The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 5 will get Wear OS 4 – and many of the new features of the Galaxy Watch 6.
That was confirmed to Wareable by a Samsung spokesperson at a press briefing event in London.
The Wear OS 4 update will be delivered as part of One UI 5 Watch, and land on wrists over the “next couple of months.”
It means that older Wear OS-powered Galaxy Watches will get features such as advanced sleep tracking, sleep coaching, and heart rate zone training, which landed as part of the Galaxy Watch 6.
There’s no exact date, but it confirms Samsung’s comments that its Watch 4 and Watch 5 smartwatches would get ongoing support.
We’ve had an early look at the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and it’s not a huge upgrade on the previous generation. There’s an improved screen-to-body ratio and a 30% larger display (15% larger on the Watch 6 Classic) but with imperceptible upgrades to both the Exynos W930 processor and battery, it’s mostly about the software.
We’ve been impressed in our time with the new sleep tracking and heart rate training features so far – but these will roll out to Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 5 according to Samsung.
That makes fewer reasons to fork out for the Galaxy Watch 6 and could mean the Galaxy Watch 5 is the one to buy when the inevitable deals start landing in the coming weeks and months.
Upgrades to Wear OS smartwatches have been fraught with problems. It took over a year for non-Samsung devices to get Wear OS 3 after it launched on the Watch 4. And the TicWatch Pro 3 still hasn’t even got it, despite being superseded by the TicWatch Pro 5.
Samsung does seem to have the run on its competitors when it comes to access to Wear OS. You might remember that worked with Google to create Wear OS 3, and its One UI Watch skin puts it in the driving seat.
Watch this space for more information on when the older Galaxy Watches will get the update.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.