Like it or not, Samsung is a name that is inherently linked in the minds of many with the Android ecosystem. How often do you hear “have you got an Apple or Samsung?” when discussing the state of mobile phones?
It makes a lot of sense for a name as strong as Samsung in the mobile marketplace, to branch into wearable and they’ve been delivering well in this realm for years too. This time around, the Galaxy Watch 6 range has landed and I’ve got the Watch 6 Classic on my wrist at the moment. It’s been an interesting change from the Pixel Watch I’ve been using since last October and I wanted to share some thoughts.
As a starting point, the physical device is — at 47 mm in size — surprisingly large. I had some concerns around how comfortable it would be compared to the smaller, sleeker design of the Pixel Watch I’ve been using for almost a year now. Thankfully that fear was quickly alleviated, because, while it is physically quite large, its form is very smooth and the strap is a great width; making it very comfortable to wear.
Noticeable Features
The design choices that struck me immediately with the watch 6 Classic are the relatively large display as mentioned earlier, which has a fairly significant bezel. This leads me to a point that is remarkably useful, particularly if you have wet hands; the mechanical, rotating bezel.
This allows you to cycle through your notifications, get into the settings and your chosen tiles to view important data like your calendar, health stats, sleep info and accessing the fitness activity triggers. There are a lot more tiles you can add to the watch, but I tend to keep that reasonably minimalistic and use my phone as required.
Battery life and charging
Battery life on watches is a balancing act: how much battery capacity needs to be in the device, what features do you need to enable or disable for functionality vs battery life and how quickly can it charge?
Samsung has done a solid job of balancing all of this, with — providing you don’t enable always on screen and light for notifications — the potential to get two full days of use without the need to charge your watch. Great for those of us who regularly do overnight travel for work, resulting in one less charger needing to be packed and alleviating the risk of leaving your charger in the hotel.
The battery is a reasonable capacity, so that does explain the charging time which (in fairness, I’ve only had this a week so far) seems to be significantly higher than other watches. Somewhere in the ballpark of 90+ minutes from empty to full. However, as I’m in the habit from my Pixel Watch, I’ve been charging this for about half an hour each morning when I go for a shower and am yet to get caught short on battery.
It just fits for daily use
I’ve currently got a Galaxy Fold 5 in my pocket that I’m reviewing, and the combination of the Fold 5 and the Watch 6 Classic just works. It fits in to daily life and the set up can be as simple, or complex with notifications and engagement in your daily use as you like.
The full review will be online in a couple of weeks, but for now, suffice it to say I’ve had a good experience with the Samsung platform but there’s always room for improvement, right?
