Users of new Samsung smartwatches say they feel vibrations without receiving a notification. The question is whether this is due to the smartwatch or users.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 gives ‘ghost vibrations’
Perhaps you have experienced it yourself: ghost vibrations. These are vibrations that you feel from your smartphone or smartwatch, which cannot be clearly traced back to notifications or other events on your device. On Samsung’s own forum, dozens of users of the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra are reporting this problem en masse, with several possible causes.
Some blame Google Maps, because the app would unnecessarily transmit smartwatch information to the smartphone, resulting in vibrations. Others think it is due to the Samsung Health app, which sends vibrations when using different sensors. According to users, WhatsApp is also the culprit.
Finally, many think that the vibration is there to report the lost connection between smartwatch and smartphone. Here too, no clear notification appears on your wrist. However, anyone who consciously disconnects the connection does not always experience such a vibration.
Phantom vibration syndrome and solutions
The disadvantage of these ghost vibrations is that they happen briefly and unannounced. You also cannot ‘provoke’ them yourself, which makes many users unsure whether they have felt a vibration at all. This is a well-known phenomenon in the medical world, called ‘phantom vibration syndrome’.
The person briefly perceives stimuli that are not really there, as if you received a message on your smartphone or smartwatch. Remarkably, this can even happen if you don’t have a device in your pocket or on your wrist at all.
Samsung has not yet officially acknowledged the problem, but people are coming up with useful solutions online. For example, it is best to delete WhatsApp from your smartwatch and disable ‘mirroring’ in the Google Maps settings on your watch. Finally, you can try resetting your Galaxy Watch and reconnecting it to your smartphone.
More about the Galaxy Watch 7 series
Apart from the reported ghost vibrations, we are fans of the Galaxy Watch 7 series. The entry-level watch is the Watch 7 with a size of 40 and 44 millimeters, it has Wear OS 5 on board and it is packed with useful sensors that monitor your health. We have tested the smartwatch extensively for you and you can read our conclusion below.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is a nice and complete smartwatch with little to complain about. However, the watch is not innovative. The clock looks exactly the same as its predecessor and the most important improvement is under the hood. Fortunately, the new chip is noticeably faster.
Unfortunately, the battery life has not improved greatly. With light use you can get two days without charging, but most people will have to look for a socket sooner. There are also no very exciting software improvements.
For Galaxy Watch 6 owners, there isn’t really a reason to upgrade right away. Nevertheless, we expect the Galaxy Watch 7 to be a success again, especially because Samsung’s smartwatches are rapidly falling in price. At this moment you no longer pay 319 euros, but € 214 for the watch. That’s a great deal.
Then there is the Galaxy Watch Ultra. This 47 millimeter watch has a robust titanium case and is 10ATM water resistant. In theory, you should be able to dive deep-sea to a depth of 100 meters. We have of course also tested that smartwatch for you.
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Source: www.androidplanet.nl
