Rating: 4.25/5
A well-built premium smartwatch with great design, performance, and features. Read full article for Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 Review.
Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a successor to the Galaxy Watch Active. While the Galaxy Active faced numerous issues with the fitness tracking and other features, Galaxy Watch Active 2 fixed many of these issues and proved to be a worthy successor. The product costs a little more than Apple Watch 3, at 25,000 INR. Samsung finally released a smartwatch that is comparable to the Apple Watch 6. The Galaxy Active 2 has many exciting features compared to Galaxy Active 1.
Samsung galaxy watch active 2 India Rose Gold
The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is compatible with both the iOS and Android, although the iOS version on the iPhone is not as complete as it is on Samsung smartphones. This is true with Apple watch too. Apple Watch without the iPhone is as good as a low-grade smartwatch. You can get the best out of Galaxy Watch Active 2 if you use it on a Galaxy Phone.
Key Features: samsung galaxy watch active 2
- Stylish design with a touch-enabled bezel for easy navigation
- Super AMOLED Display
- 5 ATM water resistant (up to 50 m)
- Call function
- Battery runtime upto 5 days with normal usage
- Samsung Health App
- Fitness tracking
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2: Screen and Design
The Active 2 comes with both LTE and non-LTE versions. Also, we get to choose between Aluminium and stainless steel dials. The steel version, which looks more classic, is ~5000 INR more than the Aluminium version, and the LTE version is 10,000 INR more than the non-LTE version. With the LTE version, you can make or receive calls directly from the Active 2 without the need to carry your smartphone. This is an incredibly useful feature if you don’t want to carry your smartphone while going for jogging, cycling, and other outdoor fitness activities. Also, note that the LTE version is only available in stainless steel.
In the Samsung Galaxy Watch, there is a physical rotating bezel. Similar to it, the Galaxy Active 2 has got a rotating bezel that is touch-based. Menu navigation with the touch-based rotating bezel is faster and more convenient.
The Super AMOLED 360 x 360 screen comes with ‘Gorilla Glass DX Plus’, which means the product can withstand heavy surface impacts and comes with better scratch resistance and enhanced readability.
Active 2 comes with a built-in speaker and microphone. This will allow you to answer calls and also talk to your device using the voice assistant ‘Bixby’.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2: Features
Samsung included the right set of features in Active 2 so that it supports all features you would see in any premium smartwatch. We have heart rate monitoring, altitude detection, in-built GPS + Glonass (similar to what we have in Huami Amazfit Verge Lite), an ambient light sensor, etc.
In the LTE version, you have the ability to insert e-sim and use the watch to make calls without the need to carry your smartphone. You can still make calls with the non-LTE version if you carry the phone with you. I would use the LTE version only if I don’t want to carry my smartphone for any reason (Think about carrying a smartphone for your outdoor fitness activity).
Looks like there is a built-in ECG monitor in the Active 2. However, this feature is available in the US (got US FDA clearance in Sep 2020) and in South Korea. It is not clear when Samsung would roll out the ECG feature in India.
Health and fitness
Active 2 can automatically track seven exercise modes. These include swimming, running, walking, cycling, and more. There are 39 other fitness modes that can be activated manually.
We have seen stress tracking in the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Similarly, Active 2 can monitor your stress levels and also gives breathing guidance.
As with the Samsung Galaxy Watch, sleep tracking is pretty good in the Active 2. Samsung Health App displays all the required sleep metrics such as time spent on sleep (sliced by REM, light, and deep sleep modes), calories burned, sleep trends over a period of time, etc.
Active 2 has Samsung’s proprietary operating system ‘Tizen’. Tizen has good third-party app support (only next to Watch OS and Wear OS). You have all the necessary applications including Samsung Pay (for NFC payments), Spotify, Strava, news apps, and Samsung Health apps. Even the popular fitness app Under Armour has a version for Tizen OS. Samsung also made a standalone YouTube player app for the watch. If I were you, I would stay away from watching any video on a screen that small.
Music
You can load your Spotify playlist for offline listening. Needless to say, you can control the music you listen to directly from the watch. Internal storage is 4GB. Not great, but not bad either. A few hundred songs would easily fit into the device.
Voice assistant
Digital assistant is what differentiates a good watch. Getting this right is tough but incredibly important. I do not need to unlock my smartphone if I can reply to text messages directly from the watch by using voice commands. I can just ask for weather updates, book a Uber trip, send a message to a friend, make a call, set up an alarm, etc. Bixby reacts faster than google assistant in the Wear OS and does a lot more things than Alexa in Fitbit Versa 2.
As always, Samsung Health App is one of the best fitness applications. The watch directly integrates with the Health app and you get to see all the fitness metrics in the app. We even have plenty of social features, fitness guides, tutorials, and many more. I am very positive that Samsung Health App is already a pretty food competitor to the popular Fitbit App.
Samsung health App is not the only app you need for Active 2 to access the full range of functionality in the watch. You also need to install the Galaxy wearable app, Active 2 plugin, and Samsung accessory service app. Samsung needs to simplify the setup process. Just see the Apple Watch, all you need to do is bring the watch close to your iPhone and that’s it! Follow a couple of on-screen instructions and the watch loads all the features and is instantaneously ready to use.
The Galaxy Watch Active 2 has ~2 days of battery life with normal usage. For a premium watch with so many features, I would put this in the positive zone.
Final Verdict
I would definitely give it a try. Active 2 comes with a reasonable price and have multiple price variants. If you carry your phone all the time along with your smartwatch, then you do not need the LTE version which costs ~3K INR more than the non-LTE version. I love the flexibility given by Samsung. In-built GPS, Samsung Health App, third-party app integration, the accuracy of fitness tracking, Bixby voice assistant, Samsung Pay, and many more features make this watch a great asset to your wearable kit.
Pros
- Stylish design with a touch-enabled bezel for easy navigation
- Samsung Health App
- Battery life
- Accurate fitness tracking
- Running coach
Cons
- The setup process must be simplified