Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Rotating bezel brings back the class

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: When we talk about picking the best smartwatch, two brands come into our heads – Apple and Samsung. Despite their premium price tag, the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch are two of the most reliable wearables mainly because they run on an operating system that’s dedicated to smartwatches alone. The latter is probably the most feature-rich wearable for Android phones.

Samsung last month unveiled the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic succeeding the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro from last year. It brings back the much anticipated and loved rotating bezel. It also boasts a slew of other features including skin temperature monitoring, body composition, and others.

We used the new Samsung wearable for more than a week and have amassed several thoughts that may help you to decide if the new Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is your deal or not. That said, without further ado, let’s get started with the review. But before that, let’s take a brief look at the specifications.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic specifications  

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Rotating bezel

The Galaxy Watch 6 builds more on the design of the Galaxy Watch 4 than the Galaxy Watch 5. The much-requested rotating bezel is here and that will likely be one of its selling features. The clicks of the rotating bezel are satisfying for sure, but since that bezel is thick, it does make your watch look a bit antiquated. However, it’s a matter of perception I believe. Largely because it has its own usage and it’s not just a placeholder. You can rotate the bezel to scroll through apps and settings. I found myself using the rotating bezel more than the physical side buttons.

Speaking of buttons, there are two buttons on the right spine, one of them takes you to the home screen and the lower one is for accessing Samsung Pay for one-tap payments. The smartwatch sports one of the largest screens on a wearOS wearable coming at around 1.5 inches, i.e., 47mm. The large display can show a lot of data and gazing at it is a good experience since the text is crisp and sharper.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Brighter display 

Peaking at 2,000 nits, the screen on the device is the brightest I’ve used on a smartwatch. Although, Apple’s new Watch Ultra 2 has an even brighter panel of up to 3,000 nits. But the Watch 6 Classic’s screen is perfectly visible in daylight and can be a torch in the dark.

The smartwatch has a mix of materials like stainless steel and faux leather. It sure is heavy due to its battery and materials, but after wearing it for a day or two, I was used to the weight. The fit was comfortable and the faux leather didn’t itch me.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Health features 

Since it is the brand’s flagship wearable device, it can do almost everything essential and a lot more that you may not even have thought of. Personally, I used it to track stress levels, heart rate, and blood oxygen. I found the stress tracking a bit wanky since I felt it showed increased stress levels even when I was calm and relaxed. But when I felt like I was indeed stressed, the slider was green. In short, an inconsistent result. This could be an error that Samsung may fix with an update.

As for the other health modes, they do exactly what they are intended to do and appear to be accurate when compared to my Apple Watch Series 6. Furthermore, there are comprehensive health modes like body skin temperature monitoring and body composition. The former tracks the skin temperature during sleep, providing enough data to share with the doctor.

For the most part, I used sleep tracking, which is pretty accurate. The smartwatch tracks your sleep time and wake-up time and critiques Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, REM (Random Eye moments), and more. It also shows a sleep score with sleep factors like mental and physical recovery percentage, sleep cycle, and others. Moreover, the watch tracks snoring data.

Interestingly, the watch also tells you ‘what kind of sleeper you are’ after doing a sleep-tracking streak of seven days. (Sigh) That sure is a lot of data. But this doesn’t end here. It has several sports modes like weight machines, hiking, cycling, and more. It also automatically records exercises, thanks to its sensors. However, it may count car rides as walking and driving a motorbike as cycling. So that’s there. I felt the usual step tracking with the watch was fairly accurate.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Other noteworthy features 

Fitness aside, the smartwatch has some other useful features that deserve a mention. It’s a WearOS smartwatch, so it obviously has the Play Store that allows downloading new apps. But what’s exciting is that users can now download WhatsApp from the Play Store, which is a full version of the app. So, no more only reading messages, but you can now scroll through different chats similar to how you’d do on the phone.

Then, there’s the browser app that lets you do quick Google searches and read articles. Calling, both via Bluetooth and directly on-device with eSIM is possible. The microphone captures clean audio and the speaker delivers clear sound from the other party. Controlling music during my gym session was a great experience. By the way, I paired the Galaxy Watch 6 Class with the Galaxy Fold 5 and listened to music on my Galaxy Buds 2. That said, the ecosystem, worked as fluidly as it should.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Daily performance

Fluidity reminds me of nothing but the performance of the smartwatch. It didn’t lag once in my usage. Switching between apps and scrolling through the UI is snappy and quick. The credit for this goes to the new 5nm-based Samsung W930 chipset inside. Paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, plus the optimised WearOS-based OneUI 5 make using the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic a delight.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Battery life 

With all that, you might be curious about knowing the battery life of the smartwatch. Frankly, I haven’t used the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or the preceding Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. But coming from an Apple Watch, more specifically the Watch Series 6, I can say, the battery life on the Watch 6 Classic is miles better. It can easily offer 1.5 days of usage and if you fiddle it more, you are set for at least a day’s usage.

Charging the smartwatch full to its brim is quick due to the fast charging support. Expect it to go from 0 percent to 100 percent in less than an hour.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review: Verdict

Overall, for the starting price of Rs 36,999, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is an ideal smartwatch for most Android users. It has almost all the features (exception being ECG/Blood Pressure monitoring in India) that you may want to have in an expensive smartwatch. It can be a good fitness companion, do calls and messages, track sleep, become a torch, and last but not least act as a premium wearable.