(upbeat music)
- Do you see this?
The physical rotating bezel is back, baby.
Oh, and the regular Galaxy Watch 6 is here too.
(upbeat music)
Clearly I've got bezels on the brain,
but I cannot overstate how happy I am
that Samsung's seen the error of its ways
and brought back the Classic for the Galaxy Watch 6 series.
I, and apparently a bunch of y'all, felt bummed
when Samsung did away with it last year
for the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro.
I mean, it was an iconic feature
that really set Samsung apart
and the digital bezel just didn't work as well.
Playing around with the bezel underscored
how much I really missed it last year
and using it again felt like getting a warm hug
from my grandma.
What I love most about the rotating bezel
is how intuitive it is to use.
Even the biggest smartwatch displays
are still pretty small,
and the way wearable apps are designed,
it involves a lot of scrolling.
The rotating bezel gives you more control over the speed
and it's very forgiving compared to the digital bezel.
With the touch bezel, you have to be more precise.
Your finger also has to travel around the whole screen
whereas you can just sort of stay in place
with the physical bezel.
And because it's physical,
it's immune to sweaty fingers or gloves.
Plus, it just has this really satisfying click.
(watch bezel clicking)
This isn't the only bezel-related update either.
The bezels around the display is 15% thinner on the Classic
and 30% thinner on the regular Watch 6.
In fact, Samsung says these are the largest displays
they've ever had on a watch.
It's subtle and you notice the extra screen real estate more
on the Classic,
but it's still an improvement from past generations.
It's actually kind of impressive
given that the regular Watch 6 still comes
in 40 millimeter and 44 millimeter sizes.
The Classic, well, these are one millimeter bigger
this time around
at 43 millimeters and 47 millimeters,
and the 47 millimeter Classic
is basically the biggest Galaxy Watch ever.
Listen, I have worn a ton of 47-millimeter smart watches
but there's no denying that this is a big boy watch.
That said, hardware and materials on these larger watches
have a major impact on wearability,
especially if you have small wrists like me.
For example, a 47-millimeter Polar or Coros watch,
well, that's gonna be a bonafide chonker.
47 millimeters on the Classic,
well, it wears small-ish
and it helps that it's relatively thin and light
for this size.
Side by side, it was very similar
to the 49-millimeter Apple Watch Ultra.
The 43-millimeter Classic is, however, noticeably lighter.
If you really want thin and light though,
the regular Galaxy Watch 6
is gonna be the better choice in both sizes.
Other than that,
the hardware and design hasn't really changed much.
If you've seen a Galaxy Watch 4 or 5, you know the deal.
We're not getting any new sensors
and we still got IP68 and 5ATM of water resistant,
sapphire crystal, the same GPS, temperature sensor,
same three-in-one biosensor, et cetera, et cetera.
The watches, however, are getting
a bit of a performance boost.
The Watch 6 series has a shiny new Exynos W930 chip
with two gigabytes of RAM
and 16 gigabytes of storage.
Supposedly that translates to 18% faster performance,
but it's too early to say
whether it makes a notable difference.
These were demo devices in a controlled setting
so it's not fully representative of the final product.
Another minor update.
Samsung's introducing a fabric band
and a one-click strap mechanism, and thank God.
The fabric band is similar in feel and texture
to the Apple Watch's Nylon Sport Loop,
which is great if you have sensitive skin
or you want something a little more breathable.
The sport loop is the strap I recommend
to every Apple Watch buyer,
and I have a feeling that this fabric strap will be my pick
for Galaxy Watch users going forward.
I also like the new one-click strap mechanism.
It's very straightforward
and it makes swapping bands a lot easier
than the previous spring-loaded pins.
Don't worry if you've amassed a huge watch strap collection.
Your standard straps will work with the Galaxy Watch 6
and these new one-click straps
are also backwards compatible.
The only problem I had is my nails have been wrecked
by one too many manicures,
so pressing the button was a little difficult for me.
Like, I know I'm supposed to press this button,
but my nails just, come on, nails, you can do it.
I believe in you.
Nope, no, you broke.
(upbeat music)
The main changes this year are coming via software updates.
Namely, these are going be the first watches
to launch with Wear OS 4.
Nevermind that Wear OS 3 still isn't fully rolled out yet
to every compatible Android watch.
Doesn't matter, Wear OS 4 is here.
The big thing about Wear OS 4
is it's supposed to extend battery life,
which, as you may know, has been an issue for Samsung
since switching from Tizen to Wear OS.
Plus, both watches have bigger batteries this time around.
Not like a lot bigger, but bigger.
These two things together make me hopeful
about battery life,
though, Samsung is sticking
to the whole all day up to 40 hours estimate,
so we're just gonna have to see.
Alongside Wear OS 4,
the Galaxy Watch 6 will launch with One UI 5 Watch
and that's gonna come with a bunch of new updates
like the ability to check sleep tracking details
from the wrist,
a new sleep mode, heart rate zones,
and improved emergency SOS features.
There's also going to be a new ThermoCheck app
where you can use the infrared sensor
to check the temperature of your surroundings.
Like, bam, how cold is the pool water?
That sort of thing.
Plus, there are gonna be some other features
that tie into Samsung products.
For example, if you have a foldable,
the watch becomes a remote control
when you open the camera app.
Would've been nice if it was for non-foldables,
but it's just foldables for now.
But you can turn the bezel and it zooms in and out,
which is actually pretty fun.
You can also use SmartThings Find
to track down lost items from the wrist,
and Samsung Wallet is also coming to the watch.
We had Samsung Pay, but now we have Samsung Wallet.
I do have some bad news though.
Samsung is upping the price again.
The regular Galaxy Watch 6 is gonna start at 299.99,
while the Classic will start at 399.99.
If you want the larger versions of both watches,
it's gonna be an extra $30,
and then if you wanna add LTE,
you're just gonna have to add onto that too.
This does make the watches more in line with the competition
but it's never fun to see the prices go up.
Overall, this is an odd year for Samsung watches
because on the one hand,
we get a new Wear OS, new software,
a new chip, and bigger batteries.
All together, that sounds like it ought to be a big change.
But having played around with the watches,
it all feels like something we've seen before,
just slightly elevated.
That's not a bad thing.
Again, I am so happy that the bezel came back,
but these gradual incremental improvements,
it's something we're seeing
across the entire wearable category.
Companies have these big goals for down the line
and very teeny tiny updates in the meantime.
In any case, it's just a little bit weird
that the thing I'm excited about for the new watch
is an old thing that's coming back.
Go figure.
Wait, hold on.
♪ Bezels, bezels, bezels, bezels ♪
♪ Rotating bezels ♪
♪ Bezels, bezels, bezels, bezels ♪
That was our Samsung Unpacked hands-on
for the Galaxy watches.
We're getting review units in,
so keep an eye on theverge.com.