Launching alongside the Note 20 Ultra, Samsung’s mid-year Unpacked event last August also gave us the Galaxy Watch 3, which went on to become one of our favourite smartwatches of 2020. So what can we expect from its successor – the Galaxy Watch 4?
Aside from pulling Samsung’s smartwatch naming convention back into line, the Galaxy Watch 3 offered a refined take on its original namesake, added some appreciated improvements to signature features and introduced wholly new functionality (even though some was market-dependant).
When can I buy the Galaxy Watch 4?
Looking at the launch schedule for previous Galaxy Watch entries, the original Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch 3 both arrived in the August of their respective launch years, with the Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2 changing tact, making their debuts in April and September of the same year (2019).
Q2
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce)
March 6, 2021
While rough at best, established tipster Ice Universe cites a Q2 launch window (between Apr and June) for both the Galaxy Watch 4 and, somewhat surprisingly, the Galaxy Watch Active 4 (skipping ‘Active 3’ entirely), which is a little earlier than expected – going by the standard Galaxy Watch line’s release schedule.
This is also refuted by a , which claims that the Galaxy Watch 4 is set to land alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 2/3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 at some point in Q3 2021 – between July and September – aligning with previous releases.
How much does the Galaxy Watch 4 cost?
Unless Samsung takes a markedly different tact with next year’s Galaxy Watch, it’s assumed that the standard timepiece will adopt the same (or similar) premium smartwatch pricing as the current offering.
For reference, the Galaxy Watch 3 comes in two sizes – 41mm and 45mm – and costs £399/US$399 or £419/$429, respectively.
There’s a cellular version of Watch 3 which costs a little more at £429/$449 and £459/$479, depending on the size you swing for.
As for the Active 4, it’ll likely lose the crown and opt for a smoother, less-obtrusive design with a lower price tag to boot. The Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2 started at £199/$199.99 and £249/$249.99 respectively, but depending on functionality, the Watch Active 4 could keep pushing the price up to £299/$299.99.
What features does the Galaxy Watch 4 offer?
While we’re yet to hear much from the rumour mill around the Galaxy Watch 4, we can at least build a picture of what we’d like to see, based on the Galaxy Watch 3 and the wider smartwatch competition currently out there.
Wear OS – The first leak for the watch came from Ice Universe too, who said “Samsung’s new watch will use Android to replace Tizen”, which was later backed up by another Twitter leaker.
Jumping forward to Google I/O 2021, in mid-May and the Google officially revealed that it was teaming up with Samsung to fuse Wear OS and Tizen OS into a single platform, which Samsung then confirmed would be powering the next Galaxy Watch; pulling in additional wellness and fitness features, supplied by the now Google-owned Fitbit.
A thinner design – Samsung already made the Galaxy Watch 3 a slimmer and less cluttered watch than its 2018 predecessor, but we’d like to see the 2021 rendition go on an even more extreme diet – in terms of both weight and thickness – provided such a move doesn’t impact performance or battery life.
One recent leak suggests this could be the case; 3C has certified a 240mAh battery for a yet-unnamed Samsung wearable with codename SM-R880. It’s widely believed that it’s in fact the smaller 41mm version of the Galaxy Watch 4, which if true, shows a reduction of 7mAh compared to the Galaxy Watch 3.
More premium materials – Steel and aluminium have been go-to material choices for Samsung’s top smartwatches for a few years now but with Apple’s Watch Edition series and entries like the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro weaving titanium and the like into their designs, it’d be nice to see a wider choice of materials and finishes on the Galaxy Watch 4.
Wider feature support – The Galaxy Watch 3 boasts Apple Watch-rivalling heart-rate, ECG, blood pressure and blood oxygen tracking, but not all of these premium health-tracking features aren’t available in all markets, stuck behind certification from various countries’ health boards.
If Samsung can work on getting approval for the technology inside the Galaxy Watch 4 ahead of its launch, more users worldwide will be able to enjoy functionality that some Galaxy Watch 3 owners already make use of.
A rugged version – Samsung has made hardy smartwatches in the past but despite their intended use as fitness trackers, even the Watch Active line sported designs that looked great but weren’t particularly hard-wearing.
Taking queues from wearables like the Amazfit T-Rex and its own Galaxy Tab Active tablets, an alternative rugged version of the Galaxy Watch 4 would likely appeal to a wider array of potential users.
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