It’s taken a few years, but Wear OS smartwatches can now compete with the best wearables in the business — including the Apple Watch. The software has gone through multiple levels of refinement. It offers intuitive features that aid fitness, provide notifications, and enhance everyday usability, making it the perfect companion for today’s best Android phones.
The best Wear OS-packing watches on the market include extensive fitness features like GPS tracking, long battery life, and accurate health monitoring, so they also double up as some of the best fitness trackers. And it certainly helps that tech companies have upped the aesthetics, too. With a dizzying amount of feature sets and designs available, choosing the best smartwatch for your needs can be challenging work. To help you decide, this list includes some of the best Wear OS smartwatches on the market.
The standard Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 offers almost everything the Watch 6 Classic does for considerably less cash, starting at $300 MSRP and now consistently discounted. The two watches share nearly everything, including performance, display, battery life, and software. The standard Watch 6 lacks the 6 Classic’s rotating bezel, though. A minor difference on paper, but many find it a big deal — it’s fun, useful, and helps protect the display from cracks and scratches.
But the option to skip that single feature to save $100 is very appealing — the standard Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 represents a top-shelf Wear OS experience for a lower price. The previous-generation Galaxy Watch 5 and even the Galaxy Watch 4 that came before also closely resemble the newer Watch 6, but their availability and precision don’t quite match. So, if you’re buying a current-generation watch, the Galaxy Watch 6 is the best way to spend your money right now.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is our favorite Wear OS watch overall. It’s yet another light generational refresh of Samsung’s tried-and-true Wear OS platform, but it’s the most refined version yet, featuring a slimmer build, larger displays, slightly faster performance, and longer battery life than the Galaxy Watch 5. It also brings back Samsung’s trademark rotating bezel for navigating menus — not an essential feature, but one we sorely missed in the Watch 5 series.
All the fundamentals are rock solid here: the Watch 6 Classic has strong battery life (especially in the larger 47mm version), the smoothest performance of any Wear OS watch you can get right now, and great, vibrant displays across both sizes. Along with the standard Galaxy Watch 6, it also marks the debut of Wear OS 4 — though, for now, that doesn’t mean a lot compared to the Wear OS 3.5 some other watches on this list are running.
If you’re rocking a Galaxy Watch 5 or even a Galaxy Watch 4 and its battery is holding up, there isn’t a lot of incentive to jump on the Watch 6 Classic. However, if you’re coming from an older wearable or buying your first, this is as good as it gets in Wear OS today.
With Qualcomm’s Wear 4100 chip, a whole gig of RAM, and a December 2023 update to Wear OS 3, Mobvoi’s TicWatch E3 offers a lot of value for a relatively modest $200. Mobvoi went with a lower-cost LCD to hit that low price, which means lower contrast and no perfect OLED blacks. Still, even with that less efficient display type, battery life stretches well into a second day. An optional Essential Mode also limits the watch’s functionality but boosts battery life significantly.
The TicWatch E3 has an MSRP of $200 but is regularly available for less. If you’re looking for a super affordable way to try Wear OS and you catch a good sale on the E3, you’ll be getting a decent experience — but we’d encourage you to save a little longer for something more robust if you can.
If you’re out for something with a little more panache, the Google Pixel Watch 2 might be up your alley. At an MSRP of $350, the Pixel Watch 2 is less expensive than our top pick, the $400 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, but looks like it could cost much more.
It’s not just looks, the Pixel Watch 2 is also a good smartwatch: it’s responsive, has a solid fitness tracker with deep Fitbit integration, and has totally acceptable battery life. While the first-generation Pixel Watch often struggled to make it 24 hours away from a charger, the Pixel Watch 2 can much more easily make it through a full day and night of use, even with the always-on display active.
But realistically, the premium price you’re paying here is mostly for the style. The Pixel Watch 2 shares the original’s distinctive domed design and proprietary rotating band mechanism, creating a look that’s very distinct from what other smartwatch manufacturers are offering. Whether it looks good is subjective (we certainly think it does), but it’s hard to argue it’s not interesting.
The second generation still has a 30Hz display with relatively chunky bezels, and it still only comes in one size, but the Pixel Watch 2 should be on your shortlist if you want a sleek-looking wearable.
OnePlus returned to wearables after a few years on the sidelines by releasing the OnePlus Watch 2 at an MSRP of $300, its first Wear OS device. It’s a unique design combines Wear OS with RTOS, an older interface running in tandem to handle background tasks, like monitoring health sensors and communicating with your phone to let Wear OS focus on everything else.
While the AMOLED display is large and responsive to touch, the digital crown rotates without doing anything — not even scrolling — which is a surprising twist (pun intended) for this watch. The software and health tracking experiences are mixed bags, but also open to improvement with proper software updates, so we’ll see how OnePlus approaches any shortcomings going forward.
The OnePlus Watch 2 only comes in one 47mm size, and without an LTE variant to consider, you will need your phone handy to take advantage of all connected features. The big win for this watch is in battery life, where it outlasts all other Wear OS models before a recharge is necessary. There is plenty of internal storage with most of the 32GB available out of the box, leaving space for apps and music to save.
The Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 is a compelling Wear OS option right now. Boasting both top-shelf performance and battery life that can easily stretch a full three days on a single charge, it’s a great smartwatch for almost anyone with wrists large enough. It is a big watch, though, and its multi-day battery life is facilitated by a secondary LCD layer that can be tough to read in some situations. Possibly worse, there’s no Google Assistant access, and Mobvoi hasn’t said when (or if) that’ll change. We’re also eager to hear Mobvoi’s plans for Wear OS 4 support.
At the same $350 MSRP as the Pixel Watch 2, the TicWatch Pro 5 is another premium option, but its better durability and battery life make it a more practical purchase for many buyers. If you can live without the Google Assistant on your wrist, and you’re comfortable not knowing when (or if) you’ll see Wear OS 4, Mobvoi’s latest should be a contender for your next Wear OS watch.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series launched in August, but the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is still readily available. Unlike the standard Galaxy Watch 5, which was replaced by the newer Watch 6 as Samsung’s default Wear OS option, the Watch 5 Pro offers features that you can’t get in Samsung’s newer watches.
Samsung bills its Watch 5 Pro as being made for outdoor adventure, and it’s got quite a few features that help with that use case. Its case is made of titanium, a more durable metal than the aluminum or stainless steel many competing watches are made of. You can also load GPX files onto the Watch 5 Pro for custom navigation away from named roads — a useful feature for hikers and trail runners. It’s got the battery life to back it up, too: in normal use, the watch can make it two to three days between charges, so it should be able to handle most runs or hikes mere mortals might attempt. It’s already been updated to the latest, Wear OS 4-based One UI 5 Watch, too.
At a very-premium $450 list price, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is more of an investment than many of our other top picks, but if you want its unique blend of features — Wear OS 4, a titanium case, killer battery life, and GPX support — you can’t get it anywhere else. It’s been on sale more often as we get farther from its release, though, so keep an eye out for deals.
We raved about the Galaxy Watch 4 when it first hit the scene 2 years ago, and we’re still high on it despite a couple of new generational updates. Its sensor array provides a vast data selection, and now that its Wear OS 3.0 software is in line with the newest release, it’s easier than ever to customize and manage.
If you’re a fan of Samsung’s Wear OS implementation (and you should be), you’ll save a good bit of cash by opting for this oldie but goodie. Functionally speaking, it presents few real downsides, although it carries the typically less-than-stellar battery life and charging capabilities common to 2021 smartwatches. The included strap also needs replacement right away, but there are plenty of great alternative Watch 4 straps, and they’re not very expensive.
Sitting right at the top of the Android smartwatch lineup is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic duo. The two devices integrate cutting-edge software with top-of-the-line hardware. You’ll get bright and smooth displays, excellent health tracking features, and battery life that can go as long as two days.
Prefer a more unique design? The Google Pixel Watch 2 should be right up your alley. The sleek design and speedy internals guarantee a slick user experience, even though the display isn’t quite as bright as the Samsung competition. Unfortunately, Google’s smartwatch still packs oversized bezels, which takes away from the immersion when interacting with the screen. On the flip side, the watch guarantees a clean Wear OS 4 user experience.
Do you prefer long battery life over aesthetics? OnePlus’s Watch 2 is the answer. It runs a nifty combination of Wear OS with RTOS that does wonders for making the watch last longer than the competitors on this list. And that’s while running the latest Snapdragon W5 chipset for optimal performance open to further updates. Some software features could use some work, but you will have a hard time finding another watch that can go for three or four days before needing to charge.
You could also save yourself some cash by going for the older, but still great, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. It has a clean design and a Wear OS 3 upgrade. The battery also lasts a full day of use. Couple that with the frequently discounted price, and the Galaxy Watch 4 makes an excellent case for itself as a first smartwatch.
Maybe if we start telling people the brain is an app they will start using it!
