There are a wide range ofsmartwatchesthat work with Android phones, but not all of them run on the same software platforms.Wear OShas come a long way from previous glitches and Google’s indifference to its current evolution as a viable wearable operating system, opening things up to a range of models running Wear OS 4 today.
The list isn’t quite as long as it may have been before, owing toFossil’s departure from the smartwatch category,but that doesn’t negate the quality options available.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
Google Pixel Watch 3
OnePlus Watch 2R
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
OnePlus Watch 2
Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas
Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro
Samsung Galaxy Watch FE
Put Wear OS to work with one of these smartwatches
Beauty and brawn
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 combines a beautiful design with powerful performance at a great price, making it an easy recommendation for most people. Add the improved BioActive Sensor and GPS capabilities, and you have the most complete WearOS watch on the market.
Samsung makes quite a few great smartwatches, but the Galaxy Watch 7 is the best Wear OS device for most people. Samsung focused its efforts on the internals this year as opposed to tweaking the design. As a result, it looks just as great as the past few iterations but has received a performance boost and a much-improved health sensor.
For anyone who has used a previous Galaxy Watch, the performance increase can be felt almost immediately. Thanks to the new W1000 Exynos processor and 2GB of RAM, the Watch 7 has no lag when navigating the various menus or loading your favorite apps. The Galaxy Watch 7 comes with a Super AMOLED display that is both sharp and bright, making it one of the best displays on any Wear OS device.
Battery life is decent but not nearly as good as some of its competitors on this list. With GPS tracking enabled, you may expect to get a full day out of the battery. Samsung has released an update to fix a battery drain issue, which may extend that a bit.
If you are active and enjoy tracking all of your activities, you will be pleased to know that the Galaxy Watch 7 has an improved BioActive sensor this year. Heart rate tracking has been significantly improved and more consistent. Samsung also added a dual-band GPS into the mix, giving the Watch 7 a huge boost in GPS tracking capabilities. It has an IP68 rating, is MIL-STD-810H compliant, and has a 5ATM water resistance rating.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is still the best ecosystem smartwatch on Android
Iterative? Only compared to the last Galaxy Watch
The Galaxy Watch 7 is an amazing device, but it lacks a mechanical bezel or digital crown which may be a deal breaker for some people. Samsung also removed the Wireless Power Share feature, forcing you to carry around your charging puck on vacation or other trips. You also need a Samsung phone to take advantage of all the Watch 7 features such as EKG and blood pressure monitoring (which isn’t available in the United States).
Google’s best attempt yet
The Google Pixel Watch series has continually gotten better with every iteration. The Pixel Watch 3 is Google’s latest Wear OS device, and it is easily one of the best currently available. You get two different sizes to choose from this year, along with great performance, solid battery life, and improved fitness tracking. It’s also one of the few watches on this list that can be connected to a cellular network, allowing you to leave your phone at home.
The Google Pixel Watch 3 is easily near the top of the best Wear OS watch list and, for a very good reason, it does just about everything right. Google changed things up this year by providing a couple of sizing and configuration options. You can grab the Pixel Watch 3 in either 41mm or 45mm sizes, with both being available in LTE and Bluetooth models.
Thanks to its 2000 nits of peak brightness, seeing the Actua display on the Pixel Watch 3 in all lighting conditions is a breeze. The always-on display can drop to 1 nit of brightness, which is great if you don’t want to disturb your partner in a dark environment.
With a Qualcomm SW5100 chipset and 2GB of RAM, the Pixel Watch 3 performs quite well. It’s snappy, and you’ll experience no slowdown when cycling through the various menus. It also comes with 32GB of onboard storage and has solid overall battery life.
Google launched the Pixel Watch 3 with Wear OS 5 and has promised three Android upgrades. At this point, it feels like Google should be extending that policy due to its phone upgrade policy, but no such luck.
Google’s Pixel Watch 3 is big, beautiful, and brainy
The 45mm version is large and easy to love
Fitness tracking has also been improved this year, and you’ll be happy to know that the important metrics aren’t locked behind a subscription. Google does still lock certain metrics behind Fitbit’s Premium subscription, which can be annoying for some.
Best budget watch
The OnePlus Watch 2R blurs the lines of a budget-friendly smartwatch and one that costs significantly more. You are getting top-notch performance, a great display, and excellent battery life. The build materials aren’t as durable, but it’s still plenty beautiful.
The OnePlus Watch 2R is hands down the best budget Wear OS device currently available. With the same performance and almost identical display, the Watch 2R is so close to the more expensive OnePlus Watch 2 that it’s remarkable that the company was able to get the price down to only $230.
OnePlus outfitted the Watch 2R with two different processors, ensuring both performance and amazing battery life. With a Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 processor available for all the heavy lifting and 2GB of RAM, the Watch 2R has no lag when navigating menus or opening apps. The Watch 2R also has a BES 2700 processor to handle the background activities. This additional processor coupled with a 500mAh battery means the Watch 2R can go three days between charges.
The Watch 2R also has a 1.43-inch AMOLED display that is sharp and bright thanks to its 466 x 466 resolution and 1000 nits of brightness. It does lose the sapphire crystal display of the more expensive OnePlus Watch 2. Instead, the Watch 2R has a Panda Glass display which isn’t as durable.
The OnePlus Watch 2R sets a new bar for affordable Android watches
More than enough for most people
The build quality is also quite good, especially for a watch at this price. It comes with an aluminum frame, which isn’t as durable as its more expensive sibling’s stainless steel frame, but it still retains that elegant look. the aluminum frame does allow the Watch 2R to slim the weight down to only 37g, making it very light on the wrist. It has an IP68 and 5 ATM rating providing great water and dust protection.
The toughest Wear OS has to offer
Samsung designed the Galaxy Watch Ultra for those who need the best Wear OS device on the market. You get the same great performance as the Galaxy Watch 7 in a titanium body, a bigger battery, and an extra button for easy exercise tracking.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is at the top end of the market and was designed to give the ultimate Wear OS experience. The Galaxy Watch Ultra gets the same performance boost from the Exynos W1000 chip, improved BioActive sensor, and dual-band GPS as the Galaxy Watch 7, but adds a few additional features to make it more durable and better suited for the more active people among us.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra has a grade 4 titanium frame, making it one of the most durable watches on the market. It has an IP68 rating and is 10 ATM certified. The battery also sees a huge boost thanks to its massive 590mAh battery. You can expect two days of heavy usage from the Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Samsung also included a third button which allows you to easily get to the exercise menu. It can also pause an exercise so you aren’t trying to operate the touch screen with your sweaty fingers. It would have been nice if this third button could rotate for easier menu navigation, but at least you may utilize the digital bezel for that. The Watch Ultra also comes with improved speakers and a loud 85dB siren in case of emergencies.
The Watch Ultra does have a few glaring issues. The watch is bulky and may be too large for some people. The biggest knock against the Watch Ultra is the $650 retail price. While it has a gorgeous display, large battery, and great performance, the price puts it in a category to itself and is best reserved for those who want nothing but the best.
Last longer and charge faster
The OnePlus Watch 2 is a sequel but it’s also a first because it’s the first OnePlus wearable to run Wear OS. It has its own overlay giving it a different look and some challenges to work out, though no other Wear OS smartwatch can match this one on battery life right now.
This smartwatch marks a return for OnePlus in two respects. On the one hand, it’s the company’s first wearable in a few years, and on the other, the OnePlus Watch 2 is the first to run Wear OS. It sports an interesting mix that puts together Wear OS 4 with RTOS (Real Time Operating System), a low-power system tasked with handling background processes related to monitoring health sensors and maintaining the connection with the paired phone — thus leaving Wear OS to deal with all the major functions and third-party apps.
It’s a slick watch in spite of its larger 47mm size, complete with a vibrant and responsive AMOLED display. Strangely, though, OnePlus adds a digital crown that does nothing when you rotate it — not even scrolling menus within the Wear OS interface. Software and health tracking experiences are readily available, yet could use some improvement through software updates, so it remains to be seen how the Watch 2 fares if those improvements are forthcoming.
OnePlus Watch 2 review: Worth it for the battery alone
With two chipsets and two operating systems, the OnePlus Watch 2 offers revelatory battery life — but not much more
Unlike Samsung and Google, OnePlus doesn’t offer an LTE variant for the Watch 2, so you’ll need your phone for data connections. Where OnePlus beats them both is in battery life, as the Watch 2 easily outlasts any Galaxy or Pixel Watch with four days of battery life. Even with lots of GPS and screen use, this watch can hit 48 hours easily.
Surprisingly capable and long-lasting
The Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas may not be flawless, but it stands out as one of the top Wear OS smartwatches available. Mobvoi’s commitment to enhancing user-friendliness and functionality is evident in its thoughtful design and features like a low-power display, fall detection, and improved fitness tracking.
The Mobvoi TickWatch Atlas has a unique trick up its sleeve that makes it stand out in a fairly crowded market: a secondary low-power display that ensures the battery goes on way longer than most Wear OS watches. It also has a sapphire crystal display glass on top that protects the watch against scratches, and the watch sports a 5 ATM rating, making it a solid choice for water-based activities as well.
The TickWatch Atlas includes all the sensors you could need for all your fitness tracking needs. However, in ourTicWatch Atlas review, we observed that GPS accuracy could be slightly off under heavy foliage. Elsewhere, the heart rate sensor is pretty accurate, and we found overall fitness tracking to be good enough for most users — both in terms of capabilities and accuracy.
All that said, battery life is where the watch truly stands out. The TicWatch Atlas packs a giant 625mAh battery that ensures multiple days of extended use. In our tests, the watch only lost between 10% and 15% battery life over the course of a day.
The Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas is one of the best Wear OS smartwatches yet
Hopefully Wear OS 5 support doesn’t take a year
If there’s one thing to have a gripe about, it would be the design. The large dimensions and polarizing athletic aesthetic will not appeal to all users. The TicWatch Atlas carries its rugged aesthetic on its sleeve, with bold orange accents, and a hefty 83-gram weight that might just be a bit too much for some users.
Priced at $350, the Mobvoi TicWatch is a solid choice for fitness enthusiasts in need of long-lasting battery life.
A cogent dual-display
The Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro makes incremental changes to improve upon its predecessor, still keeping its unique dual-layer display that helps Wear OS run without draining as much battery life. It’s not on Wear OS 4 yet, but eventually could be with a software update.
The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro is the company’s premium watch. It’s up against stiff competition in the Wear OS space as evidenced by this list, but there are reasons to consider the Enduro over others. For starters, it retains its predecessor’s proprietary dual-layer display that brings together a low-power LCD panel and primary OLED display to improve battery life. The LCD shows the time and date, step count, heart rate, and other basics, while the OLED shows everything from Wear OS.
It’s just that, in spite of being the newer model, the Enduro still runs on Wear OS 3.5, leaving it to catch up with the rest of the pack on the software side. While the discrepancy doesn’t severly impact the device, many of the improvements related to battery life aren’t as applicable here because Mobvoi already found a way to extend life per charge further with the dual-layer display.
A slimmer frame and improved digital crown help establish the Enduro as a worthy looker on this list, and health and fitness tracking largely stay the same, so you don’t sacrifice much in that regard beyond the aesthetic differences compared to the likes of a Galaxy or Pixel Watch.
Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro review: An iterative update to a great watch
A refined TicWatch Pro 5 experience, but some lingering flaws remain
At the same time, missing out on Wear OS 4 means you have to reset the TicWatch Pro 5 when switching phones. Plus, Google Assistant is missing in action after Mobvoi muzzled it in the Wear OS 3.5 upgrade, with no word on when or if it will come back.
An affordable Galaxy Watch
The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE (Fan Edition) is the least expensive Galaxy Watch you can currently buy. Samsung was able to get the price low by taking the base Galaxy Watch 4 and upgrading a couple of components. You are getting a Super AMOLED display covered in sapphire crystal, an aluminum frame, and an IP68 rating. This makes for a good-looking and durable Wear OS watch at an attractive $200 price point.
Samsung’s FE (Fan Edition) devices are known for marrying the company’s flagship design and performance with and delivering at a lower price point. To create the Galaxy Watch FE, Samsung took the base Galaxy Watch 4 and upgraded a couple of components. As a result, it doesn’t quite deliver the performance that you would expect, but it’s a good watch at $200.
The Galaxy Watch FE ships with a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display. With a 396 x 396 resolution, the display is sharp with a density of 330 ppi. Samsung went with Sapphire Crystal this time around, providing great display protection.
With its Exynos W920 processor and 1.5GB of RAM, it has decent but not great performance. With a 247mAh battery, the Watch FE should get you through an entire day. Just keep in mind that charging this device is quite slow.
Review: The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE is a decent, affordable Wear OS watch — but is that enough?
Wear OS 4 for 200 bucks ain’t bad
The Watch FE comes in a single 40mm size and weighs only 26.6g. It’s also quite durable thanks to its IP68 rating against dust and water ingress, as well as being MIL-STD-810H compliant. The Galaxy Watch FE ships with Wear OS 4 and One UI Watch 5.
Wear OS is getting better with each release
Google has refined Wear OS into the reliable wearable platform it is today, and much of that success can be credited to Samsung’s involvement. By embracing Wear OS and working alongside Google, Samsung has strengthened the platform and created a more consistent upgrade cycle. As a result, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 currently stands as the top Wear OS smartwatch, demonstrating how well Wear OS and One UI can coexist with minimal compromises.
If you prefer a purer Android experience, the Google Pixel Watch 3 is the natural choice. With Google behind both the hardware and software, it offers the closest thing to a “stock” smartwatch, similar to what you’d expect from a Pixel phone. Unlike other brands, Google doesn’t restrict features to its own devices, so the Pixel Watch 3 performs well with any Android phone. On a Pixel device, however, everything is integrated directly into the phone’s settings, eliminating the need for an additional app.
For those on a budget, Wear OS devices typically come at a premium price, but the OnePlus Watch 2R is a solid exception. Offering fast performance, a crisp display, and impressive battery life, it provides excellent value without breaking the bank.
Bringing it
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is easily one of the best Wear OS smartwatches and should be the go-to for most people. It has a beautiful display, fast performance, and a much-improved sensor for better health tracking.
