Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
Verified25 reviews
So, you are looking for a new Smartwatch. There is something no-one tells you; in Australia you cant just get an eSim and it will work. It has to be a Vodaphone 'NumberSync'. To get that you MUST already have a POSTPAID plan with Vodafone (expensive) and then the NumberSync is $5 per month on top of that. I have a prepaid Plan for my Samsung… Read more
phone with Kogan. So I am stuffed basically. And no-one at any point made me aware of that. Poor show Samsung, that is morally dishonest and has left a bad taste in my mouth; as well as being out of pocket for a Smartwatch that I cant use as intended.
It's bizarre I know; so be warned - you cannot just get an LTE Samsung Galaxy smart watch and expect it to work - unless you already have a Vodaphone postpaid plan for your phone.
Think I will just sell this on and steer clear of Samsung smart watches.
Non Competitive Price – The price is higher than other websites such as Dick Smith and they don't do price matches. I only bought it because I had a $20 voucher otherwise I would have bought it from the cheaper website Show details
Avoid Samsung Watches, not made to last – Do not buy Samsung watches. Told on the phone with Samsung that they are only made to last 2years, and typically both mine went wrong just after warranty ran out....tough luck is all they say despite being an issue that makes is against ACL. Show details
Great until a few years in – I've owned both the Samsung Active 1 and Active 2 and it appears that both models are subject to water damage after a few years. They both worked great to begin with, pretty quick (for a watch), nice screen, well integrated with the Samsung ecosystem but after about a year and a bit, both watches started to behave strangely and eventually died.… Read more
Both times I have ended up opening the watched and finding the water damage indicator lit up like a christmas tree. When it originally happened to the first watch, I assumed it was due to a repair that I had done to the screen about a year earlier, the reparier is where Samsung requested the watch was sent to, and they covered the repair under warranty (It wasn't some dodgy little shop).
Since I was under the impression that maybe the aftermarket seal had fallen apart or maybe it wasn't installed properly, I decided to go get another watch from the active range, once again, worked beautifully and I was very happy until last week.
I started to notice the watch making little buzzes, the same buzzes it makes when you play with the bezel, turns out water had gotten inside and had either just broken the touch on the watch and it was just playing up, or the water was still inside rolling around and touching the touch screen.
I tried factory resetting the watch (BAD IDEA! since the screen was still borked, I couldn't complete the tutorial without turning on the voice assist) after this had no affect, I tried to get into the diagnostic section on the watch to see what it could tell me, I couldn't even type in the code to access the diagnostics. In the end I cracked the thing open and found the water indicator bright pink.
Looks like after a couple of years, the seals in the watch fall apart and they lose their waterproofing, shame if you like to wear your watch while swimming.
I will be picking up a samsung watch 4 later this afternoon, this will be samsungs last chance to impress me with their watch range, I use samsung phones and have always had a good experience with them and I would like a watch that communicates with my phone seamlessly. I intend on limiting the amount of water I allow on the watch, before I used to wear it in the shower but I'll be making sure to remove it before getting in.
Hey Magz, thank you so much for taking the time to leave… Read more
Working fine for 18mths then complete fail - Samsung refuse to honour their warranty! – Watch had been working fine until just starting failing on start-up after around 10 secs with the message "watch has to close". I must have tried this 20 times, before managing to quick enough to do a factory reset. This made no difference at all. Took to Samsung who responded that is an "overseas model" even though I bought it in Australia… Read more
from an Australian website, and so they would not honour the warranty! I pointed out it still has their SAMSUNG brand on it, and how would I know (or care) that it was an os model?? No joy, so I cannot support any Samsung products anymore (I have had other failures (TV) from them too). Rubbish customer service as well.
Hey Jim, Thank you for taking the time to write this… Read more (+3 replies)
Very poor quality – Bought Dec 2020 for Xmas and by June 2021 the entire watch back fell off! Repaired by Samsung under warranty at moderate hassle. Less than 1 year later the entire watch back fell off again! Now told the repair warranty only 90 days. Samsung watch buyers beware! Show details
Absolutely a waste of money – The step count is horrendously inaccurate and can hardly pick up movement. The heart rate monitor is wildly off... offering only the same heartrate/calories burned for workouts despite intensity. Cellular feature works 10% of the time. I purchased to be able to safely go work out without my phone and still be accessible, which doesn't work 90% of… Read more
the time. Battery life cannot last through a morning if used for anything other than telling the time. But if you want to pay $700 for a smart watch that you can't use any other features on unless you want to recharge every 3 hrs, it will be perfect for you.
Sent away saying it is clearly faulty. They sent it back saying it was fine and have refused to help in any way. Four other friends purchased at the same time, all of us say it is an enormous waste of money. To the point that I will NEVER buy another Samsung product again. Horrible aftercare and service.
Only wear this because it was a present from my husband – I don't like this watch and have never liked it. My husband bought it for me as I am a shocker at hearing calls and messages on my phone because I keep my phone in my bag. At $800 it is too expensive to hide in a drawer unused. I am no better now I have this watch. So often the phone disconnects (and I forget to check it) because there are new… Read more
updates. I have 2 email accounts and the watch only picks up one. I loved my old designer watch. It was stylish and reliable. This watch is ugly and not much better than useless. Yes I am not interested in the newest tech and am not the target market. If you are a technophobe like me don't buy one. (PS I am not a complete luddite and am decent with a laptop but have no interest in this watch).
Doesn't last – I really love the watch in the last 2 and half year. It worked really well then last month I got a blank screen. I tried to reboost, restart but it didn't work. Contacted Samsung and I was told to press and hold one button to reboost, didn't work then I was asked to press and hold both buttons, it didn't work as well. For what it cost, 2 and… Read more
half year is absolutely not worth it. So disappointed with Samsung product. Stay away from this from now on.
I'm very happy – Wanting to track my results as a runner, I started using my mobile phone with related apps and music. I found this solution inconvenient because the armband (where I inserted the mobile phone) bothered me. So I decided to try a smartwatch. After researching on dedicated sites, I chose the Galaxy Watch Active 2 for several reasons: the reviews were… Read more
good, my mobile phone is a Samsung, I liked the shape, and there was a profitable opportunity on an online shopping site. After months of use, I can say that I am really well: the system works well, it is simple to use and to connect to other devices, both Wi-Fi and cellular work well, the battery has a good life (connected to the phone lasts longer two days and with the cellular depends on my use but I can't complain). Recommended
Disappointment after disappointment – I bought my watch in Oct 2019 absolutely loved it. Worked well for about 9 months. Mid last year it started regularly overheating. I first I thought it was something I was doing. Then it increasingly began to overheat, shut down, go into emergency only mode and airplane mode. by September of last year I decided it definitely had an issue and… Read more
contacted Samsung tech. Firstly Samsung contact for technical issues is an awful experience, from trying to locate the right number and email to finally getting through. I sent a number of emails that I never even had a response to. Finally found a number and called. They tried everything and nothing worked so they "escalated" the issue and advised there would be a call back. They never called me back. then I took the phone to vodafone. they sent it away to Samsung and 2 weeks later it came back "fixed". By the end of the day it was back to doing exactly what it had always done. I took it back to Vodafone, manager at the store suggested I take it all the way to a Samsung store (distant from my residence). Manager advised that they would give me a code/number/authority that would allow him at Vodafone to just give me a new watch. Samsung had no idea what he was talking about and forced me to send the watch away AGAIN. I have now been without a phone for 1 year and 3 months. Does Samsung in any way think that this is acceptable? I pay a monthly fee for a sim AND initial cost of the item for which I have only had 9 months of use? I insist on a new watch and a refund of my monthly sim cost or I will take this further.
Waste of money – Waste of money. This watch does nothing and the limited features have too many steps to access. The only real use is the clock. After spending an hour pushing a trolley it did not record one step. The features for the phone are useless no use showing it is ringing if you can't answer it on the watch, just pointless. Don't waste your money Show details
Samsung wont replace a faulty watch – We purchased the Galaxy active watch in December 2020. just a month after, it had serious problems, overheating, battery going flat within a few hours. The watch was sent back to Samsung for repairs via Vodaphone. It came back and they had replaced the battery and performed other fixes. Again the watch had the same problems. We sent the watch back… Read more
for the second time and the technicians said the problem was that the charger was faulty?? So when the watch arrived back we purchased a brand new charger as directed by the technician. The watch still has the same problems. This watch cost me over $700 and it has had major problems since day one. I think Samsung should just replace it.
Find out how Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 compares to other Smart Watches / Fitness Trackers
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Still a long way to go – I bought the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 with high hopes that Samsung had made sufficient progress to be comparable to the Apple Watch 3 which I had owned for the previous three years. It hasn’t. My problem with this watch is that it is glitchy and fragile. By glitchy I mean the software doesn’t “just work” and often doesn't work properly… Read more
at all. I rely on the watch for notifications and phone calls. About once a week I notice an absence of notifications and find the watch has disconnected itself from the phone (Pixel 3).
Further, notifications are intermittently late, sometimes by hours.
The alarm on my phone does not ring on my watch so if I want a watch alarm I need to set a separate alarm on the watch.
The watch is inaccurate and overly generous when it comes to counting steps. On the other hand the heart rate measurement is quite accurate.
Because the watch is so glitchy I would not consider Samsung Pay on the watch, which is a shame since I enjoyed Apple pay on my other watch.
I swim (which was a big reason to get the Apple watch). The Samsung native swim app does not give anything like the data the Apple watch native app gives. To its credit the watch counts the number of laps accurately (in the way the Garmin 5x didn’t; but the Garmin Swim did, go figure).
The lap times on the Active 2 are about 3-5 seconds slower than the hand-timed result in squad. The Apple watch was accurate to within a second when compared with being hand-timed in squad. The Samsung native app doesn't do auto sets, a feature which I found very helpful on the Apple watch.
The Swim.com app apparently does auto sets but doesn’t work well for me. In the month I’ve been trying I’ve managed to successfully record 1 swim session (of the 5 sessions a week I swim). Ridiculously, it seems you can’t press a physical button to directly pause or end the set. In this app you need to unlock the watch, slide across 4 screens and then press the back button. The problem is that the app freezes in the process and the data is lost. I’m not saying this is Samsung’s fault but then if the Samsung swim app gave more detailed information I wouldn’t need a third party app to get that information.
My friends tell me the Galaxy Watch 3 is better in the pool as the mechanical bezel adds functionality.
The sleep app is not very accurate especially when compared to the sleep app I used on the Apple watch.
Also, the Active 2 feels insubstantial. I had the stainless steel and sapphire glass Apple so the comparison might be a little unfair. But then again, I did not have that option with Samsung. The Apple did not have a mark on it after three years.
Unfortunately I bought a black, rather than silver, watch Active 2. Every time it rubs against a hard surface (including hard plastic lane ropes) the black paint scratches a little. Now it just pains me to even look at the watch. I’m genuinely worried that it won’t last very long.
I would have thought that a watch called “Active” would be a little more robust.
The Apple watch gave me a little bit of pleasure every day I wore it. The Active 2 constantly annoys me: Every time I can’t get accurate swim data, every notification showing up well after it is received on the phone, every time I look at the scratched body of the watch.
I dislike Apple phones and only got one to support the watch. For everything else I used an android phone. I got sick of the hassle and expense of two phones so I passed the Apple phone and watch on to my daughter. She's happy. But I’m disappointed to find that the Active 2 is not as good as the three year old Apple watch.
I know some of my complaints could be my own ineptitude. I have tried to search the web for answers. I would class myself as a reasonably informed user of smart watches, including the Samsung Gear and Gear 2, which were great watches for the time (pun intended) and seemed to be more solidly constructed than the Active 2.
Below is a list of the watches I’ve owned over the years: Pebble Samsung Gear Samsung Gear 2 Garmin Swim Garmin Fenix 5x Apple Watch 3 Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
Hi there, we do truly apologise for any inconvenience… Read more (+4 replies)
Watch is awesome – Had this watch since May and overall I love it, UI, Performance, Features are the best of any smartwatch even that of the apple watch 5. Very easy to use. Show details
No real complaints. Does the job – I bought it mainly for the convenience of receiving notifications and it serves that function reasonably well. It is comfortable to wear, which is a big plus and you can buy aftermarket watch bands and cases which somewhat allows you to wear it with different outfits. Fitness functions are however gimmicky and virtually useless in my opinion. I get two days use before I have to recharge. This is on medium brightness and AOD turned on. Show details · 1
An Awesome Watch To Have! – This watch is pretty great for someone who wants a compact, miniaturized phone that offers easy access for a lot of basic and essential applications! One of the best fitness based watches and overall a great watch to have in general! Accurate recording of steps, heart-rate, sleeping patterns, etc. Even the battery life is quite exceptional with… Read more
1d 3h as the average battery amount on a full charge with full functionality and about 3-4 days with power-saving mode on!
Overall one of the best watches I've owned in regards to functionality, style, fashion and performance.
This is a quality alternative to Apple Watch – I have recently changed job so had to returned my iphone to my old company. My new company gave me a Samsung phone which wouldn't work with my Apple Watch 2. After some research, I have decided to purchase the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 watch, I like the design and the look of the watch. Functions wise it's on par with Apple's Watch. The watch is comfortable to wear and have a lot of fitness capabilities which I like. Show details · 1
Good watch, average battery – I wanted a new watch that was high tech and had lots of workout functionalities. I originally looked at the apple watch but didn't like the shape of the face. The screen is beautiful OLED, but this in turn makes the battery last only a day on cellular or 2 days on Bluetooth. The functionality itself is really nice on watch and the screen is… Read more
resilient and only have a couple of minor scratches when I wear it everyday and I'm a clutz.
I do however wish that Samsung invested more in compatibility with applications and devices outside the Samsung realm as i find I can't make my watch speak to health apps or smart scales often. Compared to the Apple watch its pretty dismal in this space.
The workouts give you accurate data and I love being able to see my progress. This is where 2/5 stars I'm giving are coming from. Then 1/5 for ease of use and it's lost 2 stars because the battery life is terrible and the cross compatibility is bad.
I think if I were to purchase again I would either buy Apple, Garmin or the original Samsung Watch.
Thank you for sharing your experience on your Samsung… Read more
Decent product, but LTE doesn't work – Watch connectivity with Nokia 8 is an issue, it keeps disconnecting. In addition, I cannot setup the LTE mobile network connectivity through the app. Smart watch features are useful as expected when watch is connected. Show details
Hi Matt, we recommend for you to head into your nearest… Read more
Great watch – I bought black watch as i like black color its an amazing watch with really good features. I use it everyday even while exercising and walking it helps me track my movements during the day. Show details · 1
Not too bad – I purchased this watch being a samsung fan but it didnt come to my expectation due to glitches i have to face. Its hr monitor is like not calibrated. Does not give accurate reading, blue tooth range is poor. Even i cannot connect it to my mobile in next room. Show details · 1
Find out how Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 compares to other Smart Watches / Fitness Trackers
Know better, choose better.
An expensive error – I chose the black, because the only other option was pink. Within 10 days of just regular wearing the paint had chipped off the outside of the watch. Samsung advised that it was made of aluminium. That was the explanation. In other words, what did I expect. I downloaded the heart rate hourly info and it showed min. beat at 39bpm a few times per… Read more
day including when I'm not asleep. When I walk or cycle an annoying voice keeps telling me statistics every km (bike). Tried everything to turn it off & again took it back to Samsung. They also turned off various things including Bixby & the voice still reports. I'm so disappointed, annoyed & completely regretting this purchase.
Hi Kat. I apologise for the experience you've had with us… Read more
I love it – I've just recently got it, but I'm having fun with it, and I love it cheering me on for being active (just getting off the couch after binge watching stranger things haha!) Show details
Good Design, Bad Battery, Worse Online Experience – The watch design is great and just cut above the rest. I don't need to download a lot of apps since I only need Spotify, Samsung Pay, Sports tracking, and some utility apps. The watch has great features overall but the main downfall is the battery life. I would not recommend buying the Galaxy Watch Active2 40mm Cellular, go for the 44mm version.… Read more
My wife cancelled her pre-order to get the 44mm because she saw that I am so disappointed. I pre-ordered this through Samsung Online Shop and got it last 11/10/2019. The battery life of this device is just bad. It won't last you half a day even though it is stated to last 43+ hours of typical usage as per Samsung website.
I don't workout more than an hour but I am a type of person who is always on the go and always wireless (Data/Wifi, Bluetooth and NFC). I was expecting this to last for a full day but instead it only lasted me 4-5 hours each day and I always find myself looking for a charger or my S10+ to reverse charge it. I contacted Samsung support and now have an appointment to have this device checked. I am hoping that it is only faulty.
In terms of Samsung Online Shop experience for this device, I asked why the return policy will only apply for "UNOPENED" boxes when I don't even have an actual DEVICE as a point of reference when buying it online especially when it is a "PRE-ORDER" and ALL of the shops around AUSTRALIA don't even have it yet. My wife and I are a Samsung fans and most of our appliances are Samsung devices but with this I am just really disappointed.
In conclusion, Watch design is great but with really bad battery life which is hindering it and causing a lot of disappointment. While the Samsung Online shop experience is the worst in terms of after-sales and return policies. Don't buy directly from them online, go to your retail shops instead for a better return/refund policy. I am rating this with 1 star.
Hi Orland, we're sorry to hear that you have been… Read more
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Hey Jevans, I'm so sorry to hear you're experiencing… Read more (+1 reply)