Most smartwatches look small on my wrist and I’m lucky if the standard bands that they come with even fit. However, the latest 47mm Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic not only offers one of the largest 1.5-inch AMOLED displays on a round smartwatch around, it also offers an easy way for it to fit on my thick wrist. Priced from RM1499, featuring a return of the rotating bezel and Wear OS 4.0 along with a number of other feature improvements, is it the smartwatch for you? Keep reading our full review for all the details and find out for yourself.
Available in black and silver, our review unit was the silver variant with an artificial (or vegan) leather strap. Utilizing a solid yet stainless steel body, the 47mm Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic looks very premium and fits well on my thick wrist. The rotating bezel does make it a bit thicker at 10.9mm but it affords a bit more protection for the display which is also protected by Sapphire Crystal. So, in short, it’s a pretty large smartwatch but then again I know some of you with thin wrists also like large watches too.
Unfortunately, the standard strap barely fit me and was super tight even on the last strap hole. Rather than go to a shop and ask them to make more strap holes, you can easily replace the strap yourself using the quick release buttons, which I did with a much more comfortable braided nylon velcro strap by myself without much issue. On the underside of the Watch6 Classic there are various sensors including an electrical heart sensor, infrared temperature sensor, optical heart rate sensor and more. There’s also a built-in Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Sensor which is normally a much larger machine you’d find in a nutritionists office. On the side, there are 2 buttons, one for the home screen and another one you can customize for quick access.
The large 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display with 2000 nits brightness is clearly visible even under sunlight
The strap has quick release buttons so you can easily remove it or change it
On the side there are 2 buttons, one for the home button and another one you can customize
There's a whole bunch of sensors on the underside
Featuring a new Exynos W30 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage (only 7.1GB is available), the Galaxy Watch6 Classic also uses Wear OS 4.0 by Samsung. The 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display has a 480 x 480 pixel resolution and up to 2000 nits brightness, so you can easily see the watch face even in bright sunlight. I have to say that the rotating bezel does make controls feel more solid while overall performance is fast and responsive, but it can lag if it’s loading a lot of data. Workouts are automatically started while the 425 mAh battery can last about 1 day and 20 hours on the normal mode.
If you turn on the power saving mode you can get about 3 days and 9 hours worth of battery life but you’ll have to tap it or move the bezel to wake it up. This will also turn off the WiFi and Always On display and make the connection between the watch and your phone slower, so it doesn't refresh as regularly. With the bundled magnetic fast charger, you can get the smartwatch back up to 100% in about 1 hour and 25 minutes. There’s a lot more watch faces now, and you can also customize each watch face to show exactly what sort of data you’re interested in. We also found that watch faces with less animation like info brick actually saved energy, using up about 30% for a full day.
Looks like a large premium smartwatch for people with big wrists
Unfortunately the standard strap is a bit small
You can easily and quickly change the strap yourself
While I didn’t go out of my way to damage it, I did accidentally bump the watch into things and the Sapphire Crystal display remained scratch free. Thanks to its IP68 water and dust rating you can bring it swimming with you for about 30 minutes but I didn’t have the chance to do so so I didn’t test it. It did handle the rain and sweat with ease though. The Universal Gesture feature has been improved so you can navigate menus and select options using just finger or hand movements (but it does leave a rather annoying status message as well). Of course, there’s still Bixby and Google Assistant so you can do voice commands too.
Surprisingly, the speaker is loud and clear on max volume, easily filling up a car and while testing, the mic was also quite clear. This makes answering voice calls with the watch very nice but I did notice that turning this one seems to drain the battery life of my phone. There’s a lot more apps to use now with Google Maps for step by step navigation, Google Keep for notes and WhatsApp for messaging. But, I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t use the Samsung Email app and there’s still rather limited amounts of app options to choose from.
The App menu on the One UI interface
You can even customize the watch face with the data that you want to see the most
The Galaxy Watch6 Classic can track your steps, heart rate and a lot more
You can now use the watch to view and answer WhatsApp or notes and tasks... but I have to say that I wish that it had more apps
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic feels like a large premium smart watch with a lot of potential. The still limited app market does mar the experience a bit though. Hopefully, both Google and Samsung will add more of their useful apps soon. The rotating bezel is nice to have, and build quality is solid and premium but while the battery life is somewhat better than before, it may irritate those who don’t like to charge their smartwatches every night.
Other contenders include the Amazfit Balance from RM1099, the Huawei Watch GT 4 at RM1099 and the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro from RM1199, but while some of them have much better battery life, none of them have a rotating bezel. If you’re a former Galaxy Watch4 Classic user, the Galaxy Watch6 Classic is a worthy upgrade but what do you think? Which would you go for? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave.com for more reviews and news like this.
Tech specs and features:
Here are the tech specs and features of the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic:
- 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display (480 x 480 pixel resolution)
- 1.4GHz Exynos W930 processor (dual-core, 5nm)
- 2GB RAM + 16GB storage (7.1GB available storage)
- Measures: 46.5 x 46.5 x 10.9mm | 59g
- Features: rotating bezel, Sapphire Crystal glass, IP68 water and dust resistance, 5ATM ratings, MIL-STD-810H, Over 90 different workouts, Personalized HR Zone, Emergency SOS, NFC, Accelerometer, Barometer, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Sensor, Electrical Heart Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Infrared Temperature Sensor, Light Sensor, Optical Heart Rate Sensor, camera remote control
- Supports: 802.11 a.b.g.n 2.4+5Ghz, WiFi, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, Samsung Wallet
- 425 mAh battery (up to 40 hours, Fast Charge)
- Wear OS 4.0, One UI 5
- Available in Black and Silver
Pros and Cons:
Pros: Rotating bezel. Customizable watch faces and straps. Large and bright 1.5-inch display.
Cons: Just for people who like large watches. Standard strap is a bit meh.
Summary: Samsung’s largest round smartwatch returns with a rotating bezel, Wear OS 4.0 and improved tech specs.
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