The Galaxy Watch 6 proves Samsung is still king of the Wear OS hill

It’s not any kind of secret that Samsung’s been leading the charge in the Wear OS renaissance we’re currently experiencing: as once-prominent players sit idle (Fossil is reportedly getting out of the Wear OS game altogether), Samsung’s Wear OS watches have quickly become our go-to recommendations. Samsung’s smartwatches may not have changed much since its Galaxy Watch 4 series debuted the reinvigorated Wear OS 3 in 2021, but even so, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is Android Police’s favorite wearable of 2023.

Samsung’s new releases across product categories have been notably samey year-over-year for a while now, and that’s as true of its smartwatches as it is anything else. The latest Galaxy Watch 6 is only a little better than the Galaxy Watch 5 that came before it, and the Watch 5 was only a bit better than the Watch 4, Samsung’s first wearable to run Wear OS. But the Galaxy Watch 4 series was a great place to start, and two generations of iterative improvements have resulted in a competent, polished smartwatch, offered at a price that just about makes any other Wear OS watch hard to recommend: the 40mm Watch 6 retails for $300 and is regularly available at discounts of $50 or more.

Of course, $300 is still a lot to spend on a wearable; budget options running proprietary software can be had for $100 or less, to say nothing of simpler fitness trackers. But the Watch 6 punches above its weight compared to other devices in its segment: Samsung’s $300 watch has a brighter display and better battery life than the $350 Pixel Watch 2, and the Apple Watch Series 9 — currently facing an import ban amid an ongoing legal dispute — has retailed for $399.

With great performance courtesy of its Exynos W930 chipset, comfortable all-day battery life, and a 60Hz OLED display that can reach a peak brightness of 2,000 nits (a match for the Watch Series 9 and far brighter than the Pixel Watch 2), the Galaxy Watch 6 has just about everything you could want in a Wear OS watch today. The only real downside is that certain functionality — most notably, the ability to take EKG measurements — is only available when the watch is paired with a Samsung phone. But that won’t matter to most people, and workarounds do exist (though they may be a little advanced for anyone other than certain Android ethusiasts). Everything else — activity and sleep tracking, app access, watch face selection, you name it — is the same regardless of which Android phone you’re using.

At or near its MSRP, the Galaxy Watch 6 isn’t an essential upgrade for anyone using a Galaxy Watch 5. But for anyone else looking for a top-tier Wear OS watch at a reasonable price, Samsung’s latest watches are the default recommendation today. For my money, the standard Watch 6 is the better buy; the $400 Galaxy Watch 6 Classic offers more traditional styling and a rotating bezel for scrolling through the UI, but that’s all the extra $100 gets you. Everything else, from display specs to performance to battery life, is identical between the standard and Classic versions.

Our runner-up pick for the year, the Pixel Watch 2, is very nearly as good a watch as the Galaxy Watch 6, and in some ways — its unique styling and its advanced mutli-path heart rate sensor, to name a couple — it’s even better. But for most people, at $350, Google’s latest watch will be hard to justify compared to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. If you’re buying a Wear OS watch today, it should probably be this one.

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  Samsung Galaxy Watch 6

  With excellent performance, long-lasting battery life, and a bright, colorful display, all offered at a price that undercuts much of the competition, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is Android Police’s favorite smartwatch of 2023.

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  Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic

  $330 $400 Save $70

  The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is significantly pricier than the standard Watch 6, but if you’re looking for more traditional styling or you can’t live without the Classic’s clicky, rotating bezel, the 6 Classic might be the better watch for you.