Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 vs. Galaxy Watch 3: A new champion?

Samsung is well known for its gorgeous Super AMOLED panels and the Galaxy Watch series is no exception. There has been a slight upgrade in resolution in the new Galaxy Watch 4, compared to its predecessor. As far as display size is concerned, the Watch 4 more or less mimics the display size of the Watch 3 in both its variants.

Samsung has bumped the resolution on the bigger 1.4-inch display in order to offer a uniform pixel-per-inch number (330 PPI) between both the 40mm and 44mm versions of the Galaxy Watch 4. The Galaxy Watch 3 offers 19 pre-installed watch faces with another 50,000+ waiting in the cloud, and you should expect even better customizability with Wear OS and One UI on the Galaxy Watch 4. The latter comes with 40 pre-installed watch faces to begin with.

At long last, the dual-core Exynos 9110 silicon powering the Galaxy Watch, Watch Active, Watch Active 2, and Watch 3 from 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively has been replaced with the brand-new Exynos W920 chip inside the Galaxy Watch 4. The new SoC is made using a 5nm manufacturing process and brings 20% faster processing times and smoother graphics performance compared to the Watch 3.

The memory configuration has also been upgraded significantly. The new Galaxy Watch 4 doubles the internal memory of the Watch 3. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are coming with the insane for that type of wearable 16GB of storage memory. The onboard RAM has also been increased by 50% and now the Watch 4 Series has 1.5GB of random access memory. The new Exynos W920 chipset also features an integrated LTE modem, so the Galaxy Watch 4 matches its predecessor on connectivity options. 

All these hardware upgrades are not just Samsung showing muscles, they serve a purpose. And it's called Wear OS! The operating system requires lots of power and this is the main reason we won't see the Watch 3 upgrade to Wear OS 3.0 happening... at all. Samsung has put a lot of effort in jointly developing the One UI Watch interface with Google and the Wear OS platform underneath.

The Tizen OS found in the Galaxy Watch 3 is pretty powerful but it's nowhere near the potential that Wear OS has. The Galaxy Watch 4 is a clear winner in this department - you can use native Google apps like Google Maps autonomously on the watch, enjoy an ever-growing number of third-party apps, use gesture controls, seamlessly sync all your settings. Compatible apps are automatically installed on the Watch 4 when it detects them on your phone. 

It's the future of wearable user experience and probably the only way Samsung can catch up with what Apple is doing with the Apple Watch.

All the sensors that are present on the Galaxy Watch 3 can be found on the Watch 4 as well, with the addition of the aforementioned bioelectrical impedance sensor. It's another clear win for the Galaxy Watch 4, it offers 95 supported workouts, 13 of which are on the watch by default, and you can also connect the Watch 4 to a Samsung TV to see all your metrics on a big screen during your daily yoga session or weight training routine.

Sleep tracking has also been improved on the Galaxy Watch 4 with continuous blood oxygen saturation monitoring, and snoring detection. And while some these features can also be found on the Galaxy Watch 3, if you want the deepest dive into your body machinery and inner processes, the Watch 4 is the way to go.

Galaxy Watch 4 vs Galaxy Watch 3: Battery life

The battery capacity is pretty much identical on the smaller variants - 247mAh. It's really hard to judge the battery life at this point and we'll need more tests to see how the Galaxy Watch 4 performs with the new chipset and software. The Galaxy Watch 3 can last a whole day of heavy usage, and probably two to three days if you don't push it as much. Given the higher display resolution of the Watch 4, coupled with the aforementioned powerful chipset and new features, you shouldn't expect miracles from its battery life. 

The bigger, 44mm variant of the Galaxy Watch 4 bumps up the battery capacity compared to its 45mm predecessor by 20mAh. It's not much but if you want the best battery life, you should get the 44mm version. Both the Galaxy Watch 3 and Watch 4 support wireless charging, and also reverse charging. Samsung says you can get up to 40 hours on a single charge with the Galaxy Watch 4, and we need to test this claim but all in all, the battery life should be pretty similar between the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 3.

Comparing the prices of both models may be a bit unfair, given that the real competitor of the Galaxy Watch 3 is the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Nevertheless, Samsung has managed to slap on a competitive price on the Galaxy Watch 4 and it sure is the better option here. At launch, the 40mm variant will be available in Black, Silver and Pink Gold, while the 44mm variant will be offered in Black, Silver and a sophisticated Green.