Samsung\u2019s kitchen sink approach is best on a smartwatch<\/p>\n
![\"Samsung](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779732131_56_samsung-galaxy-watch-7-4.JPG\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Joe Fedewa \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n
One part of my backstory that I didn\u2019t mention is that my opinion on phones is nearly the exact opposite of my opinion on smartwatches. While I much preferred the Galaxy Watch over the Pixel Watch for several years, I prefer pretty much any phone over a Samsung Galaxy.<\/p>\n
The main reason for that is One UI, and it has too many features. I appreciate the flexibility and customization, but I\u2019ve always found it to be a bit overwhelming. No phone takes longer for me to set up and get to my liking than a Samsung Galaxy. Ironically, I really like all the changes Samsung has brought to Wear OS with One UI on a watch.<\/p>\n
Samsung allows you to put multiple tiles on a single page. So, rather than eating up three pages with various health and fitness tiles, they can all be neatly organized in a vertical stack on one page. Samsung also offers much more powerful and useful gestures<\/a> than Google. I love being able to double-tap my fingers together when I get a text message to send a voice reply.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not only about the watch, either. Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Wearable app lets me do literally everything I can do on the watch from my phone. That includes reorganizing the Quick Settings toggles and the app drawer. Using a small watch screen for certain tasks is annoying, which makes this super handy to me. All in all, Samsung\u2019s watch software makes Google\u2019s feel unfinished.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n \t\t Seriously, I’ve been missing out.<\/p>\n Samsung Health is better than Fitbit (Google Health)<\/p>\n The gap is closing, but there\u2019s still a gap<\/p>\n Google is trying hard to be a serious health and fitness company, as we\u2019ve seen with the recent rebrand of Fitbit to \u201cGoogle Health.\u201d<\/a> Samsung, on the other hand, doesn\u2019t boast much about its health offerings. Yet, Samsung Health is stealthily the most feature-rich and powerful health platform I\u2019ve used.<\/p>\n The most amazing part? While Google puts some advanced features behind a paywall, Samsung Health is completely free. When I was a serious runner, I noticed that Samsung Health gave me quite a bit more information than Fitbit. My knees have forced me to retire from running, but I\u2019ve noticed the same with other activities as well. You don\u2019t even need a Samsung phone to use it\u2014I\u2019ve mainly paired Galaxy Watches to Pixel phones.<\/p>\n Fitbit\/Google Health is certainly good enough, and I really like its design, but Samsung Health is just flat-out better when it comes to data. Maybe there will be a day when Google gets there, but it won\u2019t be free.<\/p>\n Easier to use the watch bands I already own<\/p>\n But Samsung messed this up, too<\/p>\n I was extremely critical of the original Pixel Watch for a variety of reasons when I reviewed it in 2022. One of the smaller, but most personal annoyances was Google\u2019s proprietary watch bands. Rather than using the universal lug connectors that watches have had for decades, it created its own system specific for the Pixel Watch.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Samsung embraced the standardized watch band sizes for numerous generations of Galaxy Watches. Since there are so many bands in these sizes, I accumulated a healthy pile that I loved to rotate through. When I started using a Pixel Watch, I had to give up my collection of watch bands.<\/p>\n Now, there are technically a couple of ways to use standard watch bands with a Pixel Watch. However, I personally think almost all of the adapters are ugly, which is why I sacrificed Google\u2019s Two-Tone Leather Band<\/a> for its lugs\u2014it cost me $50.<\/p>\n Therein lies the problem with proprietary bands. The selection is smaller, and the prices are higher. Unfortunately, Samsung has gone down this path, too. I praised the company for creating a better quick-release mechanism<\/a> with standard bands on the Galaxy Watch 7 series, but then it abandoned the idea<\/a> and went fully proprietary for the Galaxy Watch 8. Lame.<\/p>\n Samsung is lowering its standards<\/p>\n As I said, it\u2019s been a couple of years since I used a Galaxy Watch. Naturally, things have changed over time. I realized the gap between the Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch isn\u2019t as big as it used to be, but I\u2019m not sure I like the reason why.<\/p>\n It feels like Samsung has lowered itself to Google\u2019s level. For the first few generations of Pixel Watch, the Galaxy Watch was the obviously better option. Universal watch bands, free health and fitness services, better software features, and, the kicker, considerably more affordable. Now, the watch band advantage is gone, and Samsung has increased prices to match Google. How much longer will Samsung Health be free?<\/p>\n Despite all that, I still really enjoy the Galaxy Watch experience. Even after four generations, Google\u2019s simplified approach feels amateurish compared to Samsung\u2019s. That\u2019s not to say I don\u2019t still like the Pixel Watch, too, but it\u2019s clear that Samsung is still king.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tHeart Rate Monitor \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYes<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tOperating System \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOne UI 6 Watch, Wear OS 5<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tOnboard GPS \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYes<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tDisplay Size \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1.3\/1.5 inches<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tCase Material \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAluminum<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tDisplay \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSuper AMOLED, Sapphire crystal<\/p>\n The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is Samsung’s entry-level smartwatch for 2024. It resembles the Galaxy Watch 6 but features an enhanced Exynos W1000 chipset, promising significantly improved battery life and performance.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tHeart Rate Monitor \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYes<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tColor Screen \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYes<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tNotification Support \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYes<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tBattery Life \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUp to 40 hours with always-on display<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tOperating System \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWear OS 6<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tOnboard GPS \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDual Frequency GPS: GPS, Galileo, Glonass<\/p>\n The Pixel Watch 4 is made to work seamlessly with your Pixel (or other Android) device. The domed display offers a fantastic view of anything you need on your smartwatch, from the time to in-depth fitness insights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Android owners have two main smartwatch brands to choose from: Samsung Galaxy Watch or Google Pixel Watch. I\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[64,63,213,105],"class_list":["post-693987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gadgets","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Tutorial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1000065722.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tI Can’t Believe How Good Gestures Are on My Galaxy Watch
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Stress](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stress-setting-in-samsung-health-on-a-galaxy-watch-6.jpg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Bertel King \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n![\"Pixel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pixel-watch-face-galaxy-watch.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
\n Credit:\u00a0Joe Fedewa \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n![\"Pixel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Google-Pixel-Watch-Review-9.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
\n Credit:\u00a0Joe Fedewa \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n![\"Samsung](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/watch-7-product-image-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pixel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pixel-watch-4.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n