So, where to begin, I have always had galaxy Watches, I have the 5 pro now, had been waiting for the Ultra to see what that would produce. My biggest gripes on all smartwatches are battery life and syncing, plus ease of use. Have Galaxy Watch have Samsung phone all good!.......yea, but no. I love not having to take a watch off and so charging every 36 hours is annoying. Which brings me onto the Balance. I had one and sent it back, now that it has AI and can you can speak your reply plus amazing battery life thought we'd try again. I did, but sent back - back I am going to try again. Lets start, the watch isn't chunky, its light weight, good screen resolution, but doesnt have the feel and build quality of the Samsung or a Huawei, but it doesnt feel cheap and nasty. Setting up is a challenge, although great intergration with Google Fit - no issues there. The software seems a little laggy but again that could be due to the set up and syncinig. The Zepp App is easy to install and the pairing of the watch simple enough. This is the tricky bit now. You need to provide lots of permissions for the watch to access everything, again once done seems OK, only you also have to go into the Zepp app to allow phone permissions and then bluetooth on the phone to allowing calls - if you don't do this the phone will not work through the watch. Media playing and controling is easy but no Spotify or Deezer, only use from the watch unless you load music directly - not an issue but time consuming. Furthermore, going back to permissions, these need to be granted for the Zepp app to send notifications, all straight forward but takes time - plenty of canned replies plus the ability to voice text/whatsapp reply is good. Pictures can be viewed on whatsapp messages on the phone and watch too. Speaker loud and clear but a little tiny. Fitness tracking seems good, GPS picked up well and route back feature useful. I havent tried NFC pay, but if I buy again and keep for a while I shall subscibe to Curve and load cards. the Zepp apps needs to be kept open and locked for full functionality, so a tad more battery drain on the phone. The Zepp app fitness info is incredible in detail and contains every metric you will ever need and the one step measurements on the watch is very clear and useful - the watch and app sync well. Sleep tracking seems on par with the Galaxy watch 5 pro - not sure I agree with the subscrition service, but one I may consider if I buy again. Body compersition measurement works and seems on a par with the Galaxy watch 5 pro. The stand out feature for me is the battery life. The watch I had came with 72% charge, I set it up, used for three days and tracked numenrous excercises, when I went to charge it again - still had 22% really amazing. My only other bug is that whilst you can receive, reply and delete messages etc from the watch, this doesnt sync with the phone, so when you go to your emails, texts or Whatsapp messages on your phone they need to be cleared so you are doubling up. summing up I would say when you get the watch you need patience and time to understand it and what works best for you, I have little patience, so having a Samsung Watch and Phone where snycing is instant on all things, plus Samsung pay it really tough to say I definetly going to prefer the Balance, but if you or I for that matter can live with a few niggles to have fantastic battery pretty good tracking and not an over priced watch, this could be the one for you. One final point worth mentioning, if you have used Google Fit or Samsung Health or Huawei Health ou know the phone will track your steps without the watch. The Zepp app doesnt do this, so if you are not wearing the watch your steps will not be counted - I did try to see if turning on Fit tracking would cause double counting when putting the watch back on and leaving Fit tracking working side by side, but can't be sure if one conteracts the other. Hope this is of use and happy choices. If I but again and keep for a while I shall follow up - time and patience will tell :) Brief update, I did purchase again and found this since a possible update the phone and watch messages did sync. Very good. The downside having kept for a few days once the phone got very hot and battery drain heavy - apparently this is to.do with Zepp app being locked as kept open which constantly looks to sync with the watch. Unfortunately this led to me sending back again......perhaps I might try Garmin or wait for next iteration of the balance and try once more!
