Rounding out our recap of Samsung’s big Unpacked event today are the announcements of a new AirPods competitor, Galaxy Buds, and two near wearables: the Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch and Galaxy Fit fitness band. We’ve put together a full overview of these devices for you below.
Galaxy Buds
Samsung pitches the Galaxy Buds as “the in-ear lifestyle companion.” They don’t look much different than a lot of the other wireless earbuds on the market, but they are packed full of features. Those features include sound by AKG, Enhanced Ambient Sound tech that allows you to hear your surroundings clearly with the earbuds in, and Adaptive Dual microphones, for clear voice input even in loud environments.
Those same microphones can also be used to activate Bixby, Samsung’s version of Siri, allowing you to make calls and send texts without ever picking up your phone. Battery life is good for up to 6 hours of music streaming, and the charging/carrying case offers an additional 7 hours. Plus, with the S10’s new wireless power sharing feature, you can get almost 2 hours worth of charge in just 15 minutes right from your phone.
Galaxy Watch Active
The Galaxy Watch Active packs similar features to the Galaxy Watch in a sporty new design that is thin, light and versatile. It has a 1.1-inch 360×360 display tucked behind Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, and it’s run by an Exynos dual-core processor. The Watch is rated IP68 dust and waterproof, and it runs on Samsung’s own Tizen-based Wearable OS 4.0.
Notable features include nearly 40 pre-programmed activities for tracking, Bixby voice support, breathing assistance for lower stress levels and blood pressure monitoring. Obviously that’s a huge deal (something rumored for future Apple Watch models), and Samsung says it developed the feature in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco.
Galaxy Fit
Made for everyone from casual runners to pro athletes, Galaxy Fit helps support healthy, active lifestyles. It’s thin, lightweight and comfortable enough to wear all week long. And although it’s not technically a smartwatch, it can still receive alerts and messages, and you can interact with it via the user-friendly UX.
In terms of fitness tracking, the Fit features automatic tracking for activities like walking, running and bike-riding. You can also manually select from more than 90 different activities using the Samsung Health app on your smartphone. And since the device has a water resistance of 5ATM, it can easily go with you from the shower to the pool.
Pricing and Availability
The Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch Active will be available in the US starting March 8, priced at $129.99 and $199.99 respectively. The Galaxy Watch Active is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, February 21, and Samsung says the Galaxy Fit will be available in ‘Q2 of 2019.’
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