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Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic Review: Small Updates, Big Screens

It’s more like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.5, but screen size and that bezel make all the difference.

The Galaxy Watch 6 proves that what’s old can become new again. Samsung brought back the fan-favorite bezel on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, while the regular Galaxy Watch 6 is an incremental update to last year’s model. These Android smartwatches are not exciting, but they can do almost everything you need.

I’ve been wearing both versions for a week to track everything from workouts to sleep. Inside, they’re practically the same watch with the same internal specs, sensors and sizing options. I tested the small version of both: the 40mm Watch 6 and the 43mm Classic. (My wrist measures 152mm.) You can see how they fit in the video on this page.

The main differences between the Galaxy Watch 6 versions?

  • Material: The Galaxy Watch 6 has an aluminum frame while the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is stainless steel
  • Rotating bezel: Only on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. The Galaxy Watch 6 has a haptic touch bezel around the screen
  • Price: Starts at $300 for the 40mm Galaxy Watch 6 or $330 for the 44mm. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is $400 for the 43mm and $430 for the 47mm.

All the sensors on both are the same as the ones found on the Galaxy Watch 5: heart rate, body composition and skin temperature. Both the Watch 6 and 6 Classic have LTE options to stay connected when you’re away from your phone. They cost $50 more than the base price and you may need to pay an additional fee to your wireless provider to get service on your watch.

So, what’s different from last year? It’s as simple as software, screens and a slightly longer-lasting battery.

Better, brighter displays help you see more

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic vs. 6 Classic

It seems like a small upgrade on paper, but the larger 1.3-inch and 1.5-inch displays make a significant difference to the overall experience. When I compare the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic directly with the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic (the last Samsung watch to have the bezel) the difference in usable display is night and day.

The screens are also twice as bright as the Galaxy Watch 5 and Pro, reaching a maximum 2,000 nits. I found them so much easier to see in sunlight. The always-on display is brighter too.

Galaxy Watch 6 Classic bezel makes the watch fun again

I love that Samsung listened to feedback and brought back the rotating bezel. Not only does it make navigation more fun, it’s a practical way to control the watch if you wear gloves, or have sweaty or wet fingers.

The bezel is also slimmer than the version we last saw on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. But it doesn’t do anything new and it should never have left. The regular Galaxy Watch 6 has a touch bezel around the edge of the screen. Move your finger around to get the same effect as the physical bezel.

Galaxy Watch 6 bezel

I wonder what Samsung will do about the next Pro watch. I speculated the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro could have had a slimmer rotating bezel around the raised edge of the watch. Now Samsung makes a slimmer version, I hope we’ll see it on the Galaxy Watch 6 Pro.

One design perk I wasn’t expecting is the new one-click watch band design. No more fiddling with spring pin toggles! The new bands are also backwards and forwards-compatible and I appreciate that they sit closer to the watch frame. The hybrid leather band on the Classic is particularly comfortable for all-day wear.

Galaxy Watch 6 battery life: Only slightly better than the Watch 5

Samsung is more conservative with its battery life estimates this year, claiming the Galaxy Watch 6 can last up to 30 hours with the always-on display, or 40 hours with it turned off. That’s for both sizes of both watches, even though the larger case sizes have a higher-capacity battery at 425 mAh compared to 300 mAh on the smaller version.

I wasn’t quite able to reach those numbers. With the always-on, getting a handful of phone notifications, one 30-minute workout using GPS and sleep tracking, I hit 27 hours on the 43mm Galaxy Watch 6 Classic before it went flat.

With slightly heavier use, like streaming music over Bluetooth headphones and a longer outdoor workout using GPS, that runtime is closer to 24 hours. I suspect LTE use will drain the battery even faster and will update this review once I’ve been able to test. It takes over an hour to charge the watch from flat to full using the provided USB-C charger, or you can use reverse wireless charging on a Galaxy phone for a top-up. 

If you want the longest-lasting battery, that’s still the $450 Galaxy Watch 5 Pro that lasts two-and-a-half to three days with similar use.

Reverse wireless charging

WearOS 4 and One UI 5 Watch: A good combo, but not complete

These are the first watches to run Wear OS 4. Some of the key updates promise better battery life and cloud backups. Apps like Gmail and Google Calendar will also come to the watch, but at the time of writing they aren’t available yet. Other Google apps like the Assistant and YouTube Music are there and WhatsApp now has a native Wear OS app.

They also run Samsung’s One UI 5 Watch on top of Wear OS 4 that brings Galaxy Watch-exclusive features including:

  • Sleep insights and sleep coaching
  • Personalized heart rate zones
  • Emergency SOS can send your location when it detects a fall
  • Fall detection active automatically for users over 55
Galaxy Watch 6 pairing

Know that the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 will get the One UI 5 update later in the year. Other interface tweaks include a bigger keyboard, so typing is a little easier than the Galaxy Watch 5. Voice to text dictation works as well as it did before. But my favorite feature so far is that you don’t need to reset your watch when you switch to a new phone. 

If you have a Flip 5 or Fold 5, you can control the camera in Flex mode from your wrist, but I found it was a bit laggy. Don’t feel left out if you have an older Galaxy phone: The camera controller still works. I tested it with the Galaxy S22 Ultra and got camera controls like zooming with the bezel, without the lag.

Universal gestures is a lesser-known accessibility feature that should get more attention because it works really well. Just like the Assistive Touch on the Apple Watch, you can control the Galaxy Watch 6 with gestures if you can’t touch the screen or press buttons.

Universal Gestures

Health, fitness and sleep is pretty much the same

The Galaxy Watch 6 has a few new fitness tools like a new track run workout type and the option to create custom workouts. Samsung quietly added back automatic cycling detection after it disappeared from the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5. The Galaxy Watch 6 still auto-detects activities like walks, runs, rowing machine and elliptical after about 10 minutes.

New to Samsung watches are personalized heart rate zones. They can help you train more effectively by helping you stay within a range based on your aerobic capabilities. To calculate custom heart rate zones, do a minimum 10-minute outdoor run at 4 kilometers per hour or faster. Then go into Settings > HR Zone Guide > Target HR zone. This feature also exists on the Apple Watch and Fitbit.

Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic Gallery: Details Up Close

See all photos

Sleep tracking features bring the watch up to speed with what other watches on the market offer, specifically the Pixel Watch and Fitbit. You can now see your sleep score on the watch and the corresponding sleep animals are cute. But they’ve been available on the Galaxy Watch 4 since early 2022. It will take more time to see if the Galaxy Watch 6 sleep coaching tips are helpful in the long term and if they’re any different from previous watches. I’ll update this review after several weeks with the final verdict. 

Like other wearables, the Galaxy Watch 6 can check your blood oxygen readings while you sleep, but it’s the only smartwatch I’ve worn for sleep tracking that gives me very low blood oxygen readings overnight, sometimes as low as 87%. Low blood oxygen readings can indicate medical conditions like sleep apnea. Activating sleep mode is also supposed to turn on an invisible infrared sensor instead of using the green LED for heart rate, though I noticed when I woke up during the night, the green light was visible. I’ve reached out to Samsung for clarification on this feature.

The Galaxy Watch 6 has an ECG and now supports irregular heart rhythm notifications, like the Apple Watch and Fitbit, but only if you have a Galaxy phone. You can sideload the Samsung Health Monitor app on other Android phones by installing an APK, but technically it’s not supported.

I tested the heart rate monitor against a chest strap for accuracy and found that my resting heart rate matched up. During a cardio workout, the sensor was within a few bpm of the strap. Like last year’s watch, the GPS locked on to a signal within seconds of starting an outdoor workout and route accuracy is good.

Finally, the skin temperature sensor tracks during overnight sleep and can also be used to predict upcoming menstrual cycles.

Should you upgrade to the Galaxy Watch 6?

That depends. If you have a Galaxy Watch 4 or 5 it doesn’t make much sense unless you get a fantastic trade-in deal, or you really want that bigger screen. You get all the main software updates with One UI 5 Watch later in the year anyway.

If you have an earlier Galaxy or Gear watch that runs Tizen, the upgrade is more tempting as you’re getting access to Wear OS and the option to keep the beloved bezel.

But the Galaxy Watch 6 has a lot more competition than last year, thanks to the likes of the Pixel Watch and Mobvoi’s TicWatch 5 Pro. The Galaxy Watch 6 is one of the most refined Android smartwatches, but it could be a lot more exciting, especially when it comes to battery life.

Galaxy Watch 6 vs. 6 Classic

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic
Shape Round Round
Watch size 40mm, 44mm 43mm, 47mm
Materials/Finishes Aluminum Stainless Steel
Display size, resolution 40mm: 1.3 inch, 432×432 pixels, Super AMOLED; 44mm: 1.5 inch, 480×480 pixels, Super AMOLED 43mm: 1.3 inch, 432×432 pixels, Super AMOLED; 47mm: 1.5 inch, 480×480 pixels, Super AMOLED
Dimensions 40mm: 38.8×40.4×9.0 mm; 44mm: 42.8×44.4×9.0 mm 43mm: 42.5×42.5×10.9 mm; 47mm: 46.5×46.5×10.9 mm
Weight 40mm: 28.7g; 44mm: 33.3g 43mm: 52g; 47mm: 59g
Colors 40mm: graphite, gold ;44mm: graphite, silver 43mm: black, silver; 47mm: black, silver
Always On Yes Yes
Interchangeable bands Yes Yes
GPS Yes Yes
Automatic workout detection Yes Yes
Compass Yes Yes
Altimeter Yes Yes
Water resistance 5ATM, IP68 5ATM, IP68
Calls Yes Yes
Microphone Yes Yes
Speaker Yes Yes
Voice assistant Yes (Google Assistant, Bixby) Yes (Google Assistant, Bixby)
Mobile Payments Yes (Samsung Wallet) Yes (Samsung Wallet)
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 Optical heart rate + electrical heart signal + bioelectrical impedance analysis, temperature sensor, accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, light sensor
Emergency features Emergency SOS, fall detection Emergency SOS, fall detection
Compatibility Android 10 and above Android 10 and above
Software WearOS 4 WearOS 4
Processor Exynos W930 dual-core 1.4GHz Exynos W930 dual-core 1.4GHz
Connectivity LTE6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo LTE6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo
Memory and storage 2GB memory + 16GB storage 2GB memory + 16GB storage
Charging Fast charging (WPC-based wireless charging) Fast charging (WPC-based wireless charging)
Battery life Up to 40 hours (Always On Display off); up to 30 hours (Always On Display on) Up to 40 hours (Always On Display off); up to 30 hours (Always On Display on)
Battery capacity 40mm: 300 mAh; 44mm: 425 mAh 43mm: 300 mAh; 47mm: 425 mAh
Price (USD) 40mm: $300 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth); 44mm: $330 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) 43mm: $400 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth); 47mm: $430 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth)

Technologies

Anthropic Launched New Claude 4 Gen AI Models. Here’s What They Do

The models can now use tools like web searches during extended reasoning tasks.

The latest versions of Anthropic’s Claude generative AI models made their debut Thursday, including a heavier-duty model built specifically for coding and complex tasks.

Anthropic launched the new Claude 4 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet models during its Code with Claude developer conference, and executives said the new tools mark a significant step forward in terms of reasoning and deep thinking skills.

The company launched the prior model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, in February. Since then, competing AI developers have also upped their game. OpenAI released GPT-4.1 in April, with an emphasis on an expanded context window, along with the new o3 reasoning model family. Google followed in early May with an updated version of Gemini 2.5 Pro that it said is better at coding.

Claude 4 Opus is a larger, more resource-intensive model built to handle particularly difficult challenges. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said test users have seen it quickly handle tasks that might have taken a person several hours to complete. 

«In many ways, as we’re often finding with large models, the benchmarks don’t fully do justice to it,» he said during the keynote event.

Claude 4 Sonnet is a leaner model, with improvements built on Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet model. The 3.7 model often had problems with overeagerness and sometimes did more than the person asked it to do, Amodei said. While it’s a less resource-intensive model, it still performs well, he said. 

«It actually does just as well as Opus on some of the coding benchmarks, but I think it’s leaner and more narrowly focused,» Amodei said.

Anthropic said the models have a new capability, still being beta tested, in which they can use tools like web searches while engaged in extended reasoning. The models can alternate between reasoning and using tools to get better responses to complex queries.

The models both offer near-instant response modes and extended thinking modes. 

All of the paid plans offer both Opus and Sonnet models, while the free plan just has the Sonnet model.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 23, #446

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 446 for May 23.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has a humorous title, and if you understand the reference, you’ll know what words to look for. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: The musical fruit

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: There are magical ones in fairy tales.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

  • REEK, GADS, PLAY, PLAYS, PITA, DIAL, FALL, PALL, PALLS, FALLS, GENIE, BEEN, LACK, DENY, NILL.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

  • FAVA, NAVY, BLACK, GREEN, PINTO, KIDNEY, CANNELLINI

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BEANSALAD. To find it, start with the B that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

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Technologies

The Marvel Rivals Auto Battler Is a Natural Evolution of Hero Shooters

Move over Teamfight Tactics. Marvel Rivals’ new limited-time mode is the perfect addition to the auto battler genre.

Marvel Rivals has been a breath of fresh air for the hero shooter genre, combining popular comic book characters and chaotic third-person shooter action to create epic team fights that keep me coming back for more.

Fast-paced combat is the name of the game in Marvel Rivals, which is why it could come across as a confusing development that the next limited-time mode launching in Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 is a form of auto battler (also frequently referred to as auto chess).

Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol is an experimental mode launching on June 6, where six players will draft teams of heroes to go head to head with their opponents’ drafts. You’ll be able to support your AI teams while the new hero Ultron (also debuting in season 2.5) is chipping in extra healing and damage to the fight.

Aside from the fact that it’ll be cool to stage your own version of Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars, is the decision to add an auto battler to Marvel Rivals (which has previously released limited-time modes that mostly tracked with the shooter’s core gameplay loop) really all that far out of left field? I don’t think so.

Why is Marvel Rivals getting an auto battler mode?

The new mode is similar to multiplayer online battle arena spinoffs such as Dota Auto Chess and League of Legends’ Teamfight Tactics. I think drawing the line from a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) to auto battler is easy for most people.

MOBAs are strategy games first and foremost, where players pick and choose items to craft builds that will help them win their lane, while also contributing to big team fights. Players need to work together to overwhelm the other team and push them back to their spawn.

MOBAs and auto battlers are both about team synergy, positioning and picking the right upgrades, so it’s not surprising to people when characters from a game in one of these genres appear in another.

There are many people that wouldn’t associate hero shooters with MOBAs in the slightest. Games like Marvel Rivals have a high ceiling for very different mechanical skills — especially aiming. But hero shooters are also complex strategy games that share many of the same fundamentals as a MOBA.

Putting together a viable team composition with strong character is the most important part of a hero shooter — and Marvel Rivals takes this to another level with the strongest team-up abilities that require multiple heroes to activate.

An auto battler will allow people to experiment team compositions that don’t often get played in real Marvel Rivals’ matches, and could even help the community find new experimental hero combinations that have the potential to shake up common ways people play the game.

In Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol, as the auto battler mode is called, players will be able to put together balanced teams, lock in the risky GATOR strategy (which is nightmarishly similar to Overwatch’s GOATS meta) or fall back on triple support with brand new upgrades that change how the game works.

Absurd power scaling might look like Overwatch 2’s Stadium mode

There’s a clear rivalry between Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals, since they’re the two biggest hero shooters on the market right now. Blizzard’s hero shooter is entering its ninth year of life with flagging interest, but its solid fundamentals have been a high bar for Marvel Rivals to hurdle.

Both games have been trying out bold new things — Overwatch 2 recently shipped the MOBA-like Stadium mode that lets players augment popular abilities and take powerful passives as they fight in a flurry of different objectives in a best of seven gauntlet.

Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol in some ways feels like NetEase’s response to Blizzard’s big success with Stadium mode. You might not have quite as much influence on the outcome of each battle, but this serves as a proof of concept for Marvel Rivals’ hero power scaling.

This new mode also lets players pick passive abilities that buff certain roles as well as more powerful hero-specific upgrades that drastically alter the course of a fight, so the snowballing power of a Stadium match is very much emulated here.

In the Season 2.5 developer vision video, we got a look at what some of the upgrades will look like.

Venom can grow into a hulking monster after devouring enemies with his ultimate ability, Hela cuts a swath through the playing field with a field of flying daggers, Psylocke zips around her ultimate ability’s area of effect at twice her normal speed and Namor summons many more squid turrets to attack his enemies.

It’s safe to assume that every character in the game will have some kind of special power unlocked in the later rounds of an Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol match. This definitely isn’t NetEase reheating Blizzard’s nachos, but I do think it’s indicative of a broader shift toward making hero shooters feel a little bit more chaotic and unrestrained.

Game balance is important, but one of the biggest draws of this genre is that each character is a unique power fantasy you can’t find elsewhere. I can’t imagine such in-depth upgrades were designed for a one-and-done mode, so it’ll be interesting to see where they might show up next.

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