There are lots of smartwatches available now, but for Samsung smartphone users, the Galaxy Watch lineup is often recommended due to their great connectivity. A couple of months ago, Samsung launched its newest Galaxy Watch4 lineup, featuring a standard model and the Watch4 Classic.
The Galaxy Watch4 Classic is essentially the same as the standard model, but it has a rotating dial and is a bit bigger. And on paper, this watch is impressive as it packs a wealth of features, as well as a nice display and premium styling.
Of course, the Watch4 Classic is a premium smartwatch, so it does cost a bit more than you average smartwatch. So, should you get it? Find out here in our review!
Design and Fit
To start off, let’s take a look at the watch’s design. The Watch4 Classic features a 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display. Aside from looking great, it also promises to be a tough and sturdy watch as not only does it come with Corning Gorilla Glass DX protection, it’s also MIL-STD-810G compliant and is IP68 water resistant. This means you won’t have to worry about the watch breaking if you live an active lifestyle. And if you like swimming with the watch on, the Watch4 Classic has a Water lock mode which prevents accidental touches on the screen while taking a dip.
The watch has a round face with two buttons for navigation on the right side. As for the strap, the Watch4 Classic comes with a rubber strap, but it is compatible with standard 20mm straps, so you have the option of replacing it if you want something that suits your style more. In my use, I found the standard straps to be comfortable, even when I kept it on when I slept.
One feature that I found to be quite nice is the rotating dial as it felt nice and satisfying to turn. Though it’s not just for show as the dial is used to navigate the watch’s UI. Sure, the touch display navigation is already responsive, though I did appreciate the inclusion of a dial as it made navigating through different apps feel a bit more intuitive and natural.
Style-wise, I like the fairly simple look of the Watch4 Classic, though if you do want more personality, you can change the strap as well as the watch face. There are lots of watch faces to choose from when you sync the smartwatch to the Galaxy Wearable app, from clean and minimalistic to colorful and filled with meters/trackers.
Features
Moving on to the features, the Watch4 Classic has a wide range of apps. There are even some apps that I rarely see in other smartwatches, including Google Maps, a Gallery, and even Microsoft Outlook. There are also standard smartwatch features such as notifications, camera control, music playback controls, and more.
The main apps that most people are probably interested in are the various health and fitness trackers of the Watch4 Classic. These include a Sleep Monitor, Body Composition, Heart Rate Monitor, Stress Meter, Blood Oxygen tracker, Calorie Counter, Women’s Health, Water reminder, and an overall Health Summary.
If you’ve used other smartwatches before, you are probably already familiar with how these work. Though in my time using the Watch4 Classic, I found it to be quite accurate, not to mention that these health trackers give accurate reports along with helpful recommendations. Of course, I used it with the Galaxy Wearable and the Samsung Health app, so these two apps are a must to get the most out of the Watch4 Classic.
One highlight of the Watch4 Classic is its various Exercise Modes. In the Exercise app, there are options for Walking, Running, Cycling, Hiking, Exercise Biking, and more. Most people should find the options on these to fit their needs. Though if your routine is a mixture of different things, the app does have a free workout mode which tracks the essentials, including heart rate, calories burned, and total exercise time.
As with the health trackers, to get the most out of the Watch, it’s recommended to download the Samsung Health App which is available on the App Store and on the Play Store.
Everyday Reliability
For daily use, the Watch4 Classic proved to be a reliable device. This is thanks to its responsiveness and great UI. The Watch4 Classic is actually the first smartwatch from Samsung that runs on Wear OS, a smartwatch operating system designed in cooperation with Google. Personally, I’m a fan of the watch’s UI thanks to how easy it is to use, especially when navigating between apps. Though there were times that the watch slowed down a bit when scrolling through the app menu, but this didn’t happen often enough to be an issue.
What can be an issue for some users is the device’s battery life. A premium smartwatch like this with all the bells and whistles often does not come with week-long battery life unlike other, more affordable devices. Samsung claims that this has a 40+ hour battery life. Though in my time with it, I found that I needed to charge it every day. Given this, I had to charge it before I slept, or when I wake up as I used it to track my sleep. This might not be a deal breaker for some, but it’s something to keep in mind when getting the Watch 4 Classic.
Finally, in terms of connectivity, the Watch4 Classic had no issues pairing with the phones I had on hand. I mostly used it with a Galaxy A71, and connection was quick and easy. Syncing the watch with a non-Samsung Android phone is also fairly easy, though you do need to download the Samsung Wearable app to manage the watch.
Final Verdict
In terms of its features and design, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic ticks most of the boxes when it comes to a premium smartwatch. Not only does it come with a wealth of health and fitness apps, it’s also stylish and solidly built to boot. On top of this, the watch is easy to pair with most phones, and its OS is great in terms of usability. The only issue with it is that the battery life isn’t that great.
Is it worth the PHP 17,990 price tag? Well, if you want a fully-featured premium smartwatch and don’t mind charging every day (or turning off some features), the Watch4 Classic is worth considering. And if you have a Samsung phone as your daily driver, the Watch4 Classic is an even better proposition.