The Galaxy Watch Active is a pretty solid piece of wearable equipment, bringing together the best of the smartwatch and fitness band worlds, but obviously, it's not for everyone. Not when Samsung still sells the crazy popular Gear S3, not to mention the "regular" Galaxy Watch that barely saw daylight last year.
Apart from a significantly lower price than the $330 and up Galaxy Watch, a key selling point for the $200 Watch Active is a newer interface designed to align with the latest Android skin running on Samsung's high-end smartphones. But according to multiple Reddit threads, One UI is making its way over-the-air to several older smartwatches as we speak, from the Galaxy Watch to the Gear S3 and Gear Sport.
The goodie pack seems to be noticeably lighter than the Tizen 4.0 update delivered to the Gear S3 a few months back, at around 115MB, nonetheless containing a long list of cosmetic revisions and improvements of various features. You're looking at everything from battery life optimization to new watch faces, the ability to check information on your watch at a quick glance, refreshed settings menus for "easier discovery", a couple of Quick panel enhancements, and perhaps most notably for fitness enthusiasts, a Health app upgrade showing more in-depth daily activity stats.
While software tweaks of this nature are unlikely to help Samsung better compete against the global leader of the smartwatch market, it's pretty darn impressive that 2016's Gear S3 continues to receive the same level of support as 2018 and 2019 wearable devices. If only this was the case for the company's smartphones as well.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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