With its new and unique health features (like the BIA), sleek designs, and smart looks, Samsung has committed itself to helping users reach their health and wellness goals, as well as express their personal style.
According to Counterpoint Research report, Samsung’s market share in the global smartwatch shipments market increased from 8% in 2019 to over 14% in 2021.
Samsung is constantly working on its smartwatch segment by
- Upgrading to better health features like the BIA (unique to Samsung)
- Collaborating with Google’s Wear OS and other health and wellness and fitness applications
- Updating its hardware with new and better sensors
All the new features and updates allow Samsung users to gain maximum health insights on their wrists.
Let’s dive in and explore the health features Samsung smartwatches are here to offer.
Health features of Samsung smartwatches
In this article, we will discuss the health features offered in Samsung’s latest smartwatch- Samsung Galaxy Series 4
- Body composition analysis
With its new Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis sensor, the Samsung smartwatch can measure your overall body composition. That includes-
- Your weight
- Skeletal muscle (bone density)
- Fat mass
- Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
- Body Mass Index (BMI)
- Body water
- Body fat percentage etc.
All you need to do is place your middle and ring finger on the home and back keys and stay still for 15- 20 seconds. The watch sends microcurrents through your body. The resistance to the flow of current in the body is the basis for calculating body composition.
Regular body composition analysis allows you to track how different kinds of food and lifestyles affect your body. It helps you make healthier lifestyle choices.
While it is difficult to analyse the accuracy of the metrics, many reviewers have found Samsung’s body composition analysis quite accurate. It does give you a rough idea of your body metrics.
However, the BIA sensor is not for everyone. People battling body dysmorphia, having a pacemaker and pregnant women must seek professional medical advice before using it. Also, it is wise if children under the age of 20 avoid using it.
To learn more about body composition analysis on Samsung watch, read this article.
- Blood oxygen level (SpO2)
Samsung’s new BioActive sensor can measure the oxygen levels in blood better than its previous versions. A reading between 95 and 99 is considered normal.
Samsung Galaxy series 4 smartwatch passively measures your blood oxygen levels. You need not press buttons or activate them for measurement. It tracks your oxygen levels while sleeping, working out and performing any other activities.
- Heart health tracking
Samsung smartwatch can help you proactively take care of your heart health with a heart rate monitor, the ECG and BP monitor.
The heart rate monitor helps you track your heart rate during walks, working out and performing various other activities. ECG helps in detecting atrial fibrillation by tracking irregularities in your heart rhythms. And the BP monitor helps you keep a check on your blood pressure.
The three combined help you keep a check on your cardiovascular health.
However, for ECG to measure heart rhythms accurately, you need to position the watch properly on the wrist. A slight improper positioning or movement leads to false readings.
Note- The ECG and BP features are unavailable in India due to regulatory restrictions. Samsung is in talks with concerned authorities to release them in India soon.
- Sleep tracking
Wearing your Samsung smartwatch to bed will help you track your sleep. The watch monitors your sleep throughout the night. It gives you a complete breakdown of
- Your sleep timings
- Your sleep stages- REM, deep, wakefulness
- Your movement during sleep
- Your blood oxygen levels while sleeping
- Detects your snoring (when connected to a compatible smartphone) and a lot more.
Based on all these factors, it gives you a sleep score. You can access all of this information on the Samsung Health Monitor App and optimise your sleep schedule accordingly.
During the night, blood oxygen levels are measured once every minute. It is helpful for people with sleep apnea and also helps detect sleep apnea.
- Stress monitoring
Keeping a track of your sleep, heart rate and blood oxygen levels, the Samsung smartwatch can detect your stress levels. You can check your stress level on the Samsung health monitor app. The app launches breathing sessions as per your stress levels to help you relax.
Though Samsung’s stress monitor is not as accurate as Fitbit, it is catching up.
- Fitness tracking
The majority of the users use smartwatches for fitness tracking. Samsung, knowing the user requirements, is constantly updating its fitness tracking capabilities.
- Samsung has advanced running metrics that track asymmetry, flight time, vertical oscillation etc., to help you analyse your running habits.
- It also allows you to track activities with friends and family by connecting over Samsung’s health app. You can set up friendly competitions and achieve your fitness goals in a fun and interactive way.
- Samsung health has fitness programs, where you receive workout videos and expert guidance on your workouts.
The basic fitness and workout tracking on Samsung smartwatches work fine. But, you need to manually add the type of workout. Auto workout detection is better on the Apple smartwatch.
- Activity monitor
Samsung’s activity monitor detects your activity. It can track your activities like walking, running, etc., count your steps, detect your active time, track calories burned, and much more.
It also helps in detecting a fall and connecting with emergency SOS services. This useful feature comes in handy for the elderly.
- Food tracking
You can record your daily diet (meals and snacks) on the Samsung health app. The app helps you understand your eating habits by giving you a breakdown of nutrients and calories consumed. It helps build healthy eating habits.
- Women’s health
Samsung has partnered with Glow to help women track their menstrual health. It helps in tracking the menstrual cycle, understanding related symptoms, managing premenstrual syndrome, and gaining personalised insights.
Effectiveness of Samsung’s health features
| Latest-model | Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 |
| Health features↓ | (Out of 10) |
| Body composition analysis | 10 |
| Blood oxygen levels | 9 |
| Heart rate monitor | 10 |
| ECG | 8 |
| Blood Pressure monitor | 8 |
| Sleep tracking | 8 |
| Stress monitor | 7 |
| Fitness tracking | 9 |
| Activity monitor | 8 |
| Fall detection | 8 |
| Price starting from | $250 |
It is important to note that all the health and fitness tracking features in the smartwatch are to make you proactive towards living a healthy life. They must not be considered a substitute for medical tests, devices, and doctor consultations.
Samsung’s move in the smartwatch market
- New 3-in-1 sensor
Instead of having different sensors, Samsung has brought in the new 3-in-1 BioActive sensor that measures your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and body composition. The sensor has higher accuracy and reduces the number of sensors being used.
One BioActive sensor helps in
- Heart rate tracking
- Blood oxygen tracking
- AFib irregular heartbeat detection
- Sleep tracking
- Snore detection
- Body composition analysis
- Guided workouts
- Collaboration with Google Wear OS
Samsung smartwatches have been using Tizen OS for a long time. But in 2020, Samsung collaborated with Google to bring on the Wear OS in its smartwatches. The collaboration makes Samsung watches compatible with the Google play store, allowing users to download apps and use features like Google Maps and Google Pay on the smartwatch.
- Collaborations with other health apps
Samsung has collaborated with many health applications like Calm, Glow, Lifesum, Centr, adidas Running, Strava and many others to help users manage their mental and physical health under one roof.
- Samsung ecosystem
Like Apple retaining its customers in the Apple ecosystem, Samsung is looking to get users into the Samsung ecosystem. Its latest Galaxy Series 4 smartwatches work the best when paired with Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
They are incompatible with iOS devices, and other android users will have to install Samsung Health Monitor App to pair it with their devices.
Samsung’s latest update
Samsung announced its latest update on 8th February 2022. In the update,
- Samsung improved its advanced interval training designed for cyclists and runners
- Introduced a new sleep coaching programme
- Introduced a new digital fitness program in collaboration with Centr
- Brought in deeper analysis and insights on heart health, body composition analysis and sleep tracking.
Future plans of Samsung smartwatches
“We are excited to continue the effort as part of our wider initiative to redefine holistic wellness through expanded experiences and new innovations.”
-Janghyun Yoon, EVP and Head of S/W platform team, Samsung Electronics.
Samsung entered the smartwatches market in 2013 and has never looked back. It is constantly working on updating the capabilities and accuracy of its smartwatches.
- According to a Korean publication TheElec, Samsung might be launching its new Samsung Galaxy series 5 smartwatch in mid-2022.
- Samsung is also rumoured to be working on solar-powered smartwatches.
Samsung might be working on a lot of things. But we know one thing for sure- It is on the verge of making the best smartwatch for Android users.
We can expect new and better health features on Samsung smartwatches in the near future!
