For many reasons, the Galaxy Watch 5 is the better smartwatch when compared to the Apple Watch Series 7, although there are specific aspects of each to keep in mind before purchasing either. Both watches offer great features and beautiful designs, and either would be a great choice for purchase.
The Galaxy Watch 5 is the newer of the two smartwatches, released in August 2022, while the Apple Watch 7 was released last year on October 8, 2021. Being almost an entire year apart, Samsung had a lot of time to develop a better smartwatch offering to its customers as well as a cheaper option as well. There are two main versions for each of these watches. For Samsung, there is the Galaxy Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro, and for Apple, there is an aluminum and stainless steel version for the Apple Watch Series 7.
Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 offers many benefits over the Apple Watch Series 7, a major one being the price. The 40mm Watch 5 with 4G LTE can be bought for $329 while the 41mm Aluminum Apple Watch 7 with GPS and Cellular starts at $499. Even with only GPS, it is still more expensive than the Watch 5 at $399. Assuming price isn't a concern, the Watch 5 offers a newer Exynos W920 chipset compared to Apple's S7 chipset. The Watch 5 also comes with 1.5GB RAM compared to Apple Watch's 1GB of RAM. However, the Watch 5 does have a lower storage capacity at 16GB (versus 32GB) and a smaller screen at 1.4 inches (vesus 1.9 inches). The two watches both also feature an always-on display, but two different types of screens: the Apple Watch uses a square Retina OLED Ion-X strengthened glass for the aluminum version and a sapphire crystal glass for the stainless steel version. In contrast, the Watch 5 uses a circular Super AMOLED sapphire crystal glass screen.
The Massive Galaxy Watch 5 Battery
Although the Watch 5 loses out on storage space and screen real estate, it wins out on battery size. The 44mm version of the Watch 5 comes equipped with a 410mAh battery and the Watch 5 Pro features a 590mAh battery, while both versions of the Apple Watch 7 only have a 309mAh battery. With the greater battery of the Watch 5, Samsung claims that it should last up to 50 hours and charge fast as well, with a 45% charge only taking 30 minutes, and eight minutes before bed enough to get an entire night's sleep tracking. The Galaxy Watch 5 includes a body temperature sensor as well, an improvement over the previous Watch 4, offering more ways to track health and fitness than the Apple Watch Series.
Overall, with the price difference of the two smartwatches, and Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 Pro being the same price as the cheaper Apple Watch 7, while offering a larger battery, more efficient processor, and more, the Galaxy Watch 5 wins out against the Apple Watch. However, it should be mentioned that the Galaxy Watch 5 only works with Android devices and the Apple Watch 7 only works with iPhones, so, the decision on which product to buy may come down to simply what kind of phone is being used. Both the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Galaxy Watch 5 are great products and either option would be a great choice for anyone who wants a smartwatch. For iPhone users, they may want to wait for the next Apple Watch and for Android users, with the Google Pixel Watch coming out soon, it may be pertinent to wait to see what that smartwatch offers and how it compares to the Watch 5.