A smartwatch can be the perfect companion to your smartphone. There are currently three top contenders in this category for your health and notifications: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, Pixel Watch 2 and Apple Watch Series 9. These watches are the latest offerings from each brand, and they're all packed Many great features. After trying the three options, we will analyze them and pit them against each other
Ideally, they'll help keep your phone out of the way when you don't need it. By moving notifications and limited functions to your wrist, you need to take your phone out of your pocket less A good smartwatch can alert you when an email or call comes in (or when another app has something to say) and all you have to do is look at your wrist to see what's going on.
Smartwatches help you track key exercise and training metrics so you can stay active. In addition to tracking your daily workouts, steps and activity level, the smartwatch presents these statistics to you simply and easily. In addition, the smartwatch can add other functions such as ECG measurement, body scan, fall detection and more. The smartwatch is not an ordinary fitness tracker, but a very smart one. But how well do Apple and Samsung's latest Pixel watches live up to these ideals? Read on to find out.
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Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Series 9 is one of the best smartwatches you can buy for iPhone, but the thing is, it only works with iPhone; It is not required for Android phones. Apple has focused on health and wellness since its inception. You get a heart rate sensor, a blood oxygen sensor, a skin temperature sensor and water resistance up to 50 meters You also get fall and fall detection features
New this year for Apple Watch Series 9 (and Apple Watch Ultra 2) are double-tap gestures, which let you control your smartwatch by double-tapping your thumb and index finger. It is a feature with full potential that allows you to access watch functions without touching the watch face This is useful when you're carrying something or busy, but it's a hard-to-detect feature that's often not used in the real world. Basically, you tap the screen to do what you want to do and immediately remember you can tap with your fingers.
But the Apple Watch Series 9 is the best value you can get from an Apple Watch. There is a larger, more expensive sibling model with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and a smaller, cheaper version with the Apple Watch SE. With the Apple Watch Series 9, you get all the features of the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 without spending more money.
Google's long-awaited Pixel Watch finally hits the market in 2022, with a follow-up launch slated for fall 2023. The second generation of the watch is similar to its predecessor offering a unique size of 41 mm. It's small for many wrists and comes with an equally small battery. Google promises 24-hour paid usage, which is confirmed by our tests. The watch can pair with any Android phone, but it also pairs well with the Google Pixel as a companion phone.
The most interesting feature of the Pixel Watch 2 is its shape. The watch glass wraps around in a perfect circle and is interrupted only by the digital movement head. The straps are also patented and have a unique locking mechanism that secures them to the side of the watch. The best words to describe the watch are "elegant" and "sophisticated". It looks beautiful.
Google has put a lot of effort into its watch operating system called Wear OS, but for several years it hasn't been more than what could be called "reckless". Interestingly, the first hardware for Google's smartwatches was released almost a decade after the operating system appeared. But now Google has its own ecosystem, including the Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, Pixel Buds Pro and even the Pixel Tablet, so the watch family is growing.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
Meanwhile, while Google isn't doing much to keep its smartwatch offerings alive, Samsung is the leader in the Android smartwatch space. The latest version is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. This latest generation is an evolution of the previous generation rather than completely new, but it shows the maturity of Samsung's smartwatch development.
This year Samsung is focusing on sleep and helping you get more. To do this, the sleep training system was created, which assigns you a sleeping animal. From there, the watch will provide you with instructions or "activities" to improve your sleep performance. Maybe things like "eat a healthy breakfast" or "don't sleep more than 30 minutes".
It adds to an already very feature-rich smartwatch system that does a great job of sending and responding to notifications, body mass index, heart rate, blood oxygen sensor, fall detection, and more. Samsung has been working on smartwatches for a long time and recently switched from Tizen OS to Google's shared OS to develop Wear OS. That's why Samsung smartwatches are usually the first to get new versions of Wear OS
How to compare watches
If there's one area where the Apple Watch is a step ahead of the competition, it's app support. Simply put, Wear OS smartwatches lag behind in the number and quality of apps you can download and use. Apple Watch app support includes grocery delivery services, podcast players, smart home apps, and more. You can order a pizza, open the garage door, and check off your to-do list without taking your phone out of your pocket. As WearOS progresses, more and more apps are coming to the operating system, but right now they can't hold a candle to Apple Watch apps.
In addition, Apple Watch tells you which apps on your phone have a replica of the watch in the Watch app. Wear OS on the other hand forces you to search, which is annoying. Wear OS's App Store has a section for watch apps, which is nice, but confusing phone apps with their watch counterparts should be easy.
Style, design and ease of use
The Pixel Watch 2 and Samsung Watch 6 have more style. The Apple Watch Series 9 is a beautiful square model that can be worn on the wrist and has the benefit of being carbon neutral for the first time. The WearOS watch is now circular, has a minimal bezel and looks like a regular everyday watch If you spend a little more, you can also get a rotating bezel on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which lives up to its name with a sleek look.
Between the Samsung and Google watches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is a little more intuitive to use, with gestures that make a lot of sense. You can swipe down for quick settings, swipe up for notifications, or swipe from the side to switch between persistent maps that show data like weather, activity, and more. Google's user interface takes a bit of getting used to.
Battery life, sensors and connectivity
Of the three watches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 has the longest battery life at around 37 hours on a single charge, followed by the Apple Watch Series 9 at 36 hours. Like I said, the Pixel Watch can get 24 or 25 hours, but every time is a problem. Speaking of battery, the Samsung Watch 6 is the easiest to charge and can even be charged by an Android phone with reverse wireless charging enabled as it uses the Qi wireless standard. Apple Watch Series 9 and Pixel Watch 2 use proprietary standards.
All three watches provide the same health metrics, such as steps, sleep and activity, and remind you to get up and move when the time is right. The important thing to remember about these measures is that they can show you long-term trends of how your health is progressing over weeks and months. This can go a long way in helping you lead an overall healthier lifestyle. All three watches monitor your health to set goals and congratulate you on achieving them.
All three watches share the same connectivity. They connect to your phone using a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and all three have a cellular option. Cellphones are more expensive, both in the price of the watch and the service contract required to connect to the network, but many people prefer the ability to leave the phone at home and walk around with the watch. If you choose not to go this route, the watch will rely on the phone to connect to the network. While all three let you answer calls on your wrist (Dick Tracy style), you can only do so with the Apple Watch when your phone is off.
The important thing here is that there is no wrong option. All the watches are great in their ecosystems, they report all the important metrics and have great security features. Which watch is best for you depends on what kind of phone you regularly carry with you.
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To test these watches, I paired the Apple Watch Series 9 with the iPhone 15 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 with the OnePlus Open, and the Pixel Watch 2 with the Google Pixel. I logged the battery life in a spreadsheet, when the watch was charged, how long it took to charge, and what the average was. All watches were tested with always-on displays and the brand's five complications. I wore each watch for at least 10 days. I installed related apps on my phone on the watch and ran the apps from the watch whenever possible.
I've been covering technology for over ten years, contributing to several publications. I use iOS and Android regularly (for six months). When I'm not preparing Doud's podcast, I'm busy buying as many tech products as possible, testing everything from smartphones to the best wireless headphones.
