Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Workout Mode Ability is Reasonably Good
If you’re in the market to purchase the Galaxy Watch and tracking your workouts is a top priority, then this article is certainly worth your while. We know the Galaxy Watch offers around 90 distinct workout modes. But the Galaxy Watch can offer more than just tracking 90 different workouts.
In my experience of testing smart watches, I have created a rating system that will rate the smart watch’s capacity to track your workouts based on what’s offered in the market. This way, you are able to determine if the Galaxy Watch is capable of meeting your requirements or not. Here is a final summary of the Galaxy Watch’s workout mode ability.
Galaxy Watch Workout Mode Ability
| Activity Level | Rating |
| Beginner Level | 5 out of 5 |
| Intermediate Level | 3 out of 5 |
| Advanced Level | zero out of 5 |
| 8 out of 15 |
Workout Mode Rating Criteria
- Basic Level : Calorie counting, have various workout modes available to track, heartrate tracking, step counting, duration of workout, heart rate variation recording, ability to connect to third party apps (directly or indirectly), auto detection workout.
- Intermediate Level : Ability to determine your fitness level, ability to measure training load/intensity, GPS Tracking, ability to improve cadence, AI coach feature
- Advanced Level : Ability to connect to motion sensors, ability to prepare you for a race, Ability to provide advanced analytics (similar to Polar flow, Garmin Connect), ability to provide specialist features to improve performance. Advanced auto detection (automatically change workout modes based on your motion)
After careful consideration, the Galaxy Watch has been given a rating of 8 out of 15 for its ability to track your workouts. The Galaxy Watch offers all the basic functions of workout tracking and some intermediate level tracking too. Looking at this rating, it’s a true reflection of how I see the watch against other smart watches in the market. I will be going into more detail of the specifics in the following section.
I also wont go over the basic workout mode functionalities, as it’s very generic amongst all smart watch’s in the market. I will look into the intermediate level and advanced level modes with you.
The Galaxy Watch Does Not Offer Advanced Workout Tracking
- Ability to connect to motion sensors,
- Ability to prepare you for a race,
- Ability to provide advanced analytics (similar to Polar flow, Garmin Connect),
- Ability to provide specialist features to improve performance.
- Advanced auto detection (automatically change workout modes based on your motion)
It is certainly an impressive list considering the smart watches that are available in the market today. If you had your heart set on the Samsung Galaxy Watch to track your workouts with a higher level of detail, unfortunately, it may not be the most suitable device for you. If any of the features I have mentioned are particularly important to you when monitoring your workouts, then you should consider an alternative such as one of the Garmin Forerunner Series watches.
Intermediate Level : 3 out of 5 Stars
When it comes to intermediate level workout tracking, the Galaxy Watch offers something that’s very reasonable. If you have a passion to be active and get in shape then the Galaxy Watch is a great choice. I am going to go through the workout modes that the Galaxy Watch does not offer first.
1. Galaxy Watch Cannot Determine Your Training Load
Unfortunately the Galaxy Watch does not have the ability to measure training load/intensity. Im talking about feature similar Fitbit’s daily readiness score, Garmin’s body battery or Huawei’s Training Load. This type of feature is very useful when you are trying to gauge your current level of fitness. This type of feature uses all of your training data including sleep and stress to calculate a score that can help you determine if you are ready to be more active or if you need to rest up a little bit more.
2. Galaxy Watch Cannot Advance Your Cadence
Unfortunately the Galaxy Watch does not have the ability to improve cadence. Some watch’s on the market have a workout tool called metronome, which is something that Huawei Watch’s have added. It works like a timing tool and you follow the chime or vibration of the watch and generate a rhythm. Then again you can use music because it works the same way. Turn on an upbeat song and move to the rhythm of the song.
3. Galaxy Watch Does Have a AI Feature
The Galaxy Watch does have a AI coach feature, Im going to do a future article about it, but the Galaxy Watch only has one AI feature for running. In my experience the Galaxy Watch running program is very different to what the Huawei, Polar or Garmin offers because these brands help you improve your running ability and help you improve on your running capacity. Where as the Galaxy Watch is really about getting active, similar to going into a gym class to do cardio you just follow a whole lot of instructions. So far the experience is very good but I will provide a more detailed answer in a future article.
4. Galaxy Watch Does Have GPS Tracking
The Galaxy Watch does offer GPS tracking, not to mention it’s very reliable as well. GPS tracking is something that is very important to me when I am doing my workouts and I have to say that the GPS tracking has always been consistent for me and the accuracy is very good.
In terms of accuracy the Galaxy Watch 4, 5, 5PRO are all at the same level, which is very good. However the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is probably the better option if GPS tracking is something you’re after. It comes down to the GPS battery consumption rate. The Galaxy Watch 5 pro 2 times more efficient than the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5, here is a comparison below
| No | Brand/Smart Watch | Consumption Rate | Star Rating |
| 1 | Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro | 5% | 5 |
| 2 | Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic | 5% | 5 |
| 3 | Garmin Forerunner 55 | 5% | 5 |
| 4 | Huawei Watch Fit 2 | 5% | 5 |
| 5 | Xiaomi S1 Active | 5% | 5 |
| 6 | Huawei Watch GT3 Pro | 6% | 5 |
| 7 | Huawei Watch GT3 (power saver mode) | 6% | 5 |
| 8 | Polar Ignite 3 | 6% | 5 |
| 9 | Fitbit Versa 4 | 7% | 4 |
| 10 | Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 & 4 | 9% | 4 |
| 11 | Huawei Watch GT3 (performance mode) | 13% | 3 |
| 12 | Fitbit Charge 5 | 20-22% | 1 |
5. Galaxy Watch Can Determine Your Fitness Level.
This is a very great feature to have and the Galaxy Watch can do it in 2 ways. First is by completing the walking test and second is via heart rate recovery. The walking test is something I did not existed until I was analysing my workout records. It’s a great feature to have because it primarily suits any fitness group. Both of these are quite hard to just generalise so if you would like to know more information about these please click on the links provided
How Does The Galaxy Watch Rank Against Others
| Rank | Brand | Watch Series | Specialty | Score |
| 1 | Garmin | Forerunner 55 | Multi Sport | 15 |
| 2 | Polar | Pacer | Multi Sport | 15 |
| 3 | Apple | Watch 7, 8 Ultra | Well Rounded | 15 |
| 4 | Polar | Ignite 3 | Fitness | 15 |
| 5 | Huawei | GT3 PRO | Well Rounded | 13 |
| 6 | Huawei | GT3 | Well Rounded | 12 |
| 7 | Huawei | Watch Fit 2 | Well Rounded | 12 |
| 8 | Huawei | Band 7 | Well Rounded | 9 |
| 9 | Samsung | Galaxy Watch 6 Classic | Smart apps | 8 |
| 10 | Samsung | Galaxy Watch 4, 5, 5 Pro | Smart apps | 8 |
| 11 | Fitbit | Versa 4, Charge 5, Inspire 3 | Health | 7 |
| 12 | Xiaomi | S1 Active | Smart apps | 6 |
Once you get a chance to look at this rating table here, I’m sure you will immediately understand the rationale behind the ranking system. As the table shows, any sort of watch that specializes in multiple sports activities will be given a maximum 15 point rating. If anything less, then that particular brand is not at the standard that other watch’s are offering.
When it comes to Fitbit, it’s no surprise that they would rank quite low in this ranking system, since they specialize in Health and have put in the effort to create reliable health tracking features. Im sure if I created a health ranking table the tables would be flipped around so that Fitbit would be ranked in the top 3.
The Galaxy Watch’s true capabilities are undeniably the smart applications, and they are equally exceptional in all other categories. I am extremely pleased that the rating system properly demonstrates what the smart watch can really give you. In the end, it’s ultimately about what you desire in a smart watch.
Final Conclusion
So there you have it you now know the Galaxy Watch’s full capacity when tracking your workouts. This applies to the Galaxy Watch 4, 5 and 5Pro because based on my experience the workout ability is the same all the way through.
I also hope you found this article useful in determining if the Galaxy Watch is the right one for you. Every watch offers something very different and at the end of the day, what you decide is perfect for you is what matters.
Thank you so much for reading
