Amazing features and customisation

29/08/2023 16:47

I got this to replace a first-gen Watch Active. The principle’s the same, but I’m very pleased with what a big upgrade step it’s proving to be.

It’s only slightly larger in physical size, but because the screen reaches far closer to the bezel, the difference in screen size is phenomenal. The old Active watch’s screen was a good quality, this one is visibly better, with incredibly crisp lines and some beautiful line rendering. It’s a gorgeous display that even looks good displaying photos you’ve taken on your phone.

Functionally, again I’m amazed at how much of a jump up it is. The switch from Tizen to WearOS makes a big difference. WearOS is intuitively much closer to being the same experience as on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. The watch feels like a natural extension to the phone. Despite the different OS, set-up was really quick and within a couple of minutes of unboxing it I had it up and running.

The customisation is great. By fiddling with the settings for the ‘complications’ (the widgets visible on your watch display) you can easily set it up with the quickest possible shortcuts to the apps or controls that you use most often- in my case, Strava for jogging and then music controls. The rotating action for adjusting your music volume is an example of a neat simple control that this phone just gets absolutely right.

Touch sensitivity is good, and it really picks up well on which part of the screen I’m aiming for. Apps like Strava work much better than on my old phone. The extra screen size allows for more information to be shown with greater legibility.

The health features are almost sci-fi and I’m only beginning to scratch the surface of them. The array of sensors included is impressive. The numbers it seems to come out with all seem reassuringly plausible- for example there is a strong correlation between how fast it feels like my heart is pumping, and what the watch tells me my heart rate is.

Since the screen is so much bigger than my previous watch, with more sensors being used, I expected the battery life to be worse but it’s not. It’s pretty much the same. On a typical day I’m using about 20% of the battery capacity, or if I’ve been hammering it a bit with exercises, I’ve hit 30% usage in a day. That’s more than enough for a long weekend. A plus is that it uses the same charging base as my previous watch, which now means I can use the old one as a spare.

This watch is top-of-the-range in a lot of different ways and I’m really enjoying it.