Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review: Stellar hardware, mediocre software

Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 6 is positioned as the everyday smartwatch, slotting in under the more expensive Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. The standard model is available in smaller sizes, has a simple and refined design language, and is intended to just work with the Samsung ecosystem. After testing the Galaxy Watch 6 for over two weeks, I've found it's anything but your everyday smartwatch. It feels light on the wrist, looks great, and has fitness and health technology that might be the best from any company not named Garmin.

However, the story of the Galaxy Watch 6 might just be that the device's stellar hardware is overshadowed by a convoluted and unintuitive software experience. The regular Watch 6 uses a touch-sensitive digital one instead of the physical rotating bezel of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, and it's incapable of properly powering a software interface that is largely controlled by scrolling. Throughout my time with the Galaxy Watch 6, I felt like crying out for a digital watch crown or a physical rotating bezel for navigation. This one hardware tool might be all the Galaxy Watch 6 needs to be the best smartwatch on the market. Without it, it's hard not to prefer alternatives.

About this review: This review was written after two weeks of testing a Galaxy Watch 6 provided by AT&T. Neither AT&T nor Samsung had any input into the contents of this review.

Pricing and availability

Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy Watch 6 at its Unpacked event in August 2023, and it's now on sale. You can get it in either 40mm or 44mm sizes, priced at $270 and $300, respectively. There's also an LTE option that costs $50 more and allows you to use your smartwatch to send texts and make calls without your phone. However, your cellular carrier will likely also charge you a monthly fee for this functionality. The smaller watch is available in either Graphite or gold colors, while the bigger watch is available in Graphite or silver. Since the Galaxy Watch 6 uses standard 20mm bands, you can customize your watch's look easily.

Design

Sleek and lightweight with a killer form factor

Samsung continues to use a somewhat hybrid smartwatch design, which features a mix of traditional watch design cues and modern elements. If you look at the competition, Google's Pixel Watch 2 clearly imitates a traditional watch with strong curvature and a circular watch face, while the Apple Watch has a more modern approach with a boxy and angular design on the Ultra model. Samsung is somewhere between these two extremes with the Galaxy Watch 6, and it's definitely a happy medium. The Galaxy Watch 6 has a circular watch face that looks natural on the wrist, but its casing is flat all the way around the watch until it terminates into the band connection system.

Of the smartwatches I've tested in the past, the Galaxy Watch 6 felt the slimmest on the wrist, and I think that's for two main reasons. First, having a circular design simply makes watches look smaller on the wrist. More importantly, the Galaxy Watch 6 is just 9mm thick, which makes it one of the thinnest smartwatches you can buy. Others might be thicker by only a few millimeters, but it makes a huge difference in daily use. The Galaxy Watch 6 is one of the few smartwatches I can actually wear to bed without feeling discomfort, so I can finally track my sleep. Though we'll get to more of the full fitness and health experience later, the size difference is a big reason why I enjoy using the Galaxy Watch 6 while working out.

The Galaxy Watch 6 has an aluminum frame and sapphire crystal glass for the display, which makes it pretty durable. The company says it meets the MIL-STD-810H military standard for toughness, and it also sports IP68 water and dust resistance. I'm pretty reckless with my smartwatches, hitting them against all kinds of surfaces while going through the day, and for what it's worth, the Galaxy Watch 6 didn't show any sign of wear and tear during the review period. However, there is a gap between the watch body and the band that collects dust and grime, so you'll need to actively keep that area clean.

Display

Looks great but can be unresponsive at times

To change up the display this time around, Samsung trimmed the bezel on the Galaxy Watch 6, making the screen 20% larger on both sizes. You can choose a 40mm or 44mm size for the smartwatch, and that results in getting either a 1.31-inch or 1.47-inch display.

Aside from the bigger screens, peak brightness has been doubled from prior Galaxy Watch models. You'll get up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness on the Galaxy Watch 6, which is plenty for visibility in direct sunlight. There wasn't a time I couldn't see the Galaxy Watch 6 display on my wrist, even in the blistering Arizona sun. With a 480x480 resolution and a pixel density of 453PPI, the smartwatch display looks great.

There wasn't a time I couldn't see the Galaxy Watch 6 display on my wrist, even in the blistering Arizona sun.

Using the display was a bit of a different story, though. Coming from the Apple Watch Ultra as my daily driver, I was shocked to find that the Galaxy Watch 6 was slower to respond to touch input than I'd expected. When you wake the display with an emphatic turn of the wrist, the Galaxy Watch 6 is eager to respond to touch input. However, when the device is in always-on mode, waking it up can be tricky. If you swipe from the edges of the display to try and interact with your watch, it'll sometimes miss that input, and you'll need to start over. This might seem like nitpicking, but the whole point of a smartwatch is to not have to take out your phone for certain actions. At the times when the Galaxy Watch 6 doesn't feel like acknowledging my swipes and taps, I wish that I had just taken out my phone.

Performance and software

Hardware is great but the software let me down

Let's start with the good stuff here. There's some seriously great hardware in the Galaxy Watch 6, starting with the Exynos W930 mobile processor produced using the 5nm process. Though I've mentioned some annoyances with performance already, it's not because of a slow processor. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which is pretty standard in 2023.

You'll find two buttons on the Galaxy Watch 6: a home button and a back button. Since there isn't a digital crown or rotating watch bezel, you'll want to customize those two buttons to match your lifestyle. The problem is that Samsung once again restricts how you map buttons.

The fact that Samsung won't let users change their smartwatch to meet their preferences is disappointing.

The top button will take you to your home screen from anywhere on the watch, or it'll wake up the screen if it isn't active. A long press will activate the Bixby voice assistant, and you can't change this to the Google Assistant right out of the box. For that, you'll need to download the Google Assistant on both your smartwatch and a paired smartphone, and log in. You can turn Bixby off, which reverts the home button to a power button, instead. Similarly, long pressing the back button will activate Samsung Pay, which you can't change at all. There's only one button press that can truly be customized, and that's the double press of the home button. But if you're like me and use Google Assistant and Google Wallet, you'll want to change both of those toggles (although it's worth noting my experience using Samsung Pay has been mostly fine).

You can install the Google Wallet like any other app and use it on the Galaxy Watch 6, too. But the fact that Samsung won't let users change their smartwatch to meet their preferences is disappointing. Yes, they bought a Galaxy Watch, but most people just like Google Wallet more, and for good reason.

Correction: an earlier version of this article erroneously stated the Google Assistant could not be mapped to the home button. We apologize for the error.

My main problem with the Galaxy Watch 6 is navigating the software. Just about every smartwatch manufacturer has realized you need a physical input device for scrolling since swiping on a small screen is a horrible experience. Samsung, too, has figured this out, as evidenced by the physical rotating bezel on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. However, its solution for the Galaxy Watch 6 is still a digital bezel that you control by sliding your finger around the edges of the screen, which isn't good enough anymore. The digital bezel feels much more like a gimmick than it does an intuitive solution, which is especially true considering how much swiping and scrolling is required to navigate Wear OS 4.

Health and fitness

Easily the best part of the Galaxy Watch 6 experience

Despite any software grievances, the Galaxy Watch 6 shines in terms of fitness and health offerings. It has a slew of health sensors, including a heart rate sensor, bioelectrical impedance sensor, temperature sensor, and a region-limited blood pressure monitor. These sensors look good on paper and translate well to actual features. I got data from my Galaxy Watch 6 that I haven't found anywhere else, like body composition readings. There's also the ability to take an electrocardiogram, but you won't be able to monitor your blood pressure in the U.S. Generally, all of this information is stored in the Samsung Health app on your paired smartphone.

The Samsung Health app was a breeze to use, and it presents information in a thoughtful and elegant way. When you open the app, you'll be greeted with daily activity statistics, which include your steps, active time, and activity calories burned. You can tap this to open the full daily activity page and view your progress holistically compared to other days.

You can also view your sleep tracking information here, which I was able to use thanks to the impressive battery life of the Galaxy Watch 6. I got about two and a half days per charge, and that's more than enough for sleep tracking. Beyond daily activity and sleep tracking, you can also view your stress level, heart rate ranges, body composition readings, and past workouts.

I took the Galaxy Watch 6 on a 1.5-mile run and was overall impressed by the smartwatch's performance. For context, I'm a long-distance runner who has tracked over a thousand miles with smartwatches over the years. Without any customization, the workout view on the Galaxy Watch 6 gave me everything I was looking for, including pace, time, and mileage. You can swipe down for additional stats without needing to pause the workout, which is a nice touch. I noticed that the Galaxy Watch 6 was extremely sensitive with its GPS and pacing, and that means a shift as simple as slowing down for a turn can make your pace skyrocket. The smartwatch is accurate, though, as the Galaxy Watch 6 and Apple Watch Ultra tracked my run with only a second difference between them.

Samsung has added some advanced running metrics as well, which are definitely useful. It evaluates certain factors — like asymmetry, stiffness, and contact time — as either needing to be improved, good, or great. You can view an explanation of each of these advanced metrics in the app, and this means beginners actually stand a chance at learning and improving with the help of their smartwatch. Looking at the fitness experience as a whole — including sensors, data collection, and presentation — the Galaxy Watch 6 might be my favorite smartwatch for health and fitness.

Should you buy the Galaxy Watch 6?

You should buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 if:

• You have a Samsung smartphone or other Samsung devices
• You like the health and fitness features available
• You're looking for a midrange Wear OS smartwatch

You should NOT buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 if:

• You want to fully customize your smartwatch
• You prefer navigating Wear OS with a physical input device

It feels like Samsung is just a few steps away from making the perfect smartwatch for the masses with the Galaxy Watch 6. It feels like a fantastic smartwatch thanks to its design, health and fitness features, and great hardware. Unfortunately, other factors like software and UI navigation cast a bit of a shadow on an otherwise excellent smartwatch.

If you're looking for a simple Wear OS smartwatch for your Android phone, it might be worth giving the Galaxy Watch 6 a shot. Similarly, if you need a thin and light smartwatch or fitness tracker above all else, there's no better option than the Galaxy Watch 6. But for everyone else, you're probably better off upgrading to the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic or going in the direction of the Pixel Watch 2.