 Samsung has finally done it. After years of hoping, dreaming, and waiting, we finally have an Android smartwatch that can give the Apple Watch a run for its money with the Galaxy Watch 5. Faster performance, a refined touch bezel, excellent battery life, and no more compromises for Android users who don't have a Samsung phone. After just one short year, Wear OS 3 has reached its full potential. Chef's kiss. That's what I wish I could have said about the Galaxy Watch 5, but for better or worse, the Watch 5 isn't that different from the Galaxy Watch 4. Seriously, if it wasn't for the different colors, I'd have a hard time picking these two watches apart. Like the Watch 4, the Galaxy Watch 5 comes in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, and you can choose between Bluetooth-only and LTE versions. It has mostly the same sensors and health tracking features like built-in GPS, ECG readings, body composition analysis, blood oxygen monitoring, and advanced sleep tracking. It's also got the same sleek minimalist design and the same Exynos W920 processor. And sorry friends, no physical rotating puzzle here. You'll have to stick to the Watch 4 Classic if that's a feature you really want. I know, it sucks, but more on that in a bit. You'd need eagle eyes to spot the major design changes this time around. The back of the Watch 5 is slightly curvier, and that's so that the sensor array can make better contact with your skin, which in turn is supposed to improve accuracy. Despite the curvier back, I didn't notice much of a difference in how the Watch 5 felt on my wrist. All that means is it's still comfortable for everyday wear, fitness, and sleep tracking. The Watch 5 also has a new infrared temperature sensor. The thing is, it doesn't really do much yet. It allegedly makes sleep tracking slightly more accurate, but Samsung basically added it so that developers can tinker around with it for future health features. Speaking of sleep tracking, Samsung says the improved 3-in-1 bioactive sensor in the Watch 5 means you get more advanced sleep coaching features. So you have to wear the Watch for a whole week before you get any tips or insights. Otherwise, the Watch 5 will track breathing and heart rate data, blood oxygen levels, and analyze your sleep stages. It can even detect if you're snoring without needing your phone like the Watch 4. None of these things are particularly exciting. And I get why. The Watch 5 is such an iterative update because frankly, it can be. Until Google launches its Pixel Watch later this year, Samsung doesn't have much, if any, real competition when it comes to Android smartwatches. The only other Wear OS 3 watches that are available right now are the Galaxy Watch 4, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and the Montblanc Summit 3. And that last watch is a whopping $1,290 compared to the Watch 5, which starts at $279.99. One of the biggest issues I had with the Galaxy Watch 4 is that you still got the short end of the stick if you didn't have a Samsung phone. Even though Wear OS 3 was supposed to give users the choice between Samsung and Google apps, the Watch 4 was still very much a Samsung product when it launched because some Google apps just weren't ready yet. But it's been a year since then. Google Assistant is available now, and that means you never have to put up with Bixby again if you don't want to. Literally, replacing Bixby was one of the first things I did setting up the watch. I also immediately downloaded Google Wallet and didn't bother with Samsung Pay. I've never been able to customize services to that extent on a Samsung watch at launch before. That's fan-freaking-tastic! Another thing I really dug were some of the updates on One UI Watch 4.5. With One UI Watch 4.5, Samsung's added a ton of new accessibility features, and that includes visibility enhancements like color filters and color correction and the ability to turn off animations or blur effects. I really appreciate that because I have such bad eyesight, so it lets me read things on a small screen much easier. Accessibility is one of the things that wearable devices really need to improve on, so this is great to see from Samsung. Samsung also made it easier to type on the Watch 5 with new keyboard options. You can now dictate, swipe to type, and use handwriting to text or search for apps in the Play Store. But while these changes were awesome, you can't help but feel that Samsung dropped the ball when it comes to battery and the touch bezel. Let's start with battery life. This was the area where the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic majorly disappointed. They were supposed to get 40 hours on a single charge, but I almost never actually got that. Most days I saw about 20 hours, so I was pretty hopeful when Samsung said it increased the size of the battery on the Watch 5 by 15% for the 40mm and 13% for the 44mm. Unfortunately, I still had to charge this 40mm review unit every day. With the Always On display enabled, you're simply not going to get anywhere near the 40-50 hour Samsung promises for the Watch 5. And if you enable the, hey Google, wake word for Google Assistant on top of the Always On display, you'd be lucky to make it through the entire workday. On a day where I had both these features enabled, I took the watch off its charger at 9am with 100% and was left with about 9% at 5pm. That was a day with heavy usage and about 60 minutes of GPS activity. But that's still not great, Bob. You'll get more mileage if you turn off the Always On display and make a conscious effort to save battery. But even doing all that, I never got more than 24 hours with the 40mm Watch 5. For some extra context, I turned off the Always On display, downloaded an offline playlist from Spotify onto the Watch 5, and went for a 30 minute GPS run without my phone. That zapped battery by a whopping 21%. I went on another 50 minute GPS run with my phone and without the music, and that drained my watch 12%. You might get better results on the larger 44mm watch just because the battery is bigger. But I would never call this true multi-day battery life. That said, Samsung has improved fast charging. It still takes about 2 hours to go from 0 to 100%, but you can get around 30-40% in about a half hour. That's enough to get you home or power a night of sleep tracking. It doesn't fully take this thing out, but it does make your charging schedule a bit easier. Another thing Samsung whiffed is the touch bezel. It was finicky on the Watch 4, but it almost seems worse on the Watch 5. You have to move your finger slowly around the border, everything just flies by really fast. It's also much too easy for your finger to slide off the edge if you're not careful. And forget about it if you've got sweaty fingers from working out or just finished washing your hands. You just don't have any of these issues with the physical rotating bezel. I actually ended up turning off the touch bezel completely because you don't need it on a Wear OS powered by Samsung, but I'll admit I'm pretty sad about it. As a health tracker, the Watch 5 gets the job done, but you have to make a few compromises. First off, you have to commit to using Samsung Health. It's a fine app, but it's a bit lacking in the social department if you're someone who enjoys friendly competition. You also have to take accuracy with a grain of salt. There were several times where the Watch 5 said my sleeping blood oxygen levels dropped somewhere between 80 to 88%. First of all, those are seriously abnormal levels that would warrant a trip to the doctor. It's also way off to what I got on the same nights from my Oura ring. I also saw some big discrepancies with my sleep stages, though overall the Watch 5 could reliably tell when I was sleeping versus when I was awake in bed. If you're wondering if you should upgrade from the Galaxy Watch 4, hold your horses. You've already got everything that's good about the Watch 5 on your wrist, and I just didn't see enough of an improvement in battery life to warrant the cost. It's a different story if you got a Samsung phone and are currently on the Galaxy Watch Active or Active 2. Samsung will be ending support for those watches after this year, and you're just going to get a better overall experience on the Watch 5. For all my quibbles and complaints, this is still hands down the best Android smartwatch you can buy. For now. There's a hell of a lot of change coming to Android wearables this fall. On top of the Pixel Watch, we're also expecting to see smartwatches from Oppo and Mobvoi slash TicWatch that feature Qualcomm's snazzy new Snapdragon W5 Plus platform. That chip might be even more powerful than what Samsung's got in the Watch 5 and the Watch 5 Pro. We're also expecting Fossil to come out with a whole new lineup, and those watches might also support the W5 Plus. Not to mention Google's long promise that certain Wear OS 2 watches will get the upgrade to Wear OS 3 before the end of 2022. Android owners are about to get a lot more options on the wearable front. And if you're not locked in Samsung's ecosystem, it might be worth waiting to see how things shake out. Well, that's all she wrote for the Galaxy Watch 5, but if you're curious about the Watch 5 Pro, I'm about to get my hands on one of those too. Drop a note in the comments about any features you're curious about. And thanks for watching.