There are still issues with WearOS, but I think some of that is hardware. Last I heard, Qualcomm’s wearable SoCs were trash, but Samsung is in a good position since they have both the SoC fab and make the watch itself.
Many industries are shifting to a model where Android is the de facto OS for consumer-facing interactions. It’s not well optimized outside of phones yet, but it is rapidly improving. Many cars run Android now, for example.
I’m moderately optimistic about the next generation of WearOS devices.
WearOS, at least the Samsung variant of it, is goddamned awful. It seems to want to be a full standalone device when I want it to just be an extension of my phone, and it’s an extension of my phone when I want it to stand alone. Worst of both worlds.
I miss my Pebble. Week-long battery, truly always-on-screen, and knew what it was trying to be (just show me notifications)
I used to have a Pebble too but I’ve long since given up on any hope of the market building something similar that looks as cool as the Pebble was. What exactly do you think is awful about Samsung’s Wear OS? I tried both the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch and I greatly prefer Samsung’s.
I rocked an OG Pebble as well as a Pebble Time for a while. The best replacement I could find was the Garmin Fenix watches, which use a similar display and offer comparable battery life (or better, for the bigger ones) but unlike the old Pebbles they cost major bucks. They’re considerably more featureful, though. All of them also have round displays, not the rectangular like the Pebbles.
I’m quite happy with my Fenix 6 Solar and have no desire to ditch it, nor trade it in for any of the newer models.
There are still issues with WearOS, but I think some of that is hardware. Last I heard, Qualcomm’s wearable SoCs were trash, but Samsung is in a good position since they have both the SoC fab and make the watch itself.
Many industries are shifting to a model where Android is the de facto OS for consumer-facing interactions. It’s not well optimized outside of phones yet, but it is rapidly improving. Many cars run Android now, for example.
I’m moderately optimistic about the next generation of WearOS devices.
WearOS, at least the Samsung variant of it, is goddamned awful. It seems to want to be a full standalone device when I want it to just be an extension of my phone, and it’s an extension of my phone when I want it to stand alone. Worst of both worlds.
I miss my Pebble. Week-long battery, truly always-on-screen, and knew what it was trying to be (just show me notifications)
I used to have a Pebble too but I’ve long since given up on any hope of the market building something similar that looks as cool as the Pebble was. What exactly do you think is awful about Samsung’s Wear OS? I tried both the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch and I greatly prefer Samsung’s.
I rocked an OG Pebble as well as a Pebble Time for a while. The best replacement I could find was the Garmin Fenix watches, which use a similar display and offer comparable battery life (or better, for the bigger ones) but unlike the old Pebbles they cost major bucks. They’re considerably more featureful, though. All of them also have round displays, not the rectangular like the Pebbles.
I’m quite happy with my Fenix 6 Solar and have no desire to ditch it, nor trade it in for any of the newer models.