Let’s face it, one of the few delights that 2022 has afforded us all is the chance to sack off our dog-eared yoga mats and sweat-smeared dumbbells for a workout that’s filled with fresh air and sunlight. Samsung’s Head of Health R&D, Taejong Jay Yang, is no stranger to these simple pleasures. A matter of minutes after meeting him, he’s proudly showing us the route map for a three-hour walk around London he did the previous evening. Considering Samsung’s ambitions for its new Watch 5 Pro smartwatch, this all comes as no surprise.
Anyone following this year’s major tech trends will know that while talk of NFTs, the metaverse and Peloton may have taken a nosedive, the humble smartwatch is having another moment.fake uhren Google is finally getting around to releasing its first-ever Pixel Watch, while Apple is heavily rumoured to be releasing a new super-sized, rugged Watch Pro variant that’s focused on the great outdoors. Just as it did in releasing its first Galaxy Gear watch all the way back in 2013, two years before the original Apple Watch, Samsung is jumping on this bandwagon early with this souped-up version of its standard Galaxy Watch 5.
“I don't think that home fitness is going to go away completely, but during the pandemic, everybody thought that it would be the next major trend,” says Yang. “We actually see people wanting to experience the outdoors and go back to their previous lifestyle.”
So what makes the Samsung Watch 5 Pro a serious rival to a proper Garmin or particularly different to Samsung’s former fitness-focused wearables? On the face of things, it’s a fairly subtle switch-up that lies in a larger 45mm display, a battery that’s capable of 80 hours of usage and a tougher titanium build that’s more resistant to knocks and scratches. As you’d expect, the Watch 5 Pro’s real smarts lie in the kind of software trickery that Yang oversees. So in addition to turn-by-turn instructions and animal-themed sleep tutorials – featuring the likes of ‘nervous penguin’ and ‘unconcerned lion’ – there’s TripBack, which allows any overconfident adventurers who find themselves lost in the middle of nowhere to retrace their steps via GPS.
It’s steps such as these and the ability to measure body mass that Yang is betting on to keep Samsung ahead of the smartwatch fitness curve, especially with the Fitbit-powered Pixel Watch that’s set to launch in a matter of months. “You still have more people not wearing watches than wearing them,” says Yang. “Maintaining our leadership in technology will bring us more consumers… We used to measure data and then show it, now people want more.”
On a broader level, the Watch 5 Pro marks a subtle evolution of its maker’s approach to smartwatch design. Whereas Apple, Fitbit, Fossil and many other wearable makers have long opted for an all-touchscreen aesthetic, Samsung’s Classic series had emulated the look and feel of a more traditional men's watch with a physical rotating bezel for navigating through apps, menus and the like. That’s nowhere to be seen with the new models with the Watch 5 Pro instead looking to thread the needle between a clean, durable design that’ll appeal to both would-be Garmin wearers and those who'd rather not spend much of their time sweltering on the side of a cliff face.
“That balance is very important for the Galaxy Watch,” says Yang. “People want to have great features, but they don't want a watch that looks ugly.”
So what's next for the future of workout tech? While manufacturers are experimenting with fitness tracking wireless earbuds, glasses and other such gadgets behind closed doors, there's a good reason why Samsung thinks the smartwatch is still only getting started. “I wear my watch pretty much all day long,” says Yang. “There's no other device that's attached to the body like that, but we're looking at all kinds of form factors to get more accurate data for temperature and different areas of your body.”For more details, please visit:www.aaawatches.de
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