The Galaxy Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro are the two latest smartwatches to come from the house of Samsung, and although they do share many core features and design points, there are some noticeable differences as well. For most people, the standard Galaxy Watch 5 is likely to be the right choice. For some, however, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will fill in some important gaps.

The Galaxy Watch lineup has gone through many revisions and merges over time. What was once the original Galaxy Watch went on to become the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. At the same time, what was once the original Galaxy Watch Active has gone on to become the standard Galaxy Watch 5. Even though there is also now a Pro version, this isn’t a replacement for the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, which is why Samsung is keeping its Classic watch available for the foreseeable future.

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The Galaxy Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro are fundamentally the same watch. It is just the Pro version is more suited to outdoor activities and comes with a few tweaks to benefit that outdoor usage. In reality, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro should have been called the Galaxy Watch 5 Outdoors, but Samsung opted for the “Pro” moniker instead. Regardless of its name, choosing between these two new Samsung smartwatches is simple enough, and mostly comes down to durability, battery life, and of course, price.

Choosing between Galaxy Watch 5 And 5 Pro

Galaxy Watch 5 all colors

For most people, the standard Galaxy Watch 5 is likely to be the best option. Not only is it cheaper, but it also comes with most of the main upgrades such as a new design and a more durable build quality thanks to the use of sapphire crystal glass. The Galaxy Watch 5 is rated at 5 ATM and IP68, and comes with a larger battery, so consumers can expect it to last longer than the previous model. The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro comes with all of these same features but also an even more rugged build quality. As it is largely designed for the outdoors, it benefits from a 2x stronger display, titanium casing, and a D-Buckle Sport Band. It also features a greater battery capacity as well. In fact, at 590mAh, the battery is pretty impressive for a smartwatch and this is arguably going to be the main reason why someone might want to pay extra for the Pro model.

Another area where there is a noticeable difference is in the general size. While the standard Watch 5 is available with either a 1.2-inch or 1.4-inch display, the Watch 5 Pro can only be purchased in the larger 1.4-inch display size. Otherwise, both watches share the rest of the same internals including 1.5GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, Exynos W920 chip, and run on Wear OS 3.5.

Naturally, price is also going to be a major factor when choosing between the two new Galaxy Watch 5 models. The standard Galaxy Watch 5 price starts at $279 while the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro starts at $449. Both of these stated prices are for the Wi-Fi only models with cellular connectivity adding an additional $50 to the base cost of each watch. Even though the Pro might come with enough benefits to justify the higher price, Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy Watch 5 is likely to be the best option for most consumers.

Source: Samsung