Samsung Galaxy Watch5 40mm Review – Full featured Android smartwatch powerhouse

Previously we unboxed the Galaxy Watch 5 40mm and gave a quick once-over of its improvements and enhancements over last year’s Galaxy Watch4. This time around, we’ve put it through its paces to assess its full potential as a smartwatch to see if it’s worth your money in our Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 40mm review.

Galaxy Watch5 40mm Review – Specifications and Setup

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 40mm closely resembles its predecessor in terms of its external design down to its slick, minimalistic look and retains IP68 water and dust resistance but is markedly tougher.

It uses Armor Aluminum for the case and lugs that offers 10% increased resistance to scratches over normal aluminium and also integrates Sapphire Crystal glass on the watch face which is 60% tougher than the glass used in the earlier Galaxy Watch4. The larger Galaxy Watch5 44mm is functionally almost identical to the 40mm version that we have for review save for a slightly larger 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display and a larger 410mAh battery.

The underside of the Galaxy Watch5 40mm has also been slightly curved to make it fit more snugly with wrists and in turn offer more accurate readouts from its 3-in-1 BioActive sensor that tracks heart rate, ECG and also body composition analysis. Added next to this is a new skin temperature sensor though this doesn’t do much yet and will have added functionality in future updates. The battery is also 13% larger with a 284mAh battery which is an improvement over the smaller 247mAh one used in the older Galaxy Watch4.

Under the hood, the Galaxy Watch5 40mm runs on an Exynos W920 dual-core processor intended for wearables, has 1.5GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage with Android Wear OS 3.5 and Samsung’s own OneUI Watch 4.5 user interface overlaying it to navigate the menus.

You get access to the Google app store for wearables as well as the customary Samsung essentials including Samsung Pay, Samsung Health and Bixby. While LTE models exist in other regions, our Galaxy Watch5 40mm review sample for Malaysia is Bluetooth only.

For those who need more precise route tracking and a more premium design, the Galaxy Watch5 Pro that is both larger and pricier is an alternative. Here’s how the Galaxy Watch5 40mm and 44mm stacks up on paper. 

Price	RM1,099 (40mm) RM1,199 (44mm)
Display	1.2-inch Super AMOLED, 450 x 450 pixels (40mm) 1.4-inch Super AMOLED 450 x 450 pixels (44mm)
Processor	Exynos W920 processor
OS	Android Wear OS 3.5, OneUI Watch 4.5
Memory	1.5GB RAM/ 16GB storage
Battery	284mAh (40mm) 410mAh (44mm)
Size/Weight	40.4 x 39.3 x 9.8mm / 28.7g (40mm) / 44.4 x 43.3 x 9.8mm / 33.5g (44mm)

Samsung Galaxy Watch5 40mm review – Setup and Performance

Getting my Galaxy Watch5 40mm review sample up and running required a few hoops to jump through. To get started, you’ll have to download the Samsung Wearable app along with the Samsung Health app on your smartphone with the former to customise watch settings and the latter for reading and monitoring activity and fitness tracking. These are typically preinstalled on Samsung phones but you can acquire them on the Google Play store if you are using a non-Samsung  smartphone. Pairing up took seconds with my Galaxy Z Fold4  seeing as both of the aforementioned apps are preinstalled by default on the phone before being prompted to tweak a few of the settings to taste.

Getting about OneUI Watch 4.5 is via a combination of the back and home side buttons, the digital rotating bezel by jogging your finger around the rounded display edges, directly tapping the display itself as well as swiping in from the top, bottom, left and right edges. 

The digital rotating bezel works due in part to the subtle haptic feedback it offers but it is not as precise and I found that I sometimes overshot an intended tab.

You can also swipe in from the right edge to access notifications, swipe from the top edge down to access settings, swipe up for access to all installed apps and swipe left to access preset app tiles for important stuff you want to keep track of like body composition, workouts and stress levels.

The watch offers a smooth and intuitive user interface and while the digital rotating bezel is serviceable – a physical one would be perfect – getting about the various settings in the Galaxy Watch5 40mm isn’t an issue with some practice.

On setup, you’re able to assign what watch face you want to have on the Galaxy Watch5 with several new watch faces on offer including a stylish one festooned with pastel flowers and a bee though it does look a little busy at times to read at a casual glance. 

You’re also able to enter some basic health parameters like your age, weight and height for better health tracking on the Samsung Health app and elect a virtual assistant be it Bixby or Google Assistant. Once all that’s sorted, you are able to track your fitness progress or lack thereof on the Samsung Health app. 

In terms of functionality, the Galaxy Watch5 is able to make and take calls from a paired smartphone, play music off its built-in 16GB storage or pipe them to a paired pair of headphones, keep track of notifications as well as alerts and, of course, tell the time.

On the wellness front, the Galaxy Watch5 is able to automatically and continuously track heart rate and blood oxygen levels, stress levels, sleep quality as well as snore detection, steps taken and calories burned. It’s also able to conduct a body composition analysis on demand to see how much of you is muscle, bone or fat on demand and even suggest breathing exercises to calm you down if stress levels spike.

While it has the ability to do an ECG, it has not been enabled yet for Malaysia and no official date has been mentioned as yet. The new skin temperature sensor is also unfortunately not enabled yet.

In terms of fitness tracking functionality, the Galaxy Watch5 can  track 90 exercises including exotic ones like aqua aerobics, American football, archery and swimming with automatic detection for basic ones such as walking and running. If you have fitness goals, the watch is able to advocate a multi-week fitness programme with voice prompts straight off the watch and its built-in speaker to guide you through a given workout.

Of note with the Galaxy Watch5 is its ability to detect falls and send out an SOS to a caretaker or emergency services be it during workouts, when you’re up and about or in general. Fall detection has to be manually enabled in the settings but it’s well worth the trouble and is especially handy for senior citizens.

In terms of accuracy, the Galaxy Watch 5 was on the ball for step count and workout tracking and was able to automatically detect and track walking and running after testing it with an impromptu sprint around the block.

The provided body composition measurement feature closely matched what was obtained from an official medical test while the provided sleep tracking feature was able to track my sleep patterns including hours slept and noted my persistent bouts of insomnia and all-nighters over the past couple of weeks.

It was also able to suggest some helpful tips to regain a more regular sleep pattern. While it’s no replacement for advice from actual qualified fitness instructors, the combination of exercise, sleep and wellness tracking on the Galaxy Watch5 does offer an affordable and relatively effective means to acquire constant, positive motivation and a clear path for improving fitness and health levels.

The 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display on my Galaxy Watch5 40mm review sample was bright and crisp even in direct sunlight. While the provided speaker on the watch is small by smartphone standards, it’s loud enough for personal listening on the go and does a fair job of running through a Spotify list on a walk or jog.

In terms of battery life, my Galaxy Watch5 40mm review sample managed to last through an entire day with notifications on and the Always On display activated though it needed an 8-minute quick top up before bedtime to ensure it doesn’t run out of juice when I’m out like a light.

If you are more frugal and keep the Always On display deactivated with power saving on, you can easily last close to two days including two nights worth of sleep tracking. Your mileage will of course vary depending on your usage patterns but it will comfortably last a day and a half or so of use and charging it is relatively fast with a 40% charge in 30 minutes and a full charge in 1 hours and 30 minutes. 

Should you buy the Galaxy Watch5 40mm?

As it stands, the Galaxy Watch5 is one of the fullest featured Android smartwatches currently available in the market today. In terms of sizing, the 40mm model is ideal for ladies while the slightly wider and larger 44mm variant is better sized for men.

Regardless of whichever size you pick, you get excellent build quality paired with a comprehensive array of features with accurate fitness, activity and sleep tracking though it isn’t exactly the cheapest option in the market at RM1,099 for the 40mm model and RM1,199 for the 44mm model. If you’re looking for an Android smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch5 should be at the top of your shopping list. 

Galaxy Watch5 40mm review sample courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.samsung.com/my/watches/galaxy-watch/galaxy-watch5-40mm-pink-gold-bluetooth-sm-r900nzdaxme/#benefits