Verdict
When it hail to style , software and fitness tracking , there ’s a slew to love about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 , but its lusterless battery sprightliness prevents it from being as groovy a smartwatch as it could be .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Because of its pocket-sized upgrades , it ’s easy to write off the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 , but Samsung ’s mainline wearable finger a spate more ripe this time around .
Samsung has free the Galaxy Watch 6 during a very interesting time for smartwatches . Last year’sPixel Watchhad some upstanding foundation garment that could chair to a very telling heir , while the recentTicWatch Pro 5is easily one of the best habiliment OS watches to date , partially because it destroys the competition when it comes to battery life .
Not only does the Watch 6 have stronger competition this time around , but it ’s also following on from arguably Samsung ’s most iterative wearable to day of the month , theGalaxy Watch 5 . fortuitously , having expend a good softwood of clock time with Samsung ’s newer watch , I ’m glad to report that it ’s one of the best Samsung has put out since the game - changingGalaxy lookout man 4 . Here ’s my full review .
Design and display
I ’ve always felt that the last few Galaxy Watches have been some of the most fashionable smartwatches on the market , and thankfully that remains the same here . At a glimpse , the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is almost superposable to the Watch 5 , save for the fact it ’s available in a smattering of new colours , include Silver and Gold , and it also handle to sit a little more snuggly against the articulatio radiocarpea .
I still opt circular smartwatches from a design perspective for the fact they more closely mirror traditional timepieces , but while the otherwise excellent TicWatch Pro 5 dropped the ball in footing of style , the Galaxy Watch 6 is easily something that can be paired with almost any turnout .
The biggest change here can really be found on the projection screen . The Galaxy Watch 5 suffer from some sizeable bezels and Samsung has seen fit to remedy that upshot this prison term , not only by reducing the bezels by 30 % but also increase the screen size by 20 % . This has been achieved all while keep the weight the same for the 40 millimeter option , and even decreasing it slightly for the 44 mm filling ( now 33.3 gm rather of 33.5 g ) .
It all adds up to making the Galaxy Watch serial publication find more sure-footed in its form gene than ever before . It prompt me of the same leap in screen size of it that Apple took with theApple Watch 7 , and it ’s been a welcome change since . parallel watch faces now face good than ever as the min dials make out almost to the edge of the front - facing portion , and more often than not I found myself entitle my articulatio radiocarpea just to admire the artistic creation style .
Speaking of wrist tilting , the Galaxy Watch 6 is also able to distinguish smaller movements from bringing your wrist up to your face . I noticed that when you have the always - on display toggled and do a slight wrist tilt , the Galaxy Watch 6 will light up up your scout confront slightly without fully waking itself up , which I think is a great feature .
Features and performance
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and the pricierGalaxy sentinel 6 Classicare the first smartwatches anywhere to pile Google ’s new Wear OS 4 program right out of the box . More than anything , it ’s great to see Google properly committing to constant updates for Wear OS , much in the same vein of Apple ’s annual watchOS update , as it now makes vesture like the Galaxy Watch 6 a better investment than smartwatches of sure-enough .
One of the benefit of Wear OS 4 is improved sleep trailing , which not only makes use of the Watch 6 ’s temperature sensor to keep an center on any wavering during the night , but can also tender up datum on your differing rest stages . Compared to theWhoop Strap 4.0 , the Galaxy Watch 6 was definitely bang on the money when it fall to the length of my time in bed , as well as the amount of multiplication I woke up throughout the night , but it forever had me down as having far more light sleep than was precise , which also threw the numbers for deep and REM sleep out of whack .
It ’s a shame because the Samsung Health app offers up some frightful written insight about sopor stage and , just like last class , it use precious small creature to ascertain what character of sleeper you are . If you ’re not too fret about the details , and just desire to improve your circadian calendar method overall , then you should be hunky-dory here , but otherwise you might desire to use the Whoop Strap or theOura Ring 3for more accurate sleep tracking .
The Watch 6 is also capable to track your menstrual hertz , which was a much welcome improver to theApple Watch 8and it ’s expectant to see the characteristic make an appearance here too . All of these young features are power by the kick upstairs Exynos W930 chipset , which packs a faster processing speed of 1.4GHz . I ’ll admit , the Galaxy Watch 5 never feel slow during my clip with it , so I ’m intemperately fight to see a major leaping in performance , but everything still scarper swimmingly and Samsung ’s UI arguably exhibit off wear out osmium in its best igniter , with the Pixel Watch coming in at a close second in that regard .
With that said , there are part of Samsung ’s ecosystem that experience needlessly obtuse . As an model , during a late trip to the celluloid I made certain to mark the lookout man to ‘ Theatre Mode ’ as the trailers begin , but unlike the Apple Watch , which comply from the get - go , the Galaxy Watch prompted me to set up the mood on my phone first , which then had me fumbling through several menu as quick as potential before the movie began . This is part of a wider payoff with Samsung ’s somewhat bloated in - house apps , but it is deserving note that there are a few moments of test and mistake to be expected .
The digital splay bezel also make a riposte , and while it work well in workaday consumption , I do see myself craving a strong-arm rotating crown . For the best of both , Samsung ’s see fit to come to the forcible turn out bezel on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic , so you may desire to consider that selection first .
Fitness tracking
Anyone who ’s used a Galaxy Watch before will already know that the fitness trailing element of Samsung ’s wearables has always been pretty good , and that remains the typesetter’s case with the Galaxy Watch 6 . For starter , there ’s utterly no shortage of workouts to track , so the huge majority of people will be glad with what ’s available .
The sentinel does a good job of breaking down your everyday effort with its heart - mould stats , and I ’m quite a prominent fan of the accompanying Samsung Health app , part because it offers plenty of physical exercise suggestions to either get you set about , or inspire you to transfer up your existing function .
Last year ’s Body Composition scan makes a return , which afford you an overall look at your current flyer of wellness by pick up datum like your skeletal musculus and BMI . Just like last year , it ’s amazingly accurate ( and amazing that a wrist - based gadget can pull in all that data ) , which makes it ready to hand for anyone looking to make serious change to their life style .
It ’s also deserving pointing out that the Galaxy Watch 6 ( and the 6 Classic ) are among the very few wearables out there that are up to of tracking descent pressure sensation which , more often than not , can be a cardinal index of your stress levels .
With regard to heart charge per unit monitoring during workouts , the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is for the most part very unspoilt . During a stint on the cycling machine , the results were like for like to that of theMyzone MZ - Switch , which is really impressive . I point out some variance during an elliptical workout however , with the Galaxy Watch 6 tracking a peak heart rate that was 2BPM higher than that log by the Myzone , which in turn break up the fair heart rate .
Still , this variance seemed like more of an anomaly , so for the most part , you should be ok with relying on the HRM datum that the Galaxy Watch 6 pumps out .
Battery life
Until this dot , I remember it ’s fair to say that my experience with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 has been largely positive , but I ’m afraid to say that the whole thing has fall apart somewhat in the kingdom of barrage lifespan .
especially after having just used theOppo Band 2and the TicWatch Pro 5 , the latter of which can run for up to five days on a single charge , the Galaxy Watch 6 has unluckily left me yearning .
With the always - on presentation toggle , one example tracked and quite a little of notifications , I was able to get from 8:35am to 00:35am ( past my common bedtime ) with 47 % left in the tank . What traumatise me was when I checked the battery the next forenoon to see that there had been a considerable drain throughout the nighttime , to the detail where I decide to top up the battery before head off for a daybreak physical exertion , just to be on the good side .
Turning the always - on display off does help things somewhat , as I take the watch off charge at the same 8:35am start time , and after two workouts , anNFCpayment and plenty more presentment , I had 38 % result by 10:54am the next day . That ’s hunky-dory if you just require to get to the goal of the day , but I ca n’t see any scenario where you could genuinely get two day of use out of the Galaxy Watch 6 .
At the very least , it does n’t take too foresighted to charge the Galaxy Watch 6 . From a dead stamp battery , I was able to get to 53 % in just half an 60 minutes ( which is strangely higher than Samsung ’s 45 % claim for the same amount of time ) , and it accept roughly 1 time of day and 13 minutes to reach 100 % .
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Should you buy it?
The Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch 6 are equally match in terms of mode , but the former just wins out ( slightly ) on battery life , making it the skilful alternative in this category .
The Galaxy Watch 6 is a tangible disappointment in condition of shelling life , in particular when the Wear OS 3 - totingTicWatch Pro 5can run for up to five day on a unmarried charge .
Final Thoughts
In many way , the Galaxy Watch 6 feels like the truest version of what Samsung intended to make with theGalaxy Watch 4two years ago . The larger CRT screen , minimal bezel and overall shade of what has already been a stylish set of watch just mean that the Galaxy Watch 6 is a far more convinced machine overall , and one that has settled into its form factor well .
unluckily , Samsung has seriously dropped the nut in footing of barrage fire spirit , and with theTicWatch Pro 5able to last for so much longer on a individual charge , I ’d only recommend the Galaxy Watch 6 over that if you ’re obsessed with excogitation before anything else . Still , there ’s plenty here to like , and it ’ll no doubt be appreciated by anyone upgrade from an old Tizen or Wear bone 2 smartwatch . Check out ourBest Smartwatchguide for even more options .
Trusted Score
How we test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we refresh . We use industry received testing to compare feature properly and we use the spotter as our main twist over the reexamination period . We ’ll always say you what we find and we never , ever , bear money to review a product .
FAQs
Just like the two Galaxy Watches before it , the Galaxy Watch 6 is n’t compatible with any iPhone .
The Galaxy Watch 6 comes with the novel Wear OS 4 platform straight out of the box .
Full Specs
