Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Heart Rate Monitoring Inconsistencies

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The smartwatch category often feels like a niche mostly comprised of more misses than hits. Devices are often found for 1/4th the price of another whilst retaining all the features of the latter. This makes you question the efficacy of the budget-oriented device. Regardless, when it fails to deliver all that’s promised, the so-called investment is no more than an expensive toy. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is Google and Samsung’s collaborated effort to take on the upcoming iWatch Series 6. However, as the title suggests the device isn’t without its caveats.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Heart Rate Monitoring Issue

It has not been even a month before Samsung unveiled Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and they are hit. One of the reasons being the Android Wear OS 3.0-based One UI Watch. Expectedly, users are coming up with issues after wearing it. Let us check out one of the pestering issues. The Galaxy Watch 4 heart rate sensor is not monitoring accurately for some, especially during workouts.

While several users on the r/GalaxyWatch subreddit claim to have their devices suffer from inconsistent reports while recording their heart rate. However, there is no clear indication as to whether the issue is a software bug or a case of improper use on behalf of the user.

From the initial reports coming in, it appears that Galaxy Watch 4 series heart rate sensor is a random number generator. It is unable to track correct workout figures and thereby randomly generating data. Users, expectedly have compared the data with other watches and come up with the discrepancy.

On monitoring the heart rate sensor during different times of day, users have come to the conclusion that it is more of a software problem rather than hardware. Watch used during cycling workout appears to have 100% software bug.

u/LivDoug suggests tightening the strap instead of leaving the watch hanging loose to get more accurate reports on the Watch. Another user claims that the sweat and grime caught between the skin and the watch might lead to errors in calculation.

Samsung’s Watch already has the demerit of being unable to pair with an iPhone or any non-Samsung device when using the ECG function. The constant drops and latency in the Heart Rate measure put another nail in its coffin.

However, the majority of the comments lead to the possible conclusion of the Galaxy Watch 4 series infected with a software algorithm bug. Maybe the integration with Google’s algorithms is causing the issue. Hopefully, Samsung and Google will work together to fine-tune it. Especially, since the other three Watch 4 models suffered a similar fate.

Possible Galaxy Watch 4 Heart Rate Monitoring Issue Fix

One could try some of the more common measures to improve the quality of the heart recording mechanism. Even so, the Watch 4 fairs better against outdoorsy devices like the Gear 3 Frontier. You could post an error report on the Samsung Members App.

Open Member’s App> Select the “+” button> Click on Error Report.

The Samsung Active 2 and several others of Samsung’s lineup face similar problems as well. As it stands, we would recommend a third party smartwatch that retails in the same price category. May we recommend the Apple Watch SE? Or even the Apple Series 6 which retails for ₹44000.

Samsung cannot be expected to release any future updates at the moment. This does mean that the ongoing issue with the Watch 4 may not be resolved. If they do manage to resolve it, however, what we would end up having is a budget competitor to Apple’s iWatch Series 6.

Let us know what you think about the Samsung Watch 4 in the comments below. For more similar content visit our website.

Achyuth Nambiar
Achyuth Nambiar
Being a tech enthusiast and someone who loves to read, I try to combine the two into my latest attempt... blogging. A gaming PC though a Far Cry (pun intended) remains a distant dream.

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