The summary of ‘Apple Watch 5 vs. Galaxy Watch Active 2’

This summary of the video was created by an AI. It might contain some inaccuracies.

00:00:0000:13:12

The video is a comprehensive comparison between the Apple Watch Series 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, focusing on fitness tracking, navigation, user experience, and additional features.

**Fitness & Health Tracking:** Both watches offer robust fitness tracking with built-in GPS, eliminating the need for a phone during runs. The Galaxy Watch Active is noted for its aggressive auto-detection of workouts and coaching cues, while the Apple Watch uses pace alerts. GPS accuracy is reliable on both. The Apple Watch uses a ring system for activity tracking, which the presenter prefers over the Galaxy Watch’s heart-based system. Additionally, the Galaxy Watch includes native sleep and stress tracking, and though it supports ECG functionality, it currently lacks FDA clearance unlike the Apple Watch.

**Navigation & User Interface:** The Galaxy Watch Active’s touch bezel offers haptic feedback, whereas the Apple Watch’s digital crown is praised for its intuitive control. The Apple Watch is lauded for its premium material finishes. The Galaxy Watch stands out for its customizable watch faces, while the Apple Watch has a superior selection of third-party apps and a smoother operating system.

**Smartwatch Features:** Both watches handle notifications, calls, and app installations effectively. The Apple Watch excels in app selection and smoother operation via watchOS 6 compared to Tizen on the Galaxy Watch, which offers more widget customization but has more bugs. The comparison of Siri and Bixby shows Siri as slightly more responsive. Both devices support offline music storage, LTE capabilities, and mobile payments via NFC. Battery life is slightly better on the Galaxy Watch Active, but the Apple Watch performs more consistently during workouts and music playback.

**Price & Compatibility:** Users' phone ecosystems heavily influence the choice; iPhone users are recommended the Apple Watch Series 5, while Android or Samsung Galaxy users are advised to choose the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The Apple Watch Series 5 is priced higher, starting at $400 without LTE, while the Galaxy Watch Active 2 starts at $280.

In conclusion, both smartwatches have strong fitness tracking and smartwatch capabilities, but the better experience depends on the user's phone ecosystem.

00:00:00

In this segment, the video compares the Apple Watch Series 5 with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, focusing on fitness tracking capabilities. The presenter discusses their experience using both smartwatches for several weeks with different workouts. They find that the Galaxy Watch Active initially overestimates heart rate at the start of workouts but aligns closely with the Apple Watch after a few minutes. Both watches offer a variety of exercise tracking options, but the Galaxy Watch Active is more aggressive in auto-detecting workouts. For outdoor runs, the Galaxy Watch Active provides on-screen and in-ear cues through a running coach, which the presenter finds less appealing due to its robotic voice, whereas the Apple Watch uses wrist-based pace alerts. Both watches have built-in GPS, eliminating the need for a phone during runs, and the GPS performance on the Galaxy Watch Active has improved significantly after updates. The presenter also plans to test the GPS accuracy of both watches using Strava.

00:03:00

In this part of the video, the speaker compares the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, focusing on their fitness tracking and health features. The GPS accuracy of both watches is noted as being reliable. The Apple Watch uses a ring-based system for activity tracking, whereas the Galaxy Watch uses a heart-based system. The speaker prefers the ring system but acknowledges that Samsung’s app is more user-friendly for finding workout data. The Galaxy Watch includes sleep and stress tracking natively, while the Apple Watch requires third-party apps for sleep tracking but includes sound detection and a more comprehensive emergency alert system. Both watches offer high and low heart rate monitoring, but the Galaxy Watch requires continuous monitoring for this feature. The segment also discusses ECG functionality, noting that while it’s FDA-cleared on the Apple Watch, it’s currently unusable on the Galaxy Watch. Both watches come in two sizes and have always-on displays that impact battery life.

00:06:00

In this part of the video, the speaker compares navigation methods on the Galaxy Watch Active and the Apple Watch, highlighting the touch bezel and digital crown features respectively. The Galaxy Watch Active offers haptic feedback through its touch bezel while the Apple Watch’s digital crown is praised for its functionality in adjusting settings and volume. The material finishes of both watches are noted, with the Apple Watch offering more premium options like ceramic and titanium. Both watches are water-resistant and support swim tracking.

The speaker favors the Galaxy Watch Active for its variety of customizable and third-party watch faces, including a feature that matches the watch face to the user’s outfit. In comparison, the Apple Watch’s watch face customization is seen as more limited and quickly becomes repetitive.

When it comes to smartwatch features, both devices perform well with notifications, call handling, and app installations. The Apple Watch has a superior selection of third-party apps and a smoother operating system (watchOS 6) compared to the Galaxy Watch Active’s Tizen, which allows more widget customization. However, Tizen is described as having more bugs and issues than watchOS 6. Lastly, the argument between Bixby and Siri as digital assistants is hinted at but not explored in detail.

00:09:00

In this part of the video, the speaker discusses the functionalities and limitations of voice assistants Siri and Bixby on smartwatches. They mention that Siri is slightly more responsive than Bixby. The conversation moves to music storage capabilities, highlighting that both devices support offline music storage from services like Spotify and Apple Music, depending on user preference. LTE functionality is covered next, noting that the Apple Watch requires an iPhone and the Galaxy Watch Active requires an Android phone, with carrier compatibility for LTE needing to be verified. The segment also mentions that both watches support mobile payments through Apple Pay and Samsung Pay via NFC. Lastly, battery life is compared, with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 having slightly better battery performance overall, especially with the always-on display turned off, while the Apple Watch performs more consistently during workouts and music playback.

00:12:00

In this part of the video, the speaker compares the Apple Watch Series 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, noting that the decision on which to choose depends largely on which phone you have. The Apple Watch Series 5 is priced at $400 for the non-LTE version and $500 with LTE in the US, while the Galaxy Watch Active 2 starts at $280 for the base 40mm version without LTE, going up to around $430 with LTE in a larger size. The speaker emphasizes that iPhone users will have a better experience with the Apple Watch, while Android or Samsung Galaxy phone users will benefit more from the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The segment concludes with a call for viewers to comment on their choice and check out the full reviews of both watches.

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