When I think about my idea of a good smartwatch, I picture one that lets me handle calls hands-free when I'm busy; quickly glance at important notifications when I'm on the run; and skip between songs when my phone is tucked away. When I think of a great smartwatch, it adds health and fitness features, sleep tracking and more, at an affordable price.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (40mm) delivers on all those features, and if you're looking for a wearable, it's the one I'd recommend checking out before looking into the latest version of the Galaxy Watch series. For Amazon's October Prime Day sale, you can get the 40mm version in black for $144, which is a drop of 28% from just a month ago.
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One good way of not spending too much money when buying tech is choosing a previous version of a current device. It looks almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, which added only minor improvements to the Watch 4.
Sure, it's not the latest model of the Samsung Watch -- that would be the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. It still has all the main features, including ECG, blood pressure monitoring, sleep monitoring, Google integration for most things and Samsung Health.
I'm not a fitness fanatic, so I don't need all the latest tracking features or even the improved battery life and bigger screen size of the Watch 7 (40mm), which will run you $261 on sale. The Galaxy Watch 4 has the fitness tracking I need without being overly complex. (It has advanced workout tracking for six modes including running, rowing and swimming, if you like those auto-detected tracking features.)
One caveat: Some people have complained that their battery is depleting quickly lately. Samsung has advice on how to run a diagnostic on your watch and remedy the issue. For more, here are our other favorite smartwatches.