Understanding where the Galaxy Watch Active fits in Samsung’s lineup requires a quick lesson on all the Gears and Galaxies out there. First: The Galaxy Watch Active is aimed at people who want to be more active. It’s differentiated slightly from the $300 Galaxy Watch, which is Samsung’s flagship smartwatch. It also effectively replaces the $280 Gear Sport watch, which Samsung will continue to sell as long as there’s inventory. And it’s different from the new Galaxy Fit, which is a wristband, and which used to be called the Gear Fit. (Got all that?)
Part of the reason why the Galaxy Watch Active feels so light—it's 20 percent thinner and 60 percent lighter than the flagship Galaxy Watch—is because its casing is made of aluminum, not stainless steel. And it has a 40mm case, so it’s not as large as some other smartwatches. It has a flat, smooth face, and a touch-sensitive bezel.
Unfortunately, the Galaxy Watch Active lacks the physical rotary bezel that I found so delightful on other Samsung smartwatches. But since this was swapped out in exchange for a sleeker build, I’ll accept it. Its 1.1-inch, AMOLED touchscreen display doesn’t showcase any particularly new technology, but looks nice regardless. I kept the display at a brightness level of 5 or 6 out of 10 all week, and had no problem seeing it while running outdoors in the daytime. There are two physical buttons on the watch, one that acts as a back button, and another that takes you straight to the watch’s micro-apps.
The Galaxy Watch Active is running on Tizen, Samsung’s homegrown operating system. In the past, Tizen on a wearable meant limitations. Its early UI wasn’t great, and there was a chance your favorite app maker wouldn’t have bothered to make an app for a Tizen smartwatch. Neither of those points are as valid anymore, because the UI on Samsung’s newer watches is intuitive, and third-party apps aren’t all that critical on smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch Active supports some key apps that you’d want on a fitness watch, like Spotify, Strava, and Swim.com. But otherwise, you’ll mostly use the built-in stuff.
Watch Me Move
Table stakes time! The Galaxy Watch Active has built-in GPS, and tracks outdoor running, treadmill running, walking, hiking, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, both pool and open-water swimming, circuit training, weight training, stretching, yoga, and a whole variety of singular exercises like planks or arm curls.
It offers some level of customization. You can, for example, determine what stats you want to see on different screens during your runs, and you can set a target goal based on distance, pace, or caloric burn. The watch automatically starts recording anything it registers as a brisk walk or beyond, and it auto-pauses during exercise too (yes, I take a fair number of breaks while running).
It tracks your heart rate continuously, and ups the sample rate during exercise sessions. Like almost every fitness smartwatch except the Apple Watch, it also has a native app for tracking your sleep. All of this data is wirelessly synced to Samsung’s Health app on iOS and Android, which blends straightforward data logging with some personalized insights. There’s even a symptom checker in the mobile app, although I didn’t use it, because for whatever bizarre reason the app asks for access to your contacts before you can use the symptom checker.