Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 Review: Samsung's Best Wearable!

So the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is Samsung's latest smartwatch and their follow-up to the first Galaxy Watch Active, which is an excellent refresh over the original. In this video, we're going to be taking a look at every aspect of this smartwatch and find out if it's worthy of a spot on your wrist. So sit back, subscribe, and let's get started. So starting with price. The larger 44mm size, which I have here, starts at $300, and the smaller 40mm size is $280. There are also LTE and stainless steel options, which are more expensive, but this cheaper aluminum model comes in three colors, pink gold, cloud silver, and this aqua black that I have here. After eyeing over the device for several days and trying to decipher whether it's blue or black, the band is black, but the body of the watch is the darkest shade of blue you can possibly imagine. When it comes to the form and fit of the Active 2, I am absolutely loving how compact and lightweight the device is. The provided band has an excellent fit and feel as well. All of this minimalistic presentation alongside a fully specced watch with a 1.4 inch AMOLED display and minimal bezel around the exterior make this a great looking watch packed with lots of features. Now let's start with battery life. With the display always on and general usage, I'm getting around one day of battery life. And without that always on display turned on, I'm getting around two and a half days of battery life. In terms of charging times, you can charge this watch back up to 80% or so after an hour and a half and up to a full 100% after just a bit over two hours. Now the always on display shows your display at a relatively dim setting at all times. And then when you raise your watch to look at it, it will turn onto the brightness you have your watch set to. It is difficult to see the dim always on display in direct sunlight, but anywhere else you'll be just fine. And with the watch set to maximum brightness, I'm having no issues at all seeing my display in direct sunlight. I'm able to see all of my information very well and easily when I'm out on a walk or run. Now when it comes to activity tracking, this Galaxy Watch Active 2 truly lives up to its name. But before jumping into that activity tracking, it is worth mentioning that the watch has onboard storage, which lets you save music right to the watch and pair up your earbuds to the watch and leave the big smartphone at home. If you have Spotify Premium, you're in luck because Spotify is installed on the watch right out of the box and you can begin downloading music for offline listening right away. You can also perform all of your normal music controls such as play pause, skip and reverse tracks and change your volume all from the watch. Now back to that activity tracking, there are many ways to jump into a workout, whether going to the exercise widget or simply tapping workout right from your home screen if you have this watch face set up. Which side note again, there are a ton of different watch faces to choose from and customize. Straight from here, you can select your workout of choice and get right into it. Basic stats such as your time, distance traveled, and heart rate will be monitored and shown to you during your exercise. Now regarding the heart rate monitoring, I am happy with the accuracy that the Active Watch 2 provides. When testing it side by side with the Galaxy Note 9's heart rate sensor, I am usually getting the exact same heart reading on both devices which tells me this watch Active 2 isn't in its own world making up numbers. After a workout, I checked my heart rate as well and got pretty similar results. Just keep in mind that it's likely that none of these devices provide a 100% accuracy Now I also get a lot of comments in my videos saying Shane, your arms are too hairy for an accurate reading or Shane, you have the watch positioned in the wrong spot on your wrist and it's giving you a bad reading. This side by side test should put those concerns to rest as my hairless fingertip is giving a similar reading to my hairy wrist with the watch positioned behind my wrist bone. This watch also has great water resistance so if you get caught in the rain, if you want to swim with it, if you work up a lot of sweat like I do during exercise, this watch is going to be able to handle all of those things. Now standalone GPS is also featured on this watch which does need to be turned on in the settings because it's not on by default. But once it's turned on, it will track your path on any exercise you perform and when your workout is finished and you're looking at the results of the workout, you are able to see a map of your workout right on your watch. Very cool feature. I found the GPS tracking to be accurate as well as I ran exactly 2 miles in this test and as soon as I passed the 2 mile marker, I got a notification saying 2 miles were traveled. Now if you don't even want to mess with any of this stuff, there is also an automatic workout detection feature which will begin to show you information about your activity after 10 minutes. Whether you manually track or automatically track a workout, it will all sync and show up on the Samsung Health app on your smartphone. One final test I did regarding activity tracking was my 1000 step test. After taking 1000 steps, the watch had counted around 985 steps, which is slightly less accurate than the Galaxy Fit and other fitness bands I had tested in the past months, but this certainly isn't alarming or a deal breaker by any means. Overall, I am extremely impressed with the offerings for activity tracking on this Galaxy Watch Active 2. Now even if you don't workout or exercise all that often, this watch is excellent for day to day usage, starting with messages. Text messages show up nicely and very clearly on the watch. It is very easy to read through messages and reply using either voice or handwriting the message one letter at a time. Phone calls are also very manageable on the watch with its built-in speakers. I will now show you a test of the speakers with a phone call. This watch also does a bunch of stuff for you right out of the box without you having to do anything, starting with sleep tracking. I simply went to sleep with the watch on and it had tracked my sleep all night. This watch is very comfortable and isn't a bother to wear to sleep at all. The vibration alarm also works well and will definitely wake you up in the morning. If you have the weather on your watch face, it will automatically update as the day progresses. If you are inactive for an hour or so, you will get a notification suggesting you to stand up and maybe get some fresh air. Things like this are definitely welcomed on a watch with Active in its name, but you can turn off stuff like this if you want to. Now of course your steps will automatically accumulate through the day as well, and you can also get a message on your smartphone showing you how many steps remaining you have to reach your goal for the day. This watch basically has you covered in both the day-to-day and as much or as little exercise and health tracking you are doing. There are also countless widgets for whatever use case you have for your watch. Quickly going through the default widgets, we have a heart which has goals for you throughout the day and calories, minutes of activity, and number of times standing up in a day. A widget to quickly access recently used apps and also access your main app's screen. A simple workout widget to quickly get you into any workout you'd like. A heart rate monitor widget which lets you quickly check your heart rate with just a couple taps. Weather. A calendar which lets you add things to the calendar within the watch. A general workout widget. Sleep tracking. Music. And then you can also add as many other widgets as you'd like, including an alarm. Favorite contacts. Music. Reminders. Coffee counter. Calories burned. Samsung health challenges. Number of flights of steps in a day. Calorie tracking. More Samsung health statistics. Leaderboard to show your health stats versus others. Step tracking. Stress management. Water counter. Weight management. And a world clock. Now navigating through these widgets couldn't be easier with the new feature of the digital rotating bezel. I am loving this feature and it has significantly reduced the size and weight of this watch compared to the Gear S3 and Galaxy watches while keeping one of my favorite features. This rotating bezel works as intended simply swiping around the bezel allows you to seamlessly navigate through your watch. You can also tap on pretty much anything you see and you can always do the swipe down menu for some quick settings such as brightness adjustments and do not disturb to silence your notifications to your watch and phone. There are also two physical buttons on the side of the watch which will take you to your home or apps window and a general back button to take you back one step wherever you are on the watch. Through the wearables app you can also program the home button to anything you'd like on a double press. And on mine I have a timer configured so I can start up a timer at a moment's notice without having to fumble through additional screens. There is so much more customization on this watch that this review simply doesn't have time for. Just know that you can set up this watch however you'd like and make it your own. So is the Galaxy Watch Active 2 worthy of a spot on your wrist? I certainly think so, yes. I am loving the complete package of this watch from hardware to software and a watch has finally come along to replace my Gear S3. The light and compact form factor along with a bright and great looking screen paired with a clean OS, heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking and much much more, I can highly recommend the Galaxy Watch Active 2 to anyone looking to pick up a smartwatch. But what are your thoughts on the Galaxy Watch Active 2? Let me know in the comments below. And if you enjoyed this video then be sure to give it a thumbs up and please consider subscribing to the Shane Simons YouTube channel today. I hope to see you around for the next video. Thanks for watching, take care.