The closer we get to the next Galaxy Unpacked event, the more I feel like my smartwatch is becoming less attractive. My Galaxy Watch 5's appeal is waning, and not because I'm anticipating Samsung to unveil a new smartwatch series at Unpacked but because I love the idea of the Galaxy Ring more every day while the realities of wearing a smartwatch are becoming harder to ignore.
Truth time. I've been using the Galaxy Watch 5 for about a year now, and I like all the new health, fitness, and sleep-related features it offers — features smartphones lack. I wear it because I like its functions, but here's the kicker: I dislike actively using the smartwatch in the true sense of the word.
The Galaxy Watch UI feels sluggish compared to my phone. The UI seems poorly optimized for the circular display. The simple act of touching tiny UI elements on the small circular screen to navigate the Watch has become tiresome. And the Watch 5 has started waking me up in the morning for no good reason.
After about a year of using my Galaxy Watch 5, I am now only wearing it for occasional fitness tracking and to tell the time when I'm leaving home. However, I don't use it as much as I used to, and I don't rely on the tiny screen to check my Samsung Health stats. I prefer viewing those statistics on the much more detailed and comfortable Samsung Health mobile app on my Galaxy S24+.
Galaxy Ring can't come soon enough
With the Galaxy Ring sparking my imagination, I realized that I don't want a smartwatch as much as I wish I had a minimalist solution to health and fitness tracking. A solution that could relay complete data to my smartphone and the full-fledged Samsung Health app.
At the moment, a Galaxy Watch is the best way to do that, as fitness bands aren't as accurate or complete as smartwatches. But once the Galaxy Ring comes along, it might turn out to be what I'm missing, i.e., a way to keep track of my health and fitness through the Health app on my phone instead of using another device with a screen. And without having to worry about battery life for yet another device that can't hold a charge for more than two days.
The Galaxy Ring isn't even out yet, and I'm already using the Galaxy Watch less every day. I keep forgetting to wear it because the wristband buckle gets in the way when I use my laptop. But I also no longer wear it as much as I used to for sleep tracking because the sensor lights have gone haywire.
What I dislike about my smartwatch:
- Wear OS and One UI Watch feel slow and choppy — from navigating the UI to answering calls and controlling media. Mediocre performance levels got annoying after a while.
- I've started ignoring many features that seemed cool at first but slowly became inconvenient and gimmicky due to performance, stability, and optimization issues.
- The UI is not optimized for the circular screen. And switching from One UI on a phone to One UI Watch leaves a sour taste and feels like I went back in time 10 years — and not in a good way.
- The UI often looks childish. And the smartwatch can look toyish.
- The wrist strap buckle gets in my way when using a laptop.
- Battery life is not bad, but not good enough for me to charge and forget about it for more than a day and a half. Yet another battery-powered device to worry about.
- Navigating Samsung Health features directly on the smartwatch is mostly a pointless gimmick when you have a much more functional Health app on your phone.
- Trying to use the Watch as a TV remote is a painful experience filled with stutters and delays.
- Even in Night Mode, the Watch keeps firing up all sensor lights on all cylinders in the early morning, often waking me up.
What I like about my smartwatch:
- It tracks health, fitness, and sleep data relatively accurately and relays it to my Health app.
Why I'd like to swap my Watch 5 for a Ring:
- In terms of Samsung Health, the Galaxy Ring should do everything my Watch 5 does, and more, without all the gimmicky features and the almost-useless screen.
- A simple design. A fitness tracker I can wear without worrying that I'll scratch my laptop when I rest my wrist on it as I type.
- One less reason to worry about battery life every 1-2 days.
- It doesn't add another slow and unresponsive touchscreen to my life.
- I can wear a stylish regular watch and continue to track my health and fitness.
To be fair, I would have never criticized the Galaxy Watch 5 as much if I didn't have an alternative. But soon, I will, and if it's as good as it looks, it might spell the end of smartwatches for me.
I loved my Galaxy Watch 5 until Samsung announced that the Galaxy Ring was on its way. Now, I can't wait to get rid of the smartwatch and replace it with what I think will be a superiorly-designed fitness and health tracker that doesn't get in your way. I'll happily trade my Galaxy Watch 5 for a Ring if the latter is as good as it sounds.
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