By smartwatches with Android, we mean Wear OS smartwatches. Did you know Wear OS, formerly known as Android Wear came out in 2014, a year before Apple’s Watch OS was released? Yes, Wear OS is also the second-largest HLOS (High-Level Operating System) wearable platform because of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series. Even Google’s entry into the smartwatch space last year with Pixel Watch has made a decent mark.
Now, Wear OS smartwatches try to bring a pared-down Android app ecosystem to smartwatches. The Wear OS in them is technically fully featured OS with an app store to download 3rd party apps. This enables the Wear OS wristwear to work significantly better as an extension of your smartphone. So, let’s check out some of these Wear OS smartwatches that are available in India.
- 1.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has got a 1.4-inch sAMOLED display with Always-on ability, 450×450 resolution, up to 1000 nits of brightness, and Sapphire crystal glass protection. In terms of durability, the watch features titanium alloy chassis and IP68 dust and water resistance.
As for health and fitness tracking, you get several activity modes, heart rate sensor, blood oxygen monitor, sleep tracker (snore detection), and a body fat composition analyzer. You also have GPS integration, eSIM functionality, routing and trackback features. The watch offers more than 3 days of battery life, Wear OS with One UI skin, dual-band WiFi, and Bluetooth 5.2.
- 2.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 may not have as big a battery or the premium build materials as the Pro model, but it has similarly powerful tracking performance and Wear OS goodness.
The watch also comes with a 1.4-inch round AMOLED screen with a sapphire crystal glass protection. There is Armor Aluminum case, and water resistance up to 50 meters. In terms of health and fitness tracking, you get sleep analysis (with snore detection), heart rate sensor, SpO2 monitor, body fat composition calculator, step, distance, calories, stress levels, and the ability to track 90+ sports modes. Other features in the mix includes a 398mAh battery that claims to run for 50 hours, and plenty of watch face options.
- 3.
Fossil Gen 6 brings Wear OS and a broad selection of Google apps such as Google Assistant, Google Maps, and YouTube Music. Since it has Google Play Store, you can also install third party apps like Spotify, Nike Run Club, MyFitnessPal, and more.
On the front of the watch, there is 1.28-inch circular AMOLED touchscreen. The watch is equipped with 3 ATM swim-proofness, 24×7 heart rate tracking, SpO2 monitoring, real-time notification alerts from your phone, and up to 24 hours of battery life claim.
Fossil has been a long time player in the Wear OS space and you can grab its watches including the Gen 6 in multiple cases and straps.
- 4.
Garmin watches boast tracking prowess that fitness enthusiasts would appreciate. However the Venu 2 Plus is this down in the list because the inherent software isn’t Wear OS but a sufficiently feature-rich OS nonetheless. It is called Garmin OS and comes with support for 3rd party apps like Spotify, MyFitnessPal, Nike+, Noom, etc. You can download them from the brand’s Connect IQ store.
Rest, it is armed with a 1.3-inch AMOLED screen (with Always-on mode, 416 x 416 resolution, and Gorilla Glass 3 shield on top), up to 11 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, GPS, LiveTrack (a real-time route mapping facility), 5ATM water resistance, BT calling, up to 650 songs storage, Google assistant, and trackers like blood oxygen, heart rate, workout modes, etc.
The following two Fitbit watches come with Fitbit OS which is an operating system that’s fairly close to Wear OS in some respects.
- 5.
Fitbit Sense 2 comes with a 1.58-inch AMOLED display placed in a Aluminum case. One of the standout features of the Fitbit Sense 2 is a body response sensor. It combines data from skin temperature, sweating behaviour, and heart rate to detect your stress levels. It’s not just about stress detection, but it also guides you towards recovery through breathing exercises, and other suggestions.
As Fitbit is renowned for health and fitness tracking, you can expect reliable tracking of parameters like heart rate, blood oxygen, heart rhythm (ECG), sleep, menstrual health, excercies, steps, distance and calories.
You also get Alexa support, 5ATM water resistance, GPS, and the option to take calls from your wrist.
- 6.
Fitbit Versa 4’s front is a 1.58-inch AMOLED display. It has got a Aluminum chassis. The thing is water resistant up to 50 meters. When it comes to fitness tracking the Versa 4 comes with heart rate sensor, SpO2 monitor, altimeter, sleep tracker, and skin temperature sensor. You can do Bluetooth calling thanks to a speaker and mic on the watch. It is rated to run for more than 6 days. You also get built-in GPS, Alexa, multiple workout modes, stress management score, cardio fitness score, Google Maps, and more.
- 7.
As you may know Wear OS is Google’s creation. And so, when it made its first smartwatch, it was bound to turn heads. Pixel Watch is close to vanilla Android wear experience. However, this is so down in the list because Google hasn’t released it in the country. So, warranty and support are obvious concerns. You can still get an imported piece from Amazon.
Being a Wear OS smartwatch and especially coming from Google, you can expect a whole breadth of Google apps for smartwatches. You can download apps from the Play Store. Since Fitbit is also a Google sub-brand, you can get Fitbit specific fitness features. Besides this, you get GPS, eSIM support for calling (without being connected to a phone), 5ATM water resistance, and a 1.2-inch AMOLED with 1000 nits of brightness and optional always-on capability.
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G. S. Vasan
Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile
