You can preorder Samsung's new Galaxy Watch Active for $199.99

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Samsung

• You can preorder Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active on Samsung's website, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. It costs $199.99 and will ship on March 8.
• Like many smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch Active alerts you to notifications, can house apps, and tracks fitness metrics like your workouts, sleep, heart rate, and blood pressure.
• It can also track dozens of different exercises, including swimming, and offer suggestions on how to improve your fitness.
• Best of all, the watch boasts a battery life of up to 90 hours and supports wireless charging.
• If you buy the Galaxy Watch Active at Samsung or Walmart before March 7, you'll also get a free wireless charger.

Samsung announced its new fitness-focused Galaxy Watch Active at the same event as its Galaxy S10 smartphones, and it's now up for preorder on Samsung's website, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

The Galaxy Watch Active is much more affordable than Samsung's other smartwatches and competitors like the Apple Watch - which cost upward of $300 - even though its specs and features are very similar. Like all other smartwatches, it shows you notifications, tracks your fitness metrics, and allows you to download apps.

Style-wise, it's head and shoulders above traditional fitness trackers that often bear a similar price tag and offer fewer smartwatch features. All in all, it's a good buy, especially for this price.

The Galaxy Watch Active ships on March 8, but you can preorder it now on Samsung's website, Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

If you buy the watch from either Samsung or Walmart by March 7, you'll also receive a free wireless charger that can juice up your watch and many phones. Here's why we think it's a good buy.

A simple design that looks good on any wrist

Samsung

The Galaxy Watch Active is fitness-fitness focused smartwatch with a round, 40mm aluminum case and a 28.1mm touch screen made out of Gorilla Glass. The watch isn't overly large and it has a classic, unisex style, so it should look good on almost any wrist. It comes in a few colors to suit different styles, including black, silver, rose gold, and green, plus, you can swap out the 20mm watch band any time you wish.

It's designed to look like a traditional watch, but you can customize the Galaxy Watch Active's face to display the time, date, your heart rate, or other health-related information. You can also download a wide range of different watch faces to change up the watch's look anytime you want.

The Galaxy Watch Active doesn't have the same rotating bezel as Samsung's other smartwatches, but it's still very easy to navigate with its two buttons: back and home.

Great fitness tracking features

Samsung

Your health data is collected from the Galaxy Watch Active's sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, heart rate monitor. The watch tracks how many calories you've burned, how much sleep you've gotten, your heart rate, and your workouts.

It can track dozens of exercises to give you an accurate picture of your physical health and offer suggestions on how to improve. You can also swim with the watch, thanks to its 5 ATM and IP68 water resistance.

The Galaxy Watch Active's heart rate sensor is more advanced than the ones found in less expensive fitness bands. It can actively monitor your blood pressure and let you know whether it's too high or too low. This can help uncover heart conditions, and tip you off to visit your doctor. This feature requires the "My BP Lab" app, which will be available on March 15 in the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, and Germany.

All of this information is logged on the watch and synced with your smartphone. If something looks off, the Galaxy Watch Active will offer suggestions. For example, if you're sleeping restlessly, it will let you know when it's time to head to bed, and walk you through breathing exercises or a guided meditation.

Traditional smartwatch features like apps and notifications

Samsung

Like any smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active will show you notifications on its watch face and you can download apps on it. The most useful app is probably Spotify, as you can stream your favorite music and download playlists onto your watch for a phone-free workout.

The fitness-focused apps from Under Armour, MyFitnessPal, and Strava. You'll also be able to reply to texts on the watch with your voice, using the watch's keyboard, or with emoji.

On the technical side, the Galaxy Watch Active's specs are pretty impressive. It has 4GB of storage, 0.75GB of RAM, and a 1.15Ghz processor. It supports Wi-Fi so you can connect to the internet without burning through your phone's cellular data.

Additionally, the Galaxy Active has Bluetooth onboard so you can pair the watch with wireless headphones and go workout without your phone.

Decent battery life and wireless charging

Samsung

Samsung says the Galaxy Watch Active will last between 45 and 90 hours of battery life between charges, depending on how you use it. The watch charges via a wireless charger, and you can get a free one if you preorder the Galaxy Active before March 7 at Samsung and Walmart.

All of those specs are important, but the Galaxy Watch Active's biggest strength is that it works with both Android phones and iPhones, while the Apple Watch only works with the iPhone.

If you want a fitness-focused smartwatch and don't exclusively use Apple hardware, the Galaxy Watch Active is a good alternative to the Apple Watch - for much less. The Galaxy Watch Active will ship on March 8, but you can preorder it now at Samsung, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart for $199.99.

Preorder the Galaxy Watch Active for $199.99 at Samsung, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart [Ships by March 8]

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