Samsung’s wearable lineup offers a few different choices, from fitness bands up to fully fledged smartwatches.
New rumours are appearing about the latter, with the possibility of an expandable display being a key feature.
When will the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 be released?
Samsung usually releases the new version of the Watch in August, as you can see below:
Samsung Galaxy Watch – August 2018
Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 – N/A
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 – August 2020
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 – August 2021
The only deviation from the pattern was when Samsung introduced the Galaxy Watch Active and followed it up with the Watch Active 2, which arrived in March and September of 2019, respectively. This now seems to be a retired model, with the company settling with the Galaxy Watch.
Looking at this history, you’d have to say there’s a very good chance that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 will arrive in August 2022.
How much will the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 cost?
We haven’t had any official word from Samsung about the Galaxy Watch 5, so for pricing we’ll need to look at the previous models. The Watch comes in two sizes – 40mm and 44mm – plus you can choose from Bluetooth or 4G varieties.
With the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, the company also introduced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic that uses the styling of a more traditional analogue watch. Again, this comes in two sizes.
Here’s the pricing:
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 40mm (Bluetooth only) – £249/€269/$249
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 44mm (Bluetooth only) – £269/€299/$279
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 40mm (4G) – £289/€319/$299
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 44mm (4G) – £309/€349/$329
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 42mm (Bluetooth only) – £349/€369/US$349.99
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 46mm (Bluetooth only) – £369/€399/US$379.99
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 42mm (4G) – £389/€419/US$399.99
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 46mm (4G)– £409/€449/US$429.99
The prices for the Classic are closer to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, probably due to the construction, as both had rotating bezels and other features.
But, with the standard Watch 4 offering practically the same software experience, it could be that Samsung keeps these two tiers in place so that it can pretty much match the price points of the Apple Watch SE and the Apple Watch Series 7.
What new features will we see in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5?
As stated, Samsung hasn’t made any official statements about the Watch 5, so we’re reliant on leaks and rumours at the moment. Hopefully this will change soon, but for the time being we can rest of the wisdom of industry analysts and our own experience.
One of the most intriguing rumours we’ve seen so far is that Samsung is planning to release a smartwatch with a display that can be unrolled to make it bigger.
LetsGoDigital has reported on patent applications made by Samsung that show a device whose screen can be unfurled from two standard semi-circles to a pill-shape, gaining an extra 40% of space in the process. One downside is that there is a central area that isn’t a display but instead acts as a touch sensitive interface and home for a camera.
Here’s an image from the patent (via LetsGoDigital):
This patent was filed, along with a comprehensive documentation, at the start of December 2021, so it does seem unlikely that it will be the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. But it could be a feature on its successor.
That’s not the only radical screen design from Samsung though, as LetsGoDigital unearthed another patent, this time featuring a rollable display and a chassis that can be rotated on the strap.
The practical upshot of this is that you can make the screen taller or wider to suit the app you’re using.
Again, as the patent was released around the same time as the other one, it could be too soon to feature on a watch in 2022, but there’s no doubt that Samsung has the bit between its teeth when it comes to innovating in the wearables space.
Other than these slightly wacky ideas, there’s a surprising lack of rumours or news regarding the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. We’d expect the continued evolving of the Samsung One UI Watch interface along with Google’s WearOS software as the companies work towards devices that can rival or even topple the Apple Watch. But from a hardware perspective it’s probably only going to be iterative upgrades, unless Samsung has something special up its sleeves.
We’ll keep updating this article as more details become available, so do check back regularly. In the meantime, take a look at our guides to the best smartwatches and best fitness trackers.
