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It’s been a couple of months since Samsung introduced its smartwatch lineup with the Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro.
While I was quick to try on and experience the Watch 5, I’ve taken my time with the Watch 5 Pro, which is aimed at adventure enthusiasts aka people who’re definitely not like me.
Design
As I put the watch on, I realise it’s a bit too big for my liking - the only size option available is 45 mm. It also weighs a good 13 grams heavier than the Samsung Watch 5, which was a comfier fit on my wrist. The build definitely looks like it is designed for men.
The deployment clasp is a little tricky to use the first time around, and the unbuckling mechanism is a whole different magnet-based one. Once you get a hang of it, it might not bug you, but overall I find it a bit cumbersome.
Display
The 1.4-inch super AMOLED display shines nice and bright, even outdoors during the day. It’s very easy to read and navigate through - no jerks or lags when I’m scrolling through apps or settings on the watchface.
While there’s a bunch of customisable watchfaces, some of the more interesting ones are to be paid for. Pairing is quick enough once I fire up the Gear app for use.
The watch is powered by a 1.14 GHz dual-core processor, and I didn’t face any lags on it during extended use. Although it has 16 GB storage, effectively there’s only about 7.5 GB available to load music or other apps, of which there are plenty.
Navigation
To supplement the touchscreen, there are two physical buttons on the side, designed for two main functions — return to the previous screen or go to home screen. I wish I was able to use it for other functions as well.
For example, the only way I can use the stopwatch is by tapping on the screen. Being able to do this using the physical buttons would also be a intuitive gesture to include.
I wish the Google Maps integration on the watch was better. As of now, the native app doesn’t give me turn-by-turn live directions when I’m going around town. Cyclists, runners and joggers will have to upload a GPX navigation file which will be able to do this in real time.
Health features
The step count seems to be accurate enough on most days, although a few days it counted almost 12k when I was working from home, and that seemed like a stretch - no matter how hard I wanted to believe it myself.
There are a couple of modes to keep track of my heart rate - one that keeps checking actively and another that I can measure every 15 minutes or so.
Overall that data seemed accurate with spikes during my strength training sessions and some punishing burpees. It goes into greater detail than the Watch 5 with calculating my body fat percentage, water weight and bone weight.
I loved the regular reminders the Watch 5 Pro sent my way to remind me to stay active and also made it a point to congratulate me on reaching specific fitness or activity goals.
Battery life
Samsung’s claim that the Watch 5 Pro has “biggest battery capacity among our wearable series”, kind of turns out to be true. On most days the battery would deplete by about 40 percent over a 12-hour period. So I could easily get 2 days of moderate usage from the device. The only time I got less juice out of this was when I’d been trying connect it to my smartphone’s cellular network. The battery drain during this was alarming, and I’d get just about a functional day’s usage from the watch.
The average charging time being more than an hour, but because I ended up doing this every third day, it wasn’t too much of a hassle.
Verdict
Aimed at competing with the likes of Garmin’s fairly rugged Instinct 2, the more elegant Venu 2 Plus and the Apple Watch Ultra, the Samsung Watch 5 Pro is priced at a whopping ₹45,999. While the health and fitness features on the device are great, I was left in want of better-integrated navigation features and size options. Overall, despite its positives, it’s hard to justify the price tag on this one.
- Price: ₹45,999.
- Pros: Great display, solid build.
- Cons: Might be too heavy for smaller wrists, expensive
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