SamMobile has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn a commission.

Notifications
    News for you

    Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Pro hands-on: The bezel strikes back

    Watch
    By 

    Last updated: July 26th, 2023 at 13:13 UTC+02:00

    Our Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Pro hands-on experience at Unpacked today was quite pleasant, in that at least one of the models brings back a fan-favorite design element. Samsung seems to have a love-hate relationship with the physical rotating bezel on its smartwatches. After removing it even from the high-end Galaxy Watch 5 Pro last year, the company has brought it back with the Galaxy Watch 6 Pro in 2023.

    Both Watch 6 models are natural evolutionary upgrades compared to their predecessors. You can expect improvements in several areas while also expecting them to deliver great performance in basic functionality such as fitness and activity tracking. Let's take a close look at these new smartwatches.

    Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic hands-on: Return of the bezel!

    Fans always felt that removing the physical rotating bezel is like taking away the soul of the Galaxy Watch. It's great that Samsung has heard their feedback and made amends this year. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is the high-end model this year and it brings back the rotating bezel.

    The design of both models is otherwise what you'd expect. It's subtle yet refined and quintessentially Galaxy Watch. With flat, circular display is helped immensely by the 30% reduction in bezel size on both models. Even the rotating bezel is 15% thinner on the Classic. This makes the viewing experience larger by 20% without needing to increase the dimensions of the device.

    You can get the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in two sizes, 47mm and 43mm, whereas the Galaxy Watch 6 is available in 44mm and 40mm. The former gets a 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 480 x 480 pixel resolution and the base model gets a 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display with 432 x 432 pixel resolution. The displays have a higher 2000 nits peak brightness which provides improved visibility outdoors.

    If you're upgrading from an earlier model, you'll also notice the improvement in performance. Both models are powered by the new Exynos W930 Dual Core chipset that's clocked at 1.4GHz. The RAM has been increased to 2GB and there's 16GB of storage on board. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic has a 425mAh battery, it's smaller than the mammoth 590mAh battery in the Watch 5 Pro. However, the new chipset should deliver enough power efficiency to offset this decrease. The base Galaxy Watch 6 has a 300mAh battery.

    There are a bunch of new software features as well. Samsung has worked particularly hard to improving the sleep tracking features. You also get personalized heart rate zone analysis, fall detection, menstrual cycle tracking, and more. All of the other health and fitness tracking features that you'd expect from the Galaxy Watch are present and work just as well as they always have.

    Overall, the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are solid upgrades over the predecessor. If you were particularly disinterested in the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro last year and felt that its offerings were overkill for you, the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will certainly appeal to you a lot more. Don't forget to check out our full video hands-on of the new smartwatches to learn more about the Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic.

    Watch Galaxy Watch 6Galaxy Watch 6 Pro

    You might also like

    Celebrate Mother’s Day with a free Galaxy Watch 6 from Samsung

    Celebrate Mother’s Day with a free Galaxy Watch 6 from Samsung

    If you're looking to buy a gift for Mother's Day and you're having trouble deciding what to get, Samsung may have come to the rescue. The company has launched a Mother's Day Special deal that gets smartwatch buyers a second Galaxy Watch 6 for free. That's right! Through this limited-time Mother's Day deal, if you […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 5 hours ago
    I’m starting to hate my Galaxy Watch and can’t wait to swap it for a Ring

    I’m starting to hate my Galaxy Watch and can’t wait to swap it for a Ring

    The closer we get to the next Galaxy Unpacked event, the more I feel like my smartwatch is becoming less attractive. My Galaxy Watch 5's appeal is waning, and not because I'm anticipating Samsung to unveil a new smartwatch series at Unpacked but because I love the idea of the Galaxy Ring more every day […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 2 weeks ago
    Galaxy Watches replace transport tickets in Île-de-France

    Galaxy Watches replace transport tickets in Île-de-France

    Samsung and Île-de-France Mobilités have been working together to dematerialize public transport tickets and allow people to validate digital tickets using their smartwatches. These efforts to reduce waste by lowering the use of magnetic tickets are now paying off. Samsung and Île-de-France Mobilités have announced that the smartwatch-based ticket validation system is now being deployed […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 3 weeks ago
    Grab a new Galaxy Watch 6 and save up to $80

    Grab a new Galaxy Watch 6 and save up to $80

    Samsung smartwatch deals come and go constantly, and right now, the base Galaxy Watch 6 model is available at a discount. Depending on which variant you pick, you can save $50 or $80 on a new Watch 6 without a trade-in. In short, the Bluetooth / Wi-Fi Galaxy Watch 6 is now $50 cheaper. It […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 3 weeks ago
    New Galaxy Watch 6 update arrives in US, fixes touchscreen issues

    New Galaxy Watch 6 update arrives in US, fixes touchscreen issues

    Last week, Samsung started releasing a new software update to the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in South Korea. It brought a fix for an issue related to the touch functionality of the display that was introduced with a previous update to these smartwatches. Well, Samsung has now started rolling out […]

    • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
    • 4 weeks ago
    New Galaxy Watch 6 update aims to fix touchscreen issues

    New Galaxy Watch 6 update aims to fix touchscreen issues

    A few days ago, Samsung released a major software update to Galaxy Watches that fixed bugs and added workout integration for Samsung TVs. However, it also introduced a touchscreen-related bug to the Galaxy Watch 6 series, which is now being fixed with a new update. Galaxy Watch 6 gets a new update to fix touchscreen […]

    • By Asif Iqbal Shaik
    • 1 month ago