Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so now is the perfect time to consider a smartwatch. After a long period of careful selection, the past few years have been huge for Android smartwatches. There are more great options than ever.
But this is still a transitional era. While we’re by the stronger selection of third-party apps, the market remains fragmented. Wear OS 4 is already available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch and two versions encouraged of the Pixel Watch, but the larger ecosystem is still catching up to Wear OS 3.
Some features, such as Google Assistant, aren’t yet available on some Wear OS 3 smartwatches – though that may come via an update at some point in the future. If you want to wait until Wear OS stabilizes, you can buy both a platform-agnostic smartwatch and a fitness watch. Otherwise, you’ll need to know what chip and Wear OS version power your watch. Mobvoi, for example, just started rolling out Wear OS 3 on its eligible Wear OS 2 watches. Speaking of Mobvoi, its TicWatch Pro 5 is the first watch in the US to feature the new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus, and while it’s a great watch, you may want to wait until more W5 Plus watches become available .
The Pixel Watch 2 uses the W5 (no Plus) chip, and the results so far are better performance and longer Pixel Watch 2 battery life.
As long as you keep the above considerations in mind, Android users have more smartwatch options than ever before. I’ve put together my top picks, but if none of these fit, you can always check out our fitness tracker guide.
The best smartwatches for Samsung phones
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic (43mm, Bluetooth)
If you own a Samsung phone, then you will get the best range from a Samsung smartwatch. Of Samsung’s current three watch lineup, I recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. First, it has a rotating physical bezel, and the bezels are now said to be 15% thinner than the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The updated design is sleeker than its predecessor, and the larger display is more eye-catching, at only slightly larger at 43mm versus 47mm. My wrist is relatively thin, but the 47mm is still very comfortable for daily wear.
It launched with Wear OS 4, improved
samsung smartwatch batterylife, and finally added cloud backup capabilities. The One UI 5 Watch also adds some minor health and sleep tracking improvements, but this will eventually make its way to older models While I prefer the Classic, if you want a smaller, lighter , sleeker, and less expensive smartwatch, the base Watch 6 model is probably a better choice.
Overall, the Galaxy Watch 6 series is an iterative update, but I appreciate the improvements in battery life that make me less worried about whether it’ll last a full day. Of course, your mileage will vary based on your personal usage and enabled settings For example, turning on continuous SpO2 sensing at night may drain your battery faster, but using bedtime mode can mitigate this so you only lose 10% – 15% overnight instead of 25% – 30%.
Last year’s $449.99 Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will also give you a great overall experience. It’s not a major upgrade over the Galaxy Watch 4, but the Pro’s main advantages over other models are the extra durability, neat GPS functionality, and Galaxy Watch battery life. If you’re a weekend warrior or multi-day battery life is your priority, I’d recommend going with the Pro. Our test lasted up to 65 hours, but if you enable the always-on display, you’re more likely to get around 48 to 50 hours. Still, it’s a significant improvement over the Galaxy
Watch 6 series, the base Watch 5, and the Watch 4 series. Software updates (and larger Galaxy Watch batteries on newer models) have improved Galaxy Watch 4 battery life on these watches , but you’ll still need to charge them every day or every other day. The Pixel Watch only has about 24 hours of battery life.
Switching to Wear OS means you’ll get a more robust third-party app experience than you’ll get on Tizen-powered Samsung smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch Active series. You also get more service flexibility than any other Wear OS watch. For example, if you want to kick Bixby to the curb and use Google Assistant instead, you can. If you want a more in-depth look at how the Galaxy Watch 5 compares to the Pixel Watch, you can check out our comparison video . (Most of the points still apply to the Watch 6, as not much has changed.)
Samsung Health also offers a good overall fitness tracking experience, especially since you can enable route navigation for hiking and biking activities. Samsung is expanding this functionality to include walking and running with the One UI 5 Watch. We weren’t impressed with the nighttime SpO2 readings, but Samsung’s overall sleep tracking continues to improve. You also get built-in GPS, body composition analysis, irregular heart rate notifications, fall detection, emergency SOS functionality, and an EKG.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro review: sometimes bigger is better We don’t necessarily recommend the Galaxy Watch 6 series or 5 Pro if you don’t have a Samsung phone. EKGs require the Samsung Health Monitor app, which is limited to Samsung phones.
Also , while you can customize the buttons to launch your digital assistant of choice, the shortcut for contactless payments is hard coded to Samsung Pay / Wallet — which is also gated to Samsung phones unless you sideload the APK — and requires you to sign up for Samsung’s service. You can work around it, but all Samsung watches work best with other Samsung devices.