The Samsung Watch8 Classic is a great smartwatch with long battery life. The design can be a bit unusual, though, featuring a unique combination of a circular screen and a square frame. While I don't mind the shape, I feel this design choice makes it a bit chunkier.
In addition, the watch band doesn't have many holes, and for a big guy like me, I had to put it in the last hole. One drawback is that this watch won't fit bands made for previous watches. It uses a proprietary attachment mechanism that clicks into place. The mechanism is easier to install compared to previous watches, but the button can be a bit hard to press with your bare hands. I had to use a pen to press down on the button to remove the strap.
Although the watch can be worn at night to track your sleep, I find the watch a bit uncomfortable to wear all night. It affected my sleep quality, causing me to wake up several times.
As with the other classic lines, the watch has a dial to help navigate the menu without touching the screen.
It also comes with 3 action buttons. However, the buttons are not as customizable as I would like.
Only the top button is customizable to launch any app. The middle button is relegated to a few Samsung apps:
Samsung Health
Stopwatch
Flashlight
Water lock
Camera Controller
Voice Recorder
It can also be turned off if you don't use it.
The bottom button is relegated to recent apps or going to the previous screen.
Performance and Software
The watch comes with Wear OS 6. This comes with a slight change in the interface. The notifications are grouped vertically. In addition, you can combine some tiles into a daily recap screen. For me, this feature allows me to see all the important daily stats, such as weather, upcoming events, battery life, and physical attributes, all on the same page rather than having to scroll through one tile at a time.
Otherwise, the interface is similar to previous Samsung watches, which I can't complain about since the UI is refined enough to make navigation through the different options seamless. The watch is snappy and responds well to user input.
However, what I find frustrating is that some of the old watch faces that I used on my previous watches do not work and require me to edit them to get them working.
The watch routines sync with the phone, and almost all the watch functions can be adjusted using the connected phone. That means you don't have to fumble around the screen to adjust the options you want.
Health features
The watch comes with a wide array of health features, along with the usual heartbeat, blood oxygen monitor, and activity tracker.
It can also measure blood pressure, but it needs regular calibration with a physical blood pressure machine.
A new sensor on this watch is the antioxidant measurement, which supposedly can measure the amount of antioxidants in your blood. However, I have no way to test whether it's accurate or not.
The watch can detect signs of sleep apnea, which can be handy.
Battery life
I was able to squeeze 4 days of use from this watch, but I don't wear the watch overnight.
Summary
In summary, this watch's main benefit is its long battery life. However, the watch is a bit chunky, and I don't find the default watch band too comfortable. The chunkiness means that the watch may not be too comfortable to wear to bed. Nevertheless, it is a good and stylish smart watch to wear to events or during the day.
I like the way the phone "unfolds" to have a larger display. The device is a cross between a [mini] tablet and a slab phone phone. This phone is the best of both worlds since if you need a large display, you can simply unfold it, and when not in use, it folds down to a compact device that easily fits in your pocket.
This makes it an ideal media consumption device. I found myself using the fold more than my tablet, even around the house, since it's compact enough to put in my pocket when I'm out and about and then use it to play media when I'm cooking.
Additionally, the large inner screen makes it easy to read emails, news articles, websites, and other content. No more squinting and trying to zoom around on a website.
As with other Samsung phones, the display is quite bright and vivid, and despite its size, the phone is quite light.
The large display also makes it an ideal note-taking device with an S-Pen. I've used the Fold to take notes during courses.
Performance
The phone is quite fast and doesn't display any lags.
The camera on this device is also quite decent, and you can’t tell the difference between a picture taken by the Fold and one taken by Samsung’s other flagship devices.
One drawback of the phone is that the battery is smaller compared to traditional phones at just 4400 mAH, though there are battery improvements compared to previous generations. However, in my experience, the device lasts about a day and a half before having to charge up again. But again, your mileage may vary depending on your use pattern and device installed.
Usability
In Fold6, Galaxy AI is front and center, taking up space in the menu item. I haven't fully used all the features of Galaxy AI, but I frequently use the feature to remove items like people in the background from photos that I have already taken.
Galaxy AI also has a sketch-to-image mode, which looks quite fun. I haven't used the feature extensively, but I can see where it could be useful.
One area where Samsung devices shine is the Samsung Dex feature. On my recent vacation to Scotland, I forgo my laptop and brought a touch-screen monitor, which I plugged into my phone. This greatly reduced the number of devices I had to carry around and keep track of. Plus, I could play media content from my phone.
Durability
One of my concerns about getting a folding phone was its durability. In my time with it, it has withstood the rigors of daily life. Unlike previous generations, the hinge looks robust, and the device folds flat, which leaves a small gap between the two screens.
The phone has an IP48 rating, which means it should be resistant to water and dust, for the first time.
Summary
In summary, the Fold6 is a good all-round device. Though its battery life may not be that good or the camera that great, its biggest strength is compactness. It offers the benefits of a large screen without the bulkiness.
Faux leather/silicon wrist strap (if that's your style)
Activity tracker
An extremely readable secondary display
Cons:
Short wrist strap
The vibration motor is meh
Protruding side buttons
Leather wrist strap
Proprietary charger
LTE version locked to Vodafone
TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra... that's quite a mouthful. It seems the company is just tacking on words to the name. It reminds me of this video by Mrwhosetheboss.
But I digress. If you have the TicWatch Pro 3, the Ultra version is more or less the same as the TicWatch Pro 3. Unlike the Pro 3, the Ultra has an internal compass. They both have great battery life. In fact, no watch to date beat Mobvoi's Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra in terms of battery longevity.
Style
The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra LTE has a dual-screen display. The second low battery secondary display reminds me of the Casio non-smartwatches.
Unlike the non-Ultra version ie TicWatch Pro 3, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra's Secondary display can change colors. However, that setting isn't in the main watch settings and is controlled by the Essential mode app.
To change the color:
Open the Essential Mode app (using its launcher icon)
Swipe left for settings
Scroll down until you get the option for backlight color
If you want to boost the brightness of the screen, you can double-click the top page button.
The LTE version is made of faux leather/silicon hybrid. Although it looks more stylish than the non-Ultra or non-LTE version, the leather band has a few caveats.
After about two weeks of wearing, it suffered some stress on the bands, causing marks around the holes.
Also, I find the buttons a bit protruding and uncomfortable under certain conditions. The bezels on the watch are also large, making the watch a bit bulky. However, unlike the Samsung Watch 4, the bezels are useless; it does not have a rotating crown. Although the crown on the Samsung may be a bit of a gimmick for some, I use it fairly often, especially when it's raining since the touches may misregister if the screen is wet.
For me, the strap was a bit small.
In fact, out of the three watches I own, the Pro 3 Ultra is one of the smallest circumference bands. However, you can probably get bigger bands aftermarket.
Technology
Activity tracking
As with the TicWatch Pro 3 (and just about most other smartwatches), this watch tracks heart rate, steps, activity, etc. However, it comes with a few added features. It has IHB AFiB Detection and 24 hours stress monitoring.
The step counter was fairly accurate and was about 50 steps off from the Galaxy Watch 4. This is a small margin of error and can be attributed to perhaps me being more dominant on the arm that I wore the Galaxy Watch 4. One good thing about the Mobvoi watch is that it syncs with Google Fit, unlike the Samsung watch. Samsung Watch only syncs with Samsung Health and you need a third-party app like Health Sync. In my experience, it didn't sense the sport that accurately and you have to manually select the sport.
Vibration motor
The vibration motor on this watch isn't that strong compared to the Samsung but it's strong enough.
Synergy with phone
One feature on the Samsung that I miss is the synergy with the phone. The Samsung Watch syncs the do not disturb mode with the Samsung Note 20 Ultra. In addition, with the Samsung, any alarms ringing on the phone also ring on the watch, which is nice. The TicWatch Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra, however, lacks this feature.
Google Assistant
Unlike the Samsung watch, the Pro 3 Ultra comes with Google Assistant. However, during my 2 weeks of use, I rarely use the assistant on my watch. Although it supports control of my smart home devices, it does not support routines. When I'm at home, I tend to use my Google Home Hub Max anyway and if I'm on the way, I will use my headphones to trigger the Google assistant from my phone.
4G/LTE
Although my version provided by Mobvoi is the LTE version, it is tied to the Vodafone network. However, there is an unofficial workaround on Reddit. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is slightly more open but I found out only certain networks and certain plans support the esim on the watch. Your watch and your phone must be with the same provider.
In other words, if you want to use the watch to make independent calls, you need to be with a certain network (on your phone) and you have to pay more to support the watch. Last I checked, none of the supported providers support the watch on their PAYG plan. You need to be in with a contract with the network. There isn't a PAYG plan just for the watch.
I miss my Huawei Watch 2 when you can simply pop a sim into the smart watch and use it as a phone.
Battery life
The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra has no contender in the battery life category. It has extremely long battery life. With its 577 mAh battery and secondary FSTN display, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra is the king of battery life. Mobvoi says it would last 72 hours in normal "smart" mode and 45 days in the essential mode. The essential mode only uses the secondary display and allows you to see your steps and battery life along with the time and date.
Wear OS version
The watch comes with Wear OS 2.33. However, no other smartwatch apart from the Samsung Watch 4 comes with Wear OS 3.0, so I'm not going to count this as a con, unlike other review sites. The TicWatch Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra are slated to be upgraded to Wear OS 3 later this year.
Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 4100 Platform and Mobvoi dual processor system
Memory:
RAM: 1GB
Onboard storage: 8GB
Display: 1.4“ 454x454 326ppi Full Color Always On Display AMOLED + FSTN
Connectivity:
Bluetooth 5.0
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (Wifi 4)
GNSS: GPS+Beidou+Glonass+Galileo+QZSS
NFC Payments: Google Pay
Additional features:
Speaker
Mic
Vibrator
Barometer
Sensors:
Accelerometer
Gyro Sensor
HD PPG Heart Rate Sensor
SpO2 Sensor
Low Latency Off-Body Sensor
Barometer
Battery capacity: 577mAh
Durability: IP68, Pool Swim/MIL-STD-810G
Conclusion
Mobvoi is a champion with battery life and their dual-display technology is extremely legible even in bright sunlight. TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra continues this trend of excellence in the TicWatch Pro 3. It has a couple of negatives though. The watch is slightly bulky and the wristband is smaller than other watches, including the TicWatch Pro 3. Also, unless you're with Vodafone or plan to switch to Vodafone, don't get the LTE version. The Bluetooth version will suffice and you will save a couple of bucks as well. For a more in-depth review, please see Brian Burriston's excellent review on Notebookcheck.net: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobvoi-TicWatch-Pro-3-Ultra-GPS-in-review-Small-update-of-a-good-smartwatch.574006.0.html.
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While watching the Doctor Who prequel trailer for The Name of the Doctor,
the music reminded me of the ringtone "Walk in the Forest" on
Samsung phones.
Today I received my Samsung S5 and to be blunt, I hated the general interface. It's like Windows 8 of the mobile world. Samsung had changed things a lot, and not for the better. For example, the volume keys are mapped to take photos rather than the zoom controller of the previous iteration. Then there's the menu section. It's a jumble of settings strewn everywhere. Also, frustratingly, the phone maps the menu to the left of the menu and the back button to the right. This is the opposite of stock Android. Almost all other phones have it the other way around. In addition, the location causes me to accidentally mash on the keys when in landscape mode.
However, the waterproofing is a welcome though. I am also a fan of the multi-window view for Samsung phones.
I like the Sony Xperia Z2, but the battery is it's Achilles heel. When on mobile Internet, even when charging, the phone battery drains rapidly.
