The wait was worth it

With the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Samsung is breaking new ground with its smartwatches. It is a completely new model, which has a huge battery and also some exclusive features. Is that enough to justify the high price? That’s exactly what I’ll tell you in my review.

Visually a small step backwards

Personally, I’m a big fan of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic’s physical rotating bezel and I find it a shame that this design element, which also has a practical use, has been omitted from the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Of the raised edge of the Watch 5 Pro ensures that the operation of the digital bezel works safely and protects the display in the event of a fall, but it makes the watch unnecessarily thick.

the The quality of workmanship and the choice of materials for the watch are excellent. The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro looks and feels premium. It fits well if you manage to adjust the magnetic bracelet properly. The latter is not so easy, because the bracelet is incredibly complicated and takes a while to get the right size. But if that happened, then the watch sits well. In the almost two weeks of the test period, the magnetic closure opened twice unintentionally for me.

Actually, you can charge the Galaxy Watch 5 wirelessly. This also works very well with the supplied “charging puck”. Rather not on other Qi charging stations or smartphones. The strap and construction pushes the bottom away from the charging station. That’s how it works Do not use the reverse charging function of expensive Samsung cell phones with the smartwatchwhich is a pity.

Bright display convinces

Samsung is a display specialist and you can see that immediately with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. That The 1.4-inch AMOLED display is beautifully bright and easy to read even in direct sunlight. Content is displayed beautifully sharp with a resolution of 450 x 450 pixels. I used the watch mostly in my normal everyday life and while cycling with my road bike and on the e-mountain bike.

The display is protected by sapphire glass. I couldn’t find any scratches during the test period – not even micro-scratches, which actually always occur. Samsung also promises that the glass will be very scratch-resistant. Corning Gorilla Glass DX+ was also used in the predecessor. I and a colleague who has been using the watch for a long time could not find any scratches. The new generation should be even more robust.

Exclusive features for the Pro model

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro runs Wear OS 3.5 and has access to the Google Play Store and therefore extremely many apps. There are also apps from Google such as Maps or YouTube Music and some additional apps that Samsung has installed. These include primarily the health app, with which you can monitor your body or track your training. Hardly anything has changed there, which is why I would like to refer to the test of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in this regard.

It’s a pity that you continue to be one Samsung cell phone needed to do an ECG or measure blood pressure. This is not possible with every Android cell phone, which limits its use somewhat. Here I would wish for a little more openness from Samsung.

Only at the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro gets you some exclusive featureswho does not otherwise own a Samsung watch:

• Training routes in GPX format can be loaded onto the watch and used
• With the track back function you can get back to the starting point
• It all works with turn-by-turn navigation

Basically, you can of course also use Google Maps and get a similar range of functions. Cycling was fun with the smartwatch. I was not only able to track the route and analyze my values, but also navigate directly on the smartwatch without worrying that the battery would be empty. Other smartwatches run out of breath far too quickly when doing sports. Samsung definitely made the right decision by installing a large battery.

No difference in performance

Technically, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is a Galaxy Watch 4. Samsung hasn’t changed anything on the processor. The performance of the watch is very high with Wear OS 3.5. There are very few delays, but overall I was able to use the smartwatch smoothly. The internal memory makes the smartwatch independent of the smartphone. You can store music on the watch and connect wireless headphones directly to it. So you don’t always have to carry your smartphone with you when you do sports.

Battery life is finally good

The biggest advantage of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is the battery life. The 590mhA battery doubles the battery life in normal use. If I use the smartwatch relatively cautiously, then I can easily reach three to four days. I couldn’t get close to two days with the predecessor. If I use the GPS tracking for sports and the sensors, the runtime drops significantly. Nevertheless, I always easily managed more than two days. And there were also longer bike rides at the weekend.

The loading speed should be significantly faster with the new generation. It is, but the large battery ensures that charging still takes a relatively long time. I would have hoped for something more. I often charged at 20 percent or a little less because I wouldn’t have gotten through the day with that. And charging it with a 25-watt fast charger from Samsung takes well over an hour. It’s okay but not really exciting. The USB-C connection is pleasing. The predecessor still had a USB-A port.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro: Rating