Introduction and details
The Ring is back, and no thanks to Frodo. Samsung has thankfully reconsidered, and brought back the unique rotating bezel for the new Galaxy Watch6 Classic after ditching it with the Galaxy Watch5 Pro. This is probably the biggest change in the new Galaxy Watch6 Classic wearables with the new Exynos W930.
However, we can’t shake the feeling that Samsung might launch two different Galaxy Watch flagships – Pros and Classics. After all, a two-year upgrade cycle is standard, and the company is probably targeting Galaxy Watch4 Classic owners on this one. Those who don’t need a rotating ring (anyone?) can stick with the Pro Series.
Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic Specifications at a Glance:
- Body: 46.5×46.5×10.9mm, 59g; Sapphire crystal face, stainless steel frame; MIL-STD-810H Compliant, 50m Water Resistant (IP68), ECG Certified, Blood Pressure Monitoring.
- Show: 1.50 inch Super AMOLED, 480×480 pixels resolution, 9:9 aspect ratio, 453 ppi; Always visible.
- Chipset Exynos W930 (5 nm): dual-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A55; Mali-G68.
- Memory: 16GB 2GB RAM.
- Operating System/Software: Android Wear OS 4, One UI Watch 5.
- rear camera; No.
- Front camera: No.
- Video recording: Rear camera: No.
- Battery: 425mAh; Wireless (Qi).
- Communication: LTE; Isim Wi-Fi 4; BT 5.3; NFC
- Miscellaneous: Accelerometer, gyro, compass, heart rate, barometer, thermometer (skin temperature), 3D hall sensor; Natural language commands and words, Samsung Pay.
The dual watch lineup concept may well explain why Samsung had no problem reducing the Watch6 Classic’s battery capacity to 425 mAh from 590 mAh on the Watch5 Pro. It’s still an upgrade over the Watch4 Classic from 2021, which had a 361 mAh cell. Samsung believes the new chipset is more efficient, which we test in our battery room review unit.
Efficiency is one thing, but what about performance? Well, the new Exynos W930 offers higher clock speeds and is paired with 2GB of RAM, instead of 1.5GB in the previous two generations. This ensures smooth viewing and fast processing.
If we talk about images, the display is now bigger – 1.5 inches and with high resolution (480 x 480 pixels).
And on the fitness tracking front, not much has changed except for added skin temperature measurements. Fall detection is also a new feature, which can be facilitated by the new 3D Hall sensor.
A new Wear OS 4.0 with Samsung’s proprietary One UI Watch 5 software ties everything together, while the rest of the device is practically unchanged. Of course, there are differences, and that’s why we have this review, so keep reading.
Unboxing the Galaxy Watch6 Classic
The device comes in a pretty standard retail box containing only user manuals and the charger cable attached. The only change this year is that the cable is now USB-C instead of USB-A.
There is no separate charger in the box, but you can use any USB-C wall charger or PC/laptop. You still can’t charge the watch with a third-party Qi charger, and another limitation is that you can’t reverse wireless charging on a non-Samsung phone.
