We've been eagerly watching leaks and rumors for months, but the wait is finally over: Samsung has taken the wraps off the Galaxy Watch 6 series at its Galaxy Unpacked event in Korea. As a follow-up to the excellent (if predictable) Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 series, the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic have a lot to live up to. Here's everything you need to know about Samsung's latest wearables.
Price & availability
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are available for preorder now, with general availability beginning on August 11. You can get one direct from Samsung, or through Amazon, Best Buy, or anywhere else you typically find wearables.
Key Takeaways
- The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are available for preorder now and will be generally available starting on August 11.
- The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 starts at $300 for the 40mm version and $330 for the 44mm version, while the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic starts at $400 for the 43mm version and $430 for the 47mm version.
- The Galaxy Watch 6 series features upgrades in display, chipset, and battery compared to the previous generation, along with a similar design to the Galaxy Watch 5 and the return of a physical rotating bezel in the Classic version.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is available in two sizes: the 40mm version starts at $300, while the 44mm starts at $330. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, meanwhile, comes in either 43 or 47mm varieties, which start at $400 and $430, respectively.
Specs
- Source: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is one of Samsung's new wearables for 2023, introduced at Galaxy Unpacked. It sports a very familiar look to the Galaxy Watch 5, but packs upgrades in its display, chipset, and battery.
- Battery Life
- 30 hours with Always On Display and 40 hours without
- Onboard GPS
- Yes
- Sizes
- 40mm and 44mm
- Colors
- 40mm: Graphite, Gold 44mm: Graphite, Silver
- Display
- 40mm: 1.3-inch 432 x 432 Super AMOLED, Always On Display 44mm: 1.5-inch 480 x 480 Super AMOLED, Always On Display
- CPU
- Exynos W930 Dual-Core 1.4GHz
- RAM
- 2GB
- Storage
- 16GB
- Battery
- 40mm: 300mAh 44mm: 425mAh
- Connectivity
- LTE 6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC
- Durability
- 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H
- Software
- Wear OS 4 / OneUI 5 Watch
- Health sensors
- Samsung BioActive Sensor, Temperature Sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor
- Price
- 40mm: $300 44m: $330
- Strap
- Sport Band
- Weight
- 40mm: 28.7g 44mm: 33.3g
- Source: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic
Samsung's latest generation of the Galaxy Watch 6 comes in a larger Classic version. It sports a bigger case, a physical rotating bezel to control the watch, and a 3D Hall sensor for positioning via the magnetic field, alongside all the other welcome improvements in the vanilla Watch 6.
- Battery Life
- 30 hours with Always On Display, 40 hours without
- Onboard GPS
- Yes
- Sizes
- 43mm and 47mm
- Colors
- Black and Silver
- Display
- 43mm: 1.3-inch 432 x 432 Super AMOLED, Always On Display; 47mm 1.5-inch 480 x 480 Super AMOLED Always On Display
- CPU
- Exynos W930 Dual-Core 1.4GHz
- RAM
- 2GB
- Storage
- 16GB
- Battery
- 43mm: 300mAh 47mm: 425mAh
- Connectivity
- LTE6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC
- Durability
- 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H
- Software
- Wear OS 4 / OneUi 5 Watch
- Health sensors
- Samsung BioActive Sensor, Temperature Sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor, 3D Hall Sensor
- Price
- 43mm: $400 47mm: $430
- Strap
- Hybrid Eco-Leather Band
- Weight
- 43mm: 52g 47mm: 59g
Design, hardware, and display
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic look very much like previous Samsung wearables. At a glance, it's hard to tell the difference between the standard Watch 5 and the entry-level Watch 6. And while there was no Classic model in last year's Watch 5 series, the Watch 6 Classic leans into the look and feel of 2021's Galaxy Watch 4 Classic — including, thankfully, a similar rotating bezel, a feature we missed in last year's watches. There's no Galaxy Watch 6 Pro this year, but Samsung says it intends to continue selling the Watch 5 Pro for outdoor activity enthusiasts.
If there's any major visual update to be seen, it's that this year's Watch 6 devices have bigger screens and smaller bezels than their predecessors. Samsung says that the Watch 6 has 20 percent more display area than the Watch 5 did; same for the Watch 6 Classic compared to the Watch 4 Classic. Their bezels have shrunk proportionally, as well, so those larger screens fit inside cases that aren't any bigger.
As with Samsung's other recent smartwatches, each Watch 6 still has a 60Hz AMOLED display, but resolution has been bumped up compared to the previous generation. The smaller Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic each have 432x432 panels, while the bigger ones clock in at 480x480. As with in the Galaxy Watch 5 series, all Galaxy Watch 6 devices have sapphire crystal covering their displays, meaning they should be able to better withstand wear and tear than watches with more traditional glass screens.
As we expected it would, the Galaxy Watch 6 series debuts Samsung's newest wearable chipset, the Exynos W930. The updated chipset likely won't mean a night-and-day difference in performance — the Watch 5 was already plenty quick for a smartwatch — but after two consecutive generations sporting nearly identical specs, any improvement is a welcome one. All Watch 6 models also come equipped with 2GB of RAM, an improvement from the last two generations' 1.5GB.
Despite packing slightly larger batteries than the Watch 5 and Watch 4 series, according to Samsung, the Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic should offer similar battery life, shaking out to around 30 hours of mixed use with the always-on display on, or 40 hours with it off.
Software
Samsung's Galaxy Watch 6 devices launched with One UI 5 Watch, a brand-new version of its wearable software. One UI 5 Watch is built on Google's Wear OS 4, and offers new health and fitness features. One big upgrade for phone nerds: you can pair your One UI 5 Watch-powered Galaxy Watch to a new phone without first having to reset the wearable, which should save people who switch phones frequently a lot of hassle.
One UI 5 Watch's Heart Rate Zone feature shown on a Galaxy Watch 5.
There are new sleep coaching features designed to help you get a better night's sleep, plus an exercise feature that assigns Fitbit-style Heart Rate Zones (Zone 1 is "Warm up," Zone 2 is "Fat burn," Zone 3 is "Cardio," and so on) to your activity based on your heart rate. One UI 5 Watch also tweaks the One UI Watch emergency SOS system to allow Galaxy Watches to automatically contact emergency services in the event of a fall.
Aside from improvements like these, One UI 5 Watch isn't a drastic change from the Wear OS 3.5-powered One UI Watch currently running on Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 4 devices.
Another year, another new set of Samsung watches
Samsung seems to have settled into a predictable rhythm with its recent releases — iteration is the name of the game here. Still, the Galaxy Watch 5 series that the new Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are building on represented some of the best Wear OS devices out there, and it's hard to complain about a new, better version, even if year-to-year differences are minor. If you're set on getting a new Samsung wearable but can't decide which, we've got a handy guide to help you choose between the two.
There was more than just watches at Galaxy Unpacked, too. For more Samsung, we've got all the details on the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5. Like the Watch 6 series, Samsung's new folding phones are more about refinement than reinvention — but unless you have the last generation already, there's still plenty to get excited about.
- Source: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is one of Samsung's new wearables for 2023, introduced at Galaxy Unpacked. It sports a very familiar look to the Galaxy Watch 5, but packs upgrades in its display, chipset, and battery.
- Source: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic
Samsung's latest generation of the Galaxy Watch 6 comes in a larger Classic version. It sports a bigger case, a physical rotating bezel to control the watch, and a 3D Hall sensor for positioning via the magnetic field, alongside all the other welcome improvements in the vanilla Watch 6.
