper fitness trackers out there but if you’re after quality then this is the one.

Good at tracking sleep but overall disappointed with watch. Died halfway through a half marathon (using strava & music). A waste of money, in my opinion, would rather have put money towards a better watch, such as a fitbit or an apple watch. Currently gathering dust in a drawer as battery only lasts 3-4 hours on an average day (with no strava or music). Poor design, won’t buy again.

• I’m a smartwatch geek & I love it! BUT no irregular heart rate monitoring unless you have a S9/S10

• Almost as good as the Apple Watch

• READ WORTHY

This is my 4th attempt with a samsung smart watch – however my first time with the active watch. Fantastic, i am very pleasedto wear, its very light, not too bulky so haven’t knocked it. The strap is lovely and soft – and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Fits really well – and came with the option of 2 sizes, and doesn’t unclip accidentally. Software seems fast, responsive and keeps track of my activity well (pilates, running, walking etc). With my samsung phone it all connected well together, receiving notifications, responding to messages, incoming calls and controlling my music for my phone through my watch. The screen is clear, responsive with loads of watch faces to choose from. Its a shame the screen doesn’t go all the way to the edge – but not enough to rate it lower. I haven’t tried the swimming function as this seemed to break my other samsung watches so don’t trust samsung’s waterproof claim.

You can now pick up the galaxy watch active for under £180 with a bit of shopping around. Its a decent saving on the the bigger version. Most women prefer the 40mm size but of course it a personal choice. Sadly, samsung hasn’t provided a bezel in this version which is disappointing; the bezel was quite handy in earlier version for navigation. The battery life is ok, it goes through the day but thats about it. Otherwise, its feature-set is almost identical to other samsung watches making it excellent value for money for samsung users, who will benefit most from its full functionality. It does work with non-samsung phones too but certain functionality (e. Its tizen operating system still means there are drawbacks when it comes to app availability, but it is getting better, and most of the major players when it comes to fitness are covered, at least.

I found it a little hard at first to find how to get to, and work the different features. I still don’t know how to take blood pressure which is supposed to be possible. And the number of stairs climbed seems excessive sometimes. On the plus side, most readings are accurate. It encourages me to keep up the activities. And i love the possibility to use my own photos as a watch face, although i can then only read the time.

I wear it all day every day. It was really easy to set up with my samsung phone. I get all my facebook, instagram, whatsapp notifications to my phone. I like that i can also use it as a remote for my spotify account. The watch faces you get with it are boring but you can download more. The strap is very comfortable and doesn’t pinch. So far no scratches on the watch face and i’ve been using it solid for a month now, i’ve even had it in water a few times and it has been absolutely fine. It charges really fast and lasts for over 24 hours. I love how it records my sleep, it’s really fascinating to see the chart in the morning.

Difficult for us oldies to try to keep a little fitter. The only thing that would be nice is if the exercise list could include things like housework, ironing, gardening (hard, moderate and light) etc. Or if we could add our own exercises like some other apps?. You can research on line each exercise and how many calories it burnsthis is my only disappointment and i have to use another app as well to track my food and exercise because of this.

Features of Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 40mm Black

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  by entering your model number.
• A smart essential – thin, lightweight and tough, the stylish Galaxy Active watch fits in with your lifestyle
• Case Material: Aluminium, Samsung’s new smartwatch comes in a range of colours and interchangeable straps
• The dynamic Galaxy Watch Active will make every move count by tracking and automatically storing every walk, run and cycle, recognising when you’re working out
• Real-time guidance to reach wellness goals: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active can track your sleep, gives you breathing exercises to help reduce stress and creates healthy habits that last
• A powerful accessory that pushes you forward: the Galaxy Active lets you connect to your devices, to receive messages and notifications on your watch, control your music and enjoy the freedom of a wireless workout
• Box contains :1 x smart watch 1 x spare strap 1 x wireless charger (USB) 1 x instructions

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From the manufacturer

Superior Technology

A smart watch, a healthier everyday Meet the next generation Galaxy Watch Active. Enjoy complete comfort, tailor it to suit your style, stay on track and feel the freedom to stay fit. Galaxy Watch Active lets you track your sleep, gives you breathing exercises to help reduce stress and creates healthy habits that last.	Discover a style that fits your lifestyle Everyone has their own approach when it comes to staying active. Integrated with the Samsung Health app, Galaxy Watch Active is a personal coach on your wrist. That’s why Galaxy Watch Active comes with customisable watch faces that combine style and function. So whatever your goal is, find your own way to express it.	Feel the freedom Seamlessly connect to your devices, to receive messages and notifications on your watch, control your music and enjoy the freedom of a wireless workout. The Galaxy Watch Active can easily sync to your smartphone or connect to your wireless Galaxy Buds (Bluetooth connectivity required). And when it needs topping up, it can wirelessly charge for a quick boost.

	Galaxy Watch Active	Galaxy Watch	Gear S3
MultiSport Tracking & Auto Activity Recognition	✓	✓	✓
Stores music (up to 4 GB) & Built-in Speaker	✓	✓	✓
Sleep Tracking	✓	✓	✓
Calories Burned	✓	✓	✓
Heart Rate Monitoring	✓	✓	✓
Battery Life	230mAh	472mAh up to 7 days (46mm) & 270mAh up to 4 days (42mm)	380mAh up to 4 days
Blood Pressure Monitoring & Stress Level Tracking	✓	✓
Call & Text Notifications	✓	✓	✓
Water Resistance (1.5m up to 30 mins)	✓	✓	✓
Military grade pressure resistance (50m depth for up to ten mins)	✓	✓

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Well 2 fitbit versa’s later, 1 lasted 1 year, the other 9 months, useless fitbit customer services who couldnt be bothered to contact me back about a replacement, i threwthem in the bin and decided this time to go for this watch, its 10 times better than the versa and cheaper too, heart rate monitor is very very accurate, ive tested this with my bp machine, the fitbit was way out, i mainly use this for notifications, the android app is so easy to use again and very organised, unlike the fitbit app which is very confusing and disorganized, i have it paired upto my s10+ and it tells me everything i want it too, im very impressed and highly recommend it, my only con really is battery life could be a bit better, im getting approx a day and a half to 2 days use out of it before it needs charging again.

*** i’ve updated this review at the bottom with a section on blood pressure and irregular heart rate detection ***i’ve had smartwatches for years and i love them. They are the best gadgets ever. i’ve had loads and i change them at least once a year. If you look through some of my other reviews, you will see. In the last year i have had the amazfit bip, huawei watch gt and now this. Before that i have had the moto 360 gen 2, the samsung galaxy 2, samsung galaxy sport, the huawei watch 2, the sony sw2 and sw3. I could keep going on, but you get the idea. I’ve spent a couple of grand+ easily on smart watches. Anyway, my last purchase was the huawei watch gt. Cheaper than this, but massive on my wrists and the notifications weren’t very good. So i’ve been waiting for a small watch that was waterproof, had good notifications and was comfortable to wear. I had this on pre-order wating for it to be released and i’ve had it for a few weeks now and these are my initial impressions. Firstly, to get the elephant in the room done and dealt with. No, i don’t miss the rotating bezel.

The watch is very well priced when compared to its competitors. It’s great for anyone who wants a good watch but doesn’t want to spend £300+ on the newer models. Sleep tracking is good and accurate. The automatic workout detection works well, and the heart rate sensor is good. The only thing i don’t like about the watch is the slow charging speed it has. Other than that its a great watch at a good price and i would recommend.

Wanted a smart watch for a while but with a small wrist there has been nothing suitable until now . Battery life could be a bit better but it’s not too bad once you get into a routine of charging . It does charge up reasonably quickly though.Just not as long as my fit bit was .

My husband is delighted with his watch. I bought it based on the review from another buyer who wrote an in-depth review about all his smart watches. It was really informative and helpful – thanks. I can’t tell you much more myself, not being very techy, but my husband is very pleased :).

I’m not a mega-active fitness fanatic, but i cycle to work and do a lot of walking. This was an upgrade from a fitbit. The fitbit used the gps on my phone, but it seemed to require internet connection to be able to do this and i live in north wales where this isn’t always possible.The samsung watch active with its own gps is ideal. The sleep tracking is not accurate – it says i’m asleep when i know that i was fully awake.

A smart essential –

I’m still finding things it can do, like say what foor your on. Amazing watch by samsung and to have the amazon exclusive too a bargain. I do like the way the band is tucked under itself to make it tighter fit. I’ve a samsung 8+ i’ve found nothing it wont do with the app as a backup too.

It’s a great smart watch but not as big as the galaxy watch. When it says you can make and receive phonecalls. What it actually means is, it will show you have a phone call and when you hit the accept call button it opens your phone so you still have to pick up the phone and talk to it like you normally would and the sound come out the phone too. Unlike an iphone watch where you can hear and talk to the wrist watch. If you want to be able to do this you need to spend more money for the lte version.

Heart rate monitor doesn’t seem 100% accurate as almost every day it says mine drops to 34 bpm (which it doesn’t). I would like to use the watch for sleep monitoring but unfortunately, battery life doesn’t last long enough as you need to charge it daily. Not many useful apps for the watch but believe most smartwatches suffer this issue. I love the look of it, it feels perfect for a watch, the touch screen is great. Used it for a week of surfing and it performed really well. I have had other smartwatches but this is my favourite. The main negative is menu navigation, i much prefer how other manufacturers deal with their menus such as pebble. I find samsungs menu to take forever to navigate to what you want. (you can reorder the menu but if you use the watch a lot then you want everything to be easily openable. The turn-on gesture is a double tap on the screen, i think this was an oversight in design as if you are talking to someone or in a meeting, double-tapping your watches screen looks incredibly rude. Other manufacturers use other gestures like a quick shake, which i much prefer. Due to this, i am unable to check notifications on the fly in work, which was a use case for having the watch in the first place.

For just over £200 i don’t think you can get much better than this smartwatch. It has all the fundamental features that i was looking for in a smart watch with the activity tracking and heart rate monitoring. The response to notifications is good with speech recognition or old fashioned key-pad style predictive text replies. There is also spotify functionality where you can pair your watch with bluetooth headphones and listen when disconnected from your phone. All in all a solid fitness tracking watch.

Do not be deceived this watch will only last a day on battery in normal mode. The picture is deceptive there is a 4mm wide black ring at the edge of the display. So the active part of the display is smaller than 40mm. However a lovely little watch if you don’t want a big one. Bluetooth connection works very well if you switch off the automatic power saving of all the apps associated with your watch. Samsung will not give you this advice please take mine.

I purchased this watch to replace an old fitbit and am very pleased with its functionality and small size. The alternative clock-faces are interesting and i change them according to my needs (decorative, sports, health, etc). The heart-beat monitor and sleep modes seem accurate but, as yet, i haven’t set up the blood-pressure sensing. However, the promised free charger (if watch purchased before release-date) has not been delivered and samsung refuses to reply to my enquiry – and it’s always very difficult to communicate with amazon. So, neither amazon nor samsung have fulfilled their promise.

Case Material: Aluminium, Samsung’s new smartwatch comes in a range of colours and interchangeable straps

Tl;dr: excellent hardware and built-in apps, but heavily let down by samsung’s apparent desire to create its own ecosystem without having any decent apps. As the rating shows, i do like this smartwatch. It looks good, it’s easy to customise, it doesn’t make me look like i’ve strapped a discus to my wrist, and the sensors all work near-perfectly. However, i do have some rather unavoidable issues with it. In terms of aesthetics, it’s perfect for this day and age. It’s sleek, smooth, and very minimalistic. Most of the watch faces have large areas of black, allowing samsung to show off their incredible amoled screens, along with saving a bit of battery here and there. Still, if you want to, you can put your own images behind the time. Similarly, you can easily swap out the stock straps for whatever fits, be it official replacements or third-party designs. The heartrate monitor works constantly, providing you with a pleasant (to look at) line chart.

Brought for my wife, who has a slender wrist and doesn’t like watches that look too chunky. This is just right, and looks great. Very easy to use, compared directly against my galaxy watch, lack of rotating bezel is no problem at all. This was obviously an import, as it starts in a foreign language, but this rights itself after connecting to the phone. Very quick delivery, much cheaper than available elsewhere.

I love the watch but the stairs function is useless, inaccurate. It also does not link with ww app except by map my run, which only counts the steps when you are exercising. Overall though its much better than a fitbit.

I’ve had a number of android smart watches and they were nice but suffered from all the problems you get with android wear: huge size, slow and buggy software that changes every 5 minutes without ever improving. I’ve got an s9 phone now so when my misfit vapor started playing up after just a year i sold it and preordered a samsung galaxy active. First off, it’s been a while since i got it and despite filling out all the paperwork i still haven’t received the preorder gift of a travel charger. I contacted samsung and got an unhelpful reply that they’ve been inundated and can’t say when it’ll despatch. This was what made me take the risk in preordering without seeing it, so a bitter taste in the mouth. Update july 2019: the travel charger eventually arrived in may or june but after 5 uses is totally dead and broken. Samsung are refusing to repair or replace it because it was a promotion. The charger was a big part of why i chose to buy through amazon when i could’ve instead bought the watch for 50 pounds less elsewhere, so am very disappointed with samsung’s customer care. As a smart watch it is a bit of a revelation. Battery life using it as a watch and getting notifications is about 2 days, so way better than android wear.

On the smaller side for a male but an ok size. Battery life has varied from a day full use to a week on battery save. Watch only function provides a month’s battery. Functional apps built in are as standard. Samsung’s watch apps are few but include essentials like spotify etc. Notifications are good, with ability to reply via watch.

If like me and you’re looking for an android watch that’s similar to the apple watch i’d say the samsung active is the closest match. It has a similar feel material wise to the apple watch, obviously the biggest difference in appearance is the shape, but it reminds me an awful lot of when i used to wear my apple watch (series 2). I used to own an apple watch but soon realised i hated the iphone but loved the apple watch so i have been waiting for a watch like this. It’s almost weightless on your wrist, i feel comfortable sleeping with it on as i’m curious about tracking my sleep which comes standard as i remember on the apple watch it didn’t come with a sleep tracker, i wear it for 23 hours of the day and tend to pop it on charge before i take a shower. Although i have showered with it on before with no problems. The best thing i love about this watch is that it keeps me active, it detects when you’re doing an activity such as walking so will start to record a walking activity and gives you feed back upon finishing your walk, or when i play 5 a side football it detects i’m doing a dynamic activity and keeps me posted on my heart rate and calories i’m burning off. It’s particularly great if you’re athletic and go on runs or even hikes as it has a built in gps so if you have strava it will record your route on a map without being connected to your phone. The watch has endless amounts of watch faces that can be downloaded so you can change your watch face to almost anything you can search for on the galaxy store. But you can do almost the same things that you could on an apple watch like making a phone call (although it calls through your phone not the watch) reply to messages such as whatsapp, messenger and emails etc, use bixby for information such as checking the weather or asking stupid maths questions, it also has a phone finder so if you lose your phone it can ring it. I would highly recommend this watch for the price it is.

I expected better everything from this watch. Very slow reacting to heart rate change if in fact it bothers at all. And the battery life is pathetic. I have to charge this watch daily. I bought this on the recommendations of other’s, and i now suspect people just don’t like to admit to others about wasting their money.

The dynamic Galaxy Watch Active will make every move count by tracking and automatically storing every walk, run and cycle, recognising when you’re working out

You can track most sport on it, including swimming which was a must for me as it tracks pace, stroke, efficiency and effort (continuous heart rate monitoring). It alsp has gps so can track any runs that you do. You can connect apps easily and customise the look of the watch easily too. One thing i really like is the fact you can download your spotify account allowing you to use bluetooth headphones whilst out running/at the gym without the need for carrying your phone around. Messages don’t work without phone nearby though. The watch also looks really sleek, i think its really stylish. Its very comfortable, i forget i’m wearing it most of the time. The only areas where there are downfalls for me are that you don’t get messages unless connected via bluetooth (although i know this would require the watch to be connected to a network of its own, so isn’t very practicable). The other thing is the battery life, it can probably go about a day and a half without charging but i charge it every night as i don’t track my sleep so it’s never been an issue for me.

Got fed up with fitbit moving functions to subscription only and recently bought my first samsung phone so thought i’d try this, based on many good reviews here. Only had it a few days but i’m very impressed. Looks great, very comfortable to wear and seems to track exercise accurately enough. The only negative for me is the battery life and charge time. It can just about stretch to two days but, realistically, i’ll charge it daily (on the evening when i’m not doing much anyway). I looked at a few galaxy watches and decided that i can live with daily charging for what i’m getting from this. I also like that it syncs with my fitness pal, that app makes logging food intake a breeze.

Didn’t use the watch for all of its functions, like sleep. Primarily used to test les mills hiit training and other exercise. Not a big, ugly plastic wad on the wrist. -interchangeable faces make it look like a watch too. -strap folds in, in the inside. -easy to follow instructions and set-up.

Real-time guidance to reach wellness goals: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active can track your sleep, gives you breathing exercises to help reduce stress and creates healthy habits that last

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Not bad, could be better

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