It’s been six months since I switched to Android from iPhone. I use Google Pixel 4a, and this smartphone still makes me happy. But there is one point to which I have not been able to find a solution yet — this is smart watch.

Wearable gadgets have been my life companions for about five years now. Without them, as without hands. And if, before switching to Android, I used exclusively Apple Watchthen I could no longer continue using them with the Google Pixel, because they only work with the iPhone.

Bought in May Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2sold it in July, and now I clearly understand that the Apple Watch is the perfect smart watch.

I will immediately answer the question: why Galaxy Watch Active 2?

Smartwatches are the main payment method for me.

I bought this watch because there was simply nothing more worthy for Android on the Russian market. I do not perceive any crafts from Hauwei and Xiaomi.

Really good hours Wear OS in general, count on the fingers and order them, too, would have to be from abroad. Hope, Galaxy Watch4 at least somehow save the situation, but for now about the sore.

1. Siri may not be perfect, but it’s enough for the Apple Watch

The functionality of Siri for smart watches is more than enough.

I do not belong to the category of people who use smartwatches like regular watches. This is the gadget that I try to get the most out of. On Apple Watch, I interacted with Siri very often: I created reminders, calendar events, set alarms, called, wrote messages, and so on.

There is no voice assistant on the Galaxy Watch. At least in Russia. Available for all other markets bixby — This is Samsung’s proprietary voice assistant, which so far only works in English and several other languages.

And the main charm of Siri was the integration not only with Apple services, but also with other applications. And thanks to iCloud synchronization, for example, the created reminder from the watch appeared on all my equipment (iPhone, iPad and MacBook). This story worked seamlessly and flawlessly.

2. Apple Watch has a lot of apps

The main advantage of apple watches.

Those who have used apple smart watches will understand how convenient Apple has implemented the process of parallel downloading of applications on the iPhone and Apple Watch. That is, I take and download Telegram, and its client is installed in parallel on the clock.

It turns out that I do not need to wander through the back streets of the App Store to download something separately for the Apple Watch. But it’s still half the fun! Much more I admire the functionality — almost all the software on the Apple Watch is not stripped-down clients, but full-fledged applications.

If we take the same Telegram as an example, then with the help of it I can answer my interlocutors right from the clock, both dictating messages and recording voice messages. You can even send stickers and emoji! Well, why not charm?

Synchronization only works with an active app subscription.

I also used Bear on Apple Watch (is free) is a note taking app. Right from the watch, I could create new notes with my voice, and then read or edit them from any other device (iPhone, iPad, Mac).

And you would know my disappointment when I realized that there is nothing similar on the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Galaxy Store is terrible. There are no normal applications there, everything was filled with some kind of crooked crafts and nightmarish dials. Of the really suitable, I found only Spotify. I don’t even know what else to add to this.

3. Square screen smartwatch is the best round

A matter of taste.

I have one friend who loves the Galaxy Watch for its round screen, because it makes the smartwatch look like a classic watch. I do not share his opinion.

A smartwatch is first and foremost a gadget. It is no accident that smartphones, tablets and laptops have rectangular or square displays. Because it is more convenient to interact with content, and this applies to smart watches as well.

The Apple Watch holds more information, it doesn’t shrink, and it still looks presentable with any outfit.

The round screen on the Galaxy Watch, meanwhile, only makes things worse. Because of it, the watch faces cannot contain as much information as the watch faces on the Apple Watch can. But it deserves a separate point.

4. Third-party watch faces are pampering

Never used third parties. Standard ones are enough for the eyes.

Someone scolds the Apple Watch for the lack of third-party watch faces. The Galaxy Watch has them, but it doesn’t make the watch any better. Samsung doesn’t have a strict policy on this, so there are tons of watch faces in the Galaxy Store that need to be trashed.

Almost all of them look rude «kolkhoz». Developers sculpt fonts of any kind, make their own shape of arrows, icons, and in the end it all gets out of the general style One UI.

The Apple Watch may have only standard watch faces, but they can be very finely tuned and make a unique combination. And I’m talking not only about color, but also about clock styles and extensions from third-party applications. About this Galaxy Watch owners can only dream of.

5. The watch faces on the Galaxy Watch are uninformative

The Apple Watch is fine with that.

The main element of smart watches is the dial. On the Apple Watch, they are perfect thanks to extensions from third-party applications. You can even put the latest posts from a news aggregator or Twitter. Well, or place a quick access to e-mail. There are many use cases, and none on the Galaxy Watch.

Watch faces are literally watch faces — many of them only show the time and date. If you wish, you can display some fitness data, and then not on any watchface, but only on standard ones.

I don’t know what the Galaxy Watch4 will have there, I hope that Wear OS will somehow solve this problem, but so far the impressions are not the best.

6. Tizen is not even close to watchOS

For smartwatches, this is an extremely weak platform.

The situation comes out, as with Android in the early 2010s. WatchOS is a stylish, fast system with beautiful animations and a uniform design in applications. Tizen cannot boast of this.

Animations even when scrolling through the menu slow down. Considering that I had a flagship Samsung watch on my hands at that time, it is unacceptable to see this in the system.

Applications take a long time to load, as if I picked up some very weak smartphone with poor optimization.

7. You need to install a ton of apps to set up your Galaxy Watch

I love Apple for simplicity.

I note right away that this does not apply to Samsung smartphones. All the plugins you need are there out of the box, but don’t expect the same simplicity on other Android smartphones. In addition to Galaxy Wearable, I needed to download at least three plug-ins and a client for Samsung Pay on my Google Pixel.

Yes, you can’t just set up payment from hours. That showiness and ease of setting up the Apple Watch with the iPhone was very lacking.

Still, Apple came up with an ingenious solution — you bring the watch to the smartphone, a discovery window appears on it, point the camera, and after 10 minutes the Apple Watch is ready «to fight».

The history of Tizen for watches is over, and that’s a good thing

I hope that Watch4 will not let you down.

In August, Samsung held a presentation where it showed a new line of Galaxy Watch4 with Wear OS. I will definitely buy this watch for myself as soon as it goes on sale, and I really hope that the situation will change for the better.

In one of the Samsung branded stores, I «felt» this watch, and I can say that the interface began to work quickly (almost like the Apple Watch), the layout of the elements became more convenient and the overall impressions were positive.

Let’s see if they’ll be just as good in a couple of months. Hope so.