I’ve been wearing the Galaxy Watch5 for a couple of weeks to try it out. I’m not a smartwatch owner, but did the Watch5 convert me into a wannabe wearable wearer? Read on to see how my week with it went…

Checking out the design and display

The Galaxy Watch5 has a slim and compact watch-face with two clickable buttons on the right-hand side. The watch I was sent had a rose gold case and plain matching strap, but there are lots of other colours and styles to choose from. The band itself is soft, fitted securely and was really comfortable to wear. In fact, I forgot it was there after a while, and I was fine wearing it in bed.

With the watch fitting snugly I checked out the display - a bright and colourful AMOLED screen that looked really sharp. I had no problems reading small text on it, even out in bright sunlight. I also went for the ‘always-on’ display option to show off the colours. It’s not on by default, but you can choose it in the settings.

The Watch5 display is protected by sapphire crystal glass, which Samsung says is 1.6 times stronger than the Watch4 screen. After my week with it finished, there wasn’t a scratch on it. But then, I am a careful kind of guy.

Setting it up and sorting the apps

Setting up the Watch5 and connecting it to my Android phone was straightforward enough. I downloaded and opened the Galaxy Wearable app, and it found the Watch5 straight away. Then after confirming that numbers displayed on my phone and the watch were the same, the app downloaded the Galaxy Watch5 Manager. This asked me for the usual permissions, and after I signed into my Google account and agreed to the terms and conditions, I was good to go.

The Watch5 has lots of built-in apps like Samsung Pay, Google Maps and the Play Store, and you can download more via the Galaxy Wearable app. I use Strava quite a lot to track my runs in the park, so I added that straight away. There are a few big names missing though. I would have liked to download Facebook Messenger, but it wasn’t there.

Finding my way around

As a non-smartwatch-owner, it took me a little while to get used to the various swipes and gestures needed to navigate. But by the end of the week I was a natural born swiper.

Swiping right takes you to notifications, swiping left takes you to your activity tiles. Swipe up to access your apps (just like on any Android phone). There’s a bezel at the edge of the display you can also swipe (clockwise or anti-clockwise) to scroll through your tiles and menus. I’ve used physical rotating bezels before, and found that this on-screen version worked just as well - even with my chubby fingers.

Tracking my fitness

The sensor on the underside of the Watch5 does all the health-tracking heavy lifting. It detects the type of exercise you’re doing and automatically tracks it. I went out for a bike ride to test it out, and despite my ridiculously slow cycling speed (hate hills), it recorded my ride perfectly.

I also went for a jog round the park to try out my Strava app on the watch. A simple tap to start and finish, and my run was uploaded straight onto my activities dashboard. I usually have to mess about with my phone to do it all, so this was much more hassle-free.

You’ll need to download the Samsung Health app onto your phone if you want to take a deep dive into your fitness data. There’s a lot of stuff to look at, from daily steps and activities through to your heart rate and blood oxygen levels. It’s interesting stuff, but it would be great if the app had more context and information on the numbers. Instead, I found myself Googling ‘resting heart rate’ and ‘normal blood oxygen levels’ to reassure myself that I was in reasonably good health.

How do I sleep at night?

Sleep tracking is another interesting feature on the Watch5, and it also offers Sleep Coaching with personalised programs and advice. I know I’m a terrible sleeper, so I was nervously looking forward to trying this out.

After each night’s sleep, I checked out my snoozing stats in the Samsung Health app. It showed how long I slept in total, the amount of time I spent in various sleep stages, and my minimum blood oxygen levels.

I was also given a nightly sleep score that suggested I was a better sleeper than I thought. 62/100 on a typical night, compared with an average of 49/100 for my age. I’ll take that – apparently my sleep time, sleep cycles, movements and awakenings are all in the ‘good’ section!

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. The morning after a late Friday night horror movie marathon I got told off for not meeting my target bed-time, and was given the option of seeing more tips and information on my phone. Point taken – I’ll go to bed on time tonight.

Battery life and charging

The Watch5 has a 410 mAh battery, which is a decent leap from the Watch 4’s 316 mAh cell, and I was pleased with its battery life all week. After a day of normal use I usually went to bed with something like 45% left, so more than enough for a night of sleep tracking.

It also didn’t take long to charge. Samsung says the Watch5 can go from 0% to around 45% in just 30 minutes, and that seemed about right to me – in fact, I usually went beyond 50% in half an hour, and could fully charge the watch in about an hour.

Performance and summary

I’ve had a great time with the Watch5. Everything I tried has worked smoothly. Apps opened quickly, Samsung Pay worked without a hitch, Google Assistant answered my questions, and all the tracking seemed spot on.

The Watch5 shares a lot of specs with the older Watch4 (Exynos W920 chipset, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage) but there are a few definite upgrades, like better battery life, faster charging and that tougher glass design. I’m not sure If that’s enough for someone to upgrade from Watch4 or Watch5, but for almost anyone else looking for a new smartwatch, the Watch5 is definitely worth considering.

Need more help?

If you need more help choosing a wearable, we’ve got a handy article that explains the differences between fitness trackers and smartwatches. Our Smart fitness buying guide is another good shout, packed with advice to help you choose. Or if you’d prefer to speak to someone, you can video call one of our tech experts on ShopLive?