With Samsung’s New Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic, Android users continue to have solid options

Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic look stunning with bigger displays. Furthermore, the rotating bezel many Galaxy Watch users love is finally back.

Beyond looks, the watches offer a way for Android users to keep tabs on their daily activity, nightly sleep habits, and a trove of fitness stuff. You can also install and use apps directly from your wrist and have notifications beamed from your phone to your wrist.

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I’ve been testing the watches for nearly two weeks now, and while they’re not a massive upgrade over the Watch 5 lineup, they stand as some of the best Android options available and a worthy upgrade for folks with older models.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are up for order now, and you can save up to $250 off the starting prices: $300 for the Standard 6 or $400 for the Classic. Samsung also lets you save 30% off the extended warranty, which covers unlimited accidental damage instances when ordering the latest Galaxy Watch models.

• 40-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 in Gold, Black, or Silver, $300 at Samsung
• 44-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 in Gold, Black, or Silver, $300 at Samsung

• 43-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in Black or Silver, $400 at Samsung
• 47-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in Black or Silver, $430 at Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic pros and cons

Bigger screens are nice, but the rotating bezel is better

In 2022, Samsung introduced two new watches—the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, but there was a missing piece. The lack of a Classic model, which historically features a rotating bezel, was a disappointment and a major letdown for the Samsung faithful. Luckily, the Galaxy 6 Classic corrects that, and the Watch 5 Pro, a more rugged option, stays in the line.

The rotating bezel is an ingenious way of getting around the interface without tapping and using gestures on the tiny screen. Plus, the subtle clicks you hear and feel while turning the Watch 6 Classic’s bezel are just plain cool. It comes in two sizes—a 47-millimeter model with a 1.5-inch display or a 43-millimeter model with a 1.3-inch screen.

Compared to the Watch 4 Classic (the last model with the rotating bezel), the Watch 6 Classic features narrower bezels around the display and rotating circular bezel. Also, the buttons on the right side of the housing don’t protrude as far as they did with the Watch4 Classic. All-in-all, it’s a slimmer build that fans of the Classic will appreciate, and it comes in either black or silver.

The Galaxy Watch 6 is slightly slimmer in three colors—gold, black, or silver— and two sizes. 44-millimeter or 40-millimeter, translates into 1.5-inches and 1.3-inches, respectively. Last year’s Watch 5 was available in the same sizes, but the display sizes were 1.4-inches and 1.2-inches, respectively.

The increased screen size doesn’t come with the cost of a bigger watch, as Samsung was able to shrink the bezels around the display to give users more usable real estate. The Watch 6 is slightly (I’m talking half a millimeter) smaller and thinner than the Watch 5.

The metal encasing the circular housing on the Watch 6 is taller than on the Watch 5, coming almost up so that it’s even with the screen. It’s a welcomed change, as I remember every time I hit the Watch5 on something last year, I was afraid I was going to break the display. This year, the metal ring adds some protection and peace of mind.

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On the bottom of both watches is Samsung’s BioActive Sensor, which monitors your heart rate and blood oxygen level, among other health-related data. The watch is charged through a wireless charging pad in the box, but you’ll need to bring a wall plug. You’ll still find two buttons on the side of the standard 6 or the classic used for controlling or interacting with the watch.

Replacing the watch bands on either watch is easier this year, thanks to a new one-button mechanism. Simply press that button nearest the watch’s housing and either pull the band out to remove it or push a band in. I don’t have extra bands to test with, but I have removed the included bands on both a few times just to put them back on. It is a simple process and a change I’m glad Samsung made.

Google’s Pixel Watch and the Apple Watch have all had an easy way to swap out the band, so Samsung catching up in this area was long overdue.

The Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic don’t look drastically different from their predecessors. However, the changes that have been made will greatly impact the overall experience. A bigger display? Yes, please. An easier way to swap bands? I’m here for it.

A smartwatch for Android fans

The Galaxy Watch 6 line runs Wear OS powered by Samsung or Wear OS 4, along with Samsung’s One UI 5 Watch software customizations.

The partnership between Samsung and Google in combining Samsung’s Tizen operating system with Google’s WearOS has been fruitful for the end user, giving you access to apps designed and built for smartwatches available in the Play Store, not just Samsung’s own Galaxy Store.

As such, you can access apps like Google Maps, Messages, Google Assistant, and even Google Wallet for mobile payments. Or, if you’d prefer Samsung’s rendition of the core apps, you can use them instead.

For instance, Bixby is the default personal assistant on both watches out of the box. However, I was able to change the default voice assistant to Google’s offering quickly. That meant every time I said Hey Google or long-pressed the top button, Google Assistant answered the call instead of Samsung’s Bixby, which… is great.

The result of Samsung’s partnering with Google to create a single wearable operating system for Android users is a vastly improved experience. You still can’t use Samsung’s smartwatches with an iPhone, but I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. The experience, when that was possible, was clunky and didn’t live up to the promise of what Samsung offered.

For its part, Google’s Pixel Watch offers a similar experience, although it’s not yet running Wear OS 4. So the latest Galaxy Watches are ahead of Google’s Pixel hardware, which is a weird sentence to write as that never happens.

The Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic are smartwatches built for Android fans, and that’s exactly how it should be. The initial setup requires you to download the Galaxy Wearable app on your non-Samsung phone, or if you use a Samsung phone, you’ll see a prompt on the phone show up automatically, walking you through the rest of the process.

It takes about 10 minutes to go from a watch inside a box to a watch on your wrist, delivering alerts and counting your steps.

According to Samsung, the battery life on the Watch 6 and 6 Classic is estimated to be roughly 40 hours with the always-on display turned off or 30 hours with it on. That’s more or less what my experience was. When I turned off the always-on display, I could get a full day of use, including two full nights of sleep monitoring, between each charge.

That means putting the watch on at bedtime on Monday night, wearing it all day Tuesday and through Tuesday night, and then having to charge it sometime Wednesday morning. That matches my experience with the Apple Watch Ultra; these are both significantly cheaper.

A fitness companion

Samsung’s smartwatch offering, like Apple’s, has slowly morphed into a device that takes a health-first approach. The Watch 6 and 6 Classic can still measure your heart rate, monitor Sp02 levels while you sleep, count steps, track workouts, and even measure your blood pressure. Although, I wasn’t able to test the blood pressure feature as it requires access to a blood pressure cuff to calibrate the feature. More recently, though, Samsung added alerts for irregular heart rhythms and aFib detection

This year’s new features include better sleep insights. You’ll need to turn on advanced measurements to see the extra information, including the ability to listen for snoring, monitor your blood oxygen level, and check your skin temperature while you sleep.

Each morning, you can view your sleep stats for the previous night, telling you how much time you spent awake in REM, deep and light sleep.

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The Watch 6 Classic closely mirrored my sleeping habits over the last two weeks. However, after returning from Korea after Samsung Unpacked, jet lag was getting the best of me. There was a night when I was wide awake and just couldn’t fall asleep, no matter what I did. The last time I looked at the bedside alarm clock was 3 am.

I got up in the morning, fully expecting the watch to tell me I got horrible sleep the night before. Instead, the watch started recording my sleep as soon as I laid down around 11 pm and acted as if I slept the entire night. It’s not perfect by any means. Keep that in mind if you’re using it to monitor your sleeping habits and decide about staying up late or sleeping in.

A single lap around my block is almost exactly one mile, and it’s been my go-to benchmark to test new wearables. I wore an Apple Watch Ultra, a Whoop band, and the Watch 6 Classic for my lap this time. The Ultra was the most accurate at 0.99 miles, the Watch 6 Classic measured in at 0.96 miles, and the Whoop didn’t autodetect my workout.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about the discrepancy, though. There’s bound to be some variance in readings, and the Ultra is equipped with more location-specific hardware than the Watch 6 Classic, so it’s expected to be more accurate.

Bottom line: Is the Galaxy Watch 6 or Galaxy Watch 6 Classic worth it?

Samsung continues to push the conversation forward when it comes to Android smartwatches. The fact that the Watch 6 family are the first to run Wear OS 4, ahead of Google’s Pixel Watch, is a feat.

If you’re an Android smartphone user, regardless if it’s a Samsung phone, the Watch 6 and 6 Classic are two of the best smartwatches you can get right now. Simply put, the superior battery life, snappy performance, and stellar builds add up to one appealing device. Neither watch is a huge upgrade over last year’s models, so unless you want the Classic’s rotating bezel, stick with your Watch 5 or Watch 5 Pro for another year at least.

You can always go with Google’s Pixel Watch ($290, was $350 at Amazon) if you’d rather avoid Samsung products. It’s a first-gen product that’s truly improved over time and will likely continue to do so.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 (starting at $300) and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic (starting at $400) are up for order now and shipping quite quickly—though that varies based on color and model. Using our link, you can save up to $250 with the trade-in of an eligible device. You can also get Samsung Care+, which includes 24/7 support and accidental damage replacements, for 30% off when you bundle at purchase.

• 40-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 in Gold, Black, or Silver, $300 at Samsung
• 44-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 in Gold, Black, or Silver, $300 at Samsung

• 43-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in Black or Silver, $400 at Samsung
• 47-millimeter Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in Black or Silver, $430 at Samsung

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic specs

Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.

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