Samsung Watch Active 2: On the pulse of the time

It must not always be Apple. A smart watch is in demand as a companion for sports and leisure or as an extension of the smart phone, to offer rivals such as Garmin, Polar, Fitbit, Huawei, and Samsung beautiful Alternatives for a small price. We have tried the Galaxy Watch Active 2 from Samsung for some time, in the case of the two heights, 40 and 44 mm, in materials such as stainless steel and aluminum, as well as with or without mobile communications to prices between 300 and 450 Euro.

Michael Spehr

editor in the Department "technology and Motor".

Our test device was the larger version in the aluminum housing. It looks well made, the circular Design appears to be, however, boring and not very creative. The watch is protected according to IP 68 protection class against dust and water. Bracelets without a tool change, wherein the mechanism and the thin fastening webs look fragile.

the Two buttons on the right side are for the operation, and the Samsung friend, of course, asks what is become of the analog, rotating bezel of previous models. The missing here, instead there is a touch-sensitive edge of the screen, you should swipe your Finger along. The main advantage of the bezel, the shoes safe operation with wet fingers or hand, however, with this Touch solution there. In the daily use of the watch bothers you, also, to some Details and occasional fact krämerei, you don't know of a Apple Watch.

What, however, is the very bright and contrast-rich Display in connection with dozens of lovingly crafted dials. As in the case of the Apple Watch Series 5, the display on the desire is always active, after a few seconds, the display will be reduced, however, at the time, so energy can be saved. Managed the dials in one of several Apps needed for the operation. The Apps for both Smartphone platforms Android and Apple's iOS. This is little wonder because, as Huawei have also decided the Koreans against Google's Smartwatch operating system Wear OS, which is hardly still maintained. Samsung relies on its in-house Tizen running properly, but in comparison with the Wear OS some are on the watch running App is missing.

On the equipment it is to criticize and nothing else, although contactless payments, a compass or the measurement of the oxygen saturation of the blood are missing. GPS and heart rate measurement, work neatly and accurately. Many different sport activities can be collected, but analysis and pooling of the activities in the Samsung Health App to full-blown sports watches like those from Garmin or Polar far. Also, it is not possible, their data and activities in a browser window on your PC to view or further evaluate.