Successes of 2022: Android smartwatches are lastly turning into attention-grabbing

I used to sigh when reviewing Android smartwatches.

I desperately wished Android customers to have a smartwatch that would go toe-to-toe with the Apple Watch, but it surely wasn’t occurring. There was all the time one thing. Dismal battery life, a laggy OS, outdated or inaccurate well being options, and extra tumbleweeds than third-party apps — typically all the above. You by no means need to be a very cynical reviewer, however I used to be shedding hope.

Nevertheless, that wasn’t the case in 2022. Not like each different 12 months, Put on OS watches have been the critiques I regarded ahead to most.

There have been a ton of causes to be excited. After years of hypothesis, the Pixel Watch is not a legendary gadget whispered about in rumor blogs. It’s an actual smartwatch that you can currently buy. Strapping on the Pixel Look ahead to the primary time, I wasn’t truly anticipating a lot. All it had to do was not suck. However I used to be shocked by how hopeful I felt writing the evaluation, particularly since I gave it a 6 (which, by our rating scale, means good, with some points and a few redeeming qualities). The smartwatch had typical first-gen kinks to easy out, however the {hardware} was good, and the design was extra spectacular than leaks had led me to imagine. It had potential, and extra importantly, it was viable. I had not one however two full-featured smartwatches to recommend to Android users. And for as soon as, they weren’t each from Samsung.

I don’t need to sound like a wearable Pollyanna. To be clear, Put on OS 3 watches nonetheless have a methods to go. However this 12 months’s successes imply one thing to me after years of disappointment.

This 12 months’s Android watches shocked me in different methods. On paper, I assumed the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro could be a stinker. I ended up preferring it to the common Galaxy Watch 5 — and I nearly by no means choose huge watches over smaller ones. I missed the bodily rotating bezel within the Watch 5, however Samsung’s method with the Professional’s raised lip and a capacitive bezel was intelligent. It was neat to see a flagship Android smartwatch add turn-by-turn navigation and the flexibility to import routes. That, together with physique composition evaluation, is one thing that no Apple Watch can natively do but. It was that the Apple Watch beat out each different smartwatch in each single approach. That’s much less true these days.

Even watches that underwhelmed me, just like the aforementioned Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, had their deserves. As a reviewer, typically iterative yearly updates might not really feel progressive, even when they’re. For instance, the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 provide Android customers extra decisions than their Tizen predecessors ever did. You not should tolerate Bixby in case you choose Google Assistant or Samsung Pay in case you’d reasonably use Google Pockets. Samsung watches will all the time work greatest with Samsung telephones, however the expertise for all Android customers is significantly better than it was.

The Montblanc Summit 3 wasn’t my cup of tea, but it surely was attention-grabbing. It ran a barebones model of Put on OS 3, many options felt unfinished, and the $1,290 price ticket was ridiculous. Nevertheless it was additionally the primary Put on OS 3 watch to work with iOS, and it provided a glimpse into what the following gen of non-Samsung or Google smartwatches is likely to be like. The contradiction of all its components was enjoyable to ponder, even when the watch itself wasn’t nice. I may not have cherished it, but it surely was removed from boring.

My final Android smartwatch was the Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition. I’ll cop that previously, I’ve been sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer number of Fossil watches that differed solely in design. However as quickly as this evaluation unit arrived, I virtually ripped the bundle open to get a peek. How will Put on OS 3 work on this watch versus the Summit 3? What about all the brand new well being options Fossil watches by no means had earlier than? Whereas the Fossil Gen 6 ended up being a bit higher than the Summit 3, the wellness options didn’t fairly dwell as much as expectations. It wasn’t the Fossil watch I’d hoped for, but it surely wasn’t boring. There have been some clear indicators of progress nestled among the many bits that didn’t work.

It’s been perpetually since Android smartwatches had any form of momentum. Granted, a few of the updates aren’t what you’d contemplate flashy or thrilling — however I’ll take all these smaller, incremental updates as a sign that the tide’s shifting. For as soon as, I’m genuinely hopeful.