Samsung’s new smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch4, isn’t notable in many ways.
It is plagued by the same smartwatch problems that the other leading brand, ahem, Apple Watch tends to face: daily charging, heavy reliance on a smartphone and a flood of graphics and health statistics, more than the most of us are non-medical professionals. know what to do.
However, the Watch4, available on August 27 for $ 250 and $ 300 with LTE mobile, is a great opportunity for a Samsung I’ll see. It is the first to run Google’s revamped software for portable devices, Wear OS 3. This means the Watch4 can run native Google services, such as Google Maps and Google Pay, and download clock apps from the Google Play Store .
The collaboration between Google and Samsung makes sense. Samsung is eager to catch up with Apple, the leader in long-standing smartwatches. The latest estimates indicate that the Apple Watch maker has captured 33% of the global market, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung accounts for only 8% of smart watches, while Fitbit has 4.5% worldwide.
Earlier Galaxy Watch models were powered by Tizen, an operating system designed by Samsung. Google failed to get Wear OS to take off with other smartwatch makers. The result? A confusing software ecosystem, with developers shrugging their shoulders and not really supporting many applications. Google says that by combining platforms with Samsung, the joint effort also accelerated application charging times and extended battery life.