One-minute review
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is Samsung’s latest and potentially best smartwatch yet. It’s certainly pitched as the wearable companion most ready to climb Mount Everest or at least a steep hill with you.
As befitting the new “Pro” distinction, the watch is bigger and better than the rest of the Watch 5 line, with a bigger battery, more powerful capabilities, and exclusive features.
The Watch generally uses this new power to add more fitness credentials, with additional GPS features, including new route generators for endurance workouts, and a reinforced case ensuring the 5 Pro is squarely aimed at the adventurers and athletes.
Otherwise, the Watch retains all its younger sibling’s more holistic health kits, including improved sleep tracking and body composition, alongside great smart functionality courtesy of Wear OS, taking and receiving calls, music controls, and an Exynos W920 dualcore 5nm chipset powering the whole thing. At this early stage, it certainly seems like everything you want in a fitness-orientated Wear OS watch.
Excited about all the stuff coming out during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked? You can check out our first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Price and availability
The Watch has been unveiled as part of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event on 10 August,where it launched alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 foldables, as well as the standard Galaxy Watch 5 and new Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro available to pre-order ahead of the Watch’s release date of 26 August, like the other devices in Samsung’s lineup.
In the US, it’s set to cost $449 for the Bluetooth version and $499 for the LTE 4G version. Compared to $279.99 for the Bluetooth version of the standard Watch 5, and $329.99 for LTE, that’s quite a jump for the leap in design quality, bigger battery and enhanced GPS features.
In the UK, the Watch 5 Pro is set to cost £429 (Bluetooth) and £479 (LTE).
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Design
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is a great looking device. The first thing you notice is the screen: It’s clear, bright and we found it buttery-smooth to swipe through. It’s a big 1.36” display ringed by a raised bezel on the titanium casing to protect the watch from impact. It certainly took up a lot of real estate on our wrist, but as someone used to wearing chunky Garmins, it didn’t feel unnatural. The Sapphire crystal glass and titanium casing is also said to be twice as durable as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, ensuring it’s equipped to take on an adventure.
Fittingly, for Samsung’s toughest watch yet, the raised bezel gives it a rugged feel, adding to its outdoorsy nature. The silicone strap with a hinged d-buckle band is exclusive to the Watch 5 Pro as well, as this sporty band is not available with the standard Watch 5. It’s a utilitarian piece of kit, and it looks sleek with the Black Titanium colorway watch we tested, but we anticipate leather bands for more social occasions are on their way in the near future.
The Watch 5 Pro is IP68-rated water resistant, so it can be submerged for over 30 minutes for depths greater than one meter. This is a step up from many common-or-garden smartwatches, and adds to the watch’s fitness cred. Your Garmins, Suuntos, Amazfits and even Casio digital watches should all be able to withstand the rigors of seawater, whether you’re attempting your first triathlon or going for a surf with some friends for an hour. The Watch 5 Pro can effectively join those ranks.
The UX is satisfyingly designed, too. The watch comes with a smorgasbord of different face options, the familiar heart-shaped equivalent of the Apple Watch’s activity rings, and even the activity profiles offer small animations when selected, which is a lovely touch. For example, the little stick-figure runs when the “running” profile is selected, and swims when you swipe over to the next activity format. The two buttons on the watch side aren’t just there to echo Garmin, but also act as sensors, by which bioelectric impedance analysis scans can be performed by pressing your fingers to them for a minute. More on this later.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Features
The Watch 5 Pro offers a wide variety of health goodies, more so than the standard model. Exclusive to the Pro is the “route workout” GPS function, allowing you to plan your route (which you can share with your friends to run the same route together at different times, comparing times as if you were racing).
The route workout function offers turn-by-turn navigation courtesy of haptic vibrational cues so you don’t have to look at your watch during runs and cycles, and Track Back to stop you getting lost. Simply activate Track Back, and the watch is said to guide you back to your starting point by the safest possible route.
It all sounds very Garmin, and it’s nice to see these kind of features on a Wear OS watch. We obviously did not get an opportunity to test these features during our brief hands-on with the watch, so will be looking forward to really putting the Watch 5 Pro through its paces on some long runs.
What we were able to check out was the Watch’s body composition feature, which is said to have been improved since the Watch 4 debuted. This is that aforementioned bioelectric impedance analysis scan, the same method smart scales use to determine your body composition. Simply place your fingers to the buttons and start the feature on your phone, sending a current of electricity travelling through the body, moving at different speeds through fat, muscle, and bone. The current calculates these speeds and estimates the ratio of fat, muscle and bone in your body. This time, you can set body comp targets, and the watch will help you stay motivated and reach those goals through movement reminders, activity tracking and regular BIA testing. The BIA sensor was very easy to use, and gave me a reading very quickly during my initial tests. I’d be interested in comparing it with a couple of smart scales to really gauge the accuracy of the feature.
Both the Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro get improved sleep tracking, too: as is common in most smart fitness watches, the Watch 5 and Pro both monitor your sleep in terms of how much time you spend awake, in REM, light, and deep sleep, and offer you a total “sleep score”. The watches also take regular blood oxygen levels and monitor your snoring.
However, where I’m genuinely impressed is that, unlike many of its contemporaries, Samsung gives you actual guidance on improving your sleep, rather than simply overloading you with data. Assigning you a sleep profile represented by a cute animal (coincidentally, just like Fitbit’s new feature), it’ll offer 28 day sleep coaching programs with “daily missions”, using your sleep analysis report to help guide you through processes to improve your sleep.
I’ve previously wondered about the usefulness of sleep tracking data without actionable advice, so using the data served to make a positive change is a great move. There was no word on what the actual “sleep missions” might involve yet, beyond adjusting your bed/wake-up times.
Otherwise, the watch offers all the usual bells and whistles such as notification, call accepting/rejecting, and even automatic fall detection functionality. Third-party apps are accessible via the Play store easily enough, and up to 16GB of RAM is enough to store plenty of music.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Battery life
The Watch 5 Pro offers a 60% bigger battery than the Watch 4, thanks to a 590mAh battery, compared to the Watch 5’s maximum 410mAh for the 44mm version. What that means in terms of the watch’s time between charges is around 80 hours, essentially double that of the Watch 5.
However, if you’re making full use of the always-on-display and increased power of its GPS and activity tracking tools, we’re simply not sure if that impressive figure will pass muster during testing. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive breakdown once we spend more time with the watch.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Early verdict
After handling the watch for less than an hour, we can’t tell you whether to buy or not just yet. But at a glance, it looks like the best fitness-orientated Wear OS watch yet, although it’s certainly not cheap. It’s clearly got the power and chops to best all its contemporaries and go toe-to-toe with the Apple Watch in terms of performance, if not quite style.
With rumors of a rugged Apple Watch 8 on the horizon, it’s interesting Samsung got there first with the adventure-focused Watch 5 Pro. But will true outdoor enthusiasts will ditch their Suuntos and the best Garmins in droves and embrace Wear OS? We’ll have to spend more time with this watch to find out.
