Bezels are back baby! The satisfying click of a smartwatch bezel makes a world of a difference and Samsung knows it well enough to include it on the Galaxy Watch6 Classic. It is the most fitness- and fun-focussed watch from Samsung in some time.
While most tech companies are getting inspired by the Apple Watch in the design department, Samsung has maintained its course. The new Samsung watch is a stunner.
Galaxy Watch 6 Classic comes with IP68 and 5ATM ratings
Fantastic design
Coming in two sizes — 43mm and 47mm — the watch has excellent water-resistant cred, which includes IP68 and 5ATM ratings, meaning your watch is tough enough to stay with you on your adventures. The super AMOLED display can get bright, very bright. For my yeti wrist, the 47mm works well and the screen size is perfect at 37.3mm.
The big design feature of the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is the rotating bezel. The other Watch6 has the same display size as the classic but since it doesn’t have the rotating bezel, it’s a little bit smaller and thinner on the wrist. Samsung is also somewhat marketing the Classic differently with a nicer, more “leathery” material for the wristband.
In case you haven’t used a Samsung smartwatch before, if you swipe up, you have all the applications in one spot and you can edit this on the app.
It also has interesting widgets where you can swipe through different home screen tiles and get access to the sleep tile, body composition, weather controls and then you can add more tiles if you scroll to the end. It’s a smart interface and it comes to life with the bezel. Body composition itself is a very interesting feature and it usually takes an expensive scale to get this right.
From the phone, you can change a number of settings, like watch faces and widgets, to personalise the watch
Data is easily accessible
Galaxy Watches are in general fitness-focused, so for fitness enthusiasts it’s perfect. People are looking for more health-focussed features, like workout tracking. For software, the Watch6 series runs Google’s Wear OS 4 and Samsung’s One UI 5 Watch on top of that. Having Wear OS ensures you can load many important third-party apps on the watch.
Just like the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch has reached a high degree of perfection. It’s kind of interesting that when technology is so good it becomes almost invisible. All of the times that tech works you don’t even notice it. This is a device that will give you some level of freedom from the smartphone because things like notifications, music and health parameters can be dealt with on the wrist. It’s a smartwatch that almost becomes an extension of you.
One of the cool things with the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic is that it has a running coach built in so hypothetically you could have a trainer alongside you helping you keep pace and putting you through different programmes.
One of the features is zone tracking where basically you have different parts of your heart rate measured and depending on how hard you push yourself in a workout you’ll end up in different zones. The watch will show your pace and distance and then also what zone you’re in. The bezel helps to scroll through all the data at a glance. Other watches may also allow zone tracking but what Samsung has done is make the data easily accessible to users.
All the icons on the watch and menus are laid out logically, works seamlessly and there are enough watch faces to make the device a conversation starter.
There are some older features that continue to win hearts, like the camera remote control. You can keep, say, the Galaxy Z Flip5 in a remote corner and make it take a picture using the Galaxy Watch6. The camera zoom can be controlled using the bezel. There is also an onboard speaker and mic, which work as it should.
I tried Samsung’s Sleep Tracking and the data you get in the morning can be revealing about your sleep patterns. But I would rather use the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 for this because it’s slimmer.
Should you buy it?
There are a few takeaways after using the watch for a few weeks. First, battery life is better than before and I can get over a day with the Classic. Of course, if you go easy on the watch, it will offer more battery. But who wants to turn off the always-on display feature or sleep tracking?
Takeaway number two: The rotating bezel and the overall design are worth having for people who care about aesthetics. I think it adds functionality to a smartwatch.
Takeaway number three: Samsung will continue to dominate the Android wearable game. This is packed with so many fitness features and, at the same time, it is a great-looking watch. So it’s a really exciting product to have and it can seamlessly fit into the lifestyle of any Android user.
How does it compare against the Apple Watch? It’s a tough question to answer because the two have different platforms and Apple is going in a new direction with its Watch Ultra. Some may choose Garmin for its battery life and triathlete-friendly features.
What’s missing? In India, blood pressure and ECG monitor apps are not available at the moment.
For a person who uses a lot of Samsung products, it’s a no-brainer of a purchase. Plus, the data collected by the watch can be easily deciphered by the user. If not anything, the rotating bezel can take my money. Galaxy Watch6 Classic is a stunner and you can’t go wrong with it.
— Mathures Paul
At a glance
Device: Samsung Galaxy
Watch6 Classic
Price: Rs 26,999
High notes
Rotating bezel makes a big difference
Better battery life
Comes with Wear OS 4
Excellent water resistance
Many years of updates
Muffled note
Some health features only
work with Samsung phones
