I would respectfully disagree. Samsung already gates features for it’s phones and now it is gating features to GW 8 despite there being no new sensor upgrade from previous generation. The Antioxidant Index and Vascular load, is just gated to GW 8 for the heck of it and one is not even sure how accurate it is.
There was the Stress thing which I don’t even use on my GW 6 because it’s err, completely useless. It aims to measure physical stress using HRV but is completely out of touch to how I feel. The only thing it does decently is music streaming and sleep tracking.
And then there is the Achilles’ Heel, Battery life. Samsung 's Tizen watches used to last for two/three days and Wear OS is a significant downgrade even the Ultra variants. They have not taken any cues either from Mobvoi or Oneplus (either dual display or dual chip). Charging sucks as well. On GW 4, it was so slow that I wished to throw it. 10W WPC is better but it again overheats and throttles in hot climate.
Garmin honestly makes some great smartwatches that you don’t have to charge daily tho and have a great health suite. If I didn’t have my Android smartwatch, I’d prob pick up a Garmin tbh. Kind of fixes that problem of daily charging that Android and Apple smartwatches have.
I don’t think I could go for a casual run without my watch lol I need to know my distance and speed for motivation! Weightlifting tracking is not great on smartwatches tho I’ve heard.
Yeah. I did shopped around when i changed to android. The sole reason is moving away from google, apple and the like. So i stopped using apple watch.
The only thing that holding me back of buying smartwatch is my data. I heard that i can use garmin without their apps and lo and behold, they started gatekeeping features behind subs last i heard, so that is out of the window. You know how that goes.
My only saviour is gadgetbridge for privacy respecting smartwatches. Havent taken a bullet to buy any compatible smartwatch yet. My wrist is dainty so my options is totally limited since most smartwatches is 40mm++.
Thank you for the suggestions though