Samsung's new smartwatch is focused on fitness
The Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch can track blood pressure, stress and workouts.
At Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, the tech giant announced a new smartwatch designed for those who maintain active lifestyles. The Galaxy Watch Active, an update to the company's flagship Galaxy Watch smartwatch, adds new fitness tracking features including the ability to monitor blood pressure and stress levels. Samsung also introduced a fitness tracker called the Galaxy Fit.
The Galaxy Watch Active is an all-around sportier version of the company's previous Galaxy Watch. It features a thinner design meant to make it more comfortable to wear while working out. Its 1.1-inch screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and is water resistant. The watch will be available in silver, black, rose gold or sea green finishes.
In addition to a new look, the wearable packs in a new suite of health-monitoring features. It's the first of Samsung's line of wearables to include a blood pressure monitoring system, which pairs with a mobile app developed in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco to track your health. It also keeps an eye on stress levels with its new Stress Tracker feature that will present users with breathing exercises and other calming techniques if it senses they're feeling pressure. For workouts, the wearable comes with a new smart fitness tracking feature that can automatically detect when you start an activity like running, biking or rowing. Of course, you can manually choose between 39 activities to make sure you're getting an accurate recording.
The Galaxy Watch Active features an Exynos 9110 Dual-core 1.15 GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It has a 230mAh, which is charged wirelessly. While the wearable is compatible with Android and iOS devices, it runs on Samsung's own Tizen wearable operating system.
Samsung's new fitness-focused smartwatch will be available for $199. Pre-orders for the device start tomorrow and it will ship starting March 8th.
In addition to the Galaxy Watch Active, Samsung also introduced the Fit and Galaxy Fit e. The bands offer the standard fitness tracking features you'd expect, including the ability to record more than 90 activities through the Samsung Health app. The bands can also receive messsages and notifications from a paired smartphone so you don't have to stop your workout.
