Uh-oh, a shopping accident

As regular readers might recall, I bought my first smart watch just over three years back. All other things being equal, I was hoping to get another three years out of it at least, but sadly, it has a flaw. The charging dock has three little retractable pins sticking out of it, and these must engage with contacts on the back of the watch. It has now reached the stage where even with lots of licking to make a better contact, and fiddling with the dock, it doesn't charge properly one night in three. And that's just not good enough for something I rely on to get me to my meetings on time at work.

So, an excuse to see what's been improved in this area since 2016. A spot of browsing suggested that Samsung's Galaxy Watch is the one to go for if, like me:

  • You don't care about fitness tracking features (if you do, buy a FitBit)
  • You don't own an iPhone, or indeed anything made by Apple (if you do, buy their Watch)

A downside that I could spot even before looking at one is that it's Yet Another Fragmented Ecosystem (it's not Android, it's Samsung's own thing, with Samsung's Own Payment Thing which is less widely supported than Google Pay...).

Still, I had a play with one and I was impressed. You can rotate the bezel to flip between screens and scroll, which makes it much more usable (for example) when wearing gloves. It's an idea I never knew I wanted until I tried it.

There are two variants, 42mm and 46mm. 42mm is the same as my old Huawei Watch; the bigger one felt like having a saucer strapped to my arm so I gave it a miss.

You'll have gathered by this point that the sight of the thing was too much for me, and I ended up buying it. (Incidentally, I found it cheaper on the high street than online!)

So far, I'm well chuffed. The alleged four day battery life is obviously with the screen in auto-off mode; as far as I'm concerned, a watch which I have to wake up before it tells me the time is a deal-breaker, so I have it in always-on mode and it lasts around 36 hours of heavy usage (or so I extrapolate).

Unlike its predecessor, the charging dock is completely wireless, so it shouldn't fail mechanically in a few years. It does lose a point for having an LED on it, which I don't like on any device I keep next to my bed.

Samsung Pay works quite well, and is sometimes more convenient than getting out a card/my phone. It works especially well on the London Underground, but only because I'm left handed and thus wear my watch on my right arm.

I also managed to find a watch face app which shows a nice compact view of upcoming calendar events (this was a bit of an unending quest for the old one - several came close, but misbehaved over time). And finally, it has not only a microphone but a speaker, meaning you can actually make and take phone calls on it, and wander around shouting at your wrist like you're in Star Trek. The quality isn't great, but it's passable!

This one, though, is going to have to last nine years to get my average back up...