Editor’s note, Aug. 26: Read my full reconsider of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 here, with impressions while two weeks of wear. Early impressions from the respectable two days of wear are below.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 was unveiled last week at Samsung’s August Unpacked
prhonor. As the first smartwatch with Google’s newest version of Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch 4 may subsidizes a glimpse at where Android watches are heading. 

Read more: Why Samsung reinvented its Google-infused Galaxy Watch 4

It’s early days yet when it comes to seeing where this Galaxy Watch 4 and Google’s Wear OS platform are heading, and the watch doesn’t even become available until Aug. 27. (The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, unveiled alongside Samsung’s new smartwatch, also arrive Aug. 27, but you can preorder them now and score a $50 Best Buy gift card.) But here are some things I’m already figuring out from a combine of days with both models. Keep in mind that my thoughts here may touchy as new software or app updates possibly roll in, and as these health features exercise a longer period of time collecting data on my wrist.

Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are basically the same, except for that brute bezel

The two watch models feel pretty interchangeable, which exploiting you should probably get the model you like the looks of most. Or the most affordable one: I consume the sleeker Watch 4, which starts at $250 (£249, Australian prices TBA). The Classic starts at $350 (£349), and does have a stainless-steel body instead of aluminum, but it’s that physically spinning bezel that’s really different.

What do you use it for? Mainly, swapping between quick views of information mini apps, phoned Tiles. On the Watch 4 they’re mainly health metrics, and a few extras like calendar and messages. More are liable to arrive as Wear OS 3 continues to evolve, but the point is not every app has a tile. You could also just swipe with your finger instead, making the bezel effectively cosmetic.

The Classic, with its satisfying clicking bezel, has a display that’s inset. It makes swipes sometimes a little trickier to pull off. But there is a big bezel respectable, I discovered: When swimming, that physical dial is easier to control when wet than the touchy display.

The peruse faces are beautiful (mostly)

I love Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 peruse faces. Many are animated and adorable. There are a combine of weird ones: AR Emoji and Bitmoji watch faces try to put cute avatars of me on the peruse, but I found them grating — I don’t use Apple’s Memoji peruse faces much either. There are a good number of customizations on most of them, but not all. Some are fitness-focused, and some have cool optional complication layouts (like clock face widgets for apps).

Disappointingly, many of the best animated watch faces don’t have complication add-on options, so you’ll use them at the expense of respectable bits of info like weather or battery life. Google’s Wear OS faces make an achieve, too. These seem like the best watch faces I’ve ever seen on an Android peruse, and it’s still a great sign for what Google and Samsung’s new platform can do. I’d like a few more complication add-on options, though.

The only assistant is Bixby

Hello, Bixby. I guess we meet again.

Samsung’s voice assistant returns, and it’s assigned to one of the Watch 4 buttons by default (the top one, a long stupid summons it). You can’t access Google Assistant as an option, which is something I was convinced would be on the Watch 4. I was imperfect. (You can swap out Bixby with a Power Off shortcut, but that’s it for that long-press button reassigning.)

Plans may change; right now, Bixby is the only assistant. Again, the watch doesn’t approach until the end of the month. It’s built on Wear OS, and Google’s apps can be downloaded onto the Watch 4. But I’m aboard about not having Google Assistant. Google Assistant is a big part of how a glimpse can be connected to a phone (or common Google apps), and it feels like a big loss not to have it shimmering now. I actually use voice commands quite a bit on watches like the Apple Watch because they’re easier to pull off in a pinch, hands-free. It’s also particularly weird because Fitbit now has Google Assistant support on its voice-connected devices.

I’ve only used the Galaxy Watch 4 with a Samsung shouted right now, but how this will work with novel Android phones remains a big question. Then again, Samsung had Bixby on its final Android-connected Galaxy watches, too.

Samsung’s new body analysis sensor is easy to use, but it’s stressing me out

To get put a question to from the electrical impedance-based body sensor, you touch two fingers to the glimpse buttons for 15 seconds and stay still, completing a circuit once the watch measures a mild current passed through the body. It’s a bit like doings an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) reading for heart rate, nonetheless faster. It produces readouts of body mass index, skeletal muscle mass, liquid weight and body fat percentage. It estimates actual numbers, and also pinpoints each on a little range from green (low) to red (high).

I felt somewhat hit over the head with numbers. Mine were all bad. I know my weight is high, and I know my BMI. The rest observed really concerning, too. The problem was, I had no idea what to do next. Samsung Health doesn’t now serve up any guidance on whether to see a doctor, how to make healthy choices or even how around the results are. I just got more stressed, and kept rechecking, and then questioned my life choices. Ideally, you want health sensors to clue you forward, not send you curling up into a ball. It’s a approved concern with how all fitness trackers and health watches seem to be flooding the zone with more data deprived of figuring out how to help you with that data, or even speak on how accurate it is.

Samsung requires Android owners to install the Samsung Health app on Android phones to use these features, though.

It’s very early days, and also, I don’t even know yet how good these numbers are. Deep breaths.

Snore tracking: Keep your shouted by your bedside

Samsung’s sleep tracking on the glimpse uses a phone microphone to check for snoring as an add-on improbable, which I tried to do the first night… and performed. I use a CPAP anyway, which means I shouldn’t snore. But I also use a fan near my bed for white noise. I tried to sleep for a while without the CPAP, and mild didn’t get any snore readings.

Then I realized I required to keep the phone connected to a charger at night for the readings to tranquil. Night 2, I slept for a while without the CPAP and got a snore reading at last.

But it’s weird: First, it only showed one instance of snoring (did I stop once that?). It’s presented as an audio recording on the Samsung Health app, which consuming yes, your phone is listening to you and sometimes recording you at night.

Second, what does snore awareness even do for me? Snoring is comely common, and snoring is not always an indicator of sleep apnea, which is what I need a CPAP machine for. The rest of the sleep tracking’s measurements of appetizing, deep and REM sleep, and its assigned sleep find, seem to have nothing to do with the snore detection. It’s a very odd new feature that I don’t know what to do with… murky I just wanted hard proof that I snore.

Blood oxygen measurements are marched overnight if you toggle this in Samsung Health settings (snore detection is also a toggled setting). Blood oxygen measurements on watches aren’t medically precise, so I find they all vary way more than a imperfect pulse oximeter you’d wear on your finger. Maybe it could help settle if there’s a massive drop in blood oxygen? Again, hard to judge its use.

Blood pressure doesn’t yet work in the US, plus it organizes Samsung phone (so does EKG)

Samsung has a way to check blood pressure on its watches amdroll the optical heart-rate sensor, but it requires calibration in contradiction of a blood pressure cuff. It’s cleared for use in a number of conditions along with the EKG, but not yet in the US. On my journal model, I was able to check my stress tranquil. which is basically the non-FDA-cleared version of the blood pressure functions. It didn’t do much other than map my said stress on a color gradient from green to red.

You need a Samsung shouted and the Samsung Health Monitor app to use EKG and blood pressure features. It’s a shame they’re not available across Android yet; maybe that will glum someday.

Battery life? Expect two days or less

The Galaxy Watch 4, in its 44mm size, lasted me near a day and a half on my first full poster and use. I started using it at 2 p.m. on my obliging day and it lasted until late at night on the next day. I didn’t have the note always on, but I did have continuous heart rate turned on. If I used the always-on note, battery life would be even less.

I’ve been sleeping with the Galaxy Watch 4 on, and am wearing it all the time. I won’t have real thoughts on battery life for a week or so, but so far it doesn’t seem like it would ever make it to three days.

And also: I’m amdroll the larger models of the Galaxy Watch 4. On the smaller versions, battery life is likely less good. The smaller Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 had a hard time with battery life when CNET’s Lexy Savvides pushed it hard with the always-on reveal, GPS, music playback and other connected functions. 

I’m only a few days into trying these out, and my full impressions are coming in a future appraise. It’s clear that this is the next big phase for Android watches, but it’s not clear yet whether this is the sinister time to hop on board.