Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 review: The closest thing to an Apple Watch for Android users

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Samsung's Galaxy Watch series were always among the best smartwatches Android users could buy. They consistently offer the most premium experience while maintaining a robust set of health and fitness features. But Android users still didn't have something that could quite compare to the Apple Watch's finesse and polish. 

The company pushed it to another level with the Galaxy Watch 4, thanks to two key upgrades: more apps via the Samsung-designed version of the Google Wear OS smartwatch operating system, and an enticing price. Starting at $250 for the smaller 40mm model, and $330 for the larger 44mm model, the Galaxy Watch 4 poses some of the best value for a smartwatch considering how much it offers.

Samsung also differentiates its smartwatches with advanced health tracking features, like the new Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) that measures body composition like skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate, body water, and body fat percentage. However, some of these features don't always work as intended and you may be better off looking to some of the best fitness trackers to fill this gap instead.

Galaxy Watch 4 specs

Design and comfort

Regardless of what color you choose for the aluminum frame, the Galaxy Watch 4 series has a safe, generic round design that lets your watch face make the statement rather than the aesthetics of the overall watch. 

There are tons of options for watch faces and different watch hands, but one thing that bothers me is the limited color options for the faces and hands. I would have loved a green color option for the watch face below, for example, but it's not available for some reason. 

The Galaxy Watch 4 is the thinnest and lightest smartwatch of Samsung's recent smartwatches, and it's a comfortable watch for it. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is a little thicker, thanks to its rotating bezel. The included silicone straps are also comfortable, but they're pretty stiff — the strap sticks out quite a bit where they connect to the watch itself. 

Specifically for the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's included strap, the loops that keep the excess strap from flailing around are completely ineffective. That's a shame, and I'd feel the need to buy another strap had I bought the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.  

General usage 

Telling the time with the Galaxy Watch 4 is best with the always-on display

The Galaxy Watch 4 doesn't reliably show you the time when you do the "raise-your-wrist-to-tell-the-time" gesture, unless you cartoonishly exaggerate the gesture, tap the screen, press a button, or rotate the bezel on the Classic version.

The easy solution is using the always-on display mode, which reduces battery life, but the watch still lasts a full day with ease. 

Notifications are helpful on the Galaxy Watch 4

Smartwatches are great for checking notifications without having to look at your phone, as well as receiving messages and making calls from the watch. When the Galaxy Watch 4 is connected to your phone via Bluetooth, all this works just fine.

When you're beyond your phone's Bluetooth connection, however, the Galaxy Watch connects to your WiFi network (or LTE if you opt for that option. Almost everything still works fine when the watch is connected to a WiFi network, except for phone calls, which is a shame to find. In fact, I wouldn't even get a notification for a phone call when I was outside of Bluetooth range from my phone, but text and messaging notifications came through. 

There's also the occasional time when the Galaxy Watch 4 struggles to find my WiFi network or stay connected to WiFi when I move around different parts of the house with a mesh WiFi system. 

Google's Wear OS operating system, brought to you by Samsung

One of the biggest upgrades to come to the Galaxy Watch 4 series is the adoption of Google's Wear OS smartwatch operating system instead of Samsung's Tizen smartwatch (OS). 

That may cause concern for anyone familiar with Google's neglected and poor Wear OS, but with Samsung's help, it's actually pretty great on the Galaxy Watch 4 series. It looks and feels like Samsung's excellent Tizen OS, but Google's Wear OS means the Galaxy Watch 4 is compatible with significantly more apps from Google's Play Store. 

Health and fitness

General fitness tracking with the Galaxy Watch 4 works well

The Galaxy Watch 4 has an array of health and fitness tracking features you'd expect from a premium smartwatch, including workout tracking, heart rate monitoring, blood pressure measuring, an ECG feature, sleep tracking, blood oxygen measuring, and stress measuring.

The basic workout and fitness tracking stuff work great, but it can be a little over-eager to automatically record a workout. For example, the Galaxy Watch 4 thinks I'm working out while I'm taking a shower. Perhaps I shower more aggressively than the average person? Either way, it's annoying to delete my erroneous shower workout day after day to avoid messing with my actual workout tracking. 

Sleep tracking with the Galaxy Watch 4 

For sleep tracking, it's impossible to tell if the Galaxy Watch 4 is properly measuring my REM, light, deep sleep, and wakefulness without comparing its readings to a medical sleep test. Still, I can tell when I've been awake, as I'm waking up a couple of times a night to feed my baby, and the Galaxy Watch 4 sometimes doesn't register those waking moments well at all. It makes me doubt that the Galaxy Watch 4 is properly tracking the other sleep metrics.

Still, I guess I get an overall sense of my sleep quality — my sleep score in Samsung Health is consistently a poor 40 out of 100, which isn't surprising on account of my baby. But I don't need a smartwatch or health app to tell me I'm getting bad sleep these days.

ECG on the Galaxy Watch 4 can be hit or miss

The ECG works well, but it's extremely dependent on having the Galaxy Watch 4 properly positioned on your wrist, and there seems to be a very narrow margin for that proper position. I'd easily get inconclusive readings when the watch wasn't well positioned, and I even got a reading saying that I was experiencing atrial fibrillation. 

Thankfully, cardiologist and Director of Cardiology for Dallas-based State of the Heart Cardiology, Dr. John Osborne, debunked the reading and said I wasn't experiencing atrial fibrillation. Dr. Osborne attributed the erroneous reading to a confused algorithm caused by external feedback like motion, talking, or even simply breathing. It's not uncommon for smartwatches with ECG features to be "fooled," he elaborated. 

Here's what a normal ECG reading should look like:

Measuring your body with the Galaxy Watch 4 is an awkward experience

The big new piece of health-tracking tech in the Galaxy Watch 4 is the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) feature that measures body composition, like skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate, body water, and body fat percentage. 

The fancy new body measurement feature with the BIA sensors seems fairly accurate. Every reading I took showed slightly different numbers, but they were largely pretty consistent, and that's fine to give you a general idea of your body metrics. 

With that said, taking a measurement was often a frustrating experience. Like the ECG feature, the BIA seems incredibly sensitive to where the watch is on your wrist to take a reading. Also, placing your middle and ring fingers on the two buttons on the side of the watch to take a body measurement is incredibly awkward. 

The overall takeaway here is that sleep tracking, the ECG, and BIA features are just meant to give you a general idea, and they don't replace a doctor or real medical measuring devices. 

Battery life

The Galaxy Watch 4 has a solid day-and-a-half-long battery life with the always-on display mode enabled and with general use (without workout tracking). Enabling bedtime mode when I went to sleep, which turns off the display and puts the watch into "do not disturb" mode, helped with getting that extra few hours into the next day. 

Even with a good workout, the Galaxy Watch 4 will comfortably last a day until you lay it down to charge overnight. Longer workouts, especially those that use GPS like a marathon or a 100-mile bike ride, will likely considerably run down the battery. 

The Galaxy Watch 4's battery life shouldn't be rated with the always-on display mode disabled, as it's such an important feature to keep on for the basic function of telling the time. You can help extend battery life into the second day by enabling bedtime mode when you go to sleep, which turns off the screen and notifications.

What are your alternatives?

We don't suggest anything that runs on Google's standard Wear OS, as it feels buggy and neglected. If you're looking for a premium general-use smartwatch for Android that comes with comprehensive fitness and health tracking features, Samsung's Galaxy 4 series is where we stop. 

For more fitness-centered smartwatches, you can check out our choices for the best fitness trackers.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4?

Yes. It's the closest smartwatch that Android users have to the premium Apple Watch experience. The Galaxy Watch 4 even features health tools that the Apple Watch currently doesn't, namely the BIA sensor.

The bottom line

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is the obvious choice for Android users looking for a comprehensive, quality, premium smartwatch experience. No other smartwatch for Android can compare. However, it's a shame that the ECG feature is limited to Samsung phone owners. For a smartwatch and fitness tracker that works with most phones, you may want to consider a Garmin instead.

The Galaxy Watch 4 starting at $250 for the 40mm version is also very well priced, especially for such a premium and feature-packed watch.