Samsung’s officially unveiled the Galaxy Watch Active2, barely six months after the original was announced alongside the S10 in February.
The Watch Active2 has the same “Apple Watch meets Garmin” design as the original but is now more refined and fixes a few issues I had with it. One of my favourite features of Samsung’s range of smartwatches was the rotating bezel which Samsung removed from the Watch Active, thankfully it’s back on the Watch Active2. Known as the digital bezel, you’ll be able to navigate the watch by running your finger along the touch-sensitive strip along the border of it. Samsung’s included haptic feedback to simulate the act of turning a physical dial whether you’re rotating it clockwise or anti-clockwise.
Running on Tizen, Samsung’s smartly opted to include their upgraded One UI which makes navigating the watch simpler and more natural.
“The smartwatch market is rapidly growing, and we at Samsung are excited to continually expand our presence in new and visionary ways,” said DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “With Galaxy Watch Active2, we have created a device that will enable consumers to take control of their health and wellness, and seamlessly flow between their devices and connect across the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem, making their lives easier and better.”
The Galaxy Watch Active2 comes in two different sizes—44mm and 40mm in diameter—and two styles: lightweight aluminum with a casual Fluoroelastomer (FKM) Band, and premium solid stainless steel with a leather strap.
Samsung now lets you change watch faces via the new “My Style” function which can create customised designs based on your outfit. You can also swap out the watch straps to personalise it even further.
The Watch Active2 also has ECG capabilities, is able to play Spotify offline, gives you access to YouTube, has Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC for mobile payments and is able to do real-time voice and text translation in over 16 languages. It is also available in an LTE variant which means that you can make and receive calls from the watch itself (if that’s something you really want to do).
As the name suggests, this is a fitness-focused device and Samsung has included the ability to manually track more than 39 workouts with seven of them automatically activated—including running, walking, cycling, swimming, rowing machine, elliptical machine, and dynamic workouts.
Product Specifications
| Category | Feature |
|---|---|
| Color | Aluminum: Cloud Silver, Aqua Black, Pink Gold with Fluoroelastomer (FKM) Stainless Steel: Silver, Black, Gold with Leather strap |
| Dimensions & Weight | Aluminum case–44mm models: 44 x 44 x 10.9T, 30g Aluminum case–40mm models: 40 x 40 x 10.9T, 26g Stainless Steel case–44mm models: 44 x 44 x 10.9T, 42g Stainless Steel case–40mm models: 40 x 40 x 10.9T, 37g *LTE model only available in Stainless Steel |
| Display | 44mm models: 1.4-inch (34mm) 360 x 360 Super AMOLED, full color Always On Display, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+ 40mm models: 1.2-inch (30mm) 360 x 360 Super AMOLED, full color Always On Display, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+ |
| Strap | 44mm models: 20mm interchangeable 40mm models: 20mm interchangeable |
| Battery | 44mm models: 340mAh 40mm models: 247mAh |
| Chipset | Exynos 9110 Dual core 1.15 GHz |
| OS | Tizen |
| Memory | 768MB + 4GB, *1.5GB + 4GB *LTE models only |
| Connectivity | LTE*, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC A-GPS/GLONASS/Beidou7 *LTE connectivity only available in LTE models |
| Sensor | Heart Rate Monitoring (with 8 Photodiodes), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Accelerometer (measure up to 32g of force), Gyroscope, Barometer, Ambient Light |
| Charge | WPC-based wireless charging |
| Durability | 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810G |
| Compatibility | Android: Android 5.0 or higher, RAM 1.5GB o above iOS: iPhone 5 and above, iOS 9.0 or above |
*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice.