Samsung Galaxy Match 3 evaluate: A glossy cut price for wearable freshmen

Samsung’s dedication to health wearables has been considerably haphazard. The corporate put a maintain on health bands again in 2022, and expanded to the sensible ring format final yr. However as the worth of Galaxy Watches has saved climbing, making them inaccessible to a big chunk of health-conscious folks, the corporate is once more returning to its inexpensive roots.

The newest from Samsung is the Galaxy Match 3, a health band that appears extra like a glossy smartwatch. It’s stunning, feature-loaded, and heavy on compromises that you’d in any other case count on from a smartwatch — all for simply $60 a pop.

It serves its personal set of useful highs and inexplicable lows. If you’re somebody who’s averse to the concept of spending a whole bunch of {dollars} on a wearable, however are enticed by the concept of an inexpensive health tracker that doesn’t seem like a child’s toy, learn on to find whether or not the Galaxy Match 3 deserves a spot in your bucket record.

Implausible construct, attractive show

The Galaxy Match 3 is a lovely piece of wearable {hardware}. It’s light-weight, however constructed properly. The aluminum casing offers it a premium on-wrist really feel, however different parts of the gadget don’t really feel low cost, both. The clasp mechanism is fairly safe, and the silicone band additionally feels prime quality.

It’s thinner than a mean smartwatch, however with the suitable analog watch face, it really appears much more understated — and in a great way — in comparison with cumbersome smartwatches with their cheesy watch faces and unwieldy on-hand presence.

You virtually don’t really feel it in your wrist, which is a serious win. I’ve a tough time attempting to disregard the majority on my wrist each time I’m sporting an everyday smartwatch from Samsung or Apple.

The Samsung health band not solely appears higher, however its light-weight profile makes it far simpler to sleep with. The construct is 5ATM and IP68-rated, which implies it’s dust-tight and may survive immersion in water at a depth of as much as 1.5 meters for a most length of half-hour.

Samsung affords the Galaxy Match 3 in three colours, whereas the bands can be found in a variety of shades, however no different materials alternative other than soft-feel rubber. Just a few third-party manufacturers, nonetheless, promote suitable bands in several types and even materials selections, together with leather-based, through Amazon and different e-commerce websites.

The AMOLED show is a key spotlight of the Galaxy Match 3. Though the bezels usually are not symmetrical, that show is surprisingly sharp and fairly vibrant. You’ll by no means really feel the necessity to crank it past the 70% stage even beneath broad daylight.

In case you’re within the specs, the panel measures 4 centimeters diagonally, affords a decision of 256 x 402 pixels, and may produce 16 million colours. Plus, there’s additionally a lightweight sensor that does a suitable job of computerized brightness adjustment primarily based on ambient lighting.

There’s an always-on show characteristic obtainable, and you too can tweak the screen-on time numbers. For added flexibility, you’ll be able to activate the tap-to-wake characteristic, and there’s additionally an choice to activate the display screen as quickly as you elevate your wrist. All these options work flawlessly.

Operating the present on the software program facet is the open-source RTOS platform with a Samsung pores and skin on prime, whereas the modest internals are rounded off by 16MB of RAM and 256 MB of onboard storage. Sure, you learn that proper.

That additionally explains why the Galaxy Match 3 retains sending you to the linked smartphone for even probably the most fundamental customization and management duties. However to Samsung’s credit score, all contact interactions really feel fluid, and I’ve barely ever run into any stutters or lags on the inexpensive health band.

There’s a fairly various number of watch faces obtainable within the companion app, and you may create your customized faces, too. You’ll be able to’t, nonetheless, obtain any third-party watch faces. Sadly, the connectivity scenario can be fairly barebones right here.

There’s no mobile model on provide, and neither is there GPS or NFC performance. Speaking in regards to the sensor stack, the Galaxy Match 3 comes outfitted with an accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, and an optical coronary heart fee sensor.

Right here’s the worst half. That is an Android-only health band, which implies it merely received’t work with an iPhone. And on prime of that, among the options, equivalent to distant digicam shutter and snore detection, are unique to Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.

Restricted software program, however expansive options

The Galaxy Match 3 can finest be described as a glorified health tracker, one which has a larger-than-average display screen, however restricted software program versatility. It isn’t the total Put on OS expertise, which implies there are not any apps to put in. No matter little you get is through the Samsung Put on app, which additionally ties into the Samsung Well being app.

The person interface is fairly clear, and there’s barely any studying curve right here previous the preliminary setup. There’s a single residence button on the facet, which could be personalized to a double-press gesture, as properly. For the remainder, you primarily depend on swipe gestures.

A vertical downward swipe from the highest edge pulls the management heart, a swipe from the left or proper edge opens the notifications space and the fast entry exercise tiles. A swipe-up gesture from the underside edge opens the house menu.

The Well being dashboard is the place you entry your every day exercise, sleep, exercise, and launch measurement for coronary heart fee monitoring, blood oxygen saturation, and even stress stage. The latter is an enigma, as a result of it someway at all times exhibits me in a high-stress scenario, even when I’m having an excellent time chilling or studying comics.

This Well being web page additionally acts as a every day journal, the place you log particulars equivalent to meals and water, or monitor the cycles. You’ll be able to edit the gadgets showing within the dashboard, however it could solely be accomplished within the companion app. It is a recurring theme for a wide range of different duties, the place you want to offload an ongoing exercise to the linked smartphone.

There’s no keyboard or a system-wide search instrument on provide right here. Neither is there any voice dictation facility obtainable. You’ll be able to deal with calls, however can’t reply because of the lack of an onboard mic or speaker. Furthermore, for message notifications, you’ll be able to choose from a pre-loaded response template, however can’t craft your personal reply.

For some cause, Samsung put a calculator app on the Galaxy Match 3, however didn’t give it entry to the Contacts on the linked telephone. It will have been handy if the Watch allowed customers to at the very least place a name through the linked telephone or ship SMS texts.

I’ve grown fairly keen on the Discover My Telephone characteristic on the Samsung health band. Enabling it performs a loud audio cue on the paired telephone, alongside vibration and on-screen visible alert. I usually misplace my devices, and for my forgetful methods, this characteristic is nothing in need of a godsend.

The Galaxy Match 3 affords assist for over 100 exercise actions, and computerized recognition for a wholesome few, equivalent to swimming, rowing, and elliptical. The latter facility should, nonetheless, be enabled manually from throughout the companion app.

There’s additionally an emergency SOS characteristic that may be activated by urgent the house button 5 instances in fast succession. Doing so initiates an emergency name from the linked telephone, and in addition shares your location and an SOS message with the designated emergency contacts.

Tied to it’s a customizable fall detection system, which makes use of the onboard sensors to evaluate if customers have had one such occasion. For such eventualities, customers will probably be prompted to dial the emergency providers and in addition select to point out their medical particulars on the display screen.

For the latter, customers should save particulars equivalent to their title, medical circumstances, blood varieties, allergic reactions, treatment, well being notes, and deal with, amongst others, into the cellular app firsthand. You want to comply with an identical on-phone routine for establishing app notification habits or creating customized watch faces.

On-point well being and wellness monitoring

There may be each good and unhealthy information right here. The Galaxy Match 3 is pretty correct, in a barely bold means. In comparison with the chest-strapped Polar H9, the guts fee exercise readings have been at all times on the upper facet, with a imply deviation of roughly 0.5 to 2 p.c.

Throughout a exercise lasting for roughly quarter-hour, the place the guts fee variation was roughly within the 85-185 bpm vary, the Galaxy Match was persistently off the mark. When averaged, the imply deviation was low, but it surely usually registered random spikes value 5-20 bpm regardless of no obvious enhance within the exercise depth.

Shifting over to extra fundamental exercises, like a brisk morning stroll, the Galaxy Match 3 carried out properly. In comparison towards a Xiaomi health band, the gap disparity between the trackers was 1.64 vs 1.62 miles and 1,897 steps vs 1,790 steps.

In comparison towards an Apple Watch Collection 8, the Galaxy Watch Match 3 fared properly. Nonetheless, I seen that it sporadically counted ghost steps, turning an precise 2.4-mile run (measured through GPS) right into a 2.8-mile journey.

As soon as once more, the larger distinction arises when measuring the guts fee exercise within the larger depth phases. The place Apple’s smartwatch measured the common coronary heart fee at 120 bpm, the Galaxy Match 3 put it at 116 bpm. On the Samsung wearable’s display screen, you too can take a peek at different metrics equivalent to velocity, calorie burnout, and HR zones.

If working is your sole exercise format, and also you aren’t bothered an excessive amount of about minute facets equivalent to stride size or floor contact length, the Galaxy Match 3 ought to serve simply advantageous. However when you’re on the lookout for extra insights, like vitality readiness or restoration progress, you will need to spend extra on a full-fledged smartwatch.

Samsung claims the Galaxy Match 3 can routinely acknowledge exercises, however as soon as once more, it’s not a totally dependable scenario. On just a few events, it merely didn’t acknowledge me strolling and solely began recording the step after I had walked for practically half a mile.

It’s value declaring that this watch lacks GPS, which implies you miss out on perks like route planning or navigation. For that, you want to carry a telephone with the companion app put in. As soon as once more, I used to be not too bothered by it, since I run the identical path day by day, and I’m extra involved with coronary heart fee knowledge and calorie burn figures.

You’ll be able to port all of the well being knowledge collected by Samsung wearable to Android’s unified Well being Join platform. Morever, the info can be synced with third-party well being platforms equivalent to Strava.

Sleep monitoring is respectable, for probably the most half

Sleep logging is a tad inaccurate. Over a interval of seven weeks, I seen that the readings have been roughly off by 10-12% for the web shut-eye time recorded between the Galaxy Match 3 and the Apple Watch Collection 8.

On just a few events, it drew a clean on the REM sleep, whereas the Apple smartwatch recorded wherever between 60-90 minutes. However basically, it wasn’t too off the mark. On my most up-to-date sleep journey, the web sleep time logged by the Galaxy wearable was 5 hours and 45 minutes, whereas Apple Watch Collection 8 recorded 5 hours and 17 minutes.

The sleep stage breakdown was additionally just about consistent with what the Apple Watch Collection 8 supplied. What I did discover, nonetheless, was that the Match 3’s accuracy regularly elevated over time, although there are some useful frustrations.

For instance, you want to open the cellular app to see particulars of your sleep exercise, even for the fundamental parameters. Fortunately, the cellular app affords loads of significant insights into your sleep exercise.

It charges your sleep rating graded throughout 4 ranges viz. Wants Consideration, Truthful, Good, and Wonderful. It affords a standalone breakdown of whether or not the sleep session supplied sufficient bodily restoration, restfulness, and psychological restoration

The Galaxy Match 3 additionally retains an eye fixed on the blood oxygen stage throughout sleep, and retains a log of situations the place it might have dipped beneath the 90% saturation stage. There’s additionally a snore detection characteristic, which information audio information through your telephone’s mic.

It really works as marketed, but it surely’s considerably embarrassing to listen to your raucous loud night breathing within the sleep logs. Nonetheless, I want that the wearable might additionally log respiration and coronary heart charges, and put them within the every day sleep measurement journal.

These mixed metrics are used for sleep apnea detection, and it will have been good for the Galaxy Match 3 to measure these whereas asleep. Samsung already affords this characteristic on the Galaxy Watch lineup, however has excluded it for the Match sequence bands.

On the optimistic facet, Samsung isn’t burdening customers with an awesome set of data, a few of which might not be of any significant worth. The strategy right here is sticking with the fundamentals, and the Galaxy Match 3 does a advantageous job at it with out going haywire on the fundamentals.

A rewarding battery life

Samsung claims a battery life value 13 days on a single cost. Your mileage will fluctuate dramatically, relying on plenty of elements. Due to the small 208mAh onboard battery, you’ll be able to prime it up in lower than an hour, and get 60% juice in only half an hour.

Now, about these battery endurance figures, which put mainstream smartwatches to disgrace. It’s achievable beneath extraordinarily managed circumstances, which don’t realistically mirror how a mean individual makes use of a smartwatch.

When you’ve got always-on show mode enabled, have activated wrist-detection, work out for an hour, work together with notifications, and preserve 15-20 minutes of on-screen exercise, you’ll be able to rise up to 5 days of battery life per charging session.

With the always-on mode disabled, I might get a most of eight days. Furthermore, when you allow steady coronary heart fee monitoring — as a substitute of guide monitoring or computerized measurement per ten minutes — the battery effectivity comes down.

Even in case you are getting 4-5 days of utilization with a single cost, it’s a unbelievable leap. A mean smartwatch barely lasts over two days, and you may solely get extra mileage while you shift to low-power modes or swap to the hybrid OS structure on units such because the OnePlus Watch 2.

One of many largest causes that I’ve a love-hate relationship with smartwatches is that they burden me with one more gadget to cost every day. Furthermore, having to hold a customized charging puck for each is one more inconvenience.

With the Galaxy Match 3, the charging headache is fractional, and I recognize this sensible perk. For battery top-up, Samsung affords a customized pogo pin connector with a USB-C outlet on the opposite finish, however no charging adapter or brick within the retail bundle.

Verdict: A simple choose for freshmen

At an asking worth of simply $60, the Galaxy Match 3 will get plenty of issues proper. It appears dramatically higher than a majority of health bands on the market, affords a strong set of exercise options, and delivers a dependable biomarker and wellness monitoring expertise.

Sure, the dearth of GPS and over-reliance on a companion app are irritating. And so is the hobbled connectivity and the shortcoming to correctly deal with calls or texts. However it makes up for these missteps with a unbelievable battery life, a no-frills software program strategy, and a lovely OLED display screen.

In case your funds can’t exceed the $100 threshold, the one different choice I can suggest is the Amazfit Energetic 2. However when you don’t need to cough up that type of money, merely search to get a begin with health wearables, or require a tracker for fundamental workout routines solely, the Galaxy Match 3 will serve you simply advantageous at a nice cut price.

Samsung Galaxy Match 3 is up for grabs at $60 from Samsung Retailer.