Customer Ratings & Reviews

I bought a samsung smart watch on sale but not open boxed as advertised but when I picked it up, open the box at home it was used or looked like open box. I was excited to use it but very disappointed when I opened it.

This is the most comfortable smart watch I have tried. It's very lightweight and small. Great for the fitness enthusiast, with tracking for workouts, steps and heart rate. The tracking does a pretty good job overall, though it appeared to lose a few of my steps on occasion throughout the day. Coming from a Galaxy S3 Frontier (that I've been wearing for nearly 2 years), I was very surprised at all the features packed into this watch at it's size and weight. I can't say enough things about how lightweight it is. I almost forget that I'm wearing it. The biggest complaint I have is the lack of the rotating bezel that is on the other Samsung watches (like my S3 Frontier). It takes some getting used to, but the screen feels really good to swipe through (I'm not sure if it has some special coating, or something but it just feels "good" to swipe through stuff. It also helps that the watch is very fast and responsive. Another sort of nitpick is the actual bezel around the screen. Samsung does a good job sort of hiding the fact that the screen has a bezel, as it almost looks as if it's all screen. But there is a small bezel around the screen that I wish was usable screen space. Overall, this is an excellent smart watch, and very easy to recommend. I don't think you'll find a more comfortable smart watch than the Galaxy Watch Active at this time. Pros: Lightweight, Fast, Feels good to use, Good battery life (I'm easily getting 2 days out of it) Cons: No rotating bezel, wish there was less of a bezel around the screen

Very good watch. I bought in 2020 and i havent had to buy a new one and it's November 2023. Its held up really well and i work construction. I haven't had to replace the band or the screen so far. Highlrecommended. I do wish the battery life was just a tad longer but it does last a whole day of work and i charge at night and put on in the morning and its ready to go for the day.

I have had a Gear Fit2 Pro and before that the Gear Fit. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about for the Galaxy watch I thought it was WAY TOO BIG & BULKY for my wrist and I felt the only thing it could do that my Gear Fit couldn’t was answer calls. Meh, I am rarely far away from my phone and when I am calls just have to wait. Along came the Galaxy Watch Active. I tried it on and liked it but was it really worth the upgrade from my still working and reliable Gear Fit2 Pro? For me, a resounding YES!!!! If for no other reason than after 4 years I was ready for a new look. Aside from that, it fits way better on my wrist than the Gear Fit2 did which occasionally would read as not on my wrist because the shape & the gap between its sensor and my wrist. The Active is lightweight, stylish and it has more screen options than Gear Fit2. The band is way easier to swap out than the Gear Fit2 which is a plus. Since it looks like a watch and not a fitness tracker, changing the face and the band can help dress it up to look like a piece of jewelry and not a fitness tracker. It tracks REM, which gives a little more info than just deep versus light sleep. I don’t see what the issue with battery life is. Currently I have it set to constantly track heart rate/stress and I haven’t had any issues with it dying at the end of the day. If I had constant heart rate tracking on Gear Fit2 I would need a top off by the end of the day or at least before bed. I read many comments about the battery life and that people barely get through 2 days. I charge the Active when I shower so even if the battery doesn’t last a full 2 days w/o a charge my life is not so busy that I can’t top it off daily. Also I have the S10+ while I haven’t tried to charge the Active using my phone I know the option is there. I absolutely love the goodnight & theater features that stop the watch from coming on every time you move. My Gear Fit 2 would sometimes disturb my sleep with the flashing sensors or coming on as I rolled over. I am a little disappointed it doesn’t currently have the blood pressure feature working, I check mine at least 2x per day it would be nice to see if it is accurate and have a better indication of where I am throughout the day. I like that you can save your 4 most used workouts on one screen for quick access. I do wish you could pick from any available work out in the Samsung Health App. I roller skate and I don’t understand why that option is only available via phone. The circuit training option seems to work well and appears to give a reasonable caloric burn based on HIIT & Boot Camp workouts. I think the step tracker is pretty accurate in my experience. While the changes between the Gear Fit2 & Active may be slight, I am very happy that I purchased and for me it was worth the upgrade. I got it in silver and it looks awesome especially with an after market band. Bottom line for me, I would definitely recommend it.

The screen on the samsung active watch is Sensitive.

Love this Smartwatch. Looks/Fits great. It is the perfect size for my wrist. Has all the functions that I need in a Smartwatch....Step Counter, Heart-Rate, Sleep Tracking, Exercise Tracking, etc. Effortless syncing with my Samsung Galaxy. Texts, calls, and all app notifications show on the watch. You can even respond to texts with the watch. Just a Great Smartwatch at a great price!!

Model: SM-R500NZSAXAR Short: Hardware alone this watch looks high end with one of the best screens I have seen on a smart watch, but that is where it all ends. What I liked: - Highly visible in direct sunlight - Bixby worked excellent - Tons of watch faces and ability to create custom watch faces - Swiping left and right worked great - Easy to swap to another band - Some notifications were instant - Comfortable - Cool magnetic wireless charger (seems to charge fast) - Heartbeat, breathing, and all the "health" features are excellent What I didn't like: - No native text/sms app on the phone - Didn't always receive notification(s) of new sms/text message (when I did probably had a 5 minute lag) - Could only use Bixby to send text message from watch (I like being able to do that but not out of necessity) - Had to install 2 additional apps (Samsung Accessory Service and com.samsung.android.gearpplugin) - Out of the box required software update that took 10 minutes to complete - Didn't like how the watch band inserts under the clasp side (will swap to a 3rd party band) - Didn't come with installed protection on the watch screen (wireless charger did) - No wall wart included Long: Unboxing the watch I noticed the screen of the watch had no factory applied screen protection. Non of my other watches have one and none have scratches on the face. Time will tell how scratch resistant this watch face is well at least until 3rd party screen protectors arrive. As with all smart watches on your phone you have to download the appropriate apps, turn on bluetooth, and location services. Once that is done you sync the watch, apply the updates, and then customize your watch to your liking. The screen is vibrant and this makes the dials look really good. Had no issues with the health monitors. Seem to work exactly like my fitbit but provided better feedback. I primarily wanted the watch to use to receive emails and text/sms messages. New email notifications seem to be instant. Text/SMS messages notifications lagged and sometimes never came. Also couldn't find native messaging shortcut on the watch. I had to use Bixby to open up messages. This was really disappointing and the watch showed I needed to relax and take breaths. It showed I was stressed. I factory reset the watch and tried again. Signed into my Samsung account and still had issues with text/sms messages. My other smart watches had no problems and were instant. I would have no problem giving the phone 5 stars if the text/sms once the text/sms issues are fixed (maybe I am only one with the issue?). The hardware and design is no doubt 5 stars and that's why I would recommend it. I am sure Samsung will respond to community issues and polish the software, but nobody wants setup issues from the start.

Let start out this review by saying this watch is fantastic. The price point is perfect, the size is great, and it truly matches up to its "active" name. I purchased this watch because it's smaller than all of the other Galaxy watches and has a fitness focus which I tend to exploit tremendously in the gym. It syncs beautifully with my Note 9 and I have no issues without the rotating bevel. My ONLY issue, which happens to be a major one, is durability. I pre-ordered the watch and picked it up in the evening Friday. I wore it all day Saturday to the gym and to run errands. After the gym I was happy to see there were no scratches or dings, especially since either babied the watch the entire time. As the day went on, the face already has a scratch in the center. It is not a large scratch but it can still be seen and felt. It's important to note that I babied the watch the ENTIRE day. It's unfortunate because if the watch scratches that easily throughout regular day wear I am extremely concerned wearing it in the gym. Still a great watch with awesome features, but the durability is why I give it two stars.

I got this watch after having so many issues with the fitbit Versa. This watch is far superior to me. I have not had one issue with the Samsung active. I was scared the watch would be too big as I have very small wrists. It is not too big at all. Very attractive on small wrists. The watch syncs very well on my Note 8. Watch bands are very easy to switch out. I find the watch to be accurate as far as steps. The only bad thing I can say about the watch is the battery. You can get 1 1/2 days out of it. But I do not use the watch to monitor my sleep so I charge it at night while sleeping and I am ready to go for the day. So the battery really is not an issue for me. If you want to use the watch to monitor sleep I am not sure how that would work as far as when to charge it. But I would choose this over the fitbit Versa every single time esp if you have a samsung phone. They work together very very well !!!!

I spent a month using a Galaxy Watch with an S10+. I switched to the Galaxy from an iPhone and purchased the Galaxy Watch Active to replace my Apple Watch Series 3. I was debating between the flagship Galaxy Watch and the Active. I eventually chose the Active because I mainly use a smartwatch for fitness and prefer the design and form factor of the Active. One thing I never liked as an Apple Watch owner was the boring, square, utilitarian design of the Apple Watch. The smooth and stylish round face of the Active looks much better than my old Apple Watch and even slightly better than the Galaxy Watch IMO. Its very unobtrusive and blends in with your wardrobe without standing out. The Active gives me pretty good battery life. I get just about two days off a charge. I strictly use the watch for fitness. I don’t use it for playing music, GPS navigation or non-fitness related apps. The processor is snappy enough for my needs. The OLED display is nice and crisp. The interface is not the most intuitive to operate and the omission of the rotating bezel makes it even tougher. That’s one of my gripes. The screen is bright enough for most uses but can wash out and disappear in very bright sunlight, even at max brightness. Performance-wise, I’d heard complaints about the step counter being inaccurate. I believe I got lucky because I compared the Active to my old iPhone, my S3 Apple Watch, my work phone (S8+) and even a stand-alone pedometer. It was consistent among all devices in tests, including the pedometer. I’m comfortable with it. The band is soft, very comfortable and easy to clean. The watch ships with two bands, short and long. The grey and silver combo may appear boring at first glance but it looks really nice on the wrist and matches any outfit worn. The silver case is also versatile enough to match any color or style band you throw at it. You can place and answer calls from the watch but not hold conversations from it. That is because it does not have a speaker and is another of my gripes. Whenever you make or answer calls, it simply says continue on handset. Call place/reject can be useful, but only if you have earbuds or some other type of secondary external audio device to handle calls handsfree. Otherwise, you may as well just use the phone. I don’t normally place lengthy calls through a smartwatch but it was very convenient to have the ability to make, answer and even have a very brief phone conversation when necessary on my Apple Watch. Another thing that irked me about this watch was the debacle with the blood pressure monitoring. In the weeks leading up to launch, the Active was being touted as the only smartwatch capable of monitoring blood pressure. I personally know people who bought the watch specifically and almost solely for that reason. What they got instead was lots of frustration. The app was delayed and is only compatible with certain phones. It also requires users participate in a research program and share their data. After going through the delays and agreeing to participate in the study, many users are reporting glitches, shaky reliability and wildly inaccurate results. I know people who decided to pass on installing the app for that reason. If this was supposed to be an answer to the new Apple Watch ECG feature, it failed big time. A lot of people actually returned the watch after the blood pressure monitoring turned out to be such a huge disappointment. I personally like the Active, particularly the styling. The best feature of the watch is by far the price. I realize the trade-offs will very likely be too numerous for some and the blood pressure ordeal left a bad taste for many who pre-ordered. I also saw that the flagship Galaxy Watches were recently on sale for $50 off. That only further complicates the decision making process. I personally can live with the trade-offs, although some are definitely more irksome than others. I consider the Active more of an activity tracker than a smartwatch, hence its name. As long as those are the expectations going in, there is likely to be far lest disappointment. So to sum all this up in two sentences: * If you want a true smartwatch comparable to an Apple Watch, buy the Galaxy Watch. * If you primarily want an activity tracker that will also give you alerts and limited apps, buy the Active.

This is an overall great value for any occupation and any occasion. My workplace is an industrial package center. After getting tired of missing calls/texts I decided to finally jump the gun after buying the Galaxy S10. I went along with the black version since the casing is a hard composite that I don’t have to worry about scratching. This is as opposed to the aluminum casings on the other color watches. Build wise I would not have bought this if the market for 3rd party accessories was non-existent. I found a great screen protector that helps me stay confident about wearing the watch to work, and the Milanese style strap I bought allows me to quickly adjust the location of the watch body to keep it away from machinery when necessary. The OEM strap is very comfortable but having to readjust it proved to be a nuisance. Style wise the 40mm casing looks just right on me. I am 5’5” and typically wear smaller 38mm watches. Not sure if I would like it as much if the size was any smaller. It’s a preference, but we all have our vanities about us. The black screen on black bezel also makes the screen look bigger than what it really is, which is good. I am sure all of us would have preferred a smaller bezel like what Samsung has done with their Galaxy line of phones though. The actual watch is simple to navigate. The lack of the rotating bezel makes it easier to navigate through touch compared to the preceding Galaxy Watch devices where the bezel was raised and in the way. If you can memorize what application is which icon on the navigation screen, then scrolling through them one-by-one with the old bezel is pointless. That’s my opinion as somebody who’s never owned one of those devices. Lack of a speaker is ok. When it is all said and done this is a fitness track first. It works out because I have the Galaxy Buds (preorder bonus) anyways for when I take incoming calls. Back to this being a fitness tracker. The pedometer and floor count may be questionable at best, but I enjoy being able to see my heart rate, stress levels, and sleep habits. Lastly, it may not have a speaker, but it still has GPS! The Navigation Pro app I paid for is very useful for pedestrian travel. I don’t need a map on my wrist, so simply telling me where and when to turn is great. What I did not realize is that the companion app also syncs with my Android Auto in my car. Whenever I put in an address it’ll give me the turn-by-turn on my wrist. Since I keep my GPS on mute, I found the vibration for an incoming turn/exit to be very handy.

Nice watch. The heart rate monitor is often grayed out while running. It also measured way under what the treadmill, my connected UA shoes, versa, and applewtch says, usually by almost a full mile. The GPS works well and Bluetooth is also good. Spotify integration is nice too. Battery life is sub-par. If you run for an hour without your phone, listening to spotify on your bluetooth headphones, you will need a charge right when your done (if you make it). It is one of the most comfortable of the fitness watches. I personally think it is great looking watch. The versa is a better watch for me but i never used it with a Samsung phone (iphone and oneplus 6t). The Galaxy watch is much better looking than the Versa though (I dont like sqare watches very much). Improve the battery, step tracking accuracy, and let me take a call on the watch and it will be a 5/5.

I was never a watch person and I thought a smartwatch was completely unnecessary, but when I decided to I wanted a fitness tracker I opted for the Galaxy Watch Active since I am a Samsung Galaxy S9 user, like the Samsung Health app and use Spotify. While the battery life rating on the watch is not the greatest it did not bother me as I won't sleep with a watch on, so putting it on the charger each night was no big deal. After owning the watch for a few weeks I have fallen in love with it. It works perfectly with my phone, does everything I need it too and more, and the price could not be beat for a quality brand name smartwatch. I would recommend this smartwatch to anyone looking for premium smartwatch at a reasonable price.

I've never owned a smart watch or Fitbit before, so I was uncertain of how much I would like this product when I bought it. Getting used to it took a little bit of time, but now that I know how to use it, it has proven to be extremely useful for my daily life. Below are a few of the ways I use and enjoy my smartwatch. Health & Fitness: the watch tracks my heartbeat, stress, sleep (to include depth of sleep), steps, and when I walk or run for more than 10 minutes. It obviously links with Samsung Health (not certain about other health apps), and gives you a basic display on your watch of your activities and Calories lost during the day. I'm a pretty lazy person by nature, but having all that information at my wrist helps to keep me motivated to move around a bit more. Notifications: When paired with my phone, I can see messages, emails, and other notifications from my phone without ever pulling it out of my pocket. I can even respond to messages with 20 customizable responses, write words on the watch face, or even speak into the watch for it to write my words down. Music control: I can switch songs and turn up the volume to my headphones, all from my watch. Very useful since you can see the song title on the face. Samsung Pay: I can pay for many of my purchases simply by putting my wrist near the card reader. If I forget my wallet at home, I know there are many places I can still go, instead of being forced to return home. Pick your favorite watch face: There are many different watch faces, which can focus on utility or fashion. Pick whichever one you want, and even change what is displayed on them. Various apps: You can set calendar dates, add reminders, alarms, favorite contacts to easily message, check the week's weather, and do even more, all without ever pulling out your phone. I only have a few minor complaints about it. I wish some of the apps on the store were included from the start and didn't require you to purchase them. One instance of this is the navigation app. If I'm walking somewhere new, having a navigator on my wrist would be awesome, but I don't really want to pay an additional $2 or $5 for it (can't remember the price). Also, even if you have Samsung Pay for your phone with credit cards saved on there, those cards don't transfer to your watch. You will have to add and activate your cards again for use specifically with your watch. As for the speech to text function, it doesn't seem to be as accurate as other things I've used. You'll have to make sure to speak clearly and slowly, and even then you may have to fix a few mistakes. Compared to all the benefits the watch gives me, though, these are all minor complaints that would make the watch even more awesome if fixed. If you've been curious about getting a smart watch, I would most certainly recommend it. Most likely, you'll be glad you did.

You just cant beat this watch for the price and functionality! Wearable techs that have similar feature just cost so much more. I ended up preordering two, one for the wife and one for myself. Oh boy, this thing seriously just disappears on your wrist. It's so light that you'd forget you have it on you! Great build quality, images are sharp and so far the screens transition so smoothly from one to the next. The watch faces are highly customizable. It also has NFC built in so you can pay with SamsungPay on the go. All around great tech and best bang for the buck. Users be warned using the watch during any type of water involved activities. You HAVE to turn on water mode before getting it wet regardless of the water resistant rating. :)

Let me start by saying that i'm not a watch guy. Like at all. I turned the corner with this watch. I love it! It's comfortable to wear, even sleeping. It's not as fancy as the newer ones, but I didn't want to spend twice as much to find out that I don't like watches. I can't live without mine now though, I wear it constantly. The features are great, the battery life is fairly good (day and a half roughly) and the functionality with a compatible phone really puts this over the top. Highly recommend!

Good looking watch, not too gaudy. Came with a charging disk. No instructions though. Was easy to set up through once you then it on it tells you to use the wear app whice was already downloaded onto my phone. I get all notifications snapchat, Facebook, phone calls and text. You can't answer snaps or Facebook on the watch and when you answer the phone call it answers it onto your phone. Haven't responded to a text yet on it but its possible. Glad I decided to spend the money on this instead of buying a cheap Chinese knock off like I planned on originally.

When I purchased this watch, I agonized over which one to buy; the active or the active 2. The on-line reviews for both were very good and similar in functionality. Ultimately I decided on the active because of the price difference and how gorgeous the rose gold looked. Unfortunately after wearing the watch for three weeks I discovered some critical flaws: battery life and heart rate monitor. The watch wouldn't carry more than 30 hours of battery life and it felt like I was always having to place the watch on the charger throughout the day. This was particularly annoying when I went on travel for two days and forgot to bring the charger with me. The second issue I discovered was the heart rate monitor failed to detect my heart rate a quarter of the time. When I spoke to the Best Buy sales associate about this, they mentioned that this was a common complaint with customers because of the flat design of the watch. I finally decided to return the watch and purchase an active 2. Best Buy was fantastic about accepting my return and didn't give me ANY HASSEL which I really appreciated. BLUF- The active is a beautifully designed watch, but not very practical if you don't find yourself near a charger all day.

I've never been able to really wear watches, didn't like anything tight around my wrist. But when i was diagnosed with a heart condition, my doctor recommended that I get a smart watch the a HR tracker. I tried a fitbit but I didn't like how it looked or felt. Then, after a year or so, I decided to try the Watch Active and I absolutely love it! Feels great on, easy to work, sends all the information to my Galaxy phone and it isn't bothersome at all!

It is good looking watch. But compared to the Gear S3 has some big limitations. The battery runs out really fast - 24 hours! Can not take calls on the watch - must use the phone. But has good health tracking features and it has lighter weight and easier to use. The price is reasonable for the features.