New Update Inbound

[evohicks]

So apparently there are new watch faces available after the update, I haven't looked too hard but are there many new ones?

 

[malachijd]

So jealous. I want this update so bad because I had the gear s3 classic and had no problems. But the galaxy watch has been nothing but buggy. And I haven't wanted to be without my watch so I haven't sent it in and just been waiting for the update. Now it just seems like it's mocking me.

 

[sonnnet]

So jealous. I want this update so bad because I had the gear s3 classic and had no problems. But the galaxy watch has been nothing but buggy. And I haven't wanted to be without my watch so I haven't sent it in and just been waiting for the update. Now it just seems like it's mocking me.

I know how you feel. The last update was the same for me. Just have to be patient (easy for me to say, I know). At the end of the day, the update isn't going to change your life. The improvements are, on the face of it, quite minor, but they make the watch even better than it was before and for that reason, it's a great update. The main improvements I would say are regarding HR. The visual stuff is nice, they are good tweaks and I approve of them, even if they don't reinvent the wheel. Sleep and step tracking improvements, I'll take other users' word for it, as they aren't vital to me.
I don't think you will be waiting too long, either - although of course that's just a hunch.

 

[malachijd]

I know how you feel. The last update was the same for me. Just have to be patient (easy for me to say, I know). At the end of the day, the update isn't going to change your life. The improvements are, on the face of it, quite minor, but they make the watch even better than it was before and for that reason, it's a great update. The main improvements I would say are regarding HR. The visual stuff is nice, they are good tweaks and I approve of them, even if they don't reinvent the wheel. Sleep and step tracking improvements, I'll take other users' word for it, as they aren't vital to me.
I don't think you will be waiting too long, either - although of course that's just a hunch.

I get that it's just that I was a big fan of the Microsoft Band. And the 1st one had its problems. But I really liked the 2nd one. Only problem is that it kept breaking on me and I had to keep sending it in for a new one. And I just couldn't help but think not again.

 

[sonnnet]

I get that it's just that I was a big fan of the Microsoft Band. And the 1st one had its problems. But I really liked the 2nd one. Only problem is that it kept breaking on me and I had to keep sending it in for a new one. And I just couldn't help but think not again.

I hear you, but it's not the same scenario. The Galaxy Watch hardware is first class. It's the software that has, really up until now, let the watch down. But in my experience at least, with the new update, the software has caught up.
Many believed problems such as crap heart rate monitoring and erratic step count were hardware related - and understandably so. But actually it was just bad programming. That's why I despaired when people were sending their watches back for 'repair'. Samsung refused to admit their programming was at fault. Instead they let people return their watches and even did completely pointless 'repairs' like replacing the heart rate monitor hardware and even the motherboard. This can only have been to save face and pretend a small number of devices were faulty, rather than admit they had ballsed up the whole software side.
Anyway, that's water under the bridge. Please give the update a chance before deciding to return the watch. Sure, there's a slight chance your unit is faulty, but there's a far higher chance it just needs the latest software.

 

[TonyHudson]

Hi guys, bought a new galaxy watch 46mm today. The software update for the watch came through straight away when I installed Galaxy Wearable on my phone, so it was installed. I then installed Gear Tracker and tonight I went and played squash. The outcome was.........drum role please......bad and good. Samsung Health is still $hite the HR was dropped after around 20 minutes and remained so for 10 minutes until I stopped it and fired up Gear Tracker. Gear Tracker worked great however after 15 minutes the HR reading was lost, but only for 2 minutes 30 seconds and then valid HR readings started coming through again. While I was monitoring HR on the watch, I was also monitoring it with my Polar OH1 Heart Rate monitor, located on my upper arm and connected to my phone using the Polar Beat software. That was flawless and I would believe its HR readings before those on the watch. Looking at the three data sets I would say that the Samsung Watch HR readings did follow the Polar OH1 +/- no more than 5 bpm. Tomorrow, I have another squash game. Forget Samsung Health, I will use Gear Tracker with the watch's internal HR and Polar OH1 with Polar Beat again and get a more accurate set of readings. I am happier with this watch as my previous Galaxy Watch running Gear Tracker did not recover from a dropped HR connection. I kind of wish I still had the old watch so I could determine if the Samsung software update may have fixed its problems. Still not sure about keeping the watch, I will decide tomorrow when I see how many times the HR is dropped and recovered in Gear Tracker over an hour. A massive thumbs up for Gear Tracker cause IT WORKS, making the best of probably a poor Samsung HR monitoring software implementation. The new Samsung Galaxy Watch UI is pretty good also.

 

[malachijd]

I hear you, but it's not the same scenario. The Galaxy Watch hardware is first class. It's the software that has, really up until now, let the watch down. But in my experience at least, with the new update, the software has caught up.
Many believed problems such as crap heart rate monitoring and erratic step count were hardware related - and understandably so. But actually it was just bad programming. That's why I despaired when people were sending their watches back for 'repair'. Samsung refused to admit their programming was at fault. Instead they let people return their watches and even did completely pointless 'repairs' like replacing the heart rate monitor hardware and even the motherboard. This can only have been to save face and pretend a small number of devices were faulty, rather than admit they had ballsed up the whole software side.
Anyway, that's water under the bridge. Please give the update a chance before deciding to return the watch. Sure, there's a slight chance your unit is faulty, but there's a far higher chance it just needs the latest software.

Yeah I figured it was software. And I even told customer service I would wait till an update came out to see if it fixed it. I'm still waiting. Just really hope it fixes it

 

[sonnnet]

Hi guys, bought a new galaxy watch 46mm today. The software update for the watch came through straight away when I installed Galaxy Wearable on my phone, so it was installed. I then installed Gear Tracker and tonight I went and played squash. The outcome was.........drum role please......bad and good. Samsung Health is still $hite the HR was dropped after around 20 minutes and remained so for 10 minutes until I stopped it and fired up Gear Tracker. Gear Tracker worked great however after 15 minutes the HR reading was lost, but only for 2 minutes 30 seconds and then valid HR readings started coming through again. While I was monitoring HR on the watch, I was also monitoring it with my Polar OH1 Heart Rate monitor, located on my upper arm and connected to my phone using the Polar Beat software. That was flawless and I would believe its HR readings before those on the watch. Looking at the three data sets I would say that the Samsung Watch HR readings did follow the Polar OH1 +/- no more than 5 bpm. Tomorrow, I have another squash game. Forget Samsung Health, I will use Gear Tracker with the watch's internal HR and Polar OH1 with Polar Beat again and get a more accurate set of readings. I am happier with this watch as my previous Galaxy Watch running Gear Tracker did not recover from a dropped HR connection. I kind of wish I still had the old watch so I could determine if the Samsung software update may have fixed its problems. Still not sure about keeping the watch, I will decide tomorrow when I see how many times the HR is dropped and recovered in Gear Tracker over an hour. A massive thumbs up for Gear Tracker cause IT WORKS, making the best of probably a poor Samsung HR monitoring software implementation. The new Samsung Galaxy Watch UI is pretty good also.

Pretty good improvement. If it was me, I'd want to test a couple of variables: type of sport and bracelet tightness. Are the dropouts to do with playing squash? A lot of fast bursts of change of movement. If you went for a run, would you get 100% HR as I do with Gear Tracker?
Is the bracelet tight enough? For sport, I wear it tightly but not so it's uncomfortable. This minimises the risk of the HR sensor not being in sufficient contact with the wrist. Also watch placement, completely free of (ie higher up than) the wristbone.

 

[malachijd]

Still no update.

 

[Greymire]

You will never get an accurate sleep readout unless you are wired up to electrodes in a sleep lab. But Sleep as Android is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned, for mobile devices. Using sonar mode on your phone, it fires ultrasonic waves at you to detect movement and respiration rates. Combined with audio recording, it can warn you of sleep apnoea and excessive snoring. You can play the snippets back in the morning. When I have worked out hard, this is reflected in deeper sleep. The algorithms are complex and based on research. If you connect your Galaxy Watch, you get all of the above, plus heart rate. Samsung can't compete with all that just on a watch.
But I do agree, on the whole, as per your extract, if you feel you are getting enough quality sleep, likelihood is you are.

Agree with all. And 13% normal? Not sure of your age but from all of my research that is just a hair low for any age as most professionals agree that normal is 15 to 20%. But, line anything, every ES norm is different and as he stated if you feel rested it's good for you. Also I do feel Sleep as Android with Galaxy watch does seem to be a bit on the high side of deep sleep but it's so detailed only an expensive multiprobe sleep tracker would tell us how close it is.

 

[TonyHudson]

Did a squash workout for 65 minutes tonight recorded using Gear Tracker. The HR reading was dropped after 23 minutes for an 8 minutes duration. Gear Tracker then re-connected and continued taking readings for a further 20 minutes and then it dropped again for 12 minutes. It then reconnected again for the last few minutes of the workout. The data readings themselves tended to be rather flat. I would have expected to see well defined peaks for each of the games with a 2 minute rest period in between them where my HR should have dropped more than the recorded value. This is probably a characteristic of the watch sensor in that it is not as responsive to change as the dedicated Polar OH1 device is. I had the watch sitting three finger widths up from the wrist knuckle with a wrist sweat band below the watch so it could not move down toward the wrist. As Sonnnet suggests I need to do more testing. I think the correlation between the watch and the Polar OH1 will be a lot closer when I am out cycling at the weekend. I will be able to do more testing as I have decided to keep the watch but only because I have a solution for recording my squash activity using the dedicated Polar OH1 device.

Anyhow, this thread is meant to be about the Samsung Update. I like it for the UI enhancements it brings. I am not convinced it brings an update for the HR sensor but fortunately we have third party apps that work with the sensor API better than Samsung Health does. I concur with Sonnnet that if you want to do any HR monitoring during your workouts use Gear Tracker.

 

[sonnnet]

Did a squash workout for 65 minutes tonight recorded using Gear Tracker. The HR reading was dropped after 23 minutes for an 8 minutes duration. Gear Tracker then re-connected and continued taking readings for a further 20 minutes and then it dropped again for 12 minutes. It then reconnected again for the last few minutes of the workout. The data readings themselves tended to be rather flat. I would have expected to see well defined peaks for each of the games with a 2 minute rest period in between them where my HR should have dropped more than the recorded value. This is probably a characteristic of the watch sensor in that it is not as responsive to change as the dedicated Polar OH1 device is. I had the watch sitting three finger widths up from the wrist knuckle with a wrist sweat band below the watch so it could not move down toward the wrist. As Sonnnet suggests I need to do more testing. I think the correlation between the watch and the Polar OH1 will be a lot closer when I am out cycling at the weekend. I will be able to do more testing as I have decided to keep the watch but only because I have a solution for recording my squash activity using the dedicated Polar OH1 device.

Anyhow, this thread is meant to be about the Samsung Update. I like it for the UI enhancements it brings. I am not convinced it brings an update for the HR sensor but fortunately we have third party apps that work with the sensor API better than Samsung Health does. I concur with Sonnnet that if you want to do any HR monitoring during your workouts use Gear Tracker.

Thanks for confirming the Gear Tracker issue

I don't know what's going wrong for you, though, and hopefully you'll get there. In terms of responsiveness to quick change, I have found that it can do this very effectively. Take a close look at the screenshot below and the description. (Obviously I was using Gear Tracker).

You seem to be covering the bases in what you are trying though, so I'm a bit at a loss as to the cause of the problem. Maybe you'll discover it yourself. Please keep us posted.

 

[Peter621022]

Agree with all. And 13% normal?

I read an article claiming normal is 10-25% depending on your age. I conclude it is hard to say how precise any of those sleep tracking algorithms are without professional equipment as reference, as stated by Sonnet earlier.
I am going back to basics. If I feel rested I slept well. If I don't I didn't. Usually that has to do with a lot on my mind or me sitting behind a computer or using my phone until going to bed.
So I don't really need my watch to tell me what I already know. After the update I was curious how good the new algorithm is, but my conclusion is that it's indicative only and can't be more based on movement and HR monitoring only. I am not convinced Sleep as Android is much better, but even if it is, the battery consumption makes it impractical for day to day use in my opinion.

 

[sonnnet]

I read an article claiming normal is 10-25% depending on your age. I conclude it is hard to say how precise any of those sleep tracking algorithms are without professional equipment as reference, as stated by Sonnet earlier.
I am going back to basics. If I feel rested I slept well. If I don't I didn't. Usually that has to do with a lot on my mind or me sitting behind a computer or using my phone until going to bed.
So I don't really need my watch to tell me what I already know. After the update I was curious how good the new algorithm is, but my conclusion is that it's indicative only and can't be more based on movement and HR monitoring only. I am not convinced Sleep as Android is much better, but even if it is, the battery consumption makes it impractical for day to day use in my opinion.

I agree with most of what you say Peter, but some of the good things about tracking sleep digitally are the additional stats, such as average duration of sleep over days, weeks, months, year. Also average bedtimes and wake times and consistency of those being significant for optimum sleep based on circadian rhythms. Sleep as Android gives you all of that. Also monitoring snoring is a massive benefit because snoring is on a scale and at the highest end can indicate sleep apnoea which is dangerous and can lead to TIAs and strokes. I'm not an excessive snorer, but when my lifestyle is less healthy (diet, sleep, less exercise, being over my suitable weight), I do snore more and SAA warns me in the morning and I can listen to the recording snippets. So it's a warning/ big incentive to step up my exercise, eat well and get enough sleep. When I do, I can see that snoring decreases and deep sleep increases. This is useful. And considering I sleep with my phone on the nightstand, I might as well use SAA as it also wakes me in the morning. All it takes is one press on a quick settings icon before I close my eyes.

I do all this just on my phone. I don't need to monitor my heart rate as well as I know it is consistent/ safe based on the occasional times I do test it. I turn my watch off and charge it overnight, giving it a rest and so that it can clear out all the junk. In the morning I put it on and battery is 100% so I can use it as heavily as I want.

 

[Peter621022]

I understand your point Sonnet. I'd say If it's of use to you, by all means use it.
Question though, my partner is the louder snorer of us two, so that would interfere with using it as feedback on how I slept, wouldn't it? I think confronting her with the recordings would be playing with my life, so I I am better of without, don't you agree?

 

[sonnnet]

I understand your point Sonnet. I'd say If it's of use to you, by all means use it.
Question though, my partner is the louder snorer of us two, so that would interfere with using it as feedback on how I slept, wouldn't it? I think confronting her with the recordings would be playing with my life, so I I am better of without, don't you agree?

If you value your life, most definitely

 

[malachijd]

Still no update. Looks like I won't get it this week which means I'm looking at 2 weeks of waiting.

 

[malachijd]

Still no update. I'm wondering if they paused the update to check out reports of battery drain issues

 

[Greymire]

Still no update. I'm wondering if they paused the update to check out reports of battery drain issues

I have only see a couple battery issue reports. I doubt it was an issue. I did have one day it drained quicker but I discovered one of my Facer watch faces didn't like the update. Switched faces and all is well. I have seen a bit of improvement overall but nothing huge. I still get three to four days depending on exercises and watch face.

 

[malachijd]

I have only see a couple battery issue reports. I doubt it was an issue. I did have one day it drained quicker but I discovered one of my Facer watch faces didn't like the update. Switched faces and all is well. I have seen a bit of improvement overall but nothing huge. I still get three to four days depending on exercises and watch face.

Well then they just hate US LTE users.