Galaxy Watch 4

[Preach2k]

Sent from my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra using Tapatalk

 

[mountainbikermark]

I just ordered one in LTE from the Samsung website . My Active 2 is still fine but I started a new job recently and am frequently away from my phone so I'm gone try out the number sync thing and see how it works and if it's worth the extra $ per month

 

[bkdodger]

I just ordered one in LTE from the Samsung website . My Active 2 is still fine but I started a new job recently and am frequently away from my phone so I'm gone try out the number sync thing and see how it works and if it's worth the extra $ per month

Congratulations! Hopefully the new watch is everything you expect. Keep us posted here on your thoughts on the watch...


Great to see you stop by.,

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[mountainbikermark]

Congratulations! Hopefully the new watch is everything you expect. Keep us posted here on your thoughts on the watch...


Great to see you stop by.,

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

It showed up Friday and I've had a few days to play with it .
Surprisingly similar to my
Active 2 except there's a lot less apps I use in Wear than there was on Tizen but I've already found alternatives that work well . Battery life is on par with my old one with 1 very glaring flaw . There's a bug that's been on Samsung LTE watches since the Gear S2 that if your signal is craptacular the watch shuts down from overheating after 5 minutes of usage , or less in my case . I was watching YouTube on LTE with a very weak signal and about 2 minutes into the video the watch went into airplane mode and an overheat warning showed up until it cooled down, about 5 minutes later . Couldn't power it off or anything until it cooled down . This is supposed to have been fixed in the latest firmware update but mine hasn't updated to find out if it's fixed or not yet .

My favorite app so far is called Lefty. It literally flips the watch 180 degrees for those who wear it on their right arm , or like me who wants the controls on the other side of the watch .

There's also a bug where for about the first minute after power up the watch is super laggy . After that it speeds up nicely and I turned off animations in developer options to make it even snappier .
I still believe even with the heat bug I'll be ok as I only used LTE for short bursts when I had the og Gear S and don't see it being an different this time .

Getting it hooked up to T-Mobile was a real pain . I ended up having to go to a brick and mortar store . From what I read Verizon is even harder to get it hooked up and numbers synced . AT&T from what I've been reading and chats work them before I decided to move doesn't know how to at all .
My suggestion to others on the fence , don't get the LTE . It's not quite ready for the big leagues but everything the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth version is .

 

[bkdodger]

It showed up Friday and I've had a few days to play with it .
Surprisingly similar to my
Active 2 except there's a lot less apps I use in Wear than there was on Tizen but I've already found alternatives that work well . Battery life is on par with my old one with 1 very glaring flaw . There's a bug that's been on Samsung LTE watches since the Gear S2 that if your signal is craptacular the watch shuts down from overheating after 5 minutes of usage , or less in my case . I was watching YouTube on LTE with a very weak signal and about 2 minutes into the video the watch went into airplane mode and an overheat warning showed up until it cooled down, about 5 minutes later . Couldn't power it off or anything until it cooled down . This is supposed to have been fixed in the latest firmware update but mine hasn't updated to find out if it's fixed or not yet .

My favorite app so far is called Lefty. It literally flips the watch 180 degrees for those who wear it on their right arm , or like me who wants the controls on the other side of the watch .

There's also a bug where for about the first minute after power up the watch is super laggy . After that it speeds up nicely and I turned off animations in developer options to make it even snappier .
I still believe even with the heat bug I'll be ok as I only used LTE for short bursts when I had the og Gear S and don't see it being an different this time .

Getting it hooked up to T-Mobile was a real pain . I ended up having to go to a brick and mortar store . From what I read Verizon is even harder to get it hooked up and numbers synced . AT&T from what I've been reading and chats work them before I decided to move doesn't know how to at all .
My suggestion to others on the fence , don't get the LTE . It's not quite ready for the big leagues but everything the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth version is .

Wow a little bit of trouble for sure ..and these bugs need to be fixed ...one of reasons why I hesitate on joining the Android OS side ..

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[mountainbikermark]

As I said , the LTE version is suffering from bugs the non LTE version isn't .
What I fear is rumored fragmentation of Wear with Fitbit and Fossil the way they did with Samsung . I'm used to the Samsung bloatware experience from my Notes over the years but I wasn't ecstatic over both Samsung and Google bloating up my new watch . At least with Tizen I could delete most of the bloatware but not so with Wear 3 . Again, I'll get over it and already pretty much have but for those thinking of jumping ship from Apple there's another reason not to . If Apple watch wasn't a gazillion dollars and if it worked well on my Note10+ I'd switch to them .

 

[mountainbikermark]

Oh . The Speidel type steel flex band I use on my Active 2 works just as well on the new watch . Tempered screen protectors with PC bumpers are also widely available for it and mine don't affect the sensitivity at all .

 

[mountainbikermark]

Should anyone buy this watch , no matter which variant , this is a must have app that nobody talks about .
A battery saving thing (I guess that's why they did it ) is if you turn the watch away from wrist up while it's awake it sleeps the screen , no matter what you're doing . No biggie if you're sitting still at a desk or something but on the fly it's a real pain .
The app in the photo solves this problem while still keeping the gesture active when on the home face . In other words I can glance at the time , shake my wrist or just turn my arm and it's asleep again but not while I'm setting a timer or starting an exercise . It's not free but is well worth the price .
I'm also having a blast with Watchmaker app and setting invisible complications that open watch apps when I tap them but their opacity is 0 . It's like having a mini version of Nova on my watch , something I've missed terribly since my Gear S1 died years ago . My latest face has 7 app shortcuts (complications ) on it with room for plenty more if I want to add them .