The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic brings a physical bezel back to the watch face.
Last week’s Galaxy Unpacked event brought the official release of the Galaxy Watch 6, Samsung’s latest smartwatch. How does the new wearable stack up with industry-leading Apple Watch Series 8? Let’s take a look at the specs, features and price.
This story is part of Samsung Event, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Samsung’s most popular products.
The big physical difference is that Samsung uses a round face for its watches, while Apple keeps its square look. But both are available in two sizes that are only a millimeter in difference, so there’s little to go on here. Both are waterproof to around 50 meters (roughly 165 feet), use aluminum in their construction and have interchangeable bands.
The features are closely matched too, with both models offering GPS tracking, heart-rate sensing, fall detection, sleep tracking, automatic workout detection and more. Both also offer contactless payments using either Samsung Pay or Apple Pay. The Galaxy Watch offers 16GB of onboard storage for saving songs locally to work out with, while the Apple Watch doubles that to 32GB. Samsung reckons its watch will last up to 40 hours between charges however, while Apple only promises 18. How that stacks up in real-world testing remains to be seen.
Galaxy Watch 6 preorder deals See at CNET
One of the biggest differences, though, is the price: the Apple Watch Series 8 costs nearly $100 more than Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6, in both sizes. We’ll be putting these through their paces in the full review soon to see whether it’s worth saving that money, but you can check out the full specs comparison below.
| Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 | Apple Watch Series 8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Round | Square |
| Watch size | 40mm, 44mm | 41mm, 45mm |
| Materials/ Finishes | Aluminum | Aluminum, Stainless steel, Ceramic, Sapphire glass |
| Display size, resolution | 40mm: 1.3-inch, 432×432 Super AMOLED; 44mm: 1.5-inch, 480×480 Super AMOLED | 41mm: 1.7-inch, 352×430 45mm: 1.9-inch, 396×484 |
| Dimensions | 40mm: 38.8 x 40.4 x 9.0 mm; 44mm: 42.8 x 44.4 x 9.0 mm | 41mm: 41 x 35 x 10.7mm 45mm: 45 x 38 x 10.7mm |
| Weight | 40mm: 28.7g; 44mm: 33.3g | 41mm: 31.9g (aluminum, GPS) 45mm: 38.8g (aluminum, GPS) |
| Colors | 40mm: Graphite, Gold; 44mm: Graphite, Silver | Midnight, Starlight, Silver, Red |
| Always On | Yes | Yes |
| Interchangable bands | Yes | Yes |
| GPS | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic workout detection | Yes (running, walking, rowing) | Yes |
| Compass | Yes | Yes |
| Altimeter | Yes | Yes |
| Water resistance | 5ATM, IP68 | 50 meters |
| Calls | Yes | Yes |
| Microphone | Yes | Yes |
| Speaker | Yes | Yes |
| Voice assistant | Yes (Google Assistant, Bixby) | Siri |
| Mobile Payments | Yes (Samsung Wallet) | Yes (Apple Pay) |
| Sleep tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Period tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Sensors | Optical Heart Rate + Electrical Heart Signal + Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, Temperature Sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor | Electrical heart sensor, Blood oxygen sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor, |
| Emergency features | Emergency SOS, fall detection | Emergency SOS, fall and crash detection |
| Compatibility | Android 10 and above | iOS |
| Software | WearOS 4 | Watch OS 9 |
| Processor | Exynos W930 Dual-Core 1.4GHz | Apple S8 |
| Connectivity | LTE6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo | LTE, UMTS, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, GPS/Glonass, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou |
| Memory and storage | 2GB memory + 16GB storage | 1GB memory + 32GB storage |
| Power | Faster wireless charging over USB-C | Faster wireless charging over USB-C |
| Battery life | Up to 40 hours (Always On Display off) / Up to 30 hours (Always On Display on) | Up to 18 hours |
| Battery capacity | 40mm: 300 mAh; 44mm: 425 mAh | 308 mAh |
| US price | 40mm: $300 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth); 44mm: $330 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) | 41mm: $399 (GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) 45mm: $429 (GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) |
| UK price | From £289 | From £419 |
| Australian price | From AU$549 | From AU$629 |
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