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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • I’m still rocking a Galaxy Watch 4: one of the first Samsung watches with WearOS. It has a true always-on screen, and most should. The always-on was essential to me. I generally notice within 60 minutes if an update or some “feature” tries to turn it off. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing off about your comment.

    It’s a pretty rough experience. The battery is hit or miss. At good times, I could get 3 days. Keeping it locked, (like after charging) used to kill it within 60 minute (thankfully, fixed after a year). Bad updates can kill the battery life, even when new: from 3 days life to 10 hours, then to 3 days again. Now, after almost 3 years, it’s probably about 30 hours, rather than 3 days.

    In general, the battery life with always-on display should last more than 24 hours. That’d be pretty acceptable for a smartwatch, but is it a smartwatch?

    It can’t play music on its own without overheating. It can’t hold a phone call on its own without overheating. App support is limited, but the processor seems to struggle most of the time. Actually smart features seem rare, especially for something that needs consistent charging.

    Most would be better off with a Pebble or less “smart” watch: better water resistance, better battery, longer support, 90% of the usable features, and other features to help make up for any differences.