Galaxy Watch 5 Pro review: The Wear OS smartwatch we’ve been waiting for

If you’re into smartwatches but there is no Apple Watch on any of your wrists, chances are that you’re using a Samsung wearable, or have at least considered one. That’s only natural – Samsung is one of the frontrunners in the wearables arms race, where it is actually collaborating with Google quite intensely in terms of software development, with the hopes of catching up with and even surpassing Apple’s positions.And with the new Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Samsung is definitely enriching the smartwatch space with a rather intriguing offering that’s tough enough to endure harsher usage conditions but also live to tell the tale, unscathed at that. At the same time, it lacks the somewhat off-putting and gimmicky “rugged” design that many of those conventional watches possess, and it easily passes as a rather smart dress watch.With a battery to easily last you at least two days of mixed to heavy usage and a bunch of features that fit rather nicely with its durable nature, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is easily the best smartwatch you can get for your Android device, and the ultimate one to go with your Galaxy phone.

What’s new about the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro:

• Sapphire crystal glass and titanium body
• Larger 590mAh battery
• Exclusive GOS guidance + Track Back
• Improved sleep tracking
• New temperature sensor (disabled at launch)
• Enhanced Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity

Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Design, Models & Sizes

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is, to put things lightly, one imposing and large smartwatch, noticeably taller and heavier than, say, an Apple Watch, for example. It comes in a single, one-size-fits-all 45mm size. Fully made of titanium and sapphire glass, the latest flagship Galaxy Watch is a solid and rather sturdy cross between a dress watch and a heavy-duty trekking companion, which might look just a little bit intimidating when you first put it on your wrist.

Thanks to the large battery inside, it’s a rather thick gadget that literally and figuratively stands out, and it definitely might be a bit harder to hide that one up under your sleeve. Still, it’s not uncomfortable to wear this one, and I eventually got used to the weight. However, if it weren’t for the benefit of this review, I wouldn’t have forced myself to wear this smartwatch while I catch some zzz’s in bed, as it’s just a bit too big and unwieldy. The regular Galaxy Watch 5 is way more comfortable in this regard, and I wore than one with pleasure.

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has certainly been devised with thicker wrists in tow. Surely, nobody’s stopping you from getting one even if you have narrower wrists, but it will stick out and definitely look a bit funky.

The rugged Galaxy Watch 5 Pro features a raised bezel with the purpose of protecting the display from accidental bumps and the such. Still, it won’t shield your screen from sharp objects, and I bet few will be willing to test out the durability of sapphire that way.

There’s no moving parts on this watch. Yep, none—the beloved rotating bezel of old,, which allowed for quick interactions with the interface without touching the screen, is now sort of gone. Shame, as it would have matched the rugged design of the Watch 5 Pro rather nicely! Still, the overall functionality isn’t totally axed. The inner part of the bezel is still capacitive, meaning that you can slide your fingertip around to emulate the same functionality, but the satisfaction, accuracy, and utility of the old rotating bezel is gone. 

Speaking of the display, it’s just as bright and vivid as you might remember from previous Samsung smartwatches. It’s a joy to look at this remarkable 1.4-inch OLED screen, which is perfectly legible even in the brightest daytime and makes content and interface elements just pop!

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is available in Gray Titanium and Black Titanium, both quite classy colors that look great in person. Samsung also introduces a new D-Buckle strap, which utilizes a clever mechanism to latch the watch onto your wrist. Potential adopters can also customize any other available watch bands within the Bespoke Studio, which expands this functionality to the Watch 5 Pro, similarly to Apple’s Apple Watch configurator, albeit with more variety in store.

True to its rugged nature, the Watch 5 Pro features some enhanced activity features, chief among which is the exclusive route-based GPS guidance, which uses gentle haptic feedback and voice-assisted messages to navigate you through the great outdoors. Track Back is another useful GPS feature only found on the Watch 5 Pro, which will get you back to where you started by retracing the route you took. In my experience, the GPS accuracy is more than acceptable, but have in mind that your mileage may vary if you’re using it in the city jungle with multiple high buildings around you messing with the accuracy. In the wild outdoors, however, you shouldn’t have such issues. 

What’s great about the GPS guidance on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is the flexibility it offers. You will need a GPX file to head on to an adventure, and you can obtain this one in several ways:

There are some new watch faces that revolve around the outdoor-sy, with an emphasis on navigation. One of my favorite new watch faces is called “Pro analog”, and is a rather simple, but neat-looking has a compass, a battery indicator, and a neat activity shortcut, which is arguably everything you’d want out of a smart watch face.

One of the downsides or quirks of Samsung’s Wear OS platform is that it only works with Android devices, so pairing this watch with an iPhone is a no-go. But that’s not all – even though you can use the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro with any Android device, some of its best features, like ECG and blood pressure monitoring, are exclusive for Samsung Galaxy phones, as the necessary companion app is only available on the Galaxy Store. 

Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Battery and Charging

The battery champ

Galaxy Watch 5 Processor, Storage, and Connectivity

When it comes to the hardware that’s inside the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, you wouldn’t find anything new in comparison with either the regular Galaxy Watch 5 or the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. It’s still powered by the same old dual-core Exynos W920 chipset with a gigabyte and half of RAM and 16GB of on-board memory, which should be enough for all your custom watch faces, GPS routes, apps, photos, and music files. 

Galaxy Watch 5 Audio Quality and Haptics

The Galaxy Watch 5 can take and make calls, and the quality is adequate for a smartwatch. Audio quality from the built-in speaker is good, though you will have a much better experience if you pair any earbuds to the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Still, for the occasional quick phone call it’s good enough.

Another lineup of possible competitors are Garmin’s semi-smart rugged watches of the Fenix family, which offer an extremely wide selection of activity tracking, have sapphire screens in some versions, tough cases, battery life in the weeks, and even solar charge aid that comes in helpful during outdoor hikes. 

Is the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro the best wearable on Android so far? Yes, definitely. It has all the bells and whistles you could expect from a smartwatch in late 2022, and tops it all up with battery life that just delivers. In case battery life has been your biggest pet peeve with Wear OS smartwatches, this watch is the answer you’ve been waiting for. And it resides in arguably the most diverse ecosystem on Android – Samsung’s one.