The Galaxy Watch 4 starts at Rs 23,999. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
Despite a late start, Apple has single-handedly turned the smartwatch market around from being an enthusiast-only category once, to a must-have that it has come to become today. Its showstopper product, the Apple Watch, however, comes with one major caveat. It only works with the iPhone. In other words, you can’t pair it with ‘any’ Android phone.
This leaves a big chunk of smartphone users with ‘alternatives’ and though, that number is pretty substantial and growing—which is to say, there are many options—none comes close to giving you the kind of cohesive one-stop-shop experience an Apple Watch can. This has led to a general perception that ‘other’ smartwatches are—just—bad.
Also Read | Watch out! Google and Samsung are joining hands to take on Apple
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 series wants to change that status quo. There were never any big red flags with the Galaxy Watch/Gear hardware. Their Tizen software, also, has stood the test of time well enough but it was always lacking on third-party app support—an area where the Apple Watch is just hands-down better. The situation hasn’t got any better with time.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 software
The Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are, in a way, a formal acknowledgment of this as Samsung has finally dropped Tizen and instead, joined hands with Google to bring ‘Wear OS’ to these smartwatches. That entails many things but the most significant update is native support for Google Play Store which means you can download and install many more apps—those you’d probably use—on these smartwatches. YouTube Music is one. Google Maps is another. The list is long. Many more, like Google Assistant, should be added in due course of time.
Not only have these apps been redesigned from ground-up, they’re also optimised better.
The Galaxy Watch 4 comes with Google Play Store. (Photo credit: Saurabh Singh/Financial Express)
That said, there’s more to Wear OS—this is version 3.0—on these smartwatches than what meets the eye. The Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are still ‘Samsung’ watches both aesthetically speaking and in the way they work. No wonder it’s called ‘Wear OS Powered by Samsung’ on the official website while on the watch(es) itself, it’s described as ‘One UI Watch.’ If anything, the software here pulls you even deeper inside Samsung’s ecosystem and then, it locks you in.
<…….