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The fourth is strong with this one

Samsung and Google team up to take down the Apple Watch. But is bringing Wear OS to this fight like squaring up to a Sith Lord with a toy lightsaber?

from R7 000 / samsung.com/za

Samsung makes some of the best smartwatches in the world. So when it suddenly decides to change things up completely, we get a bit nervous.

The Galaxy Watch4 Classic is the first Samsung watch with Google’s Wear OS software since the 2014 Gear Live. Do you remember 2014? Barely? Same here.

We like to imagine Google came to Samsung with a bunch of flowers and a Bluetooth speaker dribbling out ballads, begging Samsung to take it back. And Google caved in to all its demands, letting Samsung turn this into a watch that keeps almost all the best bits of the Galaxy Watch3, but with added Wear OS clout.

Is the Galaxy Watch4 Classic miles better than last year’s Galaxy Watch3? No. Not yet, anyway. But the hope is that Wear OS is about to get a shot in the arm with renewed interest from third-party app builders. Google might even put in a bit of effort to ensuring its wearable OS doesn’t become a ghost town this time.

But even now there’s loads to like in this watch. You get a rotating bezel controller and it’s great for run and gym tracking; both 42mm and 46mm versions have super-bright and sharp screens; and these watches feel faster and slicker than any Wear OS watch we’ve used… ever.

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1 Revenge of the kiff

You get a clicky control wheel around the screen, as on the Galaxy Watch3. This is the main difference between the ‘Classic’ and the standard Galaxy Watch4. It’s one of our favourite features, but you do pay for it: Classics cost around R1 500 more.

2 The rise of sky-gawker

A 1000-nit screen means sunny days are no trouble, and it adjusts its intensity according to ambient light. There’s an always-on mode, but it drains the battery of our 42mm watch pretty quickly; this feature is a better fit with the higher-capacity 46mm version.

4 A new scope

There are a small stack of ways to analyse your heart here: an optical rate scanner, an ECG for heart health and a blood pressure monitor. Two snags: blood pressure isn’t enabled in SA yet, and to use ECG you need a Samsung Galaxy phone.

3 The fat-tum menace

The body composition monitor fires a weak electric signal around your body to work out how much fat and bone mass you have. We found it cruelly inaccurate compared to a smart scale… but maybe we just need to leave the pizzas in lockdown.

5 The source awakens

Samsung is big pals with Spotify. You can download playlists and podcasts right to the watch’s 16GB memory (though only around half of that is free to fill). You can also transfer your own tracks via Galaxy Wearable, if you think Spotify is the devil.

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24 hours with the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Good Meh Evil Time for a run. Heart-rate readings are almost dead-on with our Garmin’s…You need a Samsung phone if you want to use the ECG.The clicky bezel feels as good as ever, and cycles through pages fast. This is a real OS hybrid: Samsung up front, Google vibes underground.The screen is a star. No visible pixels, bold colour, always just bright enough.The default watch face looks great. Feels like a software style upgrade. It claims we’re 40% fatter than our smart scale says we are. App library has the usual Wear OS fluff, but we did just get a Spotify update.The always-on screen mode makes this thing a much better watch.