As part of a $520 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Epic Games will be forced to provide refunds to Fortnite players who were allegedly tricked into making unintended purchases on the platform. About $245 million has been specifically earmarked for these refunds. The regulator has started notifying more than 37 million people via email if they are for compensation.

The entire process may take one month to complete and the FTC says customers who believe they were impacted will have until January 17, 2024, to submit a claim where you can simply apply for a refund directly on the FTC’s website. The FTC notes that this is one of the largest refunds in a gaming-related case to happen to date.

The FTC previously claimed that Epic Games used deceptive tactics to get Fortnite players to make unintended in-game purchases. As part of a complaint first announced by the FTC in December of last year, the agency says the video game-making company made it easy for underage players to rack up charges “without parental consent” and also “locked the accounts of consumers” that disputed unauthorized charges. Because Epic Games violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA, it was ordered to pay $275 million in addition to the consumer refunds.

Google has prototyped an “Augmented Reality Microscope,” (ARM) in conjunction with the Department of Defense, which incorporates artificial intelligence enhancements to overlay visual indicators, like heatmaps or object boundaries, in real-time. The AI additions allegedly make it easier to classify samples and identify the presence of cancer cells or pathogens.

The ARM was first teased publicly in 2018 and has not been used to diagnose patients yet. Currently, 13 prototypes of the ARM exist, with significant testing still needed before it can assist everyday clinicians. However, the intention is to create a system that can be "retrofitted into existing light microscopes found in hospitals and clinics," according to Google. ARM-equipped microscopes can then provide a variety of visual feedback, including text, arrows, contours, heat maps, or animations, each tailored to unique assessment goals.

The Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit has reportedly negotiated agreements with Google that will enable ARM distribution through the military, according to CNBC, with the hope that it could be available to some government users sometime this fall. ARM is expected to cost between $90,000 and $100,000 — likely well beyond the means of local health providers. We've asked Google for more information on the progress of the program and potential timeline of availability and will update if we hear back.

This is not the first time Google Health has dipped its toes in investing in AI-powered tools that not only improve the accuracy of diagnostics but also help fill gaps in medicine where there is limited availability of healthcare personnel. The tech giant has made it a point to partner with startups that invest in AI to “improve healthcare” and is projected to have invested upwards of $200 billion on AI investments in the past decade, according to Reuters. This is especially noteworthy considering the World Health Organization predicts a shortfall of 15 million health care workers worldwide by 2030.

This spring Dyson launched the Zone, which pairs noise-canceling headphones with an air-purifying visor. It was swiftly met with backlash for its funky, bane-like aesthetic. Oh, and it's $949 price tag. What no one could have predicted is that, just a few months after Zone launched, a massive Canadian wildfire would billow enough smoke across the East Coast to turn New York City’s skyline into a surreal orange nightmare. The “orange scare” was a freakishly timely event that drew attention to the climate crisis. This, in tandem with the World Health Organization's (WHO), estimates that 9 in 10 people around the world are breathing in air that exceeds pollutant limits, should be enough to scare anyone – especially considering how quickly urbanization is growing, exacerbating those problems. Suddenly AQI entered everyone’s vocabulary and probably more than a few people started giving the Dyson Zone another look.

Dyson’s reputation as a maker of household air purifiers gives the company solid ground to build on; it’s just making the tech wearable. The company claims that the Zone’s two-stage, sealed filtration system can remove 99 percent of ultrafine particles and “city fumes.” Dyson’s engineering lead Vicky Gibson-Robinson told Engadget that the Zone uses an electrostatic filter to capture particulates as small as 0.1 microns. That, paired with an activated carbon filter that she claims can absorb fumes and gasses such as nitrogen dioxide (the main pollutant emitted by cars, trucks, and buses), is the bread and butter of the filter. Keep in mind, though, that the Zone will require electrostatic filter replacements, anywhere from every six to 12 months depending on the dirtiness of the city you are based in. The carbon filter, on the other hand, Dyson engineers said will not need to be replaced as often and should only be swapped out when “it starts smelling.”

The Zone has three air flow rates based on your level of activity: rest (level one), light (level two), and moderate (level three). Gibson-Robinson says the best way to get the most out of the Zone is by setting it to auto mode to preserve battery life (a big point of contention which we will get to later). “If you put it in auto mode, it will just ramp up and ramp down as it needs to,” she said, meaning the Zone is smart enough to know when to increase the filtration rate depending on the wearer’s movement and breathing rate. The more you strain and move, the more inhaling and exhaling, and the more filtration is needed.

Gibson-Robinson says that all the claims made about the Dyson Zone, such as its ability to remove fine particles like PM2.5 that can enter your respiratory tract, were made via testing each part of the filtration system individually. Meaning, the electrostatic filter, the activated carbon filter, and the impeller fan were tested alone. Gibson-Robinson claims that since we were not planning to disassemble the device during our tests, we might find that the Zone's ability to filter pollutants would be even greater than claimed.

Engadget Video

Engadget picked three locations to test how well the Zone performed, including a clean lab as a control, and a subway station in New York City, followed by a busy intersection. We reached out to experts at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine who work in partnership with the University’s Langone’s Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards to help us test the Dyson Zone's filtration system.

"The subway is a good substitute for a worst-case scenario," said Terry Gordon, NYU Professor at the Grossman School of Medicine, who helped Engadget run these tests. Gordon, who has researched the underground transit systems and its health effects on commuters, says that in a scenario where an air quality emergency is not taking place, the air quality inside a subway station is comparable. Meaning, how well the Zone does in the subway station would be a good indicator of how well it would perform during another acute air pollution crisis.

Once we agreed on a mission, our aim was simple: test how well the Zone removed pollutants from the air surrounding a wearer’s breathing zone, no pun intended. We primarily used two lab-grade devices: a portable particulate monitor and a particulate counter. The portable particulate monitor gave us real-time measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 particulates in the air, which are the two main types of pollutants scientists care about and differentiate based on size. Meanwhile, a particulate counter is used to measure the concentration of pollutants left in the air. In an ideal world, we would have liked to test the Zone's ability to filter out volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or toxic chemicals that come from home products and natural sources like benzene, formaldehyde or acetone, but these compounds were not easily detectable in the city streets or on the subway by our handheld VOC detector. This made sense since the subway tract is mostly run on electricity, not coal or gas.

Dyson

For each test, we collected data while the Dyson Zone's visor blew air in my face, instead of a dummy head. We did it this way for two reasons. For one, the lab-grade dummy head was not always detected by the Zone, so the filter would not run properly. Also, this allowed me to include real-world user experience in our assessment.

So first, in the NYU lab, while the visor blew fresh air into my face, Gordon's Ph.D. students David Luglio and Antonio Saporito held clear tubes connected to both the portable particulate monitor and the particulate counter in the path of the airflow. This happened in the small cramped space between the plastic visor and my lips. By doing this, we were able to gauge how the numbers recorded on the devices changed when the filter was turned on and off. Because it was a clean lab, the air quality was already pretty good. When we turned on the filter to rate three, the volume of PMs measured by the monitor dropped to zero. No surprise there.

Engadget Video

We applied the same method on the 14th Street-1st Avenue subway platform in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which is often flooded with college students taking the L train into Brooklyn. Using the particulate monitor and the particulate counter, we recounted how the filter did before and after being turned on. The results clearly demonstrated the Zone's effectiveness. The ambient particle monitor went from giving a reading of 200 micrograms of particle matter per cubic meter of air before it dropped close to 50. This meant the air quality went from dangerous to normal with the Zone running a level three.

Meanwhile, the particle counter went from measuring 20,000 particulates per cubic centimeter to under 1,000 at the level three. So instead of all those fine particles going up into my respiratory tract, they were wafted away through the filtration system.

NYU doctoral student David Luglio, whose thesis work has primarily focused on the health effects of long-term exposure to subway air quality in large metropolitan areas in cities like New York and D.C., was shocked by how well the Zone filtered the subway air. "Air quality in the subways in general, wildfire or not, is probably one of the worst environments to be in in New York City because concentrations are typically at least 100 micrograms per cubic meter, and outside on a typical day it is only 10 or less."

Engadget Video

In our final test, we used the same method on the busy street corner right across from the subway station. Again, the Zone did its thing. Readings from the two live monitors spiked and dropped again-proving that the Zone actually worked.

"It's Dyson and Dyson knows particles and filtrations, that's what they're famous for," Gordon said. The Dyson Zone proved it can remove ambient particles from the surrounding air, he continued. Those particles "are the main contributor to the adverse health effects of air pollution-more so than ozone, NO2, SO2," and ultimately wearing a device like the Zone will protect your lungs and your heart from the adverse health effects of long-term air pollution.

This is all great in theory. However, there almost always has to be a catch with experimental devices that explore new categories like the Zone does: the battery life. Unfortunately, while testing, the Zone would only last about an hour and a half. We had to keep a charger handy in case it decided to shut off. This, coupled with the fact that we weren't even using the audio feature while testing, told me that the device is still a long way from being practical for everyday use. Dyson is fully of this issue. "Although the audio system and the airflow system are two separate systems, they're sharing the battery," Gibson-Robinson said.

You only have to look at what Dyson has done with the vacuum cleaners, Gibson-Robinson explained. To draw a comparison, Gibson-Robinson brought up her first handheld vacuum. "[It] had a runtime of something like nine minutes, 15 minutes, something like that and now my newest one, which I got the other week, actually blew my mind. It's like 60 minutes of runtime," she continued.

It took the company a decade to make that leap. While Dyson's capacity to boost battery life in its handheld vacuums could be a good indicator that there are loads of gains to be made for the Zone, it’s nearly impossible to justify the $949 asking price. That, coupled with the fact that the climate crisis is worsening day by day, some consumers (myself included) might not be willing to wait for Dyson.

Still, Gibson-Robinson says the compromise on battery life "felt adequate" in order to offer a device that could double as a headphone and a filter. "We've obviously had to balance between because the batteries are housed in that headband... and we've had to balance comfort and weight with battery life and performance," she said. But ultimately, "It's engineered and designed to be worn primarily as a pair of headphones and then secondary, which pains me to say because I did all the filtration stuff, the secondary function is that it's a purifier," she added.

Besides the disappointing battery life, I wasn't a fan of the plastic visor itself. Although Dyson claims it's super durable (Gibson-Robinson even dropped the visor from a balcony once out of curiosity), the detachable plastic felt like an awkward appendage at times. You can pull the visor down to sit below your chin while you're wearing the headphones if you don't want to run the filter all the time. You can also flick it back up and have your face covered in a second if you are ready to turn on the filtration mode. But something about it hanging beneath my chin when the filter was off felt kind of gross after a while.

Engadget Video

If you’re a germaphobe like me, there's plenty of reason to worry about something being so close to your face all the time. For one, it bumps into your face when you put it on in a rush and do not adjust it properly. It also comes off pretty easily, making it easy to drop on, say, a gross subway station floor. On the plus side, although the material feels cheap and flimsy, it’s at least easy to clean since it’s removable and wipeable.

Still, there's a heaviness to the device overall. I don't feel like I can just brandish the headphones around my neck, especially with the visor up. Not only is it uncomfortable after a few hours of wear, but it’s sure to attract attention, which isn’t ideal when I just want to feel invisible on my commute home.

If I were really concerned with my respiratory health and wanted to limit my daily exposure to pollutants, I would choose something more practical and affordable. Is it nice to know the Zone does in fact work? Sure, but why would I drop $949 on this when I already have a pair of good noise-canceling headphones, and cheaper filtration alternatives exist. Besides the standard K-95 mask, a chemical respirator with filters used in construction and for painting, there are portable HEPA filters you can buy off of Amazon for under $50 bucks. They run for about 200 to 500 hours and have a filtration efficiency of 99.7%. It basically provides what the Zone offers in its level one filtration mode, but at a fraction of the cost and without any of the battery limitations.

Agility Robotics, the creator of the bipedal robot Digit, is opening a manufacturing plant in Salem, Oregon that will give the company the capacity to produce more than 10,000 humanoid robots a year. The 70,000 square foot factory coined “RoboFab” is set to open later this year and will employ upwards of 500 workers in Salem.

Agility Robotics says its facility will also employ its very own Digits, the iconic humanoid robot, in the new factory. The Digits will help move, load and unload warehouse goods.

The company says some customers can expect delivery of the first Digits in 2024, with general market availability in 2025. In a statement, Damion Shelton, Agility Robotics’ co-founder and CEO says that the ultimate goal of creating Digits is to “Solve difficult problems in today’s workforce like injuries, burnout, high turnover and unfillable labor gaps.”

The manufacturing of bipedal robots is something we have seen teased by competitors like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Tesla’s Optimus robot prototype. However, none have matured to the extent of being able to churn out thousands of robots like that being seen in this effort by Agility Robotics. Still, until these robots are actually in production, it's too soon to say if Agility Robotics’ warehouse robots, which are designed to fill a gap in the logistics and distribution industry, will actually surpass its competitors in this newly burgeoning market.

GE Health says it plans to develop an AI-assisted ultrasound imaging tool that is so easy to use, that even healthcare providers without specialized training will be able to operate it. The device's research and development will be funded by a $44 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has historically invested in the roll-out of new technologies in resource-poor settings to address gaps in healthcare access.

GE says the AI-powered imaging technology has been designed to be dispersed to low-and-middle income countries where the services of healthcare providers may be stretched thin. The ultrasound tool will be more effective at providing clear readings of lung and ultrasound scans across maternal and fetal care as well as pediatric lung health. These areas of medicine are particularly notable because maternal and child mortality is mostly preventable if medical intervention occurs early. Proper medical imaging is key to achieving timely diagnosis, guides treatment decisions and can improve treatment outcomes.

GE’s $3 billion ultrasound business, has recently focused on the development pipeline of AI software with the acquisition of med tech companies like Caption Health, which will help design this particular ultrasound device. The company appears committed to a strategy of increasing spending on AI-related projects both now and in the near future.

Google will pay $93 million in a settlement it reached with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, resolving allegations that the company’s location-privacy practices violated the state’s consumer protection laws. The California Department of Justice claimed that Google was “collecting, storing, and using their location data” for consumer advertising purposes without informed consent.

The complaint alleges that Google continued to collect consumer data related to a user’s location even when a user turned the “location history” feature off. The company settled similar lawsuits in Arizona and Washington last year for illegally tracking consumers.

In addition to paying $93 million, Google agreed to “deter future misconduct.” This settlement, which won’t really hurt Google’s deep pockets, is important because the tech giant generates the majority of its revenue from advertising and location-based advertising is a critical feature of its advertising platform.

Moving forward, the California AG is asking Google to provide additional transparency about location tracking by providing users with detailed information about location data it collects. The company must also provide disclaimers to users that their location information may be used for ad personalization.

Engadget reached out to Google for comment but didn't receive a response.

If you're a premium subscriber to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, you now can hide your likes tab from the public, the company said in a tweet.

When enabled, the tab for likes is supposed to disappear completely from an X Premium user’s profile. The new feature can be turned on when you change your preferences through the early access period.

This move is the latest appeal Musk’s X is making to paying patrons. It's a continuation of X’s galvanized effort to appeal to more subscribers, especially considering the company’s US advertising revenue is down 60 percent, and also a way for premium subscribers to hide the fact that they are liking hateful or otherwise questionable tweets. You can subscribe as a premium member for as little as $8/month or $84/year, which will also grant you early access to new features, and of course the verified blue check mark.

We may see more public figures and officials take up X on their premium offering after this announcement. Historically, we have seen PR crises ensue for politicians like Ted Cruz, who forgot his likes were public when in 2017, his account “hearted” a pornographic clip that left the internet howling.

A new lineup of COVID-19 vaccines are now becoming available in the US. The updated shots will arrive at select pharmacies as retailers continue to receive inventory. CVS says it expects all of its pharmacies to have the new vaccines in stock by early next week, and some stores appear to already have the latest shot. Appointments at Walgreens will start opening up scheduling today, with appointments beginning for the public starting Monday.

The CDC is urging most Americans to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine, however, it does not specify if at-risk populations or immunocompromised people should get priority access. The CDC does mention that vaccination will reduce chances of “suffering the effects of Long COVID.” This CDC recommendation comes in light of an eight percent uptick in COVID-related hospitalizations this week.

Availability follows the FDA’s decision to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax shots for emergency use earlier this week. Novovax’s booster was recommended for use by the CDC, but is still awaiting emergency use authorization by the FDA. The jabs being made available are essentially updated versions of existing Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and that have been formulated to protect against the recent omicron subvariant called the Omicron variant XBB.1.5, the current dominant strain circulating in the US.

CDC

The CDC has also launched a Bridge Access Program, which earmarks $1 billion to ensure continued free coverage for COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured Americans.

The FDA says the timing and number of doses to get will depend on previous COVID-19 vaccines received. The FDA anticipates that COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated annually and will likely be revised like seasonal influenza vaccines. Side effects from the vaccine may also vary from individual to individual, however the CDC notes that the most common side effects from COVID-19 vaccination include pain at the injection site, fatigue, muscle aches and headaches.

Later this week, the CDC says vaccines.gov will be updated with COVID-19 availability information as the vaccine is distributed. This government site can show which boosters are being offered at which local pharmacies using an interactive map.

That’s not Photoshop — it’s supposed to look like that. This is Honda’s Motocompacto, a throwback all-electric rideable inspired by the short-lived Honda Motocompo scooter of the ‘80s, and I'm sorry to say that I'm kind of into it.

The vehicle, folded up, resembles one of those Costco folding tables but with little aluminum wheels poking out the bottom. To transform it into a scooter, you extend the handlebars, seats and back wheel, and ride away on something vaguely approximating a bike. (To give you some perspective on the design, this thing is just over three feet long.)

Honda

Honda says its aluminum frame and wheels keep it “lightweight” but at 41 pounds it’s firmly in the same weight class as regular e-bikes, and with a range of "up to 12 miles," it's not getting you very far either. After its 12-mile range is used up, it can be re-juiced in 3.5 hours, which is a considerable amount of time, but at least it comes with an on-board charger ready for you to plug into a 110V outlet.

The scooter is designed to be easy to take into vehicles or on public transportation — which could be a huge selling point for city dwellers that want the convenience of an e-bike or scooter but not the trouble of securely locking it up all day. It's part of Honda's big EV push, which aims to replace its entire lineup with battery-electric and fuel-cell-electric vehicles by 2040.

The Honda Motocompacto will be available starting in November priced “under $995” exclusively on Motocompacto.com and at Honda and Acura dealers.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 received a mostly modest upgrade from its predecessor, the Galaxy Watch 5. Sure, it may have worked to improve some health tracking features. And it even managed to give the wearable a sleeker design while extending battery life. But it is clear that Samsung was not aiming to reinvent the wheel here (and they usually don’t). It's easy to understand why too, when the last generation was already pretty good.

In this year's update, Samsung focused its efforts on expanding its wellness-centric features. These include enhanced personalized sleep coaching and insights, the ability to personalize heart rate zone training during running sessions, improved GPS tracking tailored for track runners, further customization in the workout app and the inclusion of irregular heart rate rhythm notifications, just to name a few. The caveat, of course, is that the Watch 6’s predecessors will have access to all these updates, dating back to the Watch 4. So, if you have one of the previous two models, it might not be necessary to upgrade.

Still, the Galaxy Watch 6’s modest improvements allow it to keep up with frontrunners in the field. For example, it can now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Fitbit's advanced sleep analysis features. The new heart health tools also give the watch the EKG monitoring prowess of Apple and Pixel smartwatches. Meanwhile, the improved run coaching brings it closer to watches offered by Garmin.

Design and battery life

The mechanical bezel-free edition of the Watch 6 is priced at $299 for the 40mm model, which comes in graphite and gold; the 43mm version, which also comes in silver, commands a slightly higher price of $329. It may lack the rotating bezel of the Classic, but it does have a digital bezel which allows you to scroll through your most-used widgets like Sleep, Workouts, and Weather without needing to poke around a menu. 

With the Watch 6, Samsung also introduced a new design feature called One-Click, which makes it easier to swap bands with the literal click of a button for your ever-changing style needs. I personally am a huge fan of the graphite sports band and the flush circular face which gives the watch a sleeker feel.

The Watch 6 also boasts a more vibrant, higher-resolution display with peak brightness reaching 2,000 nits, up from the last model's max of 1,000 nits. The screen is also 20 percent larger, making it easier to read text. The always on display (AOD) drained battery life of the Watch 5 pretty quickly when our Deputy Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low reviewed it, but I didn't have similar issues wearing the Watch 6 all day.

Malak Saleh

The Galaxy Watch 6 comes equipped with a larger battery to support this year’s bigger and brighter display. Samsung claims the watch should run for up to 30 hours with the AOD on and up to 40 hours with it off. This is ideal for busy people who want the guarantee that the watch will work after an eight-hour workday before heading to the gym and again later, for sleep tracking. After using the watch for a day or two (mainly for workout tracking), I have been able to charge the watch to about 80 percent, or almost full, in under 30 minutes using the quick charge feature, adding at least another eight hours of battery life each time. However, battery life for any wearable tends to fluctuate depending on the extent of usage.

Health monitoring and tracking

Malak Saleh

The Watch 6 features an Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification (IHRN) feature, which is new for Samsung but has been around for years on competing devices. The FDA-backed IHRN tool detects EKG activity that is suggestive of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a condition that usually preempts stroke or heart failure. The feature, approved by the FDA, monitors a user's heart activity continuously in the background. Because I don't have AFib, there was no way to test this feature to see if it could accurately detect irregular heart activity. This, coupled with the traditional blood pressure monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, body composition measuring tool, and EKG readings, add to Samsung's overall pool of individualized health data tracking that can easily be accessed in reports on a paired Android phone and shared with a healthcare provider or family member.

I do wish that after running a standard EKG reading, the language around heart health was less jargony. The "sinus rhythm detected" pop-up could easily be misunderstood, but in reality just means your heart activity is normal. That aside, Samsung did cover its own back. With each EKG cycle you run, a pop up disclosure repeats: “this wearable does not detect heart attacks.” The addition of the IHRN feature on the Watch 6 is in line with the company’s attempt to offer more useful cardiovascular insights to users.

Expanding its range of tracking features, Samsung built upon its existing menstrual cycle predictions tool introduced in the Watch 5. This includes the skin temperature reading and sensor technology from the last-gen model, which records measurements during sleep. This addition aids in monitoring your monthly period, ovulation cycle and fertility windows. For it to be useful, though, the tool needs consistent data input by a user so that its predictions get smarter.

Malak Saleh

Powered by Natural Cycles, a period tracking app, the new dedicated watch face makes it easy to input daily symptoms, which are not all necessarily tethered to a menstrual cycle. It can track everything from mood changes to physical conditions like cramping and bloating to logging sexual activity. All that data, in aggregate, can help Samsung’s app predict when a period will start and end, fertility windows, and when ovulation is expected to kick in. This is all great in theory, but if you're not great at logging daily, you might end up like me, with outdated predictions that your period was supposed to start but never did.

The new watch also comes with a fall detection feature that has a built-in SOS tool that shares a user's location with an emergency service line or emergency contact of your choosing when a hard fall is detected. You have to manually set up this feature and select when the watch should detect falls – it can be on all the time, during workouts, or quote, “during any activity, or movements not registered as exercise.” Once a fall is detected, Samsung says the device can take up to 30 seconds to recognize a fall, but the waiting period can be customized to as little as 10 seconds.

Medical information and conditions unique to a user’s health history can be plugged into the interface on the paired device. This might be especially useful for elderly populations or people who are medically at a fall risk (think post-surgical or highly medicated patients). However, during testing, after falling on different surfaces, and staying stationary for at least 30 seconds each time, I was never able to trigger the alert system. Samsung claims that after a fall, a watch should alert a user for 30 seconds with a popup, sound, and vibration. This delay is supposed to give a user time to get up or cancel the action of alerting emergency services. To be fair, this was also difficult to trigger on the competing Apple Watch Series 8.

Customizable fitness regimens

Malak Saleh

Making a unique workout plan with key metrics and goals in mind is nothing new for an avid fitness junkie. Since the launch of the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung has made it a point to expand its workout trackers, with over 95 unique exercises and sports to track on the watch face, users can also create their own custom workouts. I regularly start my lift sessions with 45-pound dumbbells. I was able to name this workout in the watch as my deadlift warmup and keep track of the amount of calories burned per session. This focus on customization is not new, though, with competitors like Fitbit and Apple offering similar interfaces in their fitness tracking tools. The ability to create a program to burn a set amount of calories or reach a certain number of steps can be helpful for people like me who like to prefer to count down rather than up.

Continuing with the theme of customization, Samsung’s new personalized HR zones are meant to help runners better determine how fast to go. The tool is meant to allow users to keep tabs on heart rate zone data and gain insights into personal exertion levels. By staying within specific zones, I can tailor my workout to match my fitness goals, whether it's fat-burning, endurance improvement, or cardiovascular conditioning. Also, tracking heart rate can help a runner avoid overexertion, which can lead to burnout, or injury. Staying within an appropriate heart rate range ensures a runner is working out safely and sustainably. That all said, again, like most health and fitness features, the benefit of monitoring will come down to discipline. 

Malak Saleh

I put the feature to the test by setting up my personalized HR zone to a custom bracket that mimics a high-intensity performance, between 165 to 175. When I went on a run, it kept urging me to speed up and buzzed my wrist with the notification that I was below target. And these notifications are no joke. I struggled to reach my target and even when I did, it was mostly luck.

Running with that much effort, I barely had time to process how to adjust my run according to the alert. So I took a stab at the easiest HR zone target for low-intensity workouts instead at 95 to 105 bpm and found myself struggling with a similar issue-not being able to consistently stay in my target zone. This time, the HR zone alerts were constantly showering me with reminders that I was overexerting and above my HR zone. 

Malak Saleh

This is all to say that although it is a nice feature to have if you're a seasoned athlete and can comprehend and adjust your exertion accordingly. But it's almost not nearly as beneficial to just get a snapshot overview of where my HR zone naturally is with a given run tracker instead of feeling the constant distracting buzz alerting me to something I'm not sure quite sure what to do with

Overall, the notification feature is overstimulating. Even when I paused a workout and tried to have a conversation with Cherlynn, the watch kept pinging me to speed up my run, as it continued to monitor my heart rate zone activity and suggest changes even at rest. Despite this one-off, the watch’s sensitivity in terms of auto detection for movement is pretty accurate. It was noticeably faster at recognizing pauses and restarting based on my movement than my Apple Watch, which was often at least a few seconds behind.

Sleep tracking and analysis

Malak Saleh

Samsung has said it wants to enhance the sleep experience for users by expanding its comprehensive but individualized sleep pattern analysis tools since the last generation. Samsung’s previously announced Sleep Mode features, which automatically disables notifications, dims the watch's screen, and switches to an invisible infrared LED to minimize distractions. I had no trouble setting up sleep goals and (to my surprise) sleeping with the watch on. It doesn't suffocate my wrist at night and if anything, is easy to forget it's on after a while. You can also set up the Smart Things feature, which will detect when a user is sleeping and create the “ideal sleep environment” by turning off or adjusting home electronics like TVs and lights if you're connected to Samsung home devices. However, I was not able to see how the Watch 6 would interact with smart home gadgets because I don't personally own any Samsung home devices.

What I liked about the sleep analysis feature is that after each night of sleep with it on, I got a pretty comprehensive breakdown of how I slept, REM graphic and all, on the Watch 6's dedicated sleep watch face. I was able to get an even more detailed view of my sleep quality on the phone, which showed me how my nights compared on a day to day, telling me which parts of my REM graphic meant what and why it matters. For example, it broke down how much deep sleep I got and it told me how much more I needed. After sleeping with it for seven nights, you're supposed to trigger the sleep coach program that also pairs you with your “sleep animal,” a little 2D avatar that is representative of your nighttime habits. And while it was more comfortable than an Apple Watch, I just don't like the feeling of having something on my wrist at night.

The competition

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 has emerged as a top choice among Android users, especially at this price point. However, the Apple Watch Series 8, which starts at $399, is the obvious alternative for iPhone users. The features are similar, with both models providing GPS tracking, heart-rate sensing, fall detection, sleep tracking and automatic workout recognition.

In terms of fitness-centric offerings, the Garmin Forerunner 745, which is on sale for $299, might be better suited for athletes seeking comprehensive insights into performance metrics and running-focused training regimens. While it may not be as all-encompassing in terms of health guidance tools, it still includes fundamental features like heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, stress monitoring, and fall detection.

But if you want pretty similar offerings in terms of fitness tracking and sleep coaching, the Fitbit Versa 4, which starts at $199, is a pretty cheap alternative. However, with the Versa 4, you get a less integrated smartwatch that feels pretty barebones. For instance, you can’t make or take phone calls or control music through the watch.

Wrap-up

Samsung has a vision for the Galaxy Watch 6 to be perceived as a health buddy, with all of its dedicated wellness-centric updates in heart health, women's health, fitness and sleep domains. But the actual benefits come down to the user. Without discipline, there are no insights to be gained, no tracking worthwhile, or coaching that will be accurate.

But this doesn't take away from the device's well-deserved shine in some areas, namely design, comfort and fitness. It's nothing we have not seen before, and if you already own a wearable of recent vintage, or are an iOS user it's probably not meant for you. If you have the last-gen Galaxy Watch, then hold on to your money because the updates are already in your pocket.