I bought the Watch 4 Classic LTE on Sep 10, was all excited with the features and sleek design. And having able to have all my apps on the watch: Strava; Spotify; Google maps ; Google Pay, etc. And all of the sensors of measuring body composition, ECG. And because of my medical condition, heart rate monitor was important.
Unfortunately the first signs of trouble started when the watch overheated, stopped all services and went to air plane mode, the minute it disconnected from the phone and connected to LTE. It's like while trying to connect to LTE, it overheats.
So I contacted Samsung and was advised to send the watch in and I did. Watch was diagnosed and assessment was the app could be faulty. Hence firmware was reinstalled.
I tried using the watch after firmware reinstalled. And connected to LTE. The music was streaming and my run was measured for 8 mins and the watch overheated. All run tracking stopped, music stopped playing as the watch went into air plane mode. I contacted Samsung Service center and they asked to send the watch in and I did. The diagnosis and and assessment was to reinstall the firmware! Which they did.
After two weeks of use (didn't use LTE) watch seemed to be ok. Then trouble started like the watch couldn't charge and I could not measure body composition, heart rate, ECG , none of the good stuff. Watch went into a reboot loop each time I tried charging the watch. So again I sent the watch in. They diagnosed the watch and found corrosion in the watch ( isn't this watch IP68 rated?). Ended up 12 parts needed to be changed: motherboard, screen, casing and many sensors that were no longer working properly.
When I got back the watch, I noticed that the exercise tracker wasnt showing the correct distance. A usual walking route would be 2km but Samsung health was showing 5.23km! How can the reading be so far off! I self diagnosed the watch calling out the diagnostic tool on the watch by dialing *#0*# on the phone app. It did show that most of the sensors had passed the diagnostic test. However the magnetic sensor was requiring calibration (?) . Which explains why I was getting a reading so far off.
In the two months, I had to visit the service center 9 times. Literally 9 times. Still my issue has not yet been resolved. The watch is currently at the service center. I'm not getting any information from Samsung on the status of the watch and it has already been 3 days. Though I believe they tried calling me and I missed the call yesterday. When I called customer service on the phone, all they did was kept apologizing and that is the relevant team will contact me. When? As soon as they can.
You see, that is why purchasing this watch created the worst customer experience ever for me. I have no confidence in using Samsung watches for sports, no matter what the claim may be. So unwilling to provide me with a new watch or a refund. I use Garmin watches and I think they are accurate and reliable watches. Probably will stick to them. In the meantime just waiting for when my problem can be resolved.
Yeah I realise that the battery performance for LTE variant is bad. My Watch 4 LTE, with mobile network disabled and acting as normal Bluetooth variant, but it's draining pretty quickly and can only last 1.5 days without WiFi, Bluetooth and Mobile network turned on. I believe once it's connected to network, the most it can last is 3/4 (0.75) day.
It is a needle in a haystack for a replacement. So far, I never had any 1-to-1 replacement for my Samsung devices before. They would rather spend on the manhours than replace with a new device, which could probably cost potentially less than having the technician fix the issue repeatedly. That's why you see most Apple devices' repairability score are usually zero, cos they are beyond repair once broken. With Apple Care+, all your problems are solved. Sometimes, even if your Apple Care+ expires, they offer to replace at no cost. They rather make you a happy customer than keep coming back to service centers to haunt them.
