Smart watches can be the perfect companion for your smartphone. There are currently three main competitors in this category for your health and notification needs: the 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. with tons of cool features. Characteristics. After trying all three options, we'll break them down and contrast them.
In an ideal world, these apps would help you step away from your phone when you don't need it. Moving notifications and limited features to your wrist means you take your phone out of your pocket less often. A good smartwatch can alert you when it receives an email or phone call (or when another app has something to say) and you only have to look at your wrist to see what's going on.
Smartwatches help you track important movement and exercise metrics so you can stay active. The smartwatch will not only track your daily exercise, steps and activity level, but will also provide you with statistics in an easy to read and understand way. In addition, the smartwatch can add other features such as ECG readings, body scan, fall detection and much more. Instead of a garden-variety fitness tracker, a smartwatch is actually smart. But how well do Apple and Samsung's latest Pixel watches live up to these ideals? Keep reading to find out.
The most famous
Apple Watch Series 9
The Apple Watch Series 9 is one of the best smartwatches you can buy for iPhone, but the fact is that it only works with iPhone; Android phones do not need an app. 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 50 meters of water resistance. You also get crash and drop detection features.
New this year for the Apple Watch Series 9 (and Apple Watch Ultra 2) is the double-tap gesture that lets you control your smartwatch by double-tapping with your thumb and index finger. It is a multifunctional feature that allows you to access watch functions without touching the watch. It's useful when you're carrying something with you or busy with something, but it's a difficult feature to master, and you usually don't think twice about using it. In practice, you'll tap the screen to do whatever you need to do, then immediately remember that you can tap with your fingers.
But the Apple Watch Series 9 is the best you can get for an Apple Watch. It has a larger, more expensive sibling in the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and a smaller, cheaper variant in the Apple Watch SE. With the Apple Watch Series 9, you get all the features without spending more money on the powerful Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Google Pixel Watch 2
Google's long-awaited Pixel Watch will finally arrive in 2022, with a follow-up planned for fall 2023. The second generation of the watch looks a lot like its predecessor, including the beautiful 41mm display. This one is small for many wrists and comes with an equally small battery. Google promises 24 hours of paid use, which our tests confirm. The watch can be paired with any Android phone, but it will complement the Google Pixel well as a smartphone companion.
The most distinctive feature of the Pixel Watch 2 is its shape. The watch glass twists around the edges in a perfect circle, broken only by the digital crown. The straps also have a unique locking mechanism that secures them to the sides of the watch. The best words to describe the watch are "elegant," quickly followed by "sophisticated." It looks elegant.
Google put a lot of effort into its watch operating system called Wear OS, but it was what you might call "negligence" for a few years. He notes that Google's first smartwatch appeared about a decade after the operating system was launched. But now Google has its own ecosystem with 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, as Google has done little to keep up with its smartwatch offerings, Samsung has become the leader in Android smartwatches. The latest is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. This latest generation is more of an improvement over previous generations than a complete novelty, but it represents the maturity of Samsung's smartwatch development.
This year, Samsung is focusing on sleep and helping you get more of it. To do this, he developed a sleep training system that assigns you a sleeping animal. From there, the watch will give you instructions or "tasks" to improve your sleep performance. This might include things like "Eat a healthy breakfast" or "Don't nap for more than 30 minutes."
It complements the already built-in smartwatch ecosystem, which does a great job of presenting and responding to notifications, BMI, heart rate, blood oxygen sensor, heart rate tracking, falls, etc. Samsung has been working on smartwatches for a long time and recently moved from the Tizen operating system to developing Wear OS in collaboration with Google. As a result, Samsung smartwatches are usually the first to receive new versions of Wear OS.
How do the watches compare?
If there's one area where the Apple Watch beats the competition, it's app support. Simply put, Wear OS smartwatches lag behind in terms of the number and quality of apps you can download and use. Support for Apple Watch apps includes grocery delivery services, podcast players, smart home apps and more. You can order a pizza, open the garage door and check your to-do list without taking your phone out of your pocket. WearOS is moving forward, more and more apps appear on the operating system, but they are still not better than Apple Watch apps.
Additionally, Apple Watch will tell you in the Watch app which apps on your phone have equivalents on the watch. Meanwhile, Wear OS has scoured them, and it's great. Wear OS has a dedicated section for watch apps in the App Store, which is nice, but pairing phone apps with watch counterparts is a no-brainer.
Style, design and ease of use
The Pixel Watch 2 and Samsung Watch 6 have a lot more style. The Apple Watch Series 9 is a beautiful square that fits the wrist and is carbon neutral for the first time. Meanwhile, WearOS watches are round, with small bezels and look like regular, everyday watches. If you spend a little money, you can also get a rotating ring for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which deserves its name thanks to its stylish appearance.
Between Samsung and Google watches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is much more intuitive to use with very logical gestures. Swipe down for quick settings, up for notifications, or swipe from side to side to scroll continuous maps that show data like weather, activities and more. Google's interface is hard to get used to.
Battery life, sensors and connectivity
Among 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. As mentioned before, the Pixel Watch can last up to 24 or 25 hours, but it gets longer each time. Speaking of battery, the Samsung Watch 6 is the easiest to charge and can even accept a charge from 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 tracking steps, sleep and activity, and remind you to get up and move when it's late. The important thing to remember about these measurements is that they can show long-term trends in your health over weeks and months. It can help you a lot to become healthier. All three watches monitor your health, help you set goals, and congratulate you when you reach them.
All three clocks have the same dial. They connect to your phone using a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and all have cellular options. Cellular is more expensive, both in the price of the watch itself and the service contract required to connect to the network, but many people like to leave their phone at home and go out with their watch. If you choose not to go this route, your watch will rely on your phone to connect to the network. While all three let you take calls on your wrist (Dick Tracy style), only the Apple Watch can do that when the phone is off.
The important thing is that there are no bad options here. All watches are excellent in their ecosystem, all offer important dimensions and excellent security features. Which watch is best for you will first be determined by the phone you carry with you regularly.
Why Trust Forbes Verification
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 recorded the battery life in a spreadsheet and noted when the watches charged, how long they charged and the speed. All watches were tested with the display always on and all five complications on the dial. I wore each watch for at least 10 days. I installed all the apps related to my phone's apps on the watch and ran them on the watch as much as possible.
For over a decade I have been reporting on technology and writing quotes for various publications. I use iOS and Android regularly (a six month cycle each). When I'm not hosting Doud's Benefit podcast, I'm busy shopping for as many tech products as possible and reviewing everything from smartphones to the best wireless headphones.
