I’m thinking about making a return from Garmin in the near future with Samsung announcing the Galaxy Watch 6 making a return with the ever-so-popular rotating bezel, and Google is now focused on their own Pixel Watch. For people who are currently using a WearOS device, what are your thoughts on the current state of the platform as a smartwatch and fitness tracker as of mid 2023?
I may be weird, but I hate my WearOS devices. I highly prefer a Mi Band.
It gives me all of the same info my WearOS watch does (heart rate, spo2, sleep tracking, steps, app notifications, timers, alarms, phone call alerts, weather, etc) but is a more comfortable compact package, and the battery lasts 5+ days vs 18-25 hours. Not to mention the price is usually 5-15x cheaper.
I know I’m a minority, but I genuinely don’t understand why people want a WearOS watch?
Funny, i just went the reverse way, from mi-band to wearOS. I’ve got one of those two screen devices (LCD and OLED) and most of the day, it uses the LCD. Three days is my battery life. Which is ok by my standards. I mainly changed over for the screen size of the notifications and the ability to see the time instantly. Got it second hand, it was much cheaper than new and the state was really good.
What do you mean by being able to see the time instantly?
My miband has an always on OLED display (if you want it) or the ability to have lift to wake with all of the different delays and sensitivities.
If anything, I’d say my miband shows the time quicker. My watch is also LED, not OLED, which is a bummer.
I don’t even need to lift to see the time, i just glance at it, the led pannel is on permanently like a casio watch, it glows when I lift, and the oled within it wakes up for notifications, incoming texts and calls, when I’m using maps, to control media players etc…
Ya, my mi band has that, too. It’s called always on display. Since it’s OLED, it doesn’t cause a ton of battery drain, and I can see the time without lifting it.
Yeah, they probably changed things around since the miband 3 then the 5 I had, it used to eat the battery like there was no tomorrow when left in AOD, it wouldn’t last more than 4/5 days… But then again if you left the AOD on, the OLED screen was so bad (i mean after a few years the clearcoat was so scratched up and the pannel was not enough bright) you couldn’t read the time when the sun was on it. I guess all brands evolve to give better quality… Software wise, pretty happy about gadgetbridge, that was a life saver, xiaomi’s software was deplorable, zepp is even worse, it calls home all day long.
For me the GPS feature with GPX import and music was the one that sold me for running with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. If it wasn’t I wouldve bought a Garmin.
For me the moment wearOS became a thing yet again is when Samsung decided to forego Tizen and went with WearOS with the galaxy watch 4 back in 2021. After that moment, a number of apps got developed for the WearOS platform. specifically WearOS 3.
We got apps like Spotify, Whatsapp, SoundCloud, Google Home and a whole host of apps being potentially announced for the upcoming wearOS watches like galaxy 6 and google watch 2.
Don’t get me started on the custom watch faces that are now available on the playstore. I would say more than a handful of watchfaces are being developed and released through the store.
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I migrated back to android a few months ago from about 5 years on iOS and watchOS. I generally “switch teams” every few years and both platforms have their strengths.
I have a pixel watch now and there are a couple of compromises coming from an apple watch in my use case. Battery is no where near as good. The Stocard app where you can store many of your retail store loyalty cards is handy on a watch to load up the bar code to scan at stores, the pixel watch loads up a very small bar code that many scanners have trouble with so I just pull out my phone for that.
But on the other hand having a watch face that is not just one of apples approved 15 faces is nice. I like the circular design more.
They recently got whatapp and Google assistant for the non Samsung ones(I’m on a Fossil)
Fitness tracking varies from brand to brand, it’ll never cover every feature that you want.
Me? I’m happy to get notifications, messaging and Spotify. Google assistant is fun, but not a deal breaker.
I don’t have a current one as I have a Moto 360 2020 that’s stuck on Wear OS 2. I’m thinking about replacing it with the 2nd gen Pixel Watch since it’s rumored to be a big improvement to the 1st gen.
From what I heard though, Wear OS 3 and 3.5 is a step in the right direction and gives OEMs more control of the UI, which is I believe why Samsung is using it now over Tizen. Really the only regression I can think of between Wear OS 2 and 3 is that Google Assistant is only available on Samsung and the Pixel Watch. If you go with any other watch, its not going to have it.
I’ve been pretty happy with my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Have access to apps I value like Bring, Home Assistant, Todoist, Google Maps, Yatse. Google Assistant actually is pretty responsive and useful. Music controls are effective, as is responding to texts, dismissing notifications. I get about 2.5 days battery life allowing me to do sleep tracking. So I’d recommend it!
Man, you’re reminding me why I didn’t get a WearOS device. 2.5 days is really short for a watch. How’d you use Google Maps on such a tiny screen?
I do miss the Tizen battery life, more like 4 days, but >2 is my minimum. The Maps app is pretty great for showing the next turn when walking, and you can pull up a map view if there’s confusion about the exact direction. It works pretty well and the large display is very readable.
Ah ok, I’m used to having to hold my phone in my hand when using Maps in an unfamiliar place, but maybe I just haven’t tried using a watch with that feature. I’m not sure I want to go to 2+ day battery life though.
I’m very simple with my watch, it just needs to tell the time, and buzz me on notifications. WearOS sounds like overkill for me. xD
The OS is improving. Hoping the next gen of watches are better. If you have a Samsung phone then the galaxy watch is great. I have a fossil gen 6 and can maybe make it a day. Crossing my fingers for the pixel watch 2
I’m a recent convert after years of saying how stupid they were. I have a Galaxy Watch 5 and it’s just part of my routine now. It tracks my walks and swims and gives me notifications.
It’s snappy when I need to use it and if I need to replace my phone with it for a bit (like listening to a podcast when my phone is charging) it works fine.
