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is it worth buying a Samsung watch active 2 LTE in 2023?
Galaxy Watch Active 2 (44m) vs Galaxy Watch 5 (40mm)
The battery on the watch 5 40mm won't be significantly better than the watch 4. Maybe 4-5 hours of real world usage.
More on reddit.comPace 2 vs Samsung Active Watch 2
Help me justify an upgrade from the Galaxy watch active2 to the Galaxy watch 6
I am currently using mi band 5. I do not require much from the watch. I would like to have a tracking of the number of steps and how many kilometers I walked. I am also interested in options such as heart rate, tracking my sleep or the ability to reply to an SMS without a phone. I heard that system updates will end this year, I won't be installing any apps on this watch too much. Is it worth buying this model of this watch, or can you choose something else?
Looking for some advice on which one is better for me. For comparison the Active 2 is $90 whereas the Galaxy 5 is about $220. Galaxy 4 (40mm) is the same price as the Active 2 but I know the battery life is horrible on that so I'm not real keen on it. The Galaxy 4 44mm version is pretty close to the Galaxy 5 in price so I might as well get the latter anyway. Also the massive bricking update makes me wary of getting this. My priorities:
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Health Tracking - I currently use my Honor Band 5 for this but I also wear a regular watch on the other wrist because flicking my wrist to see the time on the morning commute is fucking ass, so yeah if I could combine both functions that'd be great.
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Battery Life - Preferably can last two days with AOD on. I intend to use it as a watch first and foremost. Flicking is annoying for me as a long time smart band user because sometimes it doesn't work the first time around. Gets more annoying when people ask for the time and I'm flapping my wrist around like a spaz because the screen won't turn on.
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Notifications - Same as the above for HB5. Would like to be able to see what comes in without taking my phone out.
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Apps - Don't really give a shit about unless there's something spectacular out there that I don't know about. Music would be paired via Bluetooth earbuds to my phone while jogging anyway and I don't use Spotify. I'm one of those guys that download everything if you know what I mean. Unless there's some amazing apps out there?
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AOD Watch Faces - I can't really find much on AOD watch faces out there, are WearOS designs that much better than TizenOS? I'm looking for sexy designs for every occasion but I can't find much info on what they look like. Digital for daily use but the more formal classic watch faces for more serious occasions. Also is the latter still being updated?
I used to use a Huawei which worked really well with my Honor Band 5 but I got a Samsung recently and I'm extremely reluctant to sideload their Huawei Health app on my new main phone considering all the privacy concerns with China. I'm using Samsung Health on my phone now to track my cardio exercises but more data sources would be nice to make it more accurate. I noticed even Huawei Health isn't totally accurate even with two data sources (phone & smartband). Distance is about 5% off of what Samsung Health reports with just the phone alone.
The battery on the watch 5 40mm won't be significantly better than the watch 4. Maybe 4-5 hours of real world usage.
Galaxy 4 (40mm) is the same price as the Active 2 but I know the battery life is horrible on that so I'm not real keen on it.
I've only seen horrible battery life on the 40mm with LTE, and you just go into settings and set it to 3G only. The problem seems to stem from the watch trying over and over to get an LTE signal. First I got about 12 hours (AOD on, heart constant, stress constant monitor, wifi, bt, and lte) and just setting it to 3G only easily gives me 30 hours now. And I work this thing like it owes me rent, because it's talking to my Dexcom CGM and displaying blood sugar too.
So personally I'd hop on eBay and grab a 4 LTE, they're a whopping $69 buy it now. One seller has buckets of them, I bought two more for people I know. They're listed as "C" grade but it's a couple scuffs any used watch would have, came with new charger and band.