Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review – The rotating bezel is back
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: One minute review
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic has been unveiled at Samsung Unpacked 2023, and it's a great-looking variant of the vanilla Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. We spent around an hour with both of Samsung’s new watches, with equal focus devoted to the Watch 6 as to the Watch 6 Classic. They’re virtually identical watches with a few key design differences. Whether either of them make their way onto the best smartwatch list though, only time will tell.
The two biggest differences we have to mention, which we’ll get to in our design section, are the rotating bezel, the different size options, and which capacity batteries were chosen for these. The rotating bezel can be used as a third navigation option in addition to the touchscreen and buttons, and remains a fascinatingly tactile and intuitive experience to use, just like on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
Other features arriving on the Watch 6 line include Google’s Wear OS 4 operating system and Samsung’s One UI Watch 5 skin for it, a redesigned on-watch Sleep app, improved heart health features, a Samsung Wallet that can store loyalty cards and airline tickets in addition to credit and debit cards, and a new Custom Workouts profile to help you create multi-stage workouts like triathlons.
Returning features include a body composition scanner to help you monitor fat and muscle percentages, chronotype sleep profiles to help the watch provide customized sleep guidance and access to the Google Play Store.
It’s going to be a very good watch, in essentials: we just hope the small batteries and larger sizes can be compensated for by improved performance from the new Exynos W930 chipset. Otherwise, the watch will hardly last long enough for a day’s use and a night’s sleep monitoring.
More from Samsung Unpacked 2023
We've been hands-on with all the new devices Samsung unveiled at Unpacked 2023, and you can check out our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review, and hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review for our early impressions of Samsung's new foldables – and here’s our guide to the best Samsung Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 pre-orders. We’ve also got our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review and early Samsung Watch 6 Classic review with our initial verdicts of the new wearables, plus the best Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 pre-order deals. You can also see our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 review and initial Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra review – and here are the top Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 preorders.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: Specifications
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic debuts during Samsung Unpacked on July 26, alongside the Watch 6, the Tab S9 series, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 phones.
In the US, we have confirmed prices for the Bluetooth-only Watch 6 Classic models, costing $399.99 for the Bluetooth 43mm model, and $429.99 for the Bluetooth 47mm model.
In the UK and Australia, we have prices for both Bluetooth and LTE models, which do not require a smartphone to access the internet. In the UK, prices start at £369 for the Bluetooth-only 43mm model and £429 for the 43mm LTE option. The 47mm size costs £399 for Bluetooth-only and £459 for the LTE-capable watch.
Australian Samsung users can expect to pay AU$699 for the 43mm Bluetooth-only watch, AU$799 for a 43mm LTE-capable model, AU$749 for 47mm Bluetooth-only option, and AU $849 for a 47mm LTE-capable watch.
Remember, all the prices above are for the Watch 6 Classic: for the standard Watch 6 prices, you'll need to check out our Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 hands-on review.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: Design and screen
Larger 47mm sizes
Rotating bezel looks great
Intuitive to navigate
I spent most of my time with the 47mm model of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, although I also tested the 43mm. Both the 43mm black model with a black leather strap, and the 47mm model with a white strap, look fantastic, and wearing them I felt much more like I was wearing a ‘real’ watch than was the case with the baseline Samsung Galaxy Watch 6.
That bezel, although slimmer than it was on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 to make room for a screen that’s 20% larger, is a really effective way to navigate around the watch, cycling through the options on a list laid out horizontally. Turn it left to cycle to the left, and right to cycle to the right.
It felt very natural to use, and coupled with the touchscreen and buttons, navigating the watch feels remarkably intuitive. Swapping between options and apps is made faster and easier by the massive super AMOLED screen, smooth refresh rate and powerful processor.
The 47mm option is Samsung’s biggest watch ever bec enormous screen, even bigger than last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Despite being a big, beefy watch, it’s not marketed in the same way as the Apple Watch Ultra: this is very much a variation of the Galaxy Watch 6 and not a new device in its own right, in the way the 5 Pro was with its own unique features, or the Apple Watch Ultra.
Indeed, I think the Watch 6 Classic could have done with a little more uniqueness. The 43mm gets the same 300mAh battery as the Watch 6 40mm, while the 47mm model gets the same 425mAh battery as the 44mm Watch 6. Given the increased size and power output of the Classic models, that puts even more strain on the batteries – and the battery life of Samsung’s watches is already legendarily meager. Aalthough we only spent an hour with the watch, I’m keen to see how the two batteries compare over several days. The Exynos W930 is said to be 18% faster than the processor in the Watch 5 series, and we’re hoping it translates into more efficiency when it comes to power consumption.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: Features
Improved Sleep features
Custom Workouts
Comprehensive heart health information
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is, along with its bezel-less sibling, one of the most comprehensive health watches on the market when it comes to heart health features. Its heart rate monitor is one of the few FDA-certified options available. It reads blood pressure, which even the best Apple Watches can’t do, although that feature isn’t designed for use in a medical setting. It can do ECG scans. It even offers body composition data, with a scanner showing off your skeletal muscle and body fat readings. I tried this latter feature on the Watch 6 Pro as you can see in the picture above, and it’s just as good a feature as it was on the Watch 5.
When I used the feature on the Watch 5 I checked its accuracy and found it viable, and this time the reading from the Watch 6 Classic compared favorably to the reading I took on the basic Watch 6.
Both the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic now also offer heart rate zone notifications during exercise, and can alert you as your heart rate increases and decreases past certain thresholds during exertion. An unnaturally high heart rate hours after exercise will also trigger alerts. Combined with the body composition data, blood pressure monitoring and other health-focused features, it becomes a very comprehensive health tool, one of the best on the market.
This focus on health extends to sleep. In our briefing, Samsung described its watches as the best sleep-monitoring watches on the market. It’s a big claim, but the Watch 6 Classic backs this up with skin temperature sensors that pick up subtle changes throughout the night, and the ability to assign you a sleep profile, represented by a cute ‘sleep animal’, after a few weeks of use. Once you have your profile, the watch can offer customized guidance on ways to improve your sleep. This isn’t new, but you no longer have to switch to your watch to get this guidance, as it can all be done on the app.
Otherwise, all the usual comprehensive workout features are here to offer detailed metrics on runs, rides, skiing, swimming and plenty of other workout profiles. A new Custom Workout profile allows you to switch between multiple modes simultaneously, which is great for triathlons – but whether the battery will hold up over hours of GPS use is something we’ll need to test. Athletes may prefer to stick with the Watch 5 Pro.
Wear OS extras are here, with the Google Play store offering third-party apps on-watch including WhatsApp, Spotify and all the usual goodies.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic: Early verdict
There's not much that’s unique about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. The rotating bezel is straight out of the Watch 4 Classic, and other than the differences in size, it's the same as the vanilla Watch 6 beat-for-beat.
The chief difference lies in the 47mm Classic being the biggest Samsung watch yet created, even more so than the Pro. There's a lot of screen real estate, and I was able to navigate it effortlessly using a combination of the twisting bezel, the touchscreen and the buttons. It's a premium experience.
My main concern is whether the battery life can withstand the average user's energy demands. The Custom Workout modes allow you to assemble a triathlon workout, which requires a long time in GPS mode, heavily draining power (its GPS qualifications, by the way, are excellent with access to GLONASS and BEIDOU networks, as on a Garmin device). It promises best-in-class sleep tracking, although this requires the watch to be on all night, taking a further toll on battery life.
Thank god for fast charging, but I'm curious if we'll need to adopt some careful timing and daily charging strategies in order to be able to use the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, especially the larger 47mm model, to its full potential.
