Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 4 is both full-featured and surprisingly affordable but Apple leads the industry with the most popular watch worldwide and offers a low-cost model as well, the Apple Watch SE. This means the battle of the budget smartwatch begins again with Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 4 shaking things up and possibly challenging Apple's dominance.
Samsung has been making fitness trackers and smartwatches for much longer than Apple, yet soon after Apple entered the market in 2015, it walked away victorious, thanks to the Apple Watch which has become the smartwatch to beat ever since. As popularity began to wane, the Apple Watch Series 4 introduced a remarkable ECG capability, reestablishing its status as the premier smartwatch manufacturer and shifting the focus from fitness to health. Other manufacturers are beginning to catch up and Samsung seems to have even surpassed Apple in terms of hardware capabilities.
Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 4 is loaded with sensors and features meeting the wearer's need for both fitness tracking and health monitoring. It matches the ECG feature of the premium Apple Watch Series 6 and also the new blood oxygen sensor. The lowest-priced Galaxy Watch 4 costs just $250, a little less than Apple's budget smartwatch making it a fantastic bargain. For $50 more, LTE capability can be added. The Galaxy Watch 4 even has sensors not found on any Apple Watch, including a way to measure body composition, the percentage of fat in the body, and a blood pressure measurement, which is currently not active in the United States. The Apple Watch SE, which is priced at $279, lacks the ECG and blood oxygen sensor of the Apple Watch Series 6. At first glance, the Galaxy Watch 4 wins easily, but it isn't quite as simple as that.
Smartwatch Ecosystems Matter
As often happens when comparing Apple's technology to that of others, the ecosystem is an important factor to consider. A Galaxy Watch 4 will not integrate with an iPhone as nicely as an Apple Watch will. Samsung does make an iPhone app and some apps will run just fine but those that require a companion phone app will probably not work. After all, Samsung uses Android as its phone operating system while Apple develops iOS for its iPhone. That means an iPhone owner will usually always be better off with an Apple Watch SE or Series 6. The same is even true for Android owners since there is absolutely no way to sync an Apple Watch to an Android phone, at least not yet.
This presents a problem for those that want an iPhone and the Galaxy Watch 4, or a Galaxy phone with an Apple Watch SE. What makes the most sense is to pick a side and order the phone and watch together. Since the iPhone and the Apple Watch are strongly favored in the US, this is the combination that is often chosen. Having to pay more for the limited features of the Apple Watch SE might be uncomfortable for iPhone users, but it isn't an easy decision to join team Samsung given that a HomePod mini, iPad, and MacBook might also be part of the mix. Even so, the foldable phones from Samsung are intriguing and the Galaxy Watch 4 offers incredible value.