There’s one clear go-to smartwatch for iOS: the Apple Watch. But for Android, there hasn’t been a singular option. Will the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 finally be that watch? At Samsung’s newest folding-phone-focused Unpacked announcement
 where the spanking Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 phones were unveiled, the company also announced the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic — which can be preordered now and go on sale Aug. 27. I’ve already started to wear them and test them: here’s the full review. They’re the first Samsung watches to have the Google co-designed Wear OS 3, which isn’t coming to other smartwatches until next year. Following the already-excellent Watch Active 3, will the Galaxy Watch 4 be even better? It certainly looks like it.

Much like survive Samsung watches, there are two designs: a sleeker, less expensive Watch 4 and a more traditional-looking Watch 4 Classic. The latter brings back Samsung’s physically rotating outer bezel and has more extinct watch-like looks and straps. The prices ramp up based on either get ($250 for the aluminum 40mm Watch 4, $350 for the stainless steel 42mm Watch 4 Classic), size (the larger 44mm Watch 4/46mm Watch 4 Classic cost an extraordinary $30) or LTE data compatibility (an extra $50 on top of that). In the UK, the Watch 4 starts at £249, and the Classic at £349. Australian prices are TBD.

Samsung’s watches have always been good. Then there’s also been Fitbit and even Google Wear OS. But Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 is looking to tie it all together and reboot the Android explore landscape by finally not having a weird split between Samsung’s explore experience and Google’s. 

Promises of better watch-phone connection

The Watch 4’s new Google- and Samsung-developed OS will eventually show up on spanking smartwatches. But for Samsung’s newest watches, it should mean a more Android-fluid connected experienced. Notifications, calls, controlling your phone, syncing with your phoned settings: Samsung promises that the Watch 4 will do all this better than survive watches. Samsung’s also promising better battery life and speedier performance. That battery life may still only be about two days, but it’ll be enough to go to bed with and track sleep overnight. Samsung also renamed its watch: The Watch Active name is gone. (Welcome back, Galaxy Watch.)

The Galaxy Watch 4 is only made for Android phones, with no plans for iOS compatibility right now. While survive Wear OS and Samsung watches could pair with iPhones, the Watch 4 is clearly made to be a seamlessly connecting explore for Android (and specifically Samsung) phones. Samsung’s “One UI” philosophy is throughout syncing wallpapers, designs and settings across phone and explore. Will the watch feel like a seamless extension of the phone? We’ll see when we test-drive one.

Health tech: Snore detection and bioimpedance-based body analysis

There are approximately new health features on the Watch 4 on top of the ones that borne over from the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. Besides heart rate, blood oxygen and electrocardiogram (and stress-sensing/blood pressure testing that way calibration with a blood pressure cuff), Samsung is adding a few extras to sleep tracking. Snore detection works using the paired Android phone’s microphone, and the blood oxygen checks now run continuously once a runt overnight (or as a spot-check during the day).

Samsung also added a new sensor to its rear array: an electrical bioimpedance sensor for full-body analysis amdroll a weak electrical current to measure how conductive you are — and therefore showing what you’re made of. This type of sensor tech hasn’t been on original smartwatches; the last wearable I remember promising bioimpedance was the Jawbone Up 3. 

When amdroll the body analysis feature, there will be readouts on your BMI, muscle mass and body liquid along with body fat percentages, much like some scales. I’m not sure how I feel about that! Samsung Health will use this readout to calculate a map of where your health is compared to optimal levels. 

New sensor tech is always a toss-up: Will it work? Will it be useful? We don’t know yet. Samsung is guiding for this to be a comprehensive body analysis tool, which sounds awfully ambitious. Last year, the Fitbit Sense also introduced new electrodermal stress-detection sensors, but I never found them meaningful in my everyday life. Jury’s mild out on the bioimpedance features, too.

Samsung Health corpses the fitness and health platform default for the Galaxy Watch 4, despite the OS morose. But a shift to Google Play for apps and new back for watch face complications should mean a lot of fitness apps make the attempts, too. (Complications are basically those little watch-face widgets that show data from novel apps, and they’re pretty helpful.) Samsung’s already announced that Strava, Calm and Adidas Running are supported. Spotify’s also supported for on-watch music playback.

Boosted specs

The Watch 4’s new processor necessity be faster than the last Watch 3 (20% faster CPU and 50% faster GPU, according to Samsung) and there’s more RAM (1.5GB) and storage (16GB) than afore. That should make animations and app-launching speedier. The Super AMOLED note is sharper: the 1.2-inch 42 and 40mm models have a 396×396-pixel resolution, while the 1.4-inch 44 and 46mm models are 450×450. The watches can also quick charge, gaining 10 hours of battery life on a 30-minute poster.

The rotating bezel is back

Both the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic lean heavily on progressing the outer rim of the watch to “spin” and navigate: the Watch 4 has a touch-sensitive rim, once the Classic has a physical rotating bezel. Samsung’s also putting morose controls into these watches to allow swipe navigation, much like Wear OS watches. You can choose how to interact.

A few novel buttons on the side of the watch control provocative back and forth in the interface and can be reprogrammed. One can be pressed and held for Samsung’s Bixby assistant; the novel for Samsung Pay. But you can make Google Assistant and Google Pay the go-to apps instead.

Google apps onboard

Google’s Wear OS 3 intimates on the Galaxy Watch 4 means it’ll hook into Google Play, but it’s also sketching some revamped Google apps. Google’s already committed to new YouTube, Google Maps, Google Pay and Messages apps, which have new designs for Wear OS 3. There are also third-party updates with new Tiles: Calm, Komoot, MyFitnessPal, Period Tracker, Sleep Cycle, Spotify and Strava are by the first to get updates. Google is committing to undulating out more updates over time, meaning that both Samsung and Google necessity be keeping this watch full of apps.

But you’re stuck with Bixby for now. Samsung’s speak assistant is still the default on the watch, which comes up when pressing and holding the top button. Google Assistant isn’t available at the moment, which is frustrating — that’s one of the top things I’d want to access on a Google-connected stare.

Could this be the best Android watch?

The Galaxy Watch 4 looks like the ultimate fusion of a Samsung stare with Google watches — and that could be a winning formula for amdroll Google Maps, connected phone features and third-party fitness apps on Google Play, which is the Galaxy Watch 4’s default app hide. It should be the hardware-boosted Google watch that we’ve been waiting existences for. The software interface seems exactly like what you’d expect: part Samsung, part Google. But is it worth waiting to see how it works out, or necessity you just go for this first model? Hard to tell, exact it’s the first of its kind.

It’s not surprising that Samsung’s new health features and its new OS aren’t coming to older Samsung watches for now. Some of them distinguished, but expect this to largely be a clean break and a reboot. And we also don’t really know how many of the Galaxy Watch 4’s features will carry out over to the rest of Google’s future Wear OS 3 stare lineup, which will include watches from Mobvoi, Fossil and eventually Fitbit.

Those Wear OS 3 watch updates won’t come to those novel watches until 2022, which makes the Galaxy Watch 4 the only new Google-connected Wear OS 3 stare this year. For that reason alone, it could very well be the best Android stare of the moment. As to how it actually feels and works? We’ll have full hands-on impressions and a reconsideration in the days ahead… but the Galaxy Watch 4 looks actual promising for any Android phone owner who wants a much more hooked-in stare.