After trying the Wear OS versions they felt a lot like downgrades. Oh they were fast, were OK on battery (not great) but there were things I didn't like.
1. They look like smartwatches, not like actual watches. I am far more into vintage looks and that shows with the outfits I wear, trying to live it up like it's 1958. A watch that looks like a smartwatch, or the Samsung version of an Apple Watch (because let's face it, nobody is gonna see an Apple watch and assume it's a real mechanical watch) clashes with my preferred look and outfit. The original Galaxy Watch looks like a watch, as in a real watch, and they sure don't make 'em like that anymore. Even the default watch face is heavily skeuomorphic and has a second hand movement that looks mechanical, even a ticking sound when putting it near your ear.
2. I prefer Tizen over Wear OS. Hey, I gave it a chance, and yes, Wear OS is far better than the mess 2.x was a few years ago. Unfortunately there are downsides. One, I HATE the app drawer layout. Tizen has a better one that works best with a round display and you can use the bezel to scroll it. Also, you can see the names of apps when using the bezel, and don't have to decipher some of the more cryptic ones that are on a Wear OS version. Also, there's app badges for notifications. I always preferred app badges on the icons over a notification centre, especially when the ones on both Tizen and Wear OS are broken most of the time, showing 'no notifications' when there are notifications, or showing outdated notifications. Also, Tizen's notifications can be completely viewed, while on Wear OS, a lot of them are trimmed, and tapping the notification produces 'check your phone'. I mean, can I please read the complete text message via the notification please? without my phone? That's why I wear the watch--to keep phone in pocket when I'm away from home. The watch makes it convenient to read a quick text, respond, or see the beginning of an email. Which brings me to the next complaint--an email notification doesn't show anything and tapping it also produces 'check phone' instead of letting me at least read the first few sentences of the email or the subject. Tizen's battery life is double that of Wear OS. I also prefer Tizen's keyboard, since it allows me to type a sentence with an emoji all at once. With Wear OS, it only let me send emoji only, or words only. I couldn't type this "hey babe I love you 😍"anymore. I had to type "hey babe I love you" then in a separate text send the "😍". Also, the Gboard has lousy predictive text. It also can't suggest an emoji. Samsung's Tizen keyboard has learned my habits so much it pretty much knows what I'm gonna say before I say it, meaning most messages I send are one-tap quickies that show up on the predictive portion entirely. Meaning I don't have to T9 most of the time.
3. the apps. I don't really need a ton of apps on the watch. It's just a convenient way to see notifications, send/receive texts, get email alerts, see the weather, get a glimpse of my health data, and control music. I don't WANT Google apps on my watch, and on my phone I tend to prefer Samsung's own apps over Google's. I actually love Bixby and for myself it works not only better than the Google Assistant but it can do far more than the Google Assistant. I know Bixby exists on Wear OS but I also want the Galaxy Store and other Samsung apps on the watch. I don't need Play Store or the far more limited selection of watch faces, plus, on Wear OS, all those fancy faces I purchased on the Galaxy Store aren't available. The watch face selection is crap on Wear OS, plus I hate having separate, redundant 'companion apps' on my phone for every face it does offer. Why is that still a thing?
4. "Check your phone" this comes up far more often than I feel it should on Wear OS. Even tapping an email notification produces it. I wear the watch to avoid extra screen time on my phone and to keep it safe in my pocket when out. I don't WANT to check my phone just to see the beginning of an email, the entire text message, and so on.
5. Downgraded app experience vs. Tizen. Spotify can't download, can't add tracks or search for specific songs on Wear OS's version, but it can on the Tizen version. There is also severely degraded standalone capability on the Wear OS watches.
6. I want my watch to be 'no longer supported'. I hate updates. I hate being bugged by them, nagged to install them, and forced to accept them. The OG Galaxy Watch no longer gets updates, but works fine. It can do what I ask of it and never bother me with another update ever again. On the modern watches, if there's an OTA update, the phone constantly shows a pop-up asking to install it multiple time a day. There's no 'leave me alone and let me enjoy my watch' button. You can disable auto-download on wifi, but it still bugs you on both the phone and the watch about it either way.
7. Samsung should have kept developing Tizen. Let's face it, we need competition otherwise we stifle innovation. We already have Wear OS. Why must Samsung start using it? Let's have more competition out there, please. Nothing wrong with it. Losing Tizen means less of that, and more and more homogenization. There's room for many OSs out there, not just one or two.
I'm gonna rock this watch until it ceases to function. I don't believe in obsolescence and I keep stuff until it breaks. Unless 5G ever dies off, I'm also hoping my Z Flip 4 works until I'm dead and gone. I don't see or understand the 'upgrade' of Wear OS. I can use Samsung Pay, Bixby, SMS, email, weather, Samsung Health, and get a great selection of watch faces just fine on the Tizen watch. What am I missing that would warrant buying a watch that I don't like? What does Wear OS do that I cannot do? From my short time with it, it seemed to do far less. It had more Google clutter, I wasn't certain a software update wouldn't remove Bixby one day, and it had no Samsung Email app or Galaxy Store app. The app drawer was a massive downgrade, and the rotating bezel seemed less utilized than it should be. It required 'checking your phone' far too much. Maybe everyone else out there wants their phone in their hand or in their face everywhere they go, but not me.
