Samsung Galaxy Watch 5: Expected Features, Design, Price and Rumors

This year’s most exciting Watch from Samsung could be the next Galaxy Smartwatch 5. The Galaxy watch could be launched by the second half of August 2022. The Galaxy Smartwatch 5 could be a serious contender against the Apple Watch or Google’s much-awaited ‘The Pixel Watch’. Samsung Smartwatch will be the successor to the already popular Galaxy Watch 4 and the Classic, launched mid-summer 2021.

Here’s everything that we know.

Galaxy Watch 5 Design and Hardware

Samsung can adopt the existing design language of the Galaxy Watch 4 and come up with a sleeker design with improved battery life compared to the 2021 model.

Last year’s Galaxy Watch 4 featured two designs – The Regular Galaxy 42mm version and a Sporty looking Galaxy Active 40mm featuring Bluetooth and LTE versions. The Classic 44mm version also had a physical bezel and can see a return.

There is also a rumor that Samsung may launch the Galaxy Watch 5 with a ‘rollable screen’ with the display area enlarged from the center and a narrow frame fitted between two display parts, thereby increasing the overall screen surface area by 40% approximately. This rollable Smart Watch will also feature a camera.

Though Samsung has filed a patent for the same, however, this can take a couple of years to see the final sketch.

In the past, both Apple and Samsung have stayed away from not bringing the ‘Thermometer’ function to the Galaxy Watches as it’s challenging to get accurate body temperature.

The main reason is that human arm temperature is affected by various external temperatures – cold or direct sunlight, which could result in an inaccurate reading. So, it would be interesting to see how Samsung would solve this and get the ‘Thermometer’ function in Galaxy Watch 5.

If implemented, this function helps in the early detection of COVID 19 and keeps track of the ovulation cycle. Apart from the other features like Blood Oxygen Saturation, SPO2, ECG, Blood Pressure Sensor, Sleep monitoring, and GPS tracker for accurate location tracking.

The straps for all Galaxy Watch versions, including the Classic, are interchangeable and come in sizes from 22mm and 24mm, respectively. Third-party swappable straps can also be used for the Galaxy Watch 5. Like the Galaxy Active, we also expect the Galaxy watch 5 to come with fun and exciting colors. 

Galaxy Watch 5 Software/ Wear OS (Samsung & Google Apps Integration)

Last year’s Galaxy SmartWatch 4 featured ‘Wear OS’ powered by Samsung, jointly developed by Google and Samsung. We would also like to see a wide range of apps and access to the Google play store ecosystem. Also, the integration of apps, upgrades with Health, fitness, and more workout modes.

We also hope that the Wear OS Software doesn’t lock out non-Samsung Smartphone owners for not using these features. This can further help in using the SmartWatch with other Smartphone brands, especially Google Pixel devices.

Integration of apps and broader choices; for example, if you want to use Google fit app over Samsung’s fitness tracker, Wear OS allows you to do that. Also, apps like Google Pay can be used instead of Samsung Pay. We would also want to see improved health tracking/fitness apps with more focus on capturing accurate readings.

Finally, the integration of the Wear OS has helped improve the battery life significantly from Galaxy Watch 3’s 1.5-day battery life to 2.5 days for the Galaxy Watch 4.

Samsung could increase the existing battery capacity of the Galaxy Watch 4, which was at 247 mAh by 10 %. Adding to this, the lighter OS can significantly increase the overall battery life, and we can only anticipate a further boost in battery life. 

The Wear OS platform supports various third-party popular apps like Strava, Spotify, and Calm. The Wear OS also supports gestures like Shaking your arm twice to answer calls, rotating your wrist twice to dismiss calls / Alarms, and quick launch by bending the wrist. These features are available in the existing Galaxy SmartWatches, and we expect the same to be carried forward to the new Galaxy Watch 5.

One of the unique features of the SmartWatch is the ability only to show Watch-only mode where the Watch only displays the time and date alone. The rest of the intelligent functions cannot be used. We expect all these added and Optimized OS with improved battery capacity in the next SmartWatch.

Galaxy Watch 5 Expected Features and Price

We would certainly like to see the Galaxy Smartwatch Classic’s unique BioActive Sensor, which blends electrical and bioelectrical impedance analysis to give a lot of data like muscle mass, metabolic rate, percentage of water, and fat content in our body, etc.

BIA – Bioelectrical impedance analysis is a technique for estimating body composition. The Watch sends a small electric current through your body, and the voltage is measured to calculate the impedance (resistance) of the body. 

Integrated Speaker and Microphone help to make and receive calls over both versions, Bluetooth and LTE. The LTE Version can act as a standalone device and doesn’t need to be in the vicinity of the phone to work. Compared to the Bluetooth version, the LTE version drains the battery faster. However, for charging the Watch, there are both wired and wireless charging options which initially started from Galaxy Watch 3 onwards.

Galaxy SmartWatch Classic had the ‘smart bezels,’ which helps to scroll through notifications more accurately.

The Galaxy Smartwatch 4 was launched at a retail price of $220 and went upwards of $250 last year. The classic being the expensive one. Considering the addition of new features and bigger battery, we expect the same or a marginal bump in price for Galaxy SmartWatch 5 and Classic series with both Bluetooth and LTE models. 

We also expect Samsung to offer a variety of quality straps from their existing Watch 4 series including the Classic with similar sizes. This will also help existing Samsung Galaxy Watch owners to swap the straps to the new Watch 5.

If the pricing is as expected as the Galaxy Watch 4 and the premium Galaxy Watch Classic, then the Galaxy Watch 5 will be a top contender to the likes of Apple and other premium Smartwatches and a great companion to your Android Smartphone.