Galaxy Watch 5: Here's What Samsung's Upgrading for 2022 - CNET

Samsung's newest watches, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, are arriving Aug.

Last year's Samsung watch was the debut of Google's new Wear OS, and smartwatches are in search of better battery life.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5, revealed Wednesday during the company's latest Unpacked event, is Samsung's latest attempt to make the ultimate Android watch following last year's Galaxy Watch 4.

Meanwhile, Samsung's new watches are promising longer battery life over last year, a skin temperature sensor and a supposedly more durable sapphire crystal for the watch face instead of Gorilla Glass?

But Samsung's latest watch model looks like a more modest upgrade compared to last year, with only a few notable changes to the equation.

The previous Watch 4 had a 361-mAh battery for the 44mm size, or 247 mAh for the 40mm version.

The bigger jump comes in the new Watch 5 Pro model, which has a huge 590-mAh battery.

The look of the Galaxy Watch 5, in general, remains the same.

Samsung's adding a bunch of new watch faces this year, on top of a collection that already were pretty excellent last year?

The Watch 5 Pro is, of course, promising an even better sapphire crystal, plus a titanium case around the watch (versus aluminum on the regular Watch 5). .

Notably, neither watch uses Qualcomm's recently announced Snapdragon W5 chip, which promises better battery life and is coming to other Wear OS watches later this year.

Much like the Galaxy Watch 4 last year (and other new Wear OS 3 watches we know of), the Watch 5 won't work with iOS

If this remains true, it's a big limit to how appealing the Watch 5 will be to most Android phone owners: it's worth waiting for Google's Pixel Watch, which is expected by the end of the year, to see how its health features compare