Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 rumor review: expected design, features, price and release date
moniker, meant for more casual users.
After the release of the first Galaxy Watch in 2018, Samsung focused on the more affordable Galaxy Watch Active devices. But the time has come for the flagship smartwatch to get a refresh.
2020 will likely be the year when we’ll see the Galaxy Watch 2 and with some rumors around it already surfacing on the internet, it’s time to gather all the leaks in one place (here, if that wasn’t obvious).
We haven’t seen anything regarding the looks of the Galaxy Watch 2 yet, but after examining all the previous generations of the line, we can safely assume Samsung won’t do anything crazy with the design of the new model.
There are three main elements that will influence the visuals: display diameter, thickness of the body and size of the bezel. The rotating bezel has been a staple for the high-end Samsung smartwatches so it seems likely that it will make it to the Galaxy Watch 2.
The previous Galaxy Watch came with two display sizes, 46mm and 42mm and the larger one makes for a quite hefty device. Samsung might opt to slim down the bezel to decrease the overall size or alternatively, to fit an even larger display in the same footprint.
There’s a third option, however, to skip the rotating bezel altogether. Months ago, Samsung applied for trademarks for the terms “Touch Bezel” and “Touch Wheel”. There was no indication for what devices the trademarks would be used, but Touch Wheel does sound like a replacement for the physical rotating bezel.
There’s almost no doubt that there will be two sizes for the Galaxy Watch 2 as well. Samsung released the smaller Galaxy Watch in rose gold as well, obviously trying to appeal to the female side for the market. It only makes sense that the company will do the same for the newer models, so ladies rejoice!
Galaxy Watch 2 specs
Given the time that has passed since the release of the original Galaxy Watch, we can expect some significant changes when it comes to the internals.
Better display
The display will likely get a bump in resolution, allowing for even more detailed watch faces and complications. Besides that, we won’t be surprised to see Samsung mimicking the 1Hz refresh rate of the Apple Watch Series 5 and bring that to the Galaxy Watch 2 for a more efficient always-on display.
More power, RAM and storage
Of course, a more powerful chip is also a must not only to handle the higher resolution but more demanding features as well. The measly 0.75GB of RAM the Galaxy Watch simply won’t do in 2020, the new generation should come with at least 1GB. That might still sound miserable compared to the rumored 12GB of the upcoming Galaxy S20 smartphones, but smartwatches handle far weaker loads.
We’d also like to see the storage bumped from 4 to at least 8GB, so we can fit more of our audio collection when out for a run.
Longer battery life
A recent leak revealed a model number of a Samsung wearable device. While the number itself is not that important, it was linked to a 330mAh battery. Looking at the battery capacity of the existing Galaxy Watch models (270mAh for the small one and 472mAh for the big one), we’re hoping that this name-battery combo is referring to the more compact Galaxy Watch 2.
That will be an upgrade of almost 25%, which should result in hours of extra battery life. Following that trend, the larger model could get a 530mAh battery, also a significant improvement.
When it comes to connectivity, Bluetooth 5 is a logical upgrade, giving you better data transfer speeds and longer range.
Tizen 5.0
At this point, Samsung seems to be more than happy running Tizen on its smartwatches instead of Google’s WearOS and the Galaxy Watch 2 will probably get the latest version of Samsung’s own OS as well. As the Tizen ecosystem matures, we’d like to see the number and variety of apps available for the Galaxy watches improve, as this is one are where they fall far behind the Apple Watch.
Galaxy Watch 2 features
We’re all familiar with the popular sport and health-tracking features of smartwatches. Heartbeat, steps, calories, floors climbed, sleep, your every move is measured and reflects your stats one way or another. Improved versions of all of these are expected by default. Same goes for other standard smartphone features like notifications, voice calling, music playback and so on.
ECG but for real this time
One glaring omission on the features list of the Samsung’s devices is the electrocardiogram. Apple has been taunting the benefits of its ECG for a couple of years now. The hardware for this feature was included on Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watch Active 2 but users still can’t make use of it because the feature still hasn’t been cleared by the FDA.
There have been no statements from Samsung regarding the delay. One possibility is that the FDA isn’t satisfied with the accuracy of the results Samsung’s watch provides. If they are too far off, the ECG might do more harm than good. But it could also be because the approval process is lengthy (which Samsung should have accounted for).
Hopefully, for the Galaxy Watch 2, Samsung will have everything needed to please the administration and Android users will finally have a functioning ECG around their wrists.
Fingerprint sensor
A unique feature rumors put on the Galaxy Watch 2 is an in-display fingerprint reader. The sensor will mainly be used for authentication when financial transactions are being made using the smartwatch’s NFC chip. Further implementations are also possible for other functions that require biometrics or PIN input.
That would be a cool stand-out feature to separate the premium smartwatch from Samsung’s cheaper Galaxy Active models, but let’s hope it won’t bump up the price. Speaking of…
Galaxy Watch 2 price and release date
The fog gets deeper when we start talking about the price and release date of the Galaxy Watch 2. Judging by how little is known about it right now, we can conclude that the release is at least a few months away. Our best guess is the release event for the next Galaxy Note device, or in other words, August 2020.
As for the price, we’re hoping the $350/$330 price tags will remain the same for the two new models, but higher ones are not out of the question.