Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Apple Watch Series 8: Side-by-Side Specs Breakdown – CNET

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Apple Watch Series 8: Side-by-Side Specs Breakdown - CNET

Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Watch 6 at the company’s Wednesday Unpacked event. Its latest smartwatch packs a host of features to help you track your fitness, stay in touch and generally live a more healthy existence. But it’s far from the only player in this arena, with Apple leading the way with smart wearables with its Watch line. The Apple Watch Series 8, released last September, has some impressive specs — and a price to match. But how do these two stack up in specs? Let’s take a closer look. 

The big physical difference is that Samsung uses a round style for its watches, while Apple continues with a square look. But both can be had in two sizes that are only a millimeter in difference, so there’s little to go on here. Both are waterproof to around 50 meters (roughly 55 yards), feature aluminum in their construction, and both have interchangeable bands. 

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Watch this: Samsung Unveils Galaxy Watch 6 Series at Unpacked in Seoul

And the features are closely matched too, with both models offering GPS tracking, heart-rate sensing, fall detection, sleep tracking, automatic workout detection and more. Both also offer contactless payments using either Samsung Pay or Apple Pay. The Galaxy Watch offers 16GB of onboard storage for saving songs locally to work out with, while the Apple Watch doubles that to 32GB. Samsung reckons its watch will last up to 40 hours between charges however, while Apple only promises 18. How that stacks up in real-world testing remains to be seen. 

One of the biggest differences, though, is the price: the Apple Watch Series 8 costs around $100 more than Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6, in both sizes. We’ll be putting these through their paces in the full review soon to see whether it’s worth saving that money, but you can check out the full specs comparison below. 

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Apple Watch Series 8

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Apple Watch Series 8
Shape Round Square
Watch size 40mm, 44mm 41mm, 45mm
Materials/ Finishes Aluminum Aluminum, Stainless steel, Ceramic, Sapphire glass
Display size, resolution 40mm: 1.3-inch, 432×432 Super AMOLED; 44mm: 1.5-inch, 480×480 Super AMOLED 41mm: 1.7-inch, 352×430 45mm: 1.9-inch, 396×484
Dimensions 40mm: 38.8 x 40.4 x 9.0 mm; 44mm: 42.8 x 44.4 x 9.0 mm 41mm: 41 x 35 x 10.7mm 45mm: 45 x 38 x 10.7mm
Weight 40mm: 28.7g; 44mm: 33.3g 41mm: 31.9g (aluminum, GPS) 45mm: 38.8g (aluminum, GPS)
Colors 40mm: Graphite, Gold; 44mm: Graphite, Silver Midnight, Starlight, Silver, Red
Always On Yes Yes
Interchangable bands Yes Yes
GPS Yes Yes
Automatic workout detection Yes (running, walking, rowing) Yes
Compass Yes Yes
Altimeter Yes Yes
Water resistance 5ATM, IP68 50 meters
Calls Yes Yes
Microphone Yes Yes
Speaker Yes Yes
Voice assistant Yes (Google Assistant, Bixby) Siri
Mobile Payments Yes (Samsung Wallet) Yes (Apple Pay)
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 Electrical heart sensor, Blood oxygen sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, light sensor,
Emergency features Emergency SOS, fall detection Emergency SOS, fall and crash detection
Compatibility Android 10 and above iOS
Software WearOS 4 Watch OS 9
Processor Exynos W930 Dual-Core 1.4GHz Apple S8
Connectivity LTE6, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo LTE, UMTS, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, GPS/Glonass, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou
Memory and storage 2GB memory + 16GB storage 1GB memory + 32GB storage
Power Faster wireless charging over USB-C Faster wireless charging over USB-C
Battery life Up to 40 hours (Always On Display off) / Up to 30 hours (Always On Display on) Up to 18 hours
Battery capacity 40mm: 300 mAh;  44mm: 425 mAh 308 mAh
Price (USD) 40mm: $299.99 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth); 44mm: $329.99 (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) 41mm: $399 (GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) 45mm: $429 (GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth)

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