Galaxy Watch6 Classic review – a classic Android smartwatch

Samsung has returned to the classic design of its smartwatches with the release of the Galaxy Watch6 Classic. The model has a rotating bezel, a favorite interface control mechanism that debuted back in 2015 with the launch of the Samsung Gear S2 line of watches. After the release of last year’s Galaxy Watch5 Pro, it seemed that we would not see the classic models again, but the bezel was too good an invention to give up. But in general, Galaxy Watch6 Classic is not only about returning to the already classic design, this year’s line of watches has received several important innovations, which I will discuss in this review.

Galaxy Watch6 Classic (47 mm) specifications

Design and bezel return

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic follows the trend of smartwatches getting bigger, and compared to the previous generation, its case has grown slightly, so now there are two sizes to choose from – 43 and 47 mm. I got the latest version for the test, which comes with a strap made of eco-leather on the outside and silicone on the inside.

Samsung still uses a standard pin fastening, but has added buttons to make changing straps faster and easier. However, the user can use any 20 mm strap with a standard clasp.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic case is made of reinforced aluminum, and the display is covered by sapphire crystal, which is deeper than the bezel, so it provides additional protection for the screen.

The rotating bezel itself has small ribs on the outside that make it easier to scroll through. And it’s a pleasure to do it, the mechanism has a very clear stroke with a pleasant and barely audible click. It is so convenient that I would not touch the screen at all if the bezel could be used for all actions in the watch interface. Unfortunately, this is not the case, but scrolling through widgets or menus is as convenient as possible.

I would also like to note two large mechanical buttons on the right side of Galaxy Watch6 Classic. The upper one is responsible for returning to the main screen with a watch face and can be configured for a specific action by double-clicking (I assigned it to launch Google Pay), and the lower one goes back a step or can show the screen with the last running apps.

Otherwise, we have the classic Samsung watch design with a round screen, which looks great with both an electronic and a watch face with hands. By default, the Galaxy Watch6 Classic has a fairly wide selection of watch faces to suit every taste, and third-party ones can be downloaded or purchased from the Google Play store, which is located right on the watch.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic case is water and dust resistant to 5ATM and IP68 standards, and you can swim with the watch, but it is not designed for scuba diving.

Larger display

The manufacturer needed to enlarge the Galaxy Watch6 Classic case to install a larger display in the watch, its diagonal in the case of the 47 mm version has grown to 1.5 inches and has a resolution of 480×480 pixels (1.3 inches and 432×432 pixels in the 43 mm model).

Samsung also uses a SuperAMOLED screen with a peak brightness of 2000 nits, which is more than enough to see the image even in very bright sunlight. The screen has a refresh rate of 60 Hz, but can lower it to 12 Hz, thus reducing power consumption when activating the AOD (always on display) function.

The slight increase in screen size and resolution compared to the previous generation has a practical advantage: larger font, interface elements, and more text in notifications. This makes it easier to perceive information from the watch.

New platform

One of the biggest innovations in the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is the updated platform, replacing the Exynos W920, which debuted in 2021, with a more powerful 5nm dual-core (Cortex-A55) Exynos W930 chip with a higher frequency of 1.4 GHz, faster Mali-G68 MP2 graphics and 16 GB of eMMC 16 GB internal memory. In addition, compared to even last year’s flagship Galaxy Watch5 Pro, the new model has increased the size of the RAM to 2 GB.

The platform update had a positive impact on the use of Galaxy Watch6 Classic, the interface and applications became faster, and the watch now supports more complex graphics.

Among the connectivity features of the Galaxy Watch6 and Watch6 Classic, it is worth highlighting the availability of LTE versions that will allow you to connect to the Internet without using a smartphone. The latter is connected via Bluetooth 5.3 and also has Wi-Fi and NFC modules. GPS is used to track the route while running and navigate through Google maps.

The watch runs on the Wear OS 4 operating system with the proprietary One UI 5 Watch shell. To connect Galaxy Watch6 Classic to a smartphone, the latter must have Bluetooth enabled and the Galaxy Wearable application installed.

Sensors

On the back of the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is the BioActive Sensor, which includes an optical heart rate monitor, heart electrical signal (ECG) analysis, and bioelectrical impedance.

In addition, there is a temperature sensor, accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, and light sensor. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic also has a 3D Hall sensor to determine the position of the rotating bezel.

Activity and sports

Like previous Samsung models, the new watch helps you track physical activity, some health indicators, and sports. Using built-in sensors, the Galaxy Watch6 Classic counts steps, minutes of activity, and calories burned.

The device continuously measures the heart rate, warning of its sudden increase or decrease, this indicator does not claim to be medically accurate, but it is quite useful to be guided by it. For example, while running or working out in the gym, the heart rate monitor will tell you whether you should increase your workload.

In addition to the heart rate monitor, the BioActive Sensor set can determine the amount of oxygen in the blood and the electrical activity of the heart, which is a non-medical version of the ECG. The latter indicator allows the watch to detect one of the types of heart disorders – atrial fibrillation. To take an ECG measurement, you will need to install a separate Samsung Health Monitoring app.

The built-in bioelectrical impedance sensor measures body composition, determining the mass of skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and water in the body. Based on this data, the basal metabolic rate is also determined, which allows the watch to more accurately determine the number of calories the user burns during rest.

The number of indicators that Galaxy Watch6 Classic can track depends on the sport. Most data is collected during a run. In addition to the standard distance, duration, pace, and heart rate zones, the watch also determines the VO2 Max level and how well the user is doing the exercise.

When swimming or cycling, the watch measures distance, heart rate, calories burned, and distance. When it comes to sports like soccer and basketball, the watch only collects data on duration, heart rate, and calories burned.

All data is collected in the Samsung Health app, where you can also download a variety of workouts and meditation programs from Calm for free.

In general, the Galaxy Watch6 Classic has enough features to track your physical activity during the day and to do sports at the amateur level.

Temperature sensor

The skin temperature sensor available on the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is not a new feature. It was introduced in the Galaxy Watch5 series, but other than temperature-based sleep and menstrual cycle tracking, it was not used anywhere else.

With the release of the One UI Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, Samsung has introduced a new API for measuring skin temperature. Partners and app developers will soon have access to this API to create new use cases based on the temperature sensor.

Sleep tracking and training

Another innovation in the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is the updated sleep tracking function and sleep coach, developed in collaboration with the National Sleep Foundation. The watch now more accurately detects sleep phases using a temperature sensor, tracks duration, cycles, wakefulness, and physical and mental recovery.

For those who can’t get themselves to go to bed on time, Samsung has developed a game-based sleep trainer, where you have to choose a virtual animal that you think best matches your sleep profile and try to take the course to find out if it’s true.

During such training, the watch and Samsung Health will provide additional tips and interesting information about sleep.

Autonomy

The 47 mm Galaxy Watch 6 Classic has a built-in 425 mAh battery. The battery life of the watch depends on usage and varies from 1 to 3 days. With the screen always active, with frequent notifications, and after a 5 km run with GPS and listening to music from Spotify, the watch lasted 1.5 days, which is close to the manufacturer’s claimed 30 hours.

With similar usage, but without the display always on, you can expect 2 days of battery life. If you minimize the number of notifications, turn off automatic heart rate measurement every 10 minutes and temperature during sleep, you can achieve 3 days of operation. The most extreme option is the power saving mode, in which the watch will only show the time and then only after pressing the button. In this case, the battery life reaches 30 days.

As you can see, there was no breakthrough in Galaxy Watch 6 Classic’s battery life, but I can’t say that I felt uncomfortable with the transition from the Garmin Fenix 7, which needs to be charged every 14 days, to a watch that needs to be charged every 2 days on average. Of course, it would be less comfortable during a hike or ultramarathon, but the category of consumers who need this kind of autonomy will initially consider sports models.

The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is charged via the Qi wireless standard, but it should be borne in mind that due to the presence of a convex sensor block on the back of the case, not all wireless charging stations are suitable for the watch. The most convenient way to recharge the Watch 6 Classic is via the bundled magnetic charger with USB-C.