Did you expect it well? It’s a lot less than expected. In its measurements to determine the thickness of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Samsung deliberately omits the BioActive sensor…obviously too thick for its liking.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro’s sensor, a thickness pattern that Samsung deliberately fails to account for // Source: Arnaud Gelineau – Frandroid
Samsung cheats on the thickness and weight advertised for its Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. We recall this from measurements taken independently from the DC Rainmaker blog using a digital caliper. Gauge in hand, the Korean giant’s new connected watch is significantly thicker than officially advertised: 15.2mm versus 10.5mm according to Samsung. This notable difference contradicts much of the discourse from the brand, which is also vacillating on the issue of the weight of its new top-of-the-line Tocante.
“The measured thickness of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro was 15.2mm, about 50% thicker than the advertised 10.5mm. And the weight? More than double the specification. Apparently, Samsung didn’t include the weight of the strap in its measurements (although no limitation is stated),” the blog explains.
The competition is doing the same (but is that really an excuse?)
That difference in thickness actually comes from a fiddly measurement by Samsung, which is content to account for the thickness of its Galaxy Watch 5 Pro’s frame without also measuring the large BioActive sensor that juts out from the bottom of the show. So only part of the frame is measured. In this case, Samsung can hardly invoke the error, since these measurements were carried out correctly on the old versions of the watch.
However, if Samsung is cheating on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro’s actual thickness, the increased protrusion of its BioActive sensor isn’t necessarily a bad thing. More noticeably, this sensor would allow for better contact with the user’s skin… and therefore more accurate readings. At least that’s what Samsung said in a recent press release: “With an increased surface area and more direct contact with your wrist, the Galaxy Watch 5 captures health measurements even more precisely than the Galaxy Watch 4.”
Source: DC Rainmaker
At the same time, note that unfortunately Samsung is far from the only one cheating on the thickness of its connected watches. Apple and Garmin are obviously doing the same thing. DC Rainmaker had fun checking out: the Watch Series 7, which should theoretically be 10.7mm thick, is actually 13.1mm; while the Garmin Forerunner 255 Music prances at 14mm…vs. 12.9mm on its spec sheet. Conversely, the Fitbit Sense is actually 12.35mm thick as advertised on its official page.
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