Samsung Watch5 Pro: The Early Review!

[@fitgearhunter]

Hahaha “a bit of a beefcake” - “boom I am in town” - we are cut from the same cloth! I would’ve said the same. Review was super helpful and informative. Awesome work as always

[@Dcrainmaker]

Haha...my first reaction when I took it out of the box as well!

[@maranr]

My last watch was a Galaxy Watch Active 2. I liked it apart from battery life but wanted the whole Garmin ecosystem. Love my 7s for all the training features but do miss some the great smart watch features. Also got fed up with Samsung taking features away and not being upfront about features coming to Canada. I'm all in on Garmin despite the price.

[@alexguild]

i'm still using the Active 2. They are still updating the software. For what i use it for i don't think i really "need" the upgrade but I'm always tempted =)

[@hk6926]

Was seriously waiting for this . Thank you so much .

[@Dcrainmaker]

Enjoy!!!

[@hk6926]

@@Dcrainmaker thank you I hope you make one video comparing venu 2 plus and this . Thinking to replace venu 2 plus but not sure should I do it or not . Love garmin metrics .

[@armandochevez1038]

Great overview. Sad to see the rotating bezel go away! I've had almost all the iterations of Samsung watches since their very first watches and have always been happy with them. Earlier this year I got an Epix 2 because finally Garmin implemented an OLED screen and now I love it to pieces, especially when I use it with GPS for activities and I still get a whole week without having to charge it! I got sick with COVID recently and was not able to work out for 3 weeks and I never had to charge once!, which is crazy! Is it way more expensive? Yes! But it is worth it to me. Now Garmin needs to implement a rotating bezel and it would be golden!

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yeah, the bezel has had a lot of history. Though, to be honest, with Wear OS, it's place in life was kinda less and less. Cheers!

[@johnny_rain3226]

@@Dcrainmaker But there are a lot of usefull applications that exploit the rotating bezel like this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGnJi5uPfJeCo9E That I'll be missing, so it's a deal breaker for me, though my wallet will be happy... Anyway excellent review.

[@romeob.8550]

@@Dcrainmaker It's not about it's place in life. It's about it's place in the factory. It's way cheaper and less complicated to produce something without a rotating bezel. So, in the end is just about the profits. Thank you for your video, it really made me appreciate my watch4 LTE so much more. 👌

[@paterpater100]

I think the removal of the bezel was necessary to make a more rugged watch. Less moving parts means less room for breaking and damage. Plus sand and dust could get stuck under the bezel. The bezel was very satisfying to use and nice when the watch was wet though! But I'll take the durability and the battery life.

[@romeob.8550]

@@paterpater100 I've been wearing a watch 4 LTE since it was available to buy. I had it on my wrist while digging holes, using drilling machines, working in rain and dirt and so on. Trust me, I had absolutely no problem. There is one big problem tho, while on LTE voice call it overheats and stops. That's the only problem with the watch 4. I wonder if watch 5 LTE has the same problem.

[@romanliebl1914]

Thanks for the first Impression and sensor analysis! I have to say, if they fix battery life for GPS, it's really something to consider. For a starting price of 469 you get a lot. It really shows a hole in the Garmin product line as well - there are only models at 800+ that have sapphire glas and Maps. If you want Amoled display as well you're at 999 listprice. For someone who is into outdoors but not a ultra runer, maybe not a bad choice.

[@toadlguy]

First, I am truly amazed that while most other YTers are basically just giving specs, you’ve already got an actual (albeit first look) review out. Second, is the lack of maps without the phone due to connectivity or are the maps stored on the phone (i.e., would the LTE version give you maps without the phone)?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks! Yeah, my having the product is purely a dumb-luck thing with a Dutch retailer putting it on their shelves. As for maps, hmm, that's an interesting question. I'll try it tomorrow on the phone in airplane mode.

[@sebastianirarrazabal6756]

The other guys have to wait until the embargo is lifted 🤣 this guy hacked the system

[@RoHan-83]

I read just today that full standalone maps mode is coming soon to maps on wearOS...didn't read the news properly, only the title tbh, but it just came into my mind when I read your question. So i guess if it's not there yet, it soon (™) will be.

[@toadlguy]

@@RoHan-83 I’m not sure they are using standard WearOS maps here, though.

[@tams805]

Next to all of them won't do any exercise more than a walk as well. Incredibly lazy!

[@Boussaty]

This is the first time I see your video, and I'm telling you, your content is very informative and interesting, thanks for sharing.

[@Seahawks1976]

And thanks for adding these traditional smart watches too it’s appreciated!

[@TT-kf3pk]

I ordered mine. They gave me 150 to trade in my watch 3. So 151$ total for the new size 44. I am happy

[@pruteanu6]

cannot wait your update on the battery life

[@inakilrg]

Is sports technology about to outpace Ray? I’m seriously impressed that you manage to review so many new devices

[@Dcrainmaker]

Hahaha…it’s about to get busy!

[@mlegrand]

⬆ So true! It's possible he's part robot 🤖

[@danielzb]

Thanks man. No one else does videos like this

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks man!!!

[@mayikx]

I will keep watching your channel looking to have a big picture of the battery life.

[@mclovinjwst]

Subscribed! This is the 3rd video on the watch I've been trying to find, and this one is outstanding.

[@jgames01]

Been dying for some objective, feature-focused coverage of Samsung's new watches. Thank you, I've definitely heard of your channel in the tech-o-sphere for a while now, but I didn't know the focus was on fitness and watches. I love it! Keep the coverage up. I look forward to your GW5 follow up videos!

[@internati0naled974]

I have the watch 4 and classic 4. I'm holding out, hoping they bring back the rotating bezel.

[@derx6666]

Still waiting for a Garmin Vivoactive 5. I just love the battery life of my VA4 vs the Samsung Watch I had before. Lasts me around 7 days, then charge it for less than 2 hours, and another 7 days of battery life. I don't really want to charge my watch every 2 days, so this one is a nogo for me.

[@lisar.8502]

The Garmin battery life is amazing compared to Samsung. My partner goes days without charging. I'd say unless the galaxy has something you just can't do without, stay with Garmin. I ordered a galaxy 5 but only because Samsung offers pretty slick trade in deals for their top end watches. I can tell you the battery life on the galaxy 4 classic was abysmal even after taking measures to reduce drain. It had to go on the charger every night and sometimes sooner if GPS was heavily used.

[@PatrickBarnaby-w9b]

The Rotating Bezel does work well. It's not ON by default so I first thought it didn't work and then I found the setting to turn ON and then it works very well.

[@faronanslow9606]

Wow, great overview. Exactly what a person in the GPS watch market needs for a quick overview of the key elements of the watch from the perspective of a fitness oriented use case. Nice work!

[@adyton]

This is the review that I've been waiting for! Thank you.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks!! No problem!

[@liquidalloy]

Another great video. I love your drone videos haha. After watching this, I will stick with my Watch 3. I have it now for 2 years, 45mm LTE version, works awesome and I love the rotating bezel.

[@markwalker2986]

I've still got my galaxy watch 46mm and happy to wait till its stops getting updates then I'll upgrade it.

[@ferkomatolcsi2003]

Outstanding review. Thanx a lot!

[@juanpablogonzalezs.v.8319]

Thaaanks great video format 🔥

[@TMan29]

The best explanation, thank you. Speaking specifically the body temp sensor

[@juanpablogonzalezs.v.8319]

U thank u for adding those time notes. I would have been a little disappointed since it didn't go from life to death. But I didn't have to wait for it I was just able to skip to that. And honestly I appreciate u valuing my time because I only cared about the battery life. And for the short time I enmeshed in this video the info u gave me was worth it. So that's why I liked and commented. Get u more of that intoraction

[@wellcan1]

Best review of watch5 so far 👌

[@meowlancer]

I own Active 2 also have GPX export options, man this is so useful

[@divinusfilius3771]

Make sure your Aura ring isn't close enough to interfere with the super sensitive compass in the watch. My Vuse vape that I smoke, the tiny magnet at the bottom that secures the vape for charging, can make my watch compass go nuts or move the "needle" with the tiny magnet at the bottom of my vape, from 10-15 inches away! It's sooo sensitive that magnetometer in the watches compass.

[@GauravMishra-kj4tg]

This is the review video I was looking for

[@Jones12ax7]

Even with a massive battery upgrade like this it's not even close to the Garmin units. Even the Epix 2 that has also oled display. Garmin does a great job on that.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yup, different things for different folks. For endurance and such, it’s quite different.

[@balajirajaram9512]

Doesn't matter whether it has oled or not. It's all about the software as wear os is a power demanding software while the Garmin OS is not that power demanding

[@DunkBoi]

@@balajirajaram9512 but yet the Garmin software does everything wear os does and even more in regards to fitness tracking. I went with a Garmin years ago and have no need to go back to something like wear os or even a Apple watch.

[@balajirajaram9512]

@@DunkBoi that's not right. I can't use Google assistant on garmin. I can't use gmaps on Garmin, I cant send a message when I get a notification and I know you can only send custom ones from Garmin and there are many things like this. It's more of a personal preference

[@DunkBoi]

@@balajirajaram9512 I can agree with that. But do I really need Google assistant on my wrist when I have it in my pocket? I had a Huawei watch running wear os and responding to text messages was nice and all the other "smart" features were cool but I realized that my phone does those things better and I needed my phone nearby for my watch to do those things anyway. But yes, all personal preference.

[@eltonsantos9855]

Thank You for the great review. Are you planning to have a review of the Galaxy Watch 6 soon?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Editing as we speak, up tomorrow!

[@theloneranger2101]

I'm a little late to your 1 Year review of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. As an owner myself of this Watch, you said at the beginning of your review, that the Compass on the original installed Watch faces wasn't accurate, and you demonstrated this by turning the Watch around and North was pointing in the opposite direction, well you're incorrect, because the Compass has to be Calibrated, this is done by holding the Watch up and moving the Watch around a few times in a figure of 8 formation, this will Calibrate the Compass, this needs to be done every time you need to use the Compass, and you will find it's very accurate, and I think I'm correct in saying that any Smartwatch with a Compass in the Watch face has to be Calibrated this way also. Hope this helps.👍🙂

[@Dcrainmaker]

If you have to calibrate a compass every time you use it, it’s garbage. No other watch requires this.

[@amircastilla07]

Nice video. Kudos from Belize.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks!!!

[@ChloeASMR91]

I have a question Can you use these watches for social media like facebook?

[@MartynMassop]

Will you be doing a review for the Watch 5 too? Eager to see how that stacks up with battery over similar tests.

[@xpr7424]

yea I pre ordered the regular and can't find vids of it

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yup, in some way. TBD on exactly what my plan is there. But I do have a 40mm Watch5, and headed to pickup a 44mm Watch5 here shortly.

[@MartynMassop]

Amazing! Would be great to see a comparison between the two as I'm undecided which one to pick up coming from an OG Galaxy Watch as I'm part of the small wrist gang, so eager to see how they fare against each other battery wise.

[@zckom]

For the compass, it has to be on your wrist to be accurate because you can change the orientation of the watch if you are a lefty.

[@Dcrainmaker]

A compass shouldn't need to be on a wrist to be accurate. I've never heard or seen that from any other watch or compass company in the entire industry.

[@CigarSurgeon]

My questions, since there seems to bunch of confusion based on marketing terminology on Samsung's website: What features are restricted when pairing to a non-Samsung phone. In the past it was just BP and ECG, but language on the website seems to indicate that advanced sleep tracking and HR monitoring is now limited.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Interesting, I'll have to dig into the Sleep Tracking/HR bits.

[@CigarSurgeon]

@@Dcrainmaker much appreciated, I know there's a ton of doubt and confusion on Reddit

[@stuffgps]

@@Dcrainmaker Appreciate anything on the ECG, BP, Variable Heart Rate (is that really available now, without some added application) for the Samsung Health/Fitness Smartwatch, what of the recovery estimation...? You know, how would it compare to Whoop, Oura, Garmin recovery estimation...

[@badgerboyEA]

A massive benefit over Garmin will be the ability to get the LTE version and safely run without your phone at all. That means being able to call for help and actually talk to the person you call. Garmin's LTE and call features are such gimmicks since you need to have your phone on you and it will still only send pre determined messages.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Garmin’s FR945 LTE doesn’t require a phone. But I do agree more generally.

[@badgerboyEA]

@@Dcrainmaker That's true - that watch can send pre-determined messages in an emergency without your phone. But I was surprised to read that even with LTE, the FR945 can't do custom texts, calls, or voice functionality. I can think of many times where I'd want to communicate with my family while running without scaring them with Garmin's SOS message. I'm looking forward to the day when we get a combo of Garmin's HR and GPS sensors and really functional LTE.

[@rohitfrancis]

Great review as always 🙏🙏. Although It stands no chance in front of garmin's latest wearable especially if your HR sensor & GPS accuracy is a big bummer...

[@afd1040]

I love the watch sun burn

[@Dcrainmaker]

🤣🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

[@afd1040]

@@Dcrainmaker It shows that you put in the work.

[@teamasprec9167]

which do you thin is better garmin venu 2 plus or this galaxy watch 5

[@adithyayuri]

Amazing video as always :-)

[@dodgeis4me]

i would like to see a size comparison to the Garmin

[@WoodakaDiddy]

Thanks for the review

[@Dcrainmaker]

No problem 👍

[@mswwalker12345]

Straight up honest question - between this or the Garmin Venu2, what gets your vote? Outside the LTE availability I'm leaning Garmin

[@Igalsr]

I wish Samsung and Suunto would have made a co-operation, they could make great WearOS sports watch together.

[@Dcrainmaker]

I agree, that would be a super logical acquisition/partnership.

[@harrysmiles]

Great early review. I don't know if you've done it before but it would be really interesting there was a full comparison video of the different wrist hr sensors.

[@JonathanWilcox71]

Awesome I love mine!

[@DB-lo9jp]

How did you just pick up the watch already?

[@rahyan.]

This is a true tech review !!

[@AlfuhPAD]

Definitely is still a smartwatch with some casual fitness ability. I'm deep in samsung ecosystem (phone, tab, buds) so I tried the GW4 on debut. Oof. Was great for casual wellness tracking and fell wayshort on any serious fitness tracking and was horrid with battery. Sold it quickly and got back to Garmin.

[@davidgould4870]

Ditto!

[@vonwerderc]

Which Garmin did you switch to? I've been using Amazfit for a while for the battery life, but I feel like it's just not really good at anything except lasting 3+ weeks

[@AlfuhPAD]

@Cole von Werder I went all out with Epix 2. I had traditionally used Forerunner line, but the capability and OLED screen was impossible to resist. Loving it

[@wakeles]

I hope garmin did something to solve the burning in their oled screens. My venu is completely burnt, sad to say. Happy with it but garmin should have fixed that

[@tams805]

A lot of that poor battery life is due to WearOS which is still a turgid mess.

[@shaileshupadhyay1699]

Love your review, would you do a review on amazefit trex 2

[@grahambaldwinson130]

Please help I have the only plan 1gb per month is this long enough for cycling routes with the plan 02

[@MichelBiedermann]

Outstanding review as always! - How well does the interface work with rubbing wet fingers across the watch interface like coming out of the water or with sweaty hands?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Not super well thus far.

[@robertoamill2821]

Brother, I just bought this watch on Amazon with No description, or instructions..please help me with a video how 2 use this ,if it is a watch or just a work out watch.

[@RoyTravels]

Whetes the body temperature check

[@Dcrainmaker]

It's not enabled yet (anywhere). And once enabled, it's only during sleep.

[@a2roland]

Awesome! Thank You!

[@RosenIvanovPetkov]

Great review

[@goodboy4464]

Hello, Can we see images in this watch?

[@totallynotuselessfacts]

Mom bought it for my birthday from ebay got a $60 e gift cart too it's coming on the 26... I keep the e card and pay $427.5 back which I'll have enough right when I get it

[@stiglilleaas5685]

Hi, brilliant as always .... I've read somewhere that later on this year the 5Pro will be able to navigate trough map without having the cellphone present, have you heard something about that .... and which training watch is capable of doing so today ... it is so nice to stop and glance at the map and fing out shooot that was the wrong way ! Take care. Best regards from Stig ( Norway )

[@lostgleammedia]

So if you fall over North will be a bit off for a bit or until the screen comes back on

[@coolprags]

Can we access Google maps on the watch for navigation

[@peterward8574]

I had the watch classic 4 and it was a nice watch but the battery life was terrible and the heat rate sensor was a joke. Constantly dropping out even when just going for a walk so interesting to see the heart rate centre actually working on the 5. Will be interested to see your comprehensive review. I like the fact that it's titanium and sapphire.

[@lisar.8502]

I was really excited for the 4 classic. Took me back to the feel of my gear sport which I still have. As you have said, the battery life on the 4 is terrible and the single reason I have ordered the 5. I mean I ran that thing on battery saver, minimal brightness, basic watch face and other ways to max battery life and it still sucks. I could barely make a day. It even excessively drained just sitting on the desk. I'll miss the rotating bezel though.

[@falconsh92]

I'm curious if Samsung fixed the LTE problem. My watch 4 LTE overheated constantly with a bad conection. So I returned it. Realy looking forwart to this one.

[@JosePerez-pe9cb]

I want to know about the new Samsung Galaxy note 23 when is going to be released

[@alancampbell6236]

As a Fenix‐user since 9 years your review shows that Samsung developers have no clue of endurance sports!🤔

[@Dcrainmaker]

There are certainly people (developers) there that very much understand endurance sports. However, getting management buy-off to take that direction isn’t happening.

[@veryboringname.]

201k views in 5 days for a Samsung device! That's gotta be unprecedented. You've gotta tell us the story about the store that let you pick it up early one day!

[@bumkyukim9950]

Even the mechanical compass take time to find the direction when you rotate fast

[@Dcrainmaker]

True, except mechanical compasses don’t get stuck in the wrong direction, like this did (and continues to do).

[@thorhampuswallin5942]

Im a bit confused. So why would you buy a forerunner over this? Thinking about a 255 or a class above that

[@johnterdik4707]

I'd be very interested in your findings regarding the SOS and fall detection. I was able to get the SOS to work only one time and never got the fall detection to work. I have spoken to Samsung tech support at least 100 hours, still the issue remains. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or it's the watch.

[@e9byaya]

Was it navigating with Saved ROutes Operates google maps? In korea, google maps doesn't well operates 😥

[@rock962000]

The thickness increase is understandable being that it has a bigger battery. Not quite sure it's worth the upgrade from the Watch 4

[@zachrhonheimer2787]

Does the new charger work with the older Galaxy Watch 4 and if so does it have any impact on charging speed?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Hmm..good test, I'll try it tomorrow. Didn't bring the Watch4 home from the office.

[@zachrhonheimer2787]

@@Dcrainmaker Were you able to test this out?

[@3adel2222]

Thank you for the review, it's actually kinda changed my mind. Anyway, a question, why did you chose the black color over the gray?

[@Dcrainmaker]

It was simply available sooner. I’d have chosen grey otherwise.

[@markymoo22]

I have the Active 2 and looking to upgrade. I like the battery on this, however, it looks so much bigger and pretruding? Maybe I should stick another year??

[@landonjones5080]

Are you going to do a test of the base Galaxy Watch 5?

[@cszulu2000]

How does it compare to garmin Fenix? Can you use it on apple as well?

[@davehumphries]

:( i hope the physical rotating bezel returns in a future model

[@tomsheinman1383]

Can you give more insight on the battery life?

[@kfiatos]

@DC Rainmaker could you try charging Watch 4 with the Watch 5 charger and check if it charges Watch 4 quicker?

[@ivankytkov9924]

The most interesting thing is that where I bought the watch, the actual depth was indicated on it. xD

[@guicao]

tks..great video

[@mr_red13]

How is the vibration vs the Active 2? I need a watch that will wake me up

[@HughesyTech]

How much of the features are locked to Samsung phones only as well?

[@ameetp14]

Please tell me that nest camera videos come thru like iwatch.

[@mlegrand]

Wow, nice work making that Apple watch fail. It's done so well for me. Although I don't have tall buildings to test watches. Just tall trees 🌲 Great video as always Ray!

[@Dcrainmaker]

Haha...I've never managed to do that before. I was literally dumbounded when I saw that maps. They have such high levels of post-procesing/smoothing, that this specific type of failure must be a clear WatchOS9 introduced beta bug.

[@mlegrand]

@@Dcrainmaker - Maybe. I've been testing OS9 and I've been seeing some issues. For some reason it thinks I'm swimming 1450 meters of breast stroke on every swim. I assure you Apple. I am not. 😬

[@AsianChexMix]

As someone who was using this as an every day driver with occasionally using these features, do you think it's worth the $70 upgrade?

[@nfsdanz]

Your mainly paying for the extra battery life. Depends how much that means to you really.

[@mehshutup3041]

@@nfsdanz dont forget the sapphire display. That alone is an upgrade on its own

[@CorsaGarageJustin]

@@nfsdanz Also the titanium case is a nice high end metal that's durable and light.

[@JLP4444]

A key feature missing from the Watch 4 was the ability to choose "Always On" display during a workout--with the bigger batteries, have they added that back?

[@SimplyJ888]

Do you know if the sensor covers of the new Active 5 watches are glued on like they have been on past Samsung watches? The cover of my old Active 2 watch fell off almost exactly 3 years to the day I bought it

[@przp5800]

great review as usual , does it show coordinates data ?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Not within the watch itself, that I can see.

[@dodoyaman8411]

I wonder if i charge my watch 4 with the watch 5 charger is it possible faster charge or not guys? Thx 4 the answer

[@Poeticnotes]

Nice video. Thank you. But no one ever does a review on how an LTE version works on the networks and the phones. How they work as a standalone device when paired with a phone. Thinks of that nature. All the feature a watch may have is great but useless if it doesn’t play well with your phone which it’s meant to be an extension of.

[@djtaylorutube]

Agreed but give them time. I bought the Watch 4 LTE only to find it's a huge disappoint with LTE. Low signal and the watch overheats and drains the battery in a matter of hours. Samsung response was that it's a network problem. Do they seriously expect the service provider to pop a new cell station next to me every time the signal is poor?! Then there's the issue of HOW the watch shares the number. Unless I'm mistaken, after having set up all the settings for remote connection, the watch now tries to route VoIP over LTE back to the remote phone. What's the point of that?! I want to use the watch when the phone is unavailable/flat battery/off etc. Not when the phone has to be on and reachable.

[@rjl2001]

I had same overheating problems on both GW4 LTE watches I had. My original GW LTE and the GW3 LTE I'm using now almost never overheat. Hopefully the GW5 LTE doesn't have the problem of GW4 LTE, though I'm still disappointed in lack of rotating bezel.

[@djtaylorutube]

@@rjl2001 Tell me, assuming that you have the watch and phone set to allow remote control (call using phone), if you turn the phone off, can you still use the watch for an LTE call? I'm presuming NOT. This for me was also a deal breaker as that entirely defeats any sensible purpose in my mind. I don't want LTE to just be what is in effect a range extender for what can be done via Bluetooth. Similarly, I was also disappointed to find that MapMyRide decided that it had no data connection, the moment the phone was out of range.

[@petermilian4455]

Is Heart Rate tracking accuracy improved over Galaxy Watch 4 series?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Seems to be. Check out the accuracy section in the video.

[@nathanielalcantara]

Thanks for the honest review of Samsung GW5, I think I should skip this generation 😅

[@HughesyTech]

Is the GFX workout and routing similar to what Suunto 7 had 👀

[@jasong3985]

Does this need a Samsung phone for the ecg features?

[@alwaysmi]

Thanks for your thorough product tests, it REALLY helps... One thing though, you didn't demonstrate the use of the "bezel". It's the most popular feature of prev GWatches, but is the raised ring capacitative, or just a non-functioning protective lip?...👍

[@Dcrainmaker]

There's no movement anymore on the bezel, it's gone now. So basically, it's just the edge is capacitive and it 'feels' you going around (as shown). Same as the other non-Classic watches for a few years now.

[@Wind_slash0]

Capacitive touch and they want 500 with no trades? Pass

[@Dave-lr2wo]

Orange, magenta, lime, and blue would be easier to see on the HR comparison chart. Thanks. FFA700 orange FF00A6 hot pink/magenta B6FF00 lime 0358FF blue