Apple Watch Series 5 or Galaxy Watch Active 2: which watch is better?

Along with the new iPhone 11/11 Pro / 11 Pro Max, Apple also announced the next generation of its smartwatches -

Apple Watch Series 5. Now in the mobile market of smart wrist accessories, the struggle for superiority among various manufacturers is actively being waged. First of all, the battle is between Samsung and Apple. Companies such as Xiaomi or Huawei are not taken into account in this comparison, since this is a completely different (budget) segment of smart wristbands.

Galaxy Watch Active 2 or Apple Watch 5

Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Apple Watch Series 5are the latest watches from two competing companies. Both accessories are interesting to review, while they are very different. But at the moment, we can safely say that this is the best smart watch now, taking into account the functions and long-term software support. We bring to your attention a small comparison of Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Apple Watch Series 5.

Design

The two most popular smartwatch models arethe exact opposite of each other if we talk about design. The Apple Watch has a rectangular display, while Samsung's watches are round, and they look a lot more like a traditional watch in appearance. Of course, you can find your arguments in favor of each version of the watch when choosing a design. But still, we note that the rectangular screen of Apple Watch is ideal for displaying a graphical user interface and short pieces of information. The round Galaxy Watch Active 2 has a slightly smaller screen area, but Samsung has done a lot of work to create the Tizen user interface, taking into account the physical shape and size of the screen. In other words, only your style preferences can play a role in the selection.

Score 1: 1

Display

As for displays, both accessories useOLED panels. However, the Apple Watch can adjust the display resolution and refresh rate on the fly to be more energy efficient than previous models. This allowed Apple to make the latest version of the Series 5 watch constantly on and provide the same 18 hours of battery life. And when we say “always on,” we mean that the Series 5 display never turns off, it just dims.

Galaxy Watch Active 2 uses AMOLED panel -the main product for Samsung wearable devices and phones - which is able to provide amazing maximum and minimum brightness, as well as excellent colors and sharpness, despite its small size. It does not have an LTPO driver, although you have a choice: leave it on or not. The battery life indicators are excellent - you can safely get up to two days without recharging (with a constantly on display, that is).

Draw Again - 2: 2

Size and straps

Both Apple Watch Series 5 and Galaxy Watch Active 2have interchangeable straps, so you can really make them as individual as possible. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 supports 20 mm straps (on both 40 mm and 44 mm models), and the Apple Watch Series 5 supports 22 mm and 24 mm straps on 40 and 44 mm models, respectively.

3: 2 in favor of an apple accessory.

Functions

And Galaxy Watch Active 2, and Apple Watch Series 5have a complete set of essential useful features when it comes to health and fitness tracking. Both accessories can adequately measure your heart rate and automatically track your sports activities and activity, but the similarities end there.

One area where the Apple Watch 5 is behindGalaxy Watch Active 2 is sleep tracking. This is a feature that has become quite popular in smart watches over the past couple of years. And for good reason, because the abnormal nature of sleep can be a sign of various dangerous conditions. However, the Apple Watch Series 5 cannot do sleep tracking out of the box, while the Galaxy Watch Active 2 can. Fortunately, this can be easily fixed with a third-party application such as SleepWatch.

Despite the lack of built-in supportsleep tracking on the Apple Watch, it has many tricks that the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 has yet to master. Firstly, the ability to make an ECG is not only in the USA, but also in other regions. Galaxy Watch Active 2 can also perform ECG measurements, but this feature is not yet enabled on the device: it will appear either at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2020.

In addition, Apple Watch Series 5 have a built-incompass and have an international emergency call feature for a cellular mode that works even without an iPhone. WatchOS 6 also contains some interesting new features that are still in the early stages of the experiment, but they seem very promising, they can only be found on the Apple Watch. This is the Cycle Tracking application, which gives users the ability to record important information related to their menstrual cycles and see the predicted time for their next period, etc. The new “Noise” app helps users understand the level of surround sound in noisy environments, such as concerts and sporting events, which can negatively affect hearing.

Draw again. Total score 4: 3.

Price

And finally, and just as importantly, these are the prices for the Apple Watch Series 5 and Galaxy Watch Active 2. For convenience, we made a table:

Apple Watch Series 5
Galaxy Watch Active 2

40 mm

$ 399 GPS
$ 499 GPS + Cellular
40 mm

$ 279 GPS
£ 399 GPS + Cellular

44 mm

$ 429 GPS
$ 529 GPS + Cellular
44 mm

$ 299 GPS
£ 419 GPS + Cellular

In this round, the clock from Samsung wins, and the total score becomes 4: 4. Both devices will be an excellent choice, it all depends on your preferences and the intended purposes of using the accessory on your hand.