Just days before the Galaxy Note 10 is set to launch, Samsung on Monday unveiled its brand new wearable, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2. Looks like leaks outed early last month were reliable.
That mouthful, Samsung believes, is your “ultimate lifestyle and wellness companion” that “combines a sleed design with cutting-edge wearable technology”.
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The watch itself comes in 40mm and 44mm size options, with an aluminium body and “Fluoroelastomer Band”, or stainless steel body and leather strap.
If you’re after Instagram likes, Samsung’s My Style feature lets you take a picture of your outfit, that your watch face will match. It’s quirky, but does add to its novelty.
Both however feature the same functionality, including a rotating bezel that now turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. OneUI now also features on the Watch Active 2’s Tizen-based OS, and should follow the same design cues used on Samsung’s Android smartphones.
LTE, a super spiffy bezel and the ability to match your outfit are among the Watch Active 2’s big improvements
But the biggest drawcard of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 isn’t it’s long name or its ability to match your shirt, but its connectivity potential.
The watch has LTE support, allowing users to place and take calls from the watch itself. And because smartwatches no longer stop you from checking social media, you can also browse social from the face itself.
Internally, the watch runs on Samsung’s Exynos 9110 dual-core chipset, but there are two options for RAM and storage. The LTE version comes with 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The lesser version features 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.
Besides LTE, the Watch Active 2 supports Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and strangely only up to WiFi 802.11 n.
There’s an electrocardiogram, an eight-diode heart-rate monitor, barometer, accelerometer and gyroscope, for those of you who love reading the names of sensors. But in terms of health tracking, it now allows the Watch Active 2 to track 39 workout types, with seven initiated automatically by the watch. There’s now an updated running coach too, with “even different running programs”.
In addition to running, the watch can also track “stress” levels and provide breathing exercises to users. This is similar to what Fitbit and Huawei currently offer on their wearables.
Above: The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2’s colour variants in the Stainless Steel 44mm guise
“You can even travel across the globe with greater confidence, as Galaxy Watch Active2 now supports convenient real-time voice and text translation in over 16 languages,” Samsung adds in its release.
And if you go swimming in Spain, or cliff diving in Portugal, the watch features IP68 water and dust resistant, and the military durability spec of MIL-STD-810G.
The watch’s price wasn’t made available by Samsung, but expect more information on the local debut of the Watch Active 2 to be made at Samsung’s local Note 10 launch in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Feature image: The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2’s colour variants in the Aluminium 40mm guise, by Samsung
