Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE Review: Premium price for premium features and design

In the last week of 2019, South Korean tech major, Samsung, threw in one last surprise for its consumers in India by launching an all-new 4G variant of the Watch Active 2 in the country. This LTE version of the Watch brought with it everything that the Watch Active 2 did, but promised to be better as it could always stay connected to the outside world through its in-built e-sim capable of handling 4G networks.

Samsung launched this version of the smartwatch with a 44mm dial clad in steel, silver, black or gold finish, which regardless of the buyer’s choice would be available to them for Rs 35,990.

Now at the price, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE stands out as one of the more expensive smartwatches available in the market right now. However, Samsung has attempted to justify the price tag with the support of not just 4G LTE, but also the inclusion of a number of other premium features.

We’ve had the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE with us for a while now. Read our review to find out if it’s the smartwatch for you.

Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE: Design and display

For anyone who has used the original Galaxy Watch Active, the Watch Active 2 LTE’s design would definitely come as a welcome upgrade. As compared to its successor, this new 4G enabled smartwatch flaunts a slightly heftier body, with curves that are more pronounced than what we saw on last year’s Watch Active.

Another point of differentiation between the designs of the two smartwatches are the side-mounted buttons. While both offer a two-button set-up on the right of the frame, on the Watch Active 2 LTE, the upper button is a pill-shaped one -- instead of two round ones on the Watch Active.

This latest smartwatch from Samsung has a dial size of 44mm, which should feel just about the right size on most wrists. It’s easy to put on, and once there, it sits nicely on your wrist. The smartwatch isn’t too heavy too, and at 30g without the strap, it’s lighter than a lot of competing smartwatches in the market -- but thankfully isn’t as light as the original Watch Active which was almost toy-like at 25 grams.

Another crucial aspect where the Watch Active 2 LTE has improved over the Watch Active is in terms of the strap that’s being used on the new smartwatch. Unlike the silicone strap flaunting Watch Active, the Watch Active 2 LTE brings with it a leather strap that not only is more visually appealing but is also much easier on the wrist if you plan to wear it for long hours.

But once you’re ready to take the smartwatch off your wrist, you can flip to find the device’s various fitness sensors, including the heart rate monitor that Samsung uses to give the user an accurate sense of their stress levels using a pre-installed application on the smartwatch.

This application -- and the countless others that come pre-installed or can be installed on the smartwatch -- can be interacted with using the device’s 1.35-inch Super AMOLED Always On Display that can churn out a maximum resolution of 360x360 pixels.

Talking about the display of the smartwatch, it feels quite vibrant and gets plenty bright for use irrespective of the fact if the watch is being used indoors or outside. It also impresses when it comes to color reproduction and in terms of the performance, the panel emerges as one of the positives of the Watch Active 2 LTE.

However, we recently had the chance to use the Huawei Watch GT 2, and when compared to it, we can say that Huawei has surprisingly managed to do a better job with the display. As we found out during our review, the Watch Active 2 LTE does come with an above par panel that also supports Always On feature, however, the Huawei Watch GT 2 particularly impresses in just how vibrant and crisp text and visuals appear on it. And to my mind, it is what Samsung should have been aiming for with the Watch Active 2 LTE.

But overall in terms of design and display, Samsung’s done a good job with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE. Especially of course if you are a fan of gadgets that rely on understated beauty and class, and not if you are looking for something that’s easily spotted in a crowd.

Galaxy Watch Active 2: Specifications, software performance, and battery

Underneath the hood, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE with an Exynos 9110 dual-core processor ticking along at 1.15 GHz. The chipset has been paired with 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

Interestingly, this is the same processor that Samsung fitted onboard the Galaxy Watch Active. However, the amount of RAM has thankfully been doubled, helping the Watch Active 2 LTE run apps, handle widgets and skim through pages quite effortlessly.

The extra amount of RAM also ensures that the user’s interactions with the smartwatch feel buttery smooth, especially when you try to swipe through pages using the Galaxy Watch Active 2’s touch receptive bezel.

While not as interesting as the mechanical one you’d find on the hefty Galaxy Watch, this touch-based solution still does the trick as it brings similar functionality to the Watch Active 2 without adding to its weight or size.

This similar turn-style functionality brought to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE is also the result of the user interface (UI) of the device, which is a variation of the OS that we’ve previously seen installed on other smartwatches from the company.

But apart from bringing touch-based functionality to the bezel of the device, Samsung’s One UI Watch 1.5 also brings a host of other functionality and design features to the Watch Active 2 LTE which makes this Tizen interface device quite easy to navigate and also appealing to visually.

But that’s not it. There’s also support for apps like Calendar, Alarm and Weather and support for Bixby, which can be used to carry out many routines in the gym or even when you take the watch out for a swim as the Watch Active 2 brings with it resistance against water and dirt because of its IP68 rating.

Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE: Battery and 4G connectivity

Talking about how the smartwatch can be taken out for a swim without worrying about causing serious water damage, it would also be prudent to know that the Watch Active 2 LTE comes with an e-sim fitted inside that allows it to make calls over 4G VoLTE without having to be around a paired phone at all times.

This is because it can latch on to phone networks by itself, and not only transfer voice, but send and receive data using mobile networks, making the Galaxy Watch 2 LTE a smartwatch which performs almost like a smartphone in itself. However, because of carrier limitations, only Jio and Airtel users can make use of the e-SIM functionality in the country for now.

During our review, we used a Jio number to test the LTE functionality of the smartwatch and to be honest our experience was rather mixed. And that’s for two simple reasons.

The first being, network reception on the Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE is rather average. As we found during the review, the Watch Active 2 LTE would often only show 50 percent network strength in areas where our smartphone would show full connectivity to the same network.

But even as we attempted to take the watch’s poor network connectivity in our stride, the realization that it came at a significant cost to battery life ensured that during the course of the review, we were less inclined to use the device in its standalone LTE mode.

But having said that, it would be unfair to point out that despite its issues, the LTE supporting e-SIM brings the freedom to remain completely untethered from your phone, and as freedom’s go, it’s quite a liberating one.