 I have a love and hate relationship with my cell phone and my tablet, they do their jobs too well. I'm too connected to the point that I have a hard time disconnecting when I need to do creative work. Temptation to check my email, slack off at a workout through a YouTube video and the need to be up to date with the world at the cost of not living my own world has taken a toll on my self-control. That is, of course, until I got the Galaxy Watch 5. I warn you that this will not be your typical smartwatch review. Hi, I'm Raffael from Hardware Sugar and here is my review of Samsung's latest wearable and how it has made me not only more productive but also a lot happier through its work at being the gatekeeper of my temptations. Check out CDKEOVERS.com. What I have is the 44mm regular Watch 5 Wi-Fi model. This is my first smartwatch in 7 years and if I'm being wowed by some features which have been around for a while then you should probably watch something else because I'm going to geek out on everything that absolutely wows me even if they aren't new. If you've never owned a smartwatch before or have a very old one and own an android phone especially a Samsung model then this review is for you. I have used the watch every day for 35 days now ever since it arrived on August 23. This also included an impromptu 10 day trip to Singapore where I truly got to test out most of its features. I paid for this with my own cash and so Samsung could care less what I say and how I say it. I'm going to skip the usual stuff people talk about when it comes to this watch for now and just get right into the things I love about right off the bat. I completely detached from my S21 Ultra at least once a day. It says it's good for you to take walks without distraction. The most creative thoughts come to us during exercise and when we are alone with ourselves. However, I also like tracking my workouts and listening to music while I do them. With the watch 5, I can download entire playlists I have saved onto the watch itself making it a portable mp3 player. For this to work however you have to have wireless earphones and to be a subscriber to the premium version of Spotify. The fact that all I carry out the door when I walk my dog or go for a run is just my watch and the two earbuds hanging from my ear is very liberating. If you're on Strava, the running app, the watch 5 does a good job at tracking your progress there as well as while you listen to your playlist. Even when I'm at my home gym, I originally had my phone or iPad nearby playing my soundtrack or a dead talk but I soon found out that in between sets I ended up playing with them and before I knew it, I've become those guys everyone hates at the gym. The watch 5 gives me freedom by allowing me to have as few or as much connection as I want with my mobile which brings me into the next thing which I really like which is the do not disturb function. Whether it is Pomodoro, the time management method in which you allocate a specified number of minutes to a single task without interruption or some other productivity guide, the term deep work comes up often. Deep work just means the ability to focus without distraction on a mentally demanding task whether that is studying, accounting, writing and so forth. The watch 5 has a handy do not disturb option from the drop down menu which ultimately kills all unnecessary notifications from reaching your phone so that you can remain connected with the things which do matter. You can customize on your phone by the way which things should always be let through such as specific emergency numbers such as your partner or your parents. The notifications still come as a red dot on the left side of the screen which you can refer to at will. However it at least doesn't vibrate or chime each time you receive a message from a chat group you only occasionally care to be part of. The watch 5 has a plethora of watch faces with programmable data points which Samsung calls complications. A complication can be any available data point or app which is supported by that specific watch face. The most common ones are the step counter, your next alarm, a timer, the battery and of course the date and weather. I'll get into how awesome the watch faces look into a moment but even if I love the watch 5 for allowing me to detach from my cell phone it still keeps me on track as I go about my day. Two very simple examples is when I set an alarm for an upcoming meeting. In addition to telling me what time my alarm is it will also tell me how long until the alarm goes off. This is minor but I feel more in control and aware of how much time is left when I'm actually told how much time is left. As opposed to the traditional way of merely gauging how much time we have left. Secondly I do a lot of cooking and spontaneous planking and so the timer as a complication is very handy. I try to do a two minute plank every other hour. Again since I keep my phone away during work periods there is no way for me to get distracted with a message or Instagram when all I need for the moment is the timer. The timer also comes in handy of course for basic things such as cooking pasta and baking a roast. Again I find it really liberating that I don't need to lug my phone with me around the house when I'm doing chores during my off times. There is of course the health aspect of the watch 5. If you're holding up the watch to your face as you walk you will see the watch counting the steps in real time. There are also multiple YouTubers who have done much more rigorous testing when it comes to the health monitoring aspects of the watch. I'll link them down but safe to say that when it comes to steps I think it is at least 95% accurate. It also genuinely encourages me to meet my targeted goals every day. In fact there was one night in Singapore in which I lacked a couple of hundred steps and I literally ran up and down the steps of my hotel in my pajamas just so I could get that satisfying congratulations message. Even when I fail to reach my health targets for the day I feel both guilty and genuinely challenged to make up for it the day after. I will say however that the sleep monitor isn't perfect. I'm always pleasantly surprised that it can detect when I fell asleep but it fails to register accurately when I actually wake up. Occasionally I wake up and check my phone for half an hour but don't get out of the bed. I noticed that the watch thought I was still asleep during the times I was actually scrolling with my phone. I had to actually get up and walk around for it to officially record that I was no longer asleep. Now let's talk about the more basic stuff. The screen is gorgeous. The always on display is clear even in direct sunlight and the colors are vibrant and wonderful. Samsung kills it with their mastery over displays. The colors are really rich and sometimes I can't help but just wake it up just so I could see all the attractive and fun watch faces available. The most optimized watch faces will always be the one Samsung provides. However, I highly recommend the app Facer if you want an almost unlimited supply of watch faces. I'll link Seekid TV's channel above because he has the most in-depth discussion on Facer. Galaxy Watch 4 bands are compatible with the Watch 5. I just want to say that right off the bat. The installation of the band is disappointing, however. It takes some degree of effort and technique to master removing and adding new bands on. I think Samsung can most definitely work on making this easier. If you don't have a single long fingernail, you are practically screwed. Of course, that isn't to say that the band is loose or in danger of falling off. It isn't. It's just that part of the fun of owning a smart watch, ever since the Apple Watch debuted is the option to not only change your watch face, but also your band, depending on the occasion or mood you are feeling. The standard band, which comes with the Galaxy Watch 5, does its job well. And I can have it as tight and as loose as I want. However, they pick up this gorgeous green orange silicone watch band that which has a magnetic clasp. I'll leave the shopping link in the video description. This band, in fact, is marketed as a Watch 4 band. But as you can see, it latches on to my watch 5 with no problem. The watch 5 battery has never been an issue for me. Yes, expect to charge it at least once a day. But because of how quickly the watch 5 charges, I never really saw this as an issue to begin with. If, for instance, I'm running 20% before bedtime, I leave it charging on the cradle when I shower or when I'm having dinner. One hour later and it's fully charged up. A lot of people fear that just because your watch can't carry a charge which will last longer than a day means that it isn't worth the investment. For me, at least, I feel more productive and healthier because of the watch 5. And so I don't really care if I need to charge it at least once a day. And leaving it charging alongside my phone at times is second nature to me. This might not be okay with everyone, but it suits me quite fine. One cool trick for those of you at the office is that if you have a phone like the S21 or S22 which supports wireless charging, you can convert your phone to a wireless charging cradle if you desperately need to charge your watch 5 up. There are, of course, things I don't like about the watch 5. Firstly, it's the fact that it can receive super fast charging. However, the 25W Samsung adapter which allows this isn't included in the box. You need to buy the super fast charging adapter separately and it isn't cheap. They are, however, worth every penny. Luckily for me at least, I got a free one with my S21 Ultra upon pre-order last year and Samsung had a discount promo during the release of the watch 5 which I used to get two more. Next is the problem with fur. I have a dog who sleeps on the same bed as me and a single strand of fur seems to have lodged itself between the screen and the watch face. So, a warning to you pet lovers out there. More irritatingly, however, is how Samsung isn't clear on what features can work in which country. I'm from the Philippines and I have had hypertension for 20 years now. The blood pressure monitor would thus be really handy if only it was available here to begin with. This is disappointing and the Samsung website, both the Philippine and international version, isn't clear which feature is available for which country. Lastly, it takes a really long time for GPS to begin when using Strava. It is unclear to me if this is an optimization problem for the Strava app itself or if it's the built-in hardware and software of Samsung. Nevertheless, there are a number of videos stressing the occasional unreliability of the GPS of the watch 5. In my testing, however, the pathing system seems to be correct. It just takes a really long minute or two for things to get going. In conclusion, the watch 5 is my effective bouncer who keeps me from consuming unnecessary content on my phone for when it's time to work and acts as an effective health tracker and productivity reminder tool for my everyday use. Truthfully, though, based on a lot of other reviews, the watch 4 is almost identical to the watch 5 in every sense, except for the fact the watch 5 has slightly better battery life and has super fast charging. While I can't tell you which would be the better purchase since I've never owned the watch 4, I can tell you that the watch 5 is the most important tech investment I have made this year and I am immensely a more happier worker and healthier person, both mentally and physically because of it. Thanks for watching and maybe one of these days, we'll see you in the shop.