It appears that Samsung Malaysia could soon be introducing its cellular LTE versions of its latest smartwatches for the local market. As tipped by one of our readers, there are 4 new Galaxy Watches that have passed our SIRIM database which offers 3G and 4G support.
According to the listing, there’s the Samsung SM-R825F, R835F, R845F and R855F. All of them support LTE via eSIM and it supports our local 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz 4G bands. Based on the model numbers, the certified devices are the Galaxy Watch Active 2 (40mm and 44mm) and Galaxy Watch 3 (41mm and 45mm).
To recap, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 was released last year with the Galaxy Note 10 series and it was priced from RM1,099 for the 44mm Aluminium version during launch. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Watch 3 was just announced with the current Galaxy Note 20 series and it’s priced significantly higher from RM1,699 for the 41mm version.
It isn’t clear how much extra the LTE version of the Galaxy Watches would cost in Malaysia. The current Apple Watch SE 40mm with GPS + Cellular is priced at RM1,449 which is RM250 extra compared to the standard GPS model.
Since the new models uses an eSIM, that also means that you’ll probably need to sign up for a smartwatch plan with a telco to take advantage of its standalone connectivity features. This could include the ability of answering calls from the same mobile number and stream music from your smartwatch without having your smartphone with you.
Thanks @khainiz94 for the tip!