Samsung smartwatch close to pipping Apple

SMARTWATCHES can measure so many parts of your life: every step you take, every minute you’re active, your heart rate, your respiratory rate, and whether you’re sleeping enough or well enough.

But Samsung’s newest wearable gadget takes these measurements more seriously than ever.

The Galaxy Watch4 can, for example, tell you if you snored last night and play back the evidence.

It can tell you if you’ve gained or lost muscle (or fat) over the past week using new skin sensors.

And it’s medically approved to help monitor for signs of an irregular heartbeat and, with an accessory, record your blood pressure.

In short, this new $399 smartwatch will be a fitness-tracking, healthmonitoring overachiever when it is released on Friday.

But the best enhancement to this watch is its software. Samsung finally teamed up with Google and its Wear

OS software for this device, and the results benefit both companies.

While its menus and gestures are familiar, this watch delivers more apps, quicker access to them, and bigger and bolder icons.

If you use Google Maps on your phone, directions will automatically appear on your watch too.

Samsung’s refreshed watch does have a few shortcomings, however.

Despite its Google software, you can’t add the Google Assistant to talk to this watch and Bixby still lags behind its rivals in usefulness.

The Watch4 is also very conservative when it comes to counting your steps around the house, aggressive at pausing workouts when you stop, and will be most useful when paired with a Samsung phone.

Despite these niggles, the Galaxy Watch4 is seriously compelling.

With its new health credentials, four sizes from 40 to 46mm, a bright and clear screen, optional mobile connection and bezel, and tap-andpay ability, this is as close to an Apple Watch killer as Samsung has made to date. If only it could talk.