{"id":105387,"date":"2025-10-28T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105387\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T15:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:08:09","slug":"i-tested-the-ai-on-apple-watch-series-11-and-galaxy-watch-8-its-a-no-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105387\/","title":{"rendered":"I tested the AI on Apple Watch Series 11 and Galaxy Watch 8. It\u2019s a no-contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been wearing smartwatches for nearly a decade now. And so far, I have cultivated a love-hate relationship. The fashion police in my friends\u2019 circle abhors them, while the gym rats are always eager to discuss the latest biosensing breakthroughs. Doctors and researchers tell me that they are a fantastic tool for staying in shape and as an early warning system<\/a>, but not a substitute for proper medical care.<\/p>\n

But as smartwatches kept getting faster and smarter over the years, so did their distraction potential. \u201cYet another screen on my body, a channel for distracting notifications, and something I need to charge every day.\u201d That\u2019s what I often tell myself, and I\u2019m not the only one grappling with those problems. But here\u2019s the bright side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Spotify<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

Practical conveniences always trump the functional hiccups, and that\u2019s where AI comes into the picture. AI has dramatically changed how we browse the web, or get work done on our phones. Now, it has landed on smartwatches, and it\u2019s phenomenally useful. But here\u2019s the odd part.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apple Watches are usually deemed the gold standard, but it\u2019s Google\u2019s Wear OS powering the Pixel and Galaxy Watch that has taken the early lead with meaningful AI-powered experiences. I recently pushed the new Apple Watch Series 11<\/a> and the Galaxy Watch 8<\/a> Classic, and the difference in AI-driven features was quite eye-opening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why do I want AI on my wrist?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Running<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

Well, the most obvious answer would be a digital assistant that can handle mundane tasks that would otherwise require you to unlock your smartphone. Checking the meeting schedule for the day ahead, finding a nearby coffee shop, looking for directions, changing the music mood, or just a quick news run for hot events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem, however, is that legacy digital assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Bixby are extremely limited. They can\u2019t interact with other apps or third-party services. They are pretty slow and lack contextual understanding. And above all, the conversations with them are extremely rigid.<\/p>\n

\"Testing<\/p>\n

\t\tSiri\u2019s responses can be wildly inaccurate. Nadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Gemini<\/a>, with its advanced natural language capabilities, makes an evolutionary leap. It can carry on conversations with a lot more nuanced understanding than Siri. More importantly, it can dig within the trove of your data across connected Google (and third-party) services to take action. And by action, I mean meaningful work on the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gemini is a lot better at talking (and understanding)<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

\t\tInstead of giving answer, Siri just redirected to a random location on the Map. Nadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

Gemini is a large language model that can handle conversations almost like a human, but with a whole world of knowledge at its fingertips. It can understand multi-step queries and open-ended conversations, while Siri would either fail or try to take you on a web search journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conversations with Gemini are free-flowing, and more importantly, a lot less error-prone. The latter is extremely important. Even when the voice-to-text transcription is not accurate and you see a clear spelling error on the screen, the context is picked up accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, when I asked Gemini to give me the latest update on Nvidia\u2019s Rubin GPUs, Gemini initially picked it up as \u201cReuben,\u201d but when it finally started narrating the answer, it correctly focused on the upcoming Rubin architecture. This context-based correction also means the voice chats are a lot less frustrating on the Galaxy Watch 8 compared to the Apple Watch Series 11.<\/p>\n

\"Siri<\/p>\n

\t\tSiri can\u2019t handle your email chores. Nadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

For people who don\u2019t speak with a native English accent, it\u2019s often a struggle with their unique pronunciations of the same words. Gemini fares far better than Siri at this crucial convenience. Siri repeatedly failed at picking up the names of places and delicacies in Indic languages, while Gemini\u2019s enhanced language understanding allowed it to pick the right word.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"I\u2019m<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

\"I\u2019m<\/p>\n

\t\tThe difference in how Siri and Gemini handle the same query. Nadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

\"Talking<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

Understanding the language (with its diverse accents), fixing spelling errors in real-time, and picking the right context even if users fumble with their sentences is a huge win for Gemini. Siri conversations can quickly get frustrating because it repeatedly fails to grasp words that are non-English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget that Gemini is just better at answering your burning queries. Unlike Siri, which tries to answer by relying on web search and providing links, Gemini is just more spontaneous. It is dramatically faster at collecting information from the web and presenting it in an easy-to-grasp nugget of text, accompanied by a voice readout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there, you can dig deeper with follow-up questions, ask it to pull up an article for in-depth reading, save the contents of the conversation in Keep, or send it as WhatsApp text. Simply put, it\u2019s a straight chain of commands that follows a fruitful back-and-forth conversation.<\/p>\n

Command and execution\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Workspace<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get straight to the point here. \u201cTell me about a few famous places in Dharamshala,\u201d I asked. Ideally, you would expect an AI assistant to read out a few places or provide an answer on the screen. Alas, that\u2019s not the case with Siri. When I asked the aforesaid question, it directly launched a Map view of a guest house in the city, but that was not even my query in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s simply an erroneous understanding of a user query and a wrong task execution, as well. When I pitched the same question to Gemini on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, it provided a summary of tourist hotspots. But more importantly, it saved the context of the conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

When I asked it to \u201ctell me more about the Buddhist temple\u201d without giving any specific context, it accurately gauged that I was talking about the one in Dharamshala, and even provided a picture. Next, I asked it to save the list to my Google Keep directory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gemini not only picked up an appropriate title for the new digital note, but also successfully saved it to my Google Keep dashboard. Likewise, it did a reliable job with most of the apps and services that are available within the Google Workspace bundle. Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Using<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

Even with third-party services such as Spotify and WhatsApp, Gemini handled the requests really well. Siri, on the other hand, struggled with language comprehension on too many occasions, and the lack of interplay with third-party only worsened the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the services that are unavailable for watchOS, but also those that are installed on the smartwatch itself. For example, I have Outlook installed on the Apple Watch Series 11, but Siri can neither access its content, nor pull any context from the inbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Running<\/p>\n

\t\tNadeem Sarwar \/ Digital Trends<\/p>\n

When I asked Gemini about \u201cthe last email conversation I had with Saba,\u201d it accurately pulled up details from the exact email I wanted, and also provided a quick summary of the exchange. Likewise, Gemini also fared well with giving me a recap of the meeting schedule and setting up new calendar events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, Gemini \u2014 running atop Wear OS on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic \u2014 is a far superior AI experience than Siri on the Apple Watch Series 11. It\u2019s unclear how long it will take for Siri\u2019s rumored AI brain transplant<\/a> to land. And even if it does, I am skeptical about its ability to catch up with Gemini, especially with the deep level of integration it has to offer with other apps and services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been wearing smartwatches for nearly a decade now. And so far, I have cultivated a love-hate relationship.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[365,351,352,4835,363,356,6301,10600,111,139,69,869,3831,4841,3379,145,20241,3492,41004],"class_list":{"0":"post-105387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-apple","10":"tag-apple-watch","11":"tag-apple-watch-series-11","12":"tag-artificial-intelligence","13":"tag-gadgets","14":"tag-gemini","15":"tag-google-gemini","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-samsung","20":"tag-samsung-galaxy-watch-8","21":"tag-samsung-galaxy-watch-8-classic","22":"tag-siri","23":"tag-technology","24":"tag-watchos","25":"tag-wearables","26":"tag-wearos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}