An upgrade, actually
I got a new smart watch this weekend. I wasn't planning on getting one so soon, but events conspired to get my mind focused on something new.
The new smart watch on the left, beside the old smart watch.
I ended up purchasing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, which is also a higher version than I was originally thinking. I did some research and was determined to get the Watch 6 Classic, but after viewing in person I didn't like the black version and I wasn't 100% sure of the white version. Plus, it was harder to find a Watch 6 than I thought.
But what prompted the sudden change when I was okay hanging onto the watch for much longer? Well...it started to fail.
Not in obvious ways. But for a long time now, it's been randomly disconnecting from my phone in certain situations: when opening the camera; when connecting to Android Auto in the car.
But what really broke the camel's back was this past Thursday when my watch automatically detected I was swimming. Great, I love the auto workout detection! Except that I was typing at my desk. In the office. Far from a pool.
A screenshot of the "swimming" session while I was typing.
Entries for my "swimming" in my sleep.
I searched for similar experiences with the Galaxy Watch 46mm and there were others with the same issue. The solution was simple, turning off auto detection for specific workouts. But it was also a symptom of a larger problem; the motion sensor was failing.
So now I have a fancy new watch. It's the top-of-the-line model until Samsung announces its 2026 lineup. When I looked at the last backup of my old Galaxy Watch 3, the date went back to 2020. So I've had the watch for at least 5 years, which I think is pretty good for a piece of tech. The software has been unsupported for a long time, but until this week it's performed exceptionally well.
Now I have some learning curves to overcome:
- Samsung flipped the "back" and "home" buttons; I have to re-train my muscle memory. There's also a 3rd "quick action" button, so that's neat.
- Instead of individual pages for app shortcuts I now have "tiles" which support more than one widget at a time.
- Setting it to sleep mode involves more than one tap now but it syncs modes with my phone, so I can change my phone mode from my watch
- sometimes the rotating dial scrolls up and down, most other times left-to-right. It's not always clear when it's up and down (it's usually just left-to-right)
There's probably more, as I type I've only had it for one evening.
I still have my Galaxy S21+ for my phone, which I've had since 2021, that I'm hoping will continue to last. There will be no more OneUI Updates but with a battery change it'll probably be good for a while.
I hope I don't need to upgrade that for a while yet - if only because I'll need to set up new passkeys, my work profile, my Obsidian/sync thing set up...