Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 : Full SCIENTIFIC Review
Summary
TLDRThe Galaxy Watch 6 by Samsung has been put to the test by postdoctoral scientist Rob, focusing on its health and sports tracking capabilities. After two weeks of rigorous testing, including heart rate monitoring during various workouts and sleep stage tracking, the watch showed mixed results. It performed well in detecting heart rate during indoor cycling but struggled with outdoor cycling and weightlifting. Sleep stage tracking was not as accurate as expected, often misidentifying deep sleep as awake time. Oxygen saturation measurements were a bright spot, showing good correlation with a reference device during a flight simulation. GPS tracking was adequate for casual use but not precise enough for detailed mapping. Overall, the Galaxy Watch 6 received a moderate rating of 3 out of 5 stars, with improvements suggested for sleep tracking and the potential for better value in its predecessors.
Takeaways
- 📈 The Galaxy Watch 6 has seen some improvements over the previous model, including a slightly larger screen, a newer processor, Bluetooth 5.3, and increased RAM.
- 🏃♂️ Heart rate tracking during indoor cycling was generally accurate, but the watch occasionally missed detecting heart rate dips during rest periods.
- 🚴♀️ Outdoor cycling heart rate tracking was less accurate, with a significant drop in correlation compared to indoor cycling, leading to the recommendation against using the watch for outdoor biking.
- 🏋️♀️ Weightlifting heart rate tracking was also not recommended due to the watch's inability to accurately capture heart rate peaks and dips.
- 💤 Sleep stage tracking was not up to par, with the watch often misidentifying sleep stages and recording too much awake time.
- 👎 The overall sleep stage monitoring received a low rating, with the watch not being recommended for this purpose.
- 🌟 Oxygen saturation measurements were a bright spot, showing good performance during a flight where reduced cabin pressure was expected to lower oxygen levels.
- 📍 GPS tracking was adequate for casual use but not precise enough for those needing detailed mapping of their routes.
- 🔄 The watch's performance can vary based on individual factors such as skin color, hairiness of the arms, and the presence of tattoos on the wrist.
- 🤔 Despite improvements in some areas, the Galaxy Watch 6's health and sports tracking did not show significant advancements over the previous generation.
- 💲 Considering the lack of major improvements, the Galaxy Watch 5 might offer better value for money.
Q & A
What was the focus of the review on the Galaxy Watch 6?
-The focus of the review was on the health and sport tracking capabilities of the Galaxy Watch 6, including heart rate tracking accuracy, sleep stage tracking, GPS tracking consistency, and low oxygen saturation detection.
How long was the Galaxy Watch 6 tested before the review?
-The Galaxy Watch 6 was tested for more than two weeks, which resulted in the reviewer having about four times more data compared to his initial review.
What device was used as a reference for heart rate tracking performance?
-The Polar H10 ECG chest strap was used as a reference device for heart rate tracking performance.
What was the correlation value between the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Polar H10 during indoor cycling workouts?
-The correlation value between the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Polar H10 during indoor cycling workouts was 0.92.
How did the Galaxy Watch 6 perform in outdoor cycling heart rate tracking compared to indoor cycling?
-The Galaxy Watch 6 showed a significant drop in performance for outdoor cycling, with a correlation value of 0.6 compared to 0.92 for indoor cycling.
What was the reviewer's overall rating for the heart rate tracking performance of the Galaxy Watch 6?
-The reviewer rated the heart rate tracking performance of the Galaxy Watch 6 at 3 out of 5 stars, stating it works decently enough for static exercises like indoor cycling.
How did the Galaxy Watch 6 perform in sleep stage tracking compared to an EEG device?
-The Galaxy Watch 6 showed poor agreement with the EEG device for sleep stage tracking, particularly in detecting deep sleep and REM sleep accurately.
What is the reviewer's rating for the Galaxy Watch 6's sleep stage monitoring?
-The reviewer rated the sleep stage monitoring of the Galaxy Watch 6 at two or maybe two and a half out of five stars.
How did the Galaxy Watch 6 perform in measuring low oxygen saturation during a flight?
-The Galaxy Watch 6 performed well in measuring low oxygen saturation during a flight, showing patterns that matched closely with a reference device.
What was the reviewer's overall rating for the Galaxy Watch 6's GPS tracking?
-The reviewer rated the GPS tracking of the Galaxy Watch 6 at three and a half or maybe even three out of 5 stars, noting that while it acquired signals quickly, the signal was quite noisy and not very precise.
What was the final overall rating given to the Galaxy Watch 6 by the reviewer?
-The final overall rating given to the Galaxy Watch 6 by the reviewer was 3 out of 5 stars, considering it an average performer in health and sports monitoring.
Outlines
😀 In-Depth Review of Galaxy Watch 6
Rob, a postdoctoral scientist, conducts a systematic and scientific review of the Galaxy Watch 6 focusing on health and sport tracking capabilities. The review includes testing of heart rate tracking, sleep stage tracking, GPS tracking, and low oxygen saturation detection. The results are compared with previous models and other watches on the market. Timestamps are provided for easy navigation.
🏋️♂️ Heart Rate Tracking Performance
The heart rate tracking performance of the Galaxy Watch 6 is evaluated during indoor and outdoor cycling workouts and weightlifting sessions. It is compared against the Polar H10 ECG chest strap. The watch shows a good correlation in indoor cycling but struggles with outdoor cycling and weightlifting, sometimes detecting double the actual heart rate. The overall assessment is that the watch is adequate for indoor cycling but not recommended for outdoor cycling or weightlifting.
🚴♀️ Outdoor Cycling and Weightlifting Tracking
The Galaxy Watch 6's performance for outdoor cycling and weightlifting is found to be less accurate than indoor activities. During outdoor cycling, the watch has a significant drop in correlation value and shows more instances of inaccurate heart rate readings. For weightlifting, the watch also exhibits difficulty in tracking heart rate peaks and dips, resulting in a mediocre performance compared to other smartwatches.
💤 Sleep Stage Tracking Evaluation
The Galaxy Watch 6's sleep stage monitoring is tested against an EEG device called the Dreem 2. The watch's sleep stage detection is found to be inaccurate, often misidentifying deep sleep as light sleep or awake time. Samsung's claims of improved sleep tracking are questioned, as the main improvements seem to be in data presentation rather than tracking accuracy. The watch is not recommended for sleep stage tracking based on these results.
🌡️ Oxygen Saturation Measurement Test
The Galaxy Watch 6's ability to measure oxygen saturation is tested during an airplane flight where lower cabin pressure is expected to decrease oxygen concentration. The watch's measurements are compared to a reference device and are found to be in good agreement, showing a clear drop in oxygen saturation levels during the flight. This suggests the watch could potentially be used to detect sleep apnea.
🚴♂️ GPS Tracking and Route Mapping
The GPS tracking feature of the Galaxy Watch 6 is tested by cycling the same route multiple times. The watch quickly acquires the GPS signal but the tracking is not highly precise, with noticeable deviations from the actual route. The signal is noisy, and while it provides a rough estimate of the cycling path, it is not reliable for those needing accurate tracking. The GPS performance is rated as average.
📊 Final Verdict on Galaxy Watch 6
In conclusion, the Galaxy Watch 6 is rated as an average performer in health and sports monitoring. It tracks heart rate well under easy conditions but not in more challenging scenarios. Oxygen saturation measurements are good, and GPS tracking is sufficient for casual use. However, sleep stage monitoring is unimpressive. The watch is given an overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars, with the main concern being the lack of significant improvements over previous models.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Heart Rate Tracking
💡Sleep Stage Tracking
💡GPS Tracking
💡Oxygen Saturation
💡Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
💡Polar H10 Chest Strap
💡Correlation Value
💡EEG Device
💡Blood Oxygen Saturation Measurement
💡Location Tracking
💡Fitness Wearables
Highlights
The Galaxy Watch 6 was tested for its health and sport tracking capabilities over two weeks, revealing some surprises in performance.
Rob, a postdoctoral scientist specializing in biological data analysis, conducted an in-depth review focusing on heart rate tracking, sleep stage tracking, GPS tracking, and SpO2 detection.
The watch's heart rate tracking was compared against the Polar H10 ECG chest strap during various workouts, including indoor cycling, outdoor cycling, and weightlifting sessions.
The Galaxy Watch 6 showed a correlation value of 0.92 for heart rate tracking during indoor cycling, indicating a good but not perfect agreement with the Polar H10.
Surprisingly, the watch sometimes doubled the actual heart rate during certain activities, as evidenced by a cluster of points in the data.
Outdoor cycling tests revealed a significant drop in correlation to 0.6, with many heart rate points falling below the ideal line, suggesting lower detected heart rates.
The Galaxy Watch 6's sleep stage tracking was compared to an EEG device, showing low agreement, particularly for deep sleep and REM sleep detection.
Samsung's claims of improved sleep tracking on the Galaxy Watch 6 were found to be mainly in data presentation rather than tracking accuracy.
Oxygen saturation measurements during a flight showed promising results, with the watch accurately detecting drops in levels, similar to a reference device.
The Galaxy Watch 6's GPS tracking was found to be quick to acquire a signal but suffered from noise and imprecision in tracking the exact route taken.
The watch's performance in health and sports tracking was considered average, with better performance in static exercises like indoor cycling.
The Galaxy Watch 6 was rated 3 out of 5 stars, with the main drawback being the lack of significant improvements over previous models.
The reviewer suggested that the Galaxy Watch 5 might offer better value for money due to similar performance and potentially better sleep tracking.
The Galaxy Watch 6's oxygen saturation feature showed potential as a preliminary tool for detecting sleep apnea, although it's not a medical device.
The watch's sleep stage monitoring was not recommended due to inaccuracies, particularly in detecting deep sleep and wake times.
The GPS tracking, while quick to start, was not precise enough for those needing an accurate record of their route.
The review emphasized that individual performance may vary based on factors like skin color, gender, and wrist hairiness, which could influence tracking accuracy.
Transcripts
in this review we're going to
systematically and scientifically test
the ins and outs of the Galaxy watch 6.
the focus will be on the health and
Sport tracking capabilities of this new
release from Samsung based on more than
two weeks of testing which did result in
a few surprises we will test their heart
rate tracking accuracy sleep stage
tracking performance GPS tracking
consistency and low oxygen saturation
detection now as always I do not want to
waste your time so there are timestamps
in the description below so you can
easily navigate to those things that
matter to you let's get started
foreign
for those of you that are new to the
channel my name is Rob and I'm a
postdoctoral scientist specializing in
biological data analysis now this will
be my first in-depth review of the
Galaxy watch 6 and compared to my
initial review a few weeks ago there
were a few surprises now that I have
about four times more data to work with
now as always I'm not gonna bother you
by listing the specs of this watch since
you can find those on Samsung's website
the most important things to know are
the screen is a bit bigger the processor
is a bit newer it now uses Bluetooth 5.3
instead of Bluetooth 5.2 and the ram has
increased slightly otherwise the watch 6
is largely similar to The Watch 5 so
instead of going through these specs in
detail we're gonna purely be focusing on
Independent testing of the performance
of this watch since Samsung did promise
improved Health tracking now as always
let's start off by looking at the heart
rate tracking performance of the Galaxy
watch 6 which I tested during a total of
nine indoor cycling workouts 18 outdoor
cycling workouts and 8-way lifting
sessions and this is an overview of how
the Galaxy watch 6 performed during 9
indoor cycling sessions and will test
the Galaxy watch 6 by comparing it
against the polar h10 ECG chest strap
which can generally record my heart rate
very accurately now each dot here is a
single heart rate measurement with
longer horizontal axis the value
according to the polar h10 ECG chest
strap and on the vertical axis the value
according to the Galaxy watch 6 and if
the Galaxy watch 6 perfectly agrees with
the polar h10 all values should be along
this blue diagonal line and the darker
black to color the more dots that are in
that location and as you can see most
points are indeed nicely along this blue
line now there are some points away from
it but generally it looks pretty okay if
the points are below the Blue Line it
means the Galaxy watch 6 detected it to
low heart rate and if they're Above It
it means detected to a high heart rate
and we can see especially here there's a
cluster of points where detected to high
heart rate and in these moments we
detected about double the heart rate
that it should have so it detected a
heart rate of 150 beats per minute
whereas it should have detected a heart
rate of about 75 beats per minute and
we've seen this before with some watches
that they either attack double or half
the actual heart rate but we can take a
look at some of the individual training
sessions to see how often this actually
happens first let's take a look at this
r value up here which is the correlation
which is 0.92 in this case now the
correlation cannot be higher than one so
0.92 is pretty good though it's not
amazing still it's probably good enough
for most people but like I said let's
take a look at some of the individual
training sessions to see what the
patterns actually look like and here we
have the first spinning session I wanted
to share with you now in blue green I
uploaded my heart rate according to the
reference polar h10 ECG chest strap and
in red is my heart rate according to the
Galaxy watch 6. now along the horizontal
axis we have the clock time and my heart
rate is along the vertical axis and as
you can see for this indoor cycling
session there's a pretty good agreement
between the Galaxy watch and the polar
h10 they generally over will have it
very well only in the dips in my heart
rate when I'm taking a rest in between
my intervals the Galaxy watch 6 isn't
able to pick up those decreases in my
heart rate fully so as you can see
usually my heart rate drops to about 80
85 BPM and the Galaxy watch 6 isn't
fully able to detect this usually it
stops at about 100 BPM detecting the dip
in my heart rate still overall the way
the Galaxy watch 6 tracked my heart rate
for this ride is generally good enough
for most people there's also this small
artifact right here where it really had
trouble picking up on the dip in my
heart rate but still this ride looks
quite good and many rides are actually
somewhat like this though there are a
few rides that showed some artifacts and
one of them is this right right here
here we see that in the beginning of
this ride where I had a big dip in my
heart rate the Galaxy watch at some
point actually detected an increase in
my heart rate and this is what we
actually saw in that overview before the
Galaxy watch 6 attacks a heart rate of
about 150 bpm where in reality my heart
rate was closer to 75 BPM so here it
actually detected double my actual heart
rate now for the rest of the ride it
actually looks pretty good so somewhat
similar to what we saw for the previous
session so overall the tracking is
pretty good but sometimes it dips in my
heart rate aren't fully picked up still
this artifact is somewhat surprising to
me I would think this would be easy
enough for the Galaxy watch to detect
now there was one more ride than an
artifact like this and that's this right
right here this one was a bit more messy
in general so I don't know if for some
reason it was shifted a bit more on my
wrist but you can see right here that
when I was taking a rest in between my
intervals it chewed up the decadent
heart rate of about 75 70 BPM when
reality it again detected double my
heart rate so about 150 bpm and also
right here it had trouble detecting that
dip in my heart rate and also later in
the ride it actually detected the two
low heart rate but this right looks
somewhat messy in general with more
noise also on the peaks in my heart rate
so it could have been that for some
reason the watch wasn't optimally
positioned on my wrist I'm not sure what
happened here I always try to be very
consistent with the way I put the
watches on my wrist but you know know
something can always happen but these
were the only two rides out of nine
total that show these artifacts so some
actually looked really good like this
one right here where the overlap is more
or less perfect and then most rides were
somewhere in between where they might
show some minor artifacts like right
here and right here where it shows a
delay in picking up a change in my heart
rate still overall I expected most rides
look good enough for most people alright
that's looking fairly solid so far I
have to get a clearer understanding of
how the Galaxy watch 6 performs let's
put these results into context let's
compare them against 70 different
watches I previously tested this way you
can determine if there's possibly a
better choice waiting out there for you
and here you can see that overview of
how the performance of the Galaxy watch
6 comparison of many other watches now
the correlation value I was talking
about before is the value we'll use for
this and this is displayed along the
horizontal axis and the watches are
ordered from worst the best on the
vertical axis so the further to the
right and the higher devices the better
is its agreement with the ECG device and
here I've highlighted the Galaxy watch 6
in red and as you can see it's somewhere
in the middle of all the watches so it's
definitely not performing poorly but
there's also many better devices out
there but let's zoom in a bit because
it's quite difficult to read and that
way we can see what watches it is
similar to but also Weight Watchers are
doing a bit or a lot better and that
zoomed in view is displayed right here
so I've only pulled the better watches
so those with a correlation of 0.9 or
higher right here and as you can see the
Galaxy watch 6 in red is super close now
to the Galaxy watch 6 classic so they're
performing more or less the same I would
say this is a bit different from my
initial review where I felt that the
Galaxy watch 6 was doing a bit better
than the Galaxy watch 6 classic so I'm
not really sure what happened there it
could have just been by chance at the
Galaxy watch 6 did better than the
Galaxy watch 6 classic in those tests
and now that I have about four times
more test data the Galaxy watch 6 and 6
classic are performing about the same
which does make sense since they have
the same sensor and are also performing
about the same as the Galaxy watch 5 Pro
the previous generation though
interestingly if we look at the Galaxy
watch 5 so the non-pro version the
normal Galaxy watch 5 and the Galaxy
watch 4 both of these seem to be doing
significantly better than the Galaxy
watch 6 and the Galaxy watch 5 Pro and
I'm not sure why this is now of course
this was testing I did in the past with
previous firmware versions but still
here they consistently did better than
the Galaxy watch 6 does now now I'm not
sure if this is just a fluke and by
Chance the Galaxy watch 6 is doing worse
in my testing now than the Galaxy watch
5 and fored it in my previous testing or
if there was a change in the sensor
architecture that I don't know about
that did change the results or if
potentially the firmware was updated and
this actually resulted in a poorer
performance of this sensor now it does
quite often happen that with new watches
firmware updates are released over time
that really improved the results we saw
that for the Galaxy watch 4 for instance
but I still find it strange that the
Galaxy watch 6 which as far as I know
has more or less the same sensor as the
Galaxy watch 5 and also the Galaxy watch
4 is performing worse than those watches
even though I would suspect that the
same firmware could be used on the
Galaxy watch 6 to track the heart rate
but these are just the data that I have
and I want to present them to you if you
have any idea why this could be or if
you have any experience with the Galaxy
Ward 6 and also the Galaxy watch 5 or 4
let us know in the comments below now as
regular viewers will know Apple watches
are performing by far the best and also
some selected Huawei watches doing quite
well now let's tackle a more challenging
activity for this watch to track outdoor
cycling cycling Outdoors is generally
more difficult for a watch to track
because of the increased tension on my
arms but also largely because of the
increased bumpiness let's find out if
and how this affected the performance of
the Galaxy watch 6 and here you can see
a similar overview plot to before but
now for cycling outside and again we
want the points to be as close to this
blue line as possible now as you can see
most points are still close to the Blue
Line because there's a lot of dark black
close to the blue line but there are a
lot more points away from the Blue Line
especially below it right here so that
means that in these moments the watch
detected are too low heart rate and we
can also also see that the correlation
dropped from 0.92 for cycling indoors to
0.6 for cycling inside so that's a very
significant drop but let's take a look
at the individual cycling sessions to
see what's actually happening here now
this is the first individual bike ride I
wanted to share with you I had a total
of 18 bike rides where I tested the
Galaxy watch 6 and I will select a few
that are somewhat representative of the
different patterns I wanted to show with
you so some rights look okay I would say
like this one right here where there's a
generally okay-ish agreement between the
Galaxy watch 6 in red and the polar h10
in blue the Galaxy watch 6 right here
does tend to miss the absolute peaks in
my heart rate sometimes you can see that
right here but also right here right
here right here so there's some delay in
it picking up an increase in my heart
rate still overall this doesn't look
terrible but there were also some rides
that were much worse like this one right
here for instance where it really from
most of the ride wasn't able to pick up
on the peaks in my heart rate and it
always detected a much to low heart rate
you can see there were many moments I
had a really quick increase in my heart
rate and the Galaxy watch just wasn't
able to detect this for this ride it
just kept detecting sort of my Baseline
heart rate and it wasn't able to follow
along well with the chest trap and some
rides were a bit of a mix between the
things we've seen so far but for the
beginning of the right here the Galaxy
watch 6 did quite well but then later it
really started to struggle and just kept
detecting a too low heart rate and
looking at all the sessions from most
rides the Galaxy watch 6 just wasn't
able to attack my heart rate accurately
you can also see it for this ride right
here where I get detected a much too low
heart rate some bike rides were a bit
better like this one right here where
for at least half the session it was
able to track my heart rate quite
accurately still though it showed some
artifacts in the middle right here so
based on my results and how it performed
on me I cannot recommend the Galaxy
watch 6 for biking outside this is a bit
of a difference compared to my initial
review where I had a limited set of
tests that I did where it seemed to
perform a little bit better than the
Galaxy watch 6 classic wherefore my my
latest testing I don't feel like the
Galaxy watch 6 is doing any better than
the Galaxy watch 6 classic but let's now
compare the performance of the Galaxy
watch 6 that have many of the auto watch
stuff tests in the past to see how good
or bad this result actually is and here
we have a similar overview to before but
now for cycling outside and again the
further to the right and the higher
devices the better is its agreement with
EGD chest strap and the Galaxy watch 6
marked in red here isn't doing that
great compared to other devices it's
actually really close to the Galaxy
watch 5 Pro and also quite close to the
Galaxy watch 6 classic I tested last
week now there is a slight difference
between the two with a classic
performing slightly better than the
normal version of the Galaxy watch 6 but
I suspect this is random variation and
not actual Improvement in the
performance though interestingly again
the Galaxy watch 4 and the Galaxy watch
5 are doing better than the Galaxy watch
6. so I'm not sure what's going on here
again this could be by random chance
that for some reason while I was testing
the Galaxy watch 4 and 5 the
circumstances were just bit better than
for the Galaxy watch 6. it could have
been due to for instance sweating versus
non-sweating I tested the Galaxy watch 6
on quite warm days so there are plenty
of devices I tested on warm days like
for instance the Huawei band 8 did it
quite well now as regular viewers will
know Apple watches are performing the
best by far out of any devices out there
I know some of you think I'm an apple
Fanboy but these are just the data and
I'm presenting them to you you can draw
your own conclusions from this also some
Huawei watches are doing quite well like
the Huawei GT3 Pro and we all see that
some cheaper watches like the Huawei
band 8 are doing quite well and a lot
better than some more expensive watches
next let's take a look at another
difficult exercise for a watch to track
weightlifting now for weightlifting it's
not the movement per se that makes it
difficult to track your heart rate but
it's more difficult because of the
increased tension on my wrist and on my
arm making it much harder for the watch
to get a clean heart rate signal I have
our first a quick side note if you're
interested in the latest updates on the
wearables I'm testing I'm planning to
start back up with my newsletter and
posting more Optical things on my
Instagram and my YouTube shorts channel
so if you're interested in any of those
those are linked below of course you'd
also make me really happy I need to help
my efforts if you subscribe to this
YouTube channel but of course this is
totally up to you now enough self
promotion let's take a look at the
performance during weightlifting which I
tested during a total of eight training
sessions now again this is a similar
overview plot and we still want those
points to be as close to the blue line
as possible and as you can see there is
a lot of dark black here close to the
blue line so that's good so especially
here in the lower heart rate range the
polar h10 and the Galaxy watch agree
very well but in the higher heart rate
range there's a lot more deviation we
see some points above it and also below
it so that's somewhat surprising since
most watches only detected to low heart
rate during weightlifting for the moment
I'm doing a set of exercises my heart
rate increases but due to the tension on
my arm and candle detectives so in those
moments it would actually detect it too
low hard right so it would keep
detecting that low heart rate when I'm
in between sets but in this case for
some reason it also quite often attacks
it to high heart rate and the
correlation is also not amazing at 0.73
but let's take a look at the individual
training sessions to see why it's also
detecting a two high heart rate in total
I did eight weightlifting sessions with
the Galaxy watch 6 and here we have the
first result I wanted to share with you
and this session shows how it sometimes
detects it to high heart rate so again
we have the Galaxy watch 6 in red and
here in the beginning it actually takes
a bit of a too high heart rate when I'm
weightlifting later on it does appear to
be performing okay but here it struggles
a bit but for most of the sessions we
actually see patterns we see for many
smart watches where the moment I do a
set of exercises my heart rate increases
as you can see in blue green for the
reference of eyes so you can see in red
that in most cases the Galaxy watch 6
wasn't able to track these peaks in my
heart rate and sometimes when I was
taking a rest in between my sets as you
can see right here but also right here
the Galaxy watch 6 again detected to
high heart rate and this is not that
typical for smart watches now for a few
sessions we see that the Galaxy watch 6
is some times able to detect a peak in
my heart rate for instance right here
and right here but overall still many
Peaks are missed and sometimes it also
overshoots the Peaks as you can see
right here and also right here and right
here where it wasn't able to pick up on
the dip in my heart rate so overall for
weightlifting I cannot recommend the
Galaxy watch 6 but the same is true for
many other watches but to show you how
Auto watch is performed for
weightlifting let's take a look at an
overview where comparing many of the
watches I've tested in the past to the
Galaxy watch 6. and again this is a
similar overview to before but now for
weightlifting with the further to the
right and the higher devices the better
is its performance and as you can see
the Galaxy watch 6 is somewhere in the
middle of all devices it's not terrible
like for instance some amazed with
devices but also not great like the
Apple watches and some selected Huawei
watches now based on this it looks like
the Galaxy watch 6 is mediocre compared
to other watches and again we see at
least in my testing it's super close to
the Galaxy watch 6 classic which makes
sense as they have the same sensor and
also use this same firmware we actually
see that for weightlifting in this case
they're doing better than the Galaxy
watch 4 and the Galaxy watch 5 so that's
somewhat surprising to me that for this
exercise they do seem to be
outperforming the Galaxy watch 4 and 5
whereas for the other exercises they
were doing significantly worse now this
for me could be an indication that there
have been firmware changes that these
firmware changes were actually
detrimental to some exercises but maybe
slightly beneficial to other exercises
but I'm actually retesting the Galaxy
watch 5 now in conjunction with the
Galaxy watch 6 to see if there's any
difference between the two or if not
with the latest firmware they're
performing about the same and this has
led to a decrease in performance for
certain exercises and a slight increase
for weight lifting but those results I
will share in a future video since I'm
still Gathering the data still honestly
for weightlifting it doesn't matter too
much because both the Galaxy watch 6
Galaxy watch 5 and 4 all of them aren't
doing good enough to be used for heart
rate tracking at least not during
weightlifting I would only use devices
with a correlation of at least zero
point 9 preferably close to 0.95 for
tracking my heart during weightlifting
and if you really think it's important
to track your harder during
weightlifting just wear an HD chest
strap that is generally the most
reliable way to track your heart rate so
in general the Galaxy watch 6 seems to
be an okay heart rate monitor but it has
some major issues it tends to work well
enough for indoor cycling at least on me
and I think this level of performance
would be good enough for most people if
I expect most people will not be
satisfied with the outdoor cycling
performance I observed it's performed
during weightlifting also wasn't that
impressive but this might have been
expected since most watches software
performance issues while weightlifting
on the whole I'd rate the heart rate
tracking performance of the Galaxy watch
6 at 3 out of 5 Stars it works decently
enough but only for static exercises
like indoor cycling but okay let's
switch gears and delve into another
Health tracking feature sleep stage
monitoring in their release video
Samsung actually claims they have
significantly stepped up their game in
sleep tracking on the Galaxy watch 6 and
6 classic but as I indicated earlier in
my previous videos I'm afraid that this
Improvement mainly touches upon the data
presentation and not on the actual sleep
stage monitoring itself and I do find
this slightly concerning honestly
because any sleep advice provided by a
watch based on inaccurate data may be
detrimental instead of helpful but this
means it's time to take a closer look to
check if the Galaxy watch 6 can detect
my sleep stages or compare to an EEG
device called to dream 2 that can
actually imagine my brain waves and has
been shown to be relatively reliable at
sleep stage tracking and here I show an
overview of the sleep test results now
if we're getting an overall impression
of how well the Galaxy watch 6 performs
The Dream 2 should likely be good enough
however the gold standard would be poly
sonography which I did try on the Galaxy
watch 6 but I still need to analyze
those results and I also tested that on
the Galaxy watch 5 and you can find that
video right here now on top here are the
sleep stages as recorded by the EEG
device and on the left are the sleep
stages as recorded by the Galaxy watch
6. I wore both EEG device and the guy
Galaxy watch 6 the bet for 8 nights and
we will see how close the predictions of
the Galaxy watch 6 are to those of the
EEG device now each column here sums to
100 meaning that we can see what
percentage of each of the sleep stages
according to the dream 2 was predicted
as a sleep stage by the Galaxy watch 6
and if they perfectly agree all values
on the diagonal should be 100
now first of all we see that only 34 of
what the EEG device detected as deep
sleep was also detected as a deep sleep
by the Galaxy watch 6. so this is a
really low number it detected more of
what the EEG device detected as deep
sleep as light sleep instead at about 54
but let's now take a look at some of the
individual Knights so we can maybe
understand better what's happening and
here you can see their first night I
wanted to share with you now on top we
have the sleep stages according to the
dream to EG headband with long
horizontal axis of time and my sleep
stages along the vertical axis and on
the bottom we have a similar plot but
now for the Galaxy watch 6 and now in
purple right here I highlighted the deep
sleep as recorded by the EEG device and
as you can see there's a marginal
agreement between the EEG device and the
Galaxy watch 6. so some of the deep
sleep with the dream to EEG had been
detected was also detected by the Galaxy
watch but only about half of it right
here I would say and the Galaxy watch
also detected some other deep sleep
right hand right here and it didn't
detect a short deep sleep segment right
here so I would say this isn't looking
that great and for the second night
right here we even see worse agreement
now first of all took a while for the
Galaxy watch 6 to actually detect that
fallen asleep so I'd likely fallen
asleep right here roughly but it took
about 15 minutes more for the Galaxy
watch 6 to detect this and it detected a
lot of awake time here in the beginning
where I actually had some deep sleep so
none of the Deep Sleep detected by the
EEG device overlaps with the Galaxy
watch 6. so that isn't looking too good
and it even attacks some awake time
during these moments now this somewhat
matches with what we saw for the Galaxy
watch 6 classic which also seemed to be
very sensitive and detected too little
deep sleep and too many awake moments
now again we see something similar for
this Knight right here where the Galaxy
watch 6 detected very little deep sleep
and many awake moments though in this
case the moment it did detect deep sleep
it overlapped quite okay with the EEG
device it just detected too little of it
now light sleep agreement was okay I
would say it's 67 so 67 of what the EEG
device that was light sleep was also
detected slightly by the Galaxy watch 6
however also about 20 percent was
detected as RAM sleep instead and about
11 percent as awake time now Ram sleep
agreement was also pretty poor so
similar to Deep Sleep agreement at about
37 percent more of what was a ram sleep
according to the EG device was actually
detected as being a light sleep instead
so also very similar to what we saw for
deep sleep now this is a similar plot to
before but now with the ram sleep as
recorded by the EEG device marked in red
and as you can see there's a pretty poor
overlap between the EEG device and the
Galaxy watch 6. so as you can see I
likely had one two three four Ram sleep
segments with some light sleep in
between and as you can see the Galaxy
watch takes basically detected none of
this it detected some ramps deep right
in between these two segments right here
and it only detected a little really a
tiny bit of REM sleep when I was
actually having Ram sleep according to
the EG device so you see a little bit of
overlap right here and some overlap
right here but generally the ram sleep
detected by the Galaxy watch 6 is very
different from the EEG device at least
that's what we see for this night now
for the second 90 degrees a bit better
so again I had one two 3 4 REM sleep
segments and the Galaxy watch 6 detected
three out of four of these so that's
pretty okay though it did miss this
first short ram sleep segment right here
and detected some extra Ram sleep right
here the overall for this night it looks
okay though for other nights again it
looks pretty bad as we also see for this
night right here where there's very
little overlap except for this last
segment right here and also the first
night we were looking at was pretty bad
and that also means that in most cases
the Galaxy watch 6 cannot affect your
sleep cycles so you go through roughly
four to six sleep cycles each night each
one starting with light sleep and deep
sleep Market in blue and each one ending
in Ram sleep marked here in red now as
you can see I likely had one two three
four sleep cycles this night and the
Galaxy watch wasn't able to detect any
of these now as I mentioned before the
second night I shared with you looked a
lot better and it would have been able
to detect three out of four Cycles so
it's a bit hit and miss though for most
nights it doesn't look very promising
now awake time detection is okay so
similar to light sleep agreement at
about 69 percent and again similar to
light sleep most confusion is with REM
sleep at about 19 but there's also a
significant percentage of what was awake
time according to the EEG defies being
detected as light sleep instead by the
Galaxy watch 6. but again let's take a
look at some of the individual Knights
to see what's actually happening here
this is a similar plot but now with the
awake time as detected by the EEG device
in green and as you can see there's a
pretty poor agreement between the Galaxy
watch 6 and the dream to EEG headband
the dream 2 detected a few awake moment
so one right here and one right here and
the Galaxy watch six detected none of
these also the Galaxy watch 6 attacked
me as falling asleep later and waking up
sooner and also detected a bunch of
extra awake moments during the night so
this doesn't look very promising at
least not for this night but we
generally see something similar for most
nights where the Galaxy watch 6 attacks
a bunch of extra awake moments and also
doesn't fully agree on the moment I fell
asleep and the moment I woke up alright
that doesn't seem too impressive but
let's give it a fair shot by stacking up
the Galaxy watch 6 against a lot of the
other devices I've tested previously now
this graph shows you an overview of the
agreement of different watches with the
EEG device along the horizontal axis we
have the average agreement over the four
individual sleep stages and on the
vertical axis we have the agreement of
the worst sleep stage so the better the
agreement the more to the top right the
devices now the watch is marked in blue
right here were actually tested against
the polysomenography device which is
actually the gold standard of sleep
stage tracking and the device is not
marked in blue or tested against the EEG
device we were just looking at and I
would say that generally the conclusions
drawn based on the EEG device and those
based on the polysonography device
actually give very similar results and
as the regular viewers will know the
devices with the best agreement so far
were different Apple watches in this
case the series 7 Series 8 but also the
Apple watch SE and Apple watch Ultra the
HD both 3 also performs very well and
other good devices include different
fitbits whoops traps the Google pixel
watching the window sleep analyzer
though the agreement is not quite as
good as that of the Apple watches and if
I now plot the results of the Samsung
Galaxy watch 6 in the same plot we can
see it's not doing that great it's
actually very close to the Galaxy watch
5 Galaxy watch 4 classic Galaxy watch 4
Galaxy watch 5 Pro and Galaxy watch 6
classic so all Galaxy watches are more
or less the same area of the plot so I
suspect they use this same algorithm and
their sleep tracking performance is
about the same Samsung does a bit better
than Huawei watches for instance but
still overall they're not doing that
well therefore at the moment at least I
cannot really recommend Galaxy watches
for Sleep stage tracking as you might
have seen in their release video of the
Galaxy watch 6 and 6 classic Samsung did
refocus on sleep tracking though I don't
think they changed their algorithm any I
do think they change the way they
presented it to you and how
interpretable it is but if the
underlying data isn't any good I cannot
really recommend you use the Samsung
Galaxy watch 6 or 6 classic for that
matter for Sleep stage tracking I think
the only thing is good for at the moment
moment is roughly knowing when you fell
asleep and when you woke up so you can
keep yourself accountable for getting
enough sleep opportunity alright while
this honestly aligns a bit with my
general expectations this sleep stage
monitoring of the Galaxy watch 6 just
isn't good enough at least not on me
therefore overall my rating of the
Galaxy watch 6's sleep stage monitoring
would be two or maybe two and a half out
of five stars but moving on let's now
turn our Focus to a feature which could
help some of you discover they have a
sleep disorder you might not even know
you had I'm of course talking about the
oxygen saturation measurements taken by
the Galaxy watch low oxygen saturation
is a common occurrence in sleep apnea
which is a disorder where you basically
stop breathing for parts of the night
which could potentially be diagnosed
with the watches oxygen saturation
measurements because as you stop
breathing your oxygen saturation drops
now where heart rate is generally
recorded using green light red and
infrared light are generally use to
track your oxygen saturation and I
wanted to find out if the Galaxy watch 6
can detect a lowered oxygen saturation
now the test that I took to watch with
me on airplane flight in the plane the
air pressure in the cabinets decreased
during the flight which effectively
lowers the oxygen concentration which
then in turn lowers the oxygen
concentration of my red blood cells and
here in pink you can see plotted Hammer
oxygen saturation roughly vary during
the flight that a reference device I use
for this wasn't perfect so this is a
ring that measures my oxygen saturation
which is pretty good but I did work
during the flight so I typed a bit and
that can influence the measurements but
still we can see I had a higher oxygen
saturation before takeoff than as the
plane ascended my oxygen saturation
decreased it set more or less low during
the flight right here there were some
Peaks right here which are probably due
to movement of my finger then as the
plane descended again my oxygen
saturation increased and it stayed at
normal levels after we landed so let's
now take a look at how the Galaxy watch
6 performed and the measurements I took
with the Galaxy watch 6 uploaded as
green dots right here connected also by
Green lines and as you can see the
patterns match very well with the
reference EEG device
so there are more or less normal values
at ground level that decrease as the
plane was ascending they stayed low
during the flight so much lower than you
would expect at normal levels so at
about 93 or lower then as the plane
ascended again they increased and they
were at their highest when the plane was
back at ground level so this actually
looks quite good and the Galaxy watch 6
performed very well in this testing now
there will be some variation we saw last
week that the Galaxy watch 6 classic
showed similar patterns with a bit more
noise and since they have the same
sensor this might have been due to me
wearing it on a different arm or maybe
the fit was a bit worse still overall I
do think that with both the Galaxy watch
6 and 6 classic you would able to detect
significant drops in oxygen saturation
though again if you get a single low
measurement or even a few there's no
need to panic this is not a medical
device but it could be a reason if this
is something you see consistently during
a knife for instance to get checked by a
doctor and see if we potentially have
sleep apnea and as always I cannot give
you actual medical advice this is just a
YouTube video if you have any issues
please disgusting with your doctor okay
this looks quite good actually now do
keep in mind that this is only a
preliminary test but the results so far
are encouraging therefore I'd rate the
oxygen saturation measurements of the
Galaxy watch 6 with 4 out of 5 Stars
moving on let's now explore a feature of
the Galaxy watch 6 that is likely
utilized by many users the GPS or
location tracking will test this feature
by cycling the same route multiple times
checking if the signals overlap well
which would be a good sign or if we
actually spot significant divergences
between the recorded signals which would
be a bad sign and here you can see the
results for nine times I cycle two work
now I didn't give the Galaxy watch 6 any
extra time to acquire the signal so I
immediately started cycling and I always
started my exercise on the corner right
here and as you can see it did acquire
the signal quite quickly so most points
are quite close to this corner right
here but they are a bit spread out
meaning that the signal wasn't super
accurate in the beginning so that's both
good and bad some watches take a bit
time to acquire the signal but the
Galaxy white shakes didn't need that
time but the accuracy is sort of the
Precision of that signal wasn't very
good in the beginning still overall I do
think it's really good that it required
the signal so quickly and let's now see
it for the rest of the rise the results
were very consistent so the signals over
that very well or if there's a lot of
deviation and a lot of noise in the
signal so we actually need to zoom out a
bit to look at that better and as you
can see most of the time I took the
exact same route one time I needed to
make a small detour but then quickly
went back on track and as you can see in
the beginning there's quite some
deviation between the signals sometimes
they're quite close together but for
instance this signal right here is
deviating quite a bit from the others
then later in the ride some parts look
quite good as you can see right here
there are also some parts where it
struggles quite a bit so the signals are
deviating a bit more again and as we go
along the right we see there are some
regions where it's performing quite well
and some regions were all deviating a
bit more so again here the signals come
together for a bit but for instance here
and also here that we see quite a bit
more deviation than as we go further
along the right we see that the signals
get a bit more consistent especially
here it doesn't look too bad and if we
zoom out a bit we can see that even
better so here the signals are
overlapping quite okay I would say that
the second quality here is acceptable
and if we zoom into this corner right
here where I know that I take quite a
straight angle of this corner there is a
bit of smoothing right here and some
deviation between the signals still
overall it does track where I cycled
roughly but we can all see that quite
often when I had to stop in front of a
traffic light the signal starts to
deviate a bit in place so you can see
some signals right here go a bit to the
left some a bit to the right but it's
not very precise at keeping that signal
at exactly the right spot and later on
we see some more deviations between the
signals especially here deviating quite
a bit so overall even though it roughly
tracks your location and you get a rough
estimate of where you cycle called I
don't think the precise locations are
very accurate and also the total
distance that I cycled might vary quite
a bit because there's noise in the
signal but let's take a look at some
more rides where our Cycles from work
back home and see if the second quality
is a bit better in that case and those
results are displayed right here so
these are seven times I cycled back from
work and I always start my workout right
here in front of the building and you
can see five times it acquired the
signal almost instantly though with some
deviation and two times it took a little
bit of time but this cannot have been
more than 15 seconds or so so this is
quite good so again the signal is
acquired quite quickly though there is
quite a bit of noise in the signal
especially in the beginning and if we
then look at the consistency between the
signals we see more or less the same
thing as we saw before though it might
look a little bit better because I think
cycling back from work it has a bit of
an easier job so there's fewer
interference of buildings around but
let's take a look so in the beginning
here it actually looks quite good and
this is what we see from many watches
that in the beginning here is easier to
track than if we go bit along the Route
right here we see there's quite some
deviation so here it almost never tracks
me is going exactly along the street it
actually has me going through some
buildings as well so the signal quality
here I would say is not that great and
especially right here we see a big
deviation between the signals three
times it really went off track so one
signal right here one right here and
also one right here then as we cycle a
bit further along the ride it looks a
bit worse than I expected honestly it's
just quite some deviation again here and
for this part it maybe looks a bit
better so it's more or less following
the street layout now and also the
signals are more consistent but then
again here we see a bit more deviation
and also right here twice I had to stop
to go into a building it might have been
McDonald's but as you can see then
there's a big deviation in the signal
but this makes sense of course because I
go into a building so I cannot fold it
for that luckily after that it does
acquire the signal quite quickly again
the overall I would say that the signals
are quite noisy we can also see that
right right here and right here that the
signals just aren't super consistent you
roughly can see where you cycled but
it's not really following the street
layout which could of course be a
systematic error in Google maps that
there's a slight deviation from the GPS
positioning of any watch but we also see
that there's a big deviation between the
signals so many watches do a lot better
than this for instance apple and
especially Garmin are a lot better at
tracking my route so long story short
the Galaxy watch 6 doesn't offer the
most impressive location or GPS tracking
the signal is quite noisy and the main
thing that it is going for it is that it
acquires the signal quite quickly this
means it's good enough for people just
wanting to casually map their route
however it's not good enough for anyone
looking to have an accurate record of
their bike ride therefore overall I'd
rate it at three and a half or maybe
even three out of 5 Stars since the
results are even a bit worse compared to
what we saw for the Galaxy watch 6
classic last week though I do expect
this to be random variation given the
similarities between the watches now
before I dive into my overall
conclusions of this watch it's crucial
to mention some of the limitations
regarding my testing methods firstly I
must note I could only test the watch on
me and it might perform differently on
some people factors such as your skin
color gender the hairiness of your arms
and even whether you have tattoos on
your wrist could potentially influence
the performance still I do believe my
testing gives you a general impression
of the watch's performance but keep in
mind that there could be some variation
from person to person also more
extensive testing and future updates
could influence the performance of this
watch as we saw for the Galaxy watch 4
for instance but alright what is my
final verdict well it's not that
different from my impressions of the
Galaxy watch 6 classic I reviewed a week
ago in terms of health and sports
monitoring the Galaxy watch 6 seems to
be an overall average performer it
manages to track my heart rate well
enough but only under easy conditions
and it's not good enough for those
tougher circumstances the oxygen
saturation measurements were actually
pretty good and the GPS tracking was
good enough as long as you don't care
about any of those details on the other
hand is sleep stage monitoring wasn't
impressive very often recording way too
much awake time and limited deep sleep
therefore to sum it up I would rate the
Galaxy watch 6 at 3 out of 5 stars now I
know I'm repeating myself a bit but the
main thing that bugs me personally is
the lack of improvements compared to the
previous generations yes the screen is a
bit bigger now and some other specs show
improvements but the actual health and
sports tracking don't seem to have
improved much and potentially even got a
tiny bit worse though I do want to do
more testing to be sure of that
therefore if I wanted to get value for
my money I would look at a good deal on
the Galaxy watch 5 which potentially
offers more bang for your buck now if
you do decide to get a Galaxy watch 5 a
Galaxy watch 6 a whoop strap another
device or anything at all on Amazon for
that matter even something as small as
toilet paper and at the same time you
want to support this channel there are
different affiliate and non-affiliate
links in the description below they do
not cost you any extra and some even
provide a discount now given that you
watch this whole video on the Galaxy
watch 6 you might also be interested in
some other watch testing and you can
find those videos right here in the
meantime thank you so much for watching
and catch you in the next video
[Music]
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