Samsung has unveiled a successor to its Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch, which now comes in two sizes — 40mm and 44mm — and two style options: lightweight aluminum with a casual Fluoroelastomer (FKM) Band, and premium solid stainless steel with a leather strap with an option to personalize further with different straps. The smaller watch has a 1.2- and the bigger a 1.4-inch 360×360-pixel Super AMOLED screen.
The Galaxy Watch Active2 dumps the physical rotating bezel for a digital one; further, the revamped OneUI uses a virtual bezel on the display, which maximizes the screen real estate on your wrist. For comparison, the 44mm version of the new watch has a larger screen than the 46mm Galaxy Watch.
Also improved is an optical heart rate reader which now has 8 LEDs to deliver faster readings, and there is also the electrocardiogram feature (ECG).
Out of the box, the Galaxy Watch Active2 can track 39 different types of workouts, some of which even have sub-categories. For instance, the Running Coach now has 7 different modes with real-time tracking.
The watch is IP68-rated with water resistance up to 5ATM. It can also take a few knocks too (it’s MIL-STD-810G rated) and features Gorilla Glass DX+ to protect the screen.
For those into sleep tracking and meditation, there’s the Calm app along with the ability to watch one’s stress levels.
The watch is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 9110 chipset with 768MB of RAM, while Tizen OS is running the show. The LTE version bumps the amount of RAM to 1.5GB. Other features from the Samsung ecosystem include Samsung Health, Smart Things, Samsung Pay and Bixby.
Preorders will start on September 6 with shipments expected to begin on the 26th. The aluminum version costs $280 for the 40mm size, and $300 for the 44mm version. As for the stainless steel version of the watch, its price has not been announced yet. What was announced though, is that the Galaxy Watch Active2 will be available from all major U.S. carriers — including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon starting September 27, 2019.
Finally, in addition to the “regular” version of the watch, there will be a special Under Armour edition that will reportedly work best with UA’s HOVR digitally-connected footwear. Buyers of this wearable will also get 6 months of free MapMyRun premium membership.
