Warning: this post is a massive rant.

Essentially it boils down to; I want a watch. The watch that I buy could force me to buy a matching phone.

My history with Apple is long and tedious to get into. For over 15 years I have swung between hating and loving them; even in my own mind my feelings towards them are highly conflicted.

I recently went through a tech purge where I removed all of my payment methods from my phone, ditched a digital license, purchased a wallet and installed GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7 Pro. I didn’t bother installing social media, dropped all cloud storage and started using FOSS applications in-place of everything that I had.

Recently I moved into my new house and it’s a two-story terrace design. My office is upstairs and while I have my work station pretty well sorted, I’m very disconnected if I go downstairs to grab a drink or make lunch.

Unfortunately, I also forget my phone when I do go downstairs. This means that I’m disconnected from alerting as well.

I wanted to purchase a smart watch to address this and I figured that if I’m throwing money at a new device, it should probably go so far as to replace my phone in some circumstances.

I wanted, at the least:

• Music and workout tracking at the gym
• Music and workout tracking for walks, runs and rides
• Calls and SMS while driving
• Paging while on-call

Adding to this, I don’t want to be forced to stay in-range of my phone. Preferably, I want to leave my phone in the car and just go do my things.

LTE Watches

Looking at the watch, we have the following contenders in the LTE category:

1. Apple Watch Ultra 2
   • 49mm
   • Good feature integration with the phone, no additional apps required
   • No identifiable need to customize or install third party apps (except a gym tracker)
   • Good music streaming support, potential support for Jellyfin.
2. Galaxy Watch6 Classic
   • 45mm
   • Good feature integration with the phone, three additional Samsung-branded apps required to integrate. Integration is not 100% with a Pixel phone (requires a Samsung phone)
   • No identifiable need to customize or install third party apps (on the phone), with exception to gym tracking
   • Good music streaming support, potential support for Jellyfin.
3. Pixel Watch 2
   • 41mm
   • Good feature integration with the phone, doesn’t require additional apps from what I can tell but I didn’t look into it too much due to the size
   • No identifiable need to customize or install third party apps.
   • Good music streaming support, potential support for Jellyfin

Considering these options

Size

I needed to assess the size against my wrist because I do have rather thick wrists. A small watch looks a bit strange on me and I had become accustomed to my 47mm Garmin Fenix 6 Sapphire (worst name ever).

The only way that I could assess this was to go to the shops and try each of them on. If you’re wondering why the displays for watches are such a strange shape; it’s to allow you to “try on” the watch without letting you detach it from the display.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 sits really well on the wrist. While weighty, it’s not so heavy to be noticed after daily use. The watch band would probably make the biggest difference. The square form factor lends well to the functionality and makes it appear larger than it is.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic sits like a typical watch and feels lightweight enough that you’d forget that you’re wearing it. The OS has been tailored to the round display and while a little juvenile, it would do the job but noticeably displays less data at a glance.

The Pixel Watch 2 looked like a freckle against my wrist.

Feature Integration

I needed to use a combination of days worth of YouTube videos, obsessively reading blogs and a lot of ChatGPT prompting for this.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is tightly integrated with iOS on your phone. All Apple features synchronize well and you have a single app on your phone to configure the watch; primarily the watch face and to install Apps.

I originally found that the Galaxy Watch6 Classic would require several apps to fully function however I am retrospectively seeing that just the Wear OS app would accomplish all goals. Just this confusion alone was annoying enough to be honest.

Pixel Watch 2 was not considered due to the size constraint, so I didn’t review what apps are required. At the least; Wear OS (previously Android Wear).

Software Support

I’ve moved my media, calendars, contacts, storage and soon email to a locally hosted server. While I’m slowly moving myself away from a subscription based lifestyle, I do still retain Spotify and YouTube Premium

Not taking on retrospective experiences, the software experience between all three is basically the same.

All three have been relatively lowly adopted. Spotify does not mess around with getting their app on devices, but Jellyfin, Plexamp and YouTube Music are not as proactive.

I couldn’t find solutions for music. I did speak with the Manet developer and he’s told me that it will be a focus for him but it likely won’t happen soon.

Contacts and calendars come from the phone and those should sync just fine.

All messaging apps are jank. SMS appears to be the most viable option given how well it integrates with voice assistants and, sadly, iMessage.

So over-all you can’t make a decision based on app ecosystem. They’re all the same, just with different colors and layouts.

Hardware (Feel)

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 feels good. Zero friction on the crown but feedback is provided by the haptic driver. It’s subtle and polite.

The crown isn’t inclined to come into contact with your wrist with average usage. The casings are extremely hard wearing. Nothing feels inclined to get in my way.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic quality felt average and the rotating bezel, while preferential to a crown, didn’t feel well integrated. This is entirely ‘feel’ based, as-in how I felt using it on my wrist.

The Pixel Watch 2 absolutely shines here. The smooth, rounded edges felt fantastic to swipe on and the crown was better than Apples, despite being a bit obtrusive.

While it felt amazing, it didn’t feel durable and I would be mildly concerned wearing it without a case given how hard I am on my technology.

Hardware (Performance)

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 demo unit is not going to miss a beat, and it absolutely did not. Everything felt intentional and smooth. No discernible lag or delay.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic test unit was laggy and didn’t seem to detect your intentions when navigating around the interface. This was enough for me to put it down.

The Pixel Watch 2 felt like a Googley version of the AWU2. It had experience parity and I felt extremely satisfied and comfortable playing with it’s features in-store.

Cost Value

Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the most expensive but it’s a premium product for the price tag. The hardware is hard wearing and functional, and the OS is purposefully designed.

The Galaxy Watch6 Classic is a great watch for $400 but feels like a rip-off at $900. LTE and 4mm of size don’t cost $500 to add, especially when you’re cheaping out on the materials.

The PIxel Watch 2 was the winner for cost value. It went from $499 to $599 which is still overvalued for LTE but is more palatable than $500. Great software on great hardware, bar the battery and size.

Personal Biases

Apple

Being a long-time Mac OS X and iPhone user, I do not like Apple products at all. I like that they have some legacy support for IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV baked into their ecosystem, but everything that they do is designed to entice you deeper into their ecosystem then lock you in.

I’d much rather stick to a GrapheneOS powered Pixel at this time, and continue using Linux as my sole OS on my compute at home.

Samsung

Oh boy. This is not good.

They started off as such a fantastic company however recent experiences have been such a huge disappointment.

I haven’t always hated Samsung as I loved my S10 and all of my Notes preceeding the Note 8, however here are some recent experiences that have changed my mind:

• Samsung bolts their own ecosystem onto Android and forces it upon you.
• You cannot uninstall all of their apps and they preload so many pointless apps for you.
• You cannot remove their App Store.
• They forced Bixby on people.
• They put advertisements into apps they forced onto peoples phones.
• They put advertisements on Samsung Pay, which was absolutely unacceptable.
• The notification spam from the system is absolutely insane and inane.
• They continued to release Fold devices with last-gen specs despite charging about $3,000 for the phone.
• They innovated to build the Fold then just stopped and sat there, dropping yearly revisions without added benefit.
• After two Folds, I’ve given up but really like the look of the Pixel Fold 2.
• Samsung phones struggle with ADB remote control, and seem to drop the connection on USB and Wifi frequently.
• My Samsung Odyssey G9 died in less than 24 hours and the RMA process was absolutely atrocious. I got lucky that a support person took pity and sent a new unit.
• My two Samsung TVs cannot be connected to the internet or they would preinstall apps that I cannot remove
• I could not re-arrange the apps display order on my TVs; Samsung forced things like Prime to the start. Basically; advertisements on my TV.
• Samsung TV’s are infamously known to constantly listen, with a high potential to be recording and shipping to a data warehouse. This is not paranoia.
• They made a $300 cable that delivers power and data between a box and the display. It’s proprietary. It contains fibre optic cables. They made it out of soft plastic that is prone to damage.
• The software on their TVs is a massive pain and refuses to just open your default input; you must open that input via their software.
• My Samsung fridge just randomly died, it was less than five years old.

With that experience, Samsung was really out from the get-go but the Watch6 Classic was the only non-Apple device that was comparable. There’s some honorable mentions such as the TicWatch, but I can’t go experience that in the store to confirm that it’s a working, lag-free product.

Despite Samsung falling heavily out of favor with me, I would genuinely consider their watch solely because I really didn’t want to switch to an Apple ecosystem.

Pixel, Google

I’m not a huge fan of the Google ecosystem either however they allow you to install GrapheneOS on your Pixel phone and - at least in Australia - allow you to do warranty claims on the hardware despite this.

It’s a shame about their tablet but their watches and phones are fantastic.

You’re not getting bleeding edge specs on their devices but you are getting the closest thing to an open, fully customizable environment that you can get on Android.

And incase I haven’t stressed it enough; GrapheneOS on a Pixel phone has been the single best phone I have ever owned in my life.

Phone Considerations

Apple

Purchasing an Apple Watch Ultra 2 would necessitate switching to an iPhone. Oh boy.

Media, NextCloud

The Nextcloud app is a bit of an unknown without being able to test it. The Files app is a welcome addition. ChatGPT tells me that I can access Nextcloud files generically via Files in various apps, and that I can easily sync my phone to Nextcloud using their app.

Jellyfin and Plex are both iPhone compatible. Jellyfin has Manet for a great music experience, Plexamp is as good as it is elsewhere.

If Apples Files app can see it then the rest of your apps can see it. That’s super nice.

Calendar, Contacts

iOS has full, well-integrated support for CalDAV and CardDAV via the Settings.

You can use the factory Calendar and Contacts apps which are both functionally great apps.

General

RetroArch being permitted on the App Store is huge. I go through bouts of playing Pokemon Red/Blue and it’s nice to have that on my phone.

I use the following apps, they seem well supported:

• Discord
• Mastodon
• Slack
• Pagerduty
• Wireguard VPN

All of my financial apps are well supported.

Bitwarden has much better integration into iOS than Android, and it’s a due to iOS APIs.

Widget support is notably superior on iOS now. Android widgets are flakey with chaotic designs. I much prefer having widgets showing information at a glance to opening an app for the latests notifications.

Only major issue is that the mail widget doesn’t allow scrolling through an inbox, but that is not a deal breaker.

Customization

I’m not big on customization. I can set a wallpaper and organize my commonly used apps on my home screen.

What I can’t uninstall from iOS, I can hide into the app library.

Privacy, Security

Apple make a big deal about their privacy but the reality is that apps tank that for them.

My girlfriend installs an app for every occasion and is on every social platform. Her advertisements are pervasive. I have extensive ad blocking at home and she isn’t allowed on the wifi, yet the very few ads that do make it through, for me on my network, are highly, highly targeted towards her.

My mothers phone had some strange bugs and performance issues, and her banking was compromised.

She has some questionable security practices however she’s asked for help and the only scenario that I can consider is that her phone was compromised while on a recent cruise. Cruise boats must be phenomenal places for pwning phones because everyone uses the wifi, and security is probably non-existent.

Both of these avid Apple users are entirely within the Apple ecosystem.

So I don’t buy Apples privacy and security stance. They’re better than Windows, but you’re just as susceptible to exploitation in an Apple ecosystem as you are in an Android, Windows or Linux ecosystem.

Overall

Despite Nextcloud not being able to run as a background service, the iPhone isn’t a horrible phone on paper.

Most of my uses don’t require separate apps; it’s almost entirely built in.

As far as phones go, it performs it’s function as a camera phone and syncs to my self hosted infrastructure. I don’t really need much more than that.

Samsung

I’m fortunate to own a Galaxy Tab S9 which has been an invaluable test device for a number of reasons.

Media, Nextcloud

The Nextcloud app works and syncs just fine.

It does not, however seem to get exposed in the file explorer app that Samsung ships. The Samsung Files app seems to focus on local and removable storage, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. It doesn’t support generic WebDAV despite Androids APIs being agnostic to the WebDAV source.

Off the bat, I’m pissed at Samsung for specifically focusing on allowing these two WebDAV based subscription services but not self hosted WebDAV services.

Interestingly too I did have some issues with alternative F-Droid and Play Store sourced apps and accessing Nextclouds files. So maybe my anger shouldn’t be focused on Samsung.

The experience isn’t as ‘nice’ as Apples Files sadly.

Away from that, Jellyfin and Plex work the same as they do elsewhere. Finamp and Plexamp are suitable for listening to music.

Calendar, Contacts

Calendars can be handled using the built-in app. It’s not system level but that isn’t a huge deal.

Contacts require a specific app to be installed to sync with a CardDAV server.

Google seems to suggest that this can be handled via the Settings however I cannot find anything in Settings for configuring CardDAV or CalDAV. This might be a Samsung quirk.

General

Samsung ships OneUI which is great for Picture in Picture, split screen and Dex. These features do harm battery life though.

This is only really a concern on tablets and foldables. You’re not going to heavily use it on a phone, except for maybe looking something up while messaging someone.

OneUI has some limiting quirks and at least on the Galaxy Tab, I found it impossible to delete apps from the home screen or customize it beyond rearranging what was there.

I’ve had some good and bad experiences with Nova on the Galaxy Tablet and sadly that negatively affects my comfort with installing it on a Galaxy phone.

Overall app environment is terrible with preloaded applications collecting data on you. You can’t remove everything. Samsung forces their apps onto your device. Samsung used to have advertisements in their apps however their tanking S11 sales seems to have resolved that.

Overall it’s a quaint device. I have friends who don’t mind using their Samsung devices and buy into the ecosystem. I’ve never seen someone reach confluent usability in their Samsung environment though.

In other words, I’ve never seen someone come home and touch their phone to their TV and immediately continue watching their podcast without a bug. They don’t use SmartThings to automatically bring their house to life or prepare for bed. They don’t use Bixby.

So all of it seems superfluous and invasive.

Privacy, Security

Android has all the same issues with Apps collecting data. Permissions control is much nicer in Android which can mitigate some of it.

Samsung itself has to be collecting a lot of data on it’s users. It has to be more than Apple because they have so many products that they want and need sold.

Overall I haven’t had any first hand, anecdotal discrepancies with privacy on Samsung devices apart from what we know online about their other devices (eg/ fridges and TVs listening to private convos).

Also, all of this said, my advertising was never as pervasive with my Samsung devices as it has been with my girlfriends iPhone. This is purely anecdotal but I really didn’t adverts being so targeted when I had my Fold 3 or 4. I had much lower security back then too.

Overall

I just hate Samsung. It always feels like their bolting jank software ontop of products that would have otherwise been fantastic.

I’m so burned out on their crap that I just don’t want to consider them for a phone and I’d much rather not give them my money.

Pixel

I have never used a Pixel with Googles “pure” Android, but I have used a Pixel with GrapheneOS.

Media, Nextcloud

Nextcloud sync works perfectly fine. Notifications don’t have to go through Apples servers and it can run as a background process.

You can access Nextcloud files via the GOS Files app.

Chefs kiss, perfection.

Calendars, Contacts

You can add CalDAV and CardDAV accouts if you have an app installed to handle it. DavX5 lets you handle these configurations but it does run as a background service and is, in my experience, infrequently flakey.

Configuration is also not streamlined.

It does work, so at least there’s that.

General

It’s amazing to not even have an app store installed. You get to pick literally every app you install on your phone, which makes it feel more like you’re adding components to it.

The GOS pre-installed messaging and phone apps are perfectly suitable for calls and texts. The GOS pre-installed camera app is perfectly servicable. There isn’t really much else to the phone.

Having to ‘optimize’ apps on boot is really annoying when it does reboot. GOS updates frequently so you’ll see this screen often.

Day to day you might run into issues with apps that you probably shouldn’t be using, or maybe (sadly) your banking apps.

These days you don’t have to sacrifice Android Auto. My banking apps worked with NFC in a pinch. I haven’t experienced using GrapheneOS with a Pixel Watch though.

Despite some of the compromises it is a great phone that is just a phone.

Privacy, Security

You’re trusting the GOS developers to not be evil. If you accept that then you accept that this phone is the more private, the most secure option available.

You’re still susceptible to Android exploits however the attack surface is reduced by a deny-by-default approach.

GOS hacks fixes Android to enforce fine-grain permissions control over all apps, including Googles. You can deny whatever you want and apps just have to deal with that.

While you can be spied on by apps, it also anonymises as much as it can and allows you to sandbox applications.

You can also sandbox work-related accounts and applications. If work issues a remote device wipe to my phone, it just wouldn’t work.

*Overall

GrapheneOS on a Pixel device is the pinnacle of what a smartphone can possibly be in 2024.

Purchase Decisions

I just couldn’t justify the cost and sacrifice of running the Samsung watch. I hated too much about it.

The Pixel watch was just too small. Sadly, I just couldn’t wear it.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was the decided upon purchase by default. It wins out in many ways, but check out my follow up post now that its been five months since purchase.

Ultimately, I purchased the cheapest iPhone 15 Pro in cash. Telstra messes up my account every year and I’m sick of it.

I purchased the watch a month later.

Overall, my research was somewhat accurate but seriously read my follow up post assessing its functionality in detail.

iPhone 15 Pro Notes

The following is a summary from when I first purchased the phone.

I was surprised that the iPhone has better support for webdav, caldav and carddav on paper. It has also kept the same level of IMAP/SMTP support as the 3G, so it’s old-school good. I think Apple supported these configurations back when it was the only real option, and it has just retained these settings for backwards compatibility and potentially even fedramp-compliance reasons.

On Android, IMAP/SMTP is much of muchness, but is primarily configurable within your email client. On iOS, it’s just inside the system settings. I’ve always liked that, if I’m being honest.

On Android, webdav (Nextcloud) is handled with the Nextcloud app. Same deal with iOS. ~~iOS doesn’t give you access to NC files via Photos or Files, but ~~Android support for webdav in their similar apps was not great. At least Gallery could see NC files, I guess. Photos does not. It’s also worth noting that I was VERY annoyed that I couldn’t find a Files app on Android that supported Nextcloud (ammendment; GOS files does) - everything was Google/Microsoft with the occassional Dropbox sprinkled in. Webdav is in the same API the developers used for those, so this annoyed me to no end.

Note on iOS and Nextcloud: Photos doesn’t see the gallery in Nextcloud however Files sees the files. I never truly ended up getting Retroarch configured and working, so I can’t comment further on this.

On Android, caldav and carddav are handled by a companion app. You need to install a third party app - which I paid for - in order to sync contacts and calendars. The entire setup is very janky. On iOS, they are two system settings which require a special Apple-compatible URL from Nextcloud (easy to copy/paste via the web app) and a user/pass, then it’s all done and working.

Wireguard VPN works much the same between Android and iOS. I preferred Android having a quick toggle in the control panel but iOS Command Center will have that toggle in September.

Retrospective note: Wireguard VPN now has a button in the system control section, so it’s easier to toggle it on iPhone. Before, you had to open the app.

In fact, despite some weirdness with contacts not syncing due to VCF content (specifically, the contacts Address fields), the entire FOSS cloud setup with iPhone has been a lot smoother than Android.

Outside of my Nextcloud installation, I found a lot of apps had complementary counterparts. Some notes on my iPhone experience in the first 24 hours:

• Jefit has not been updating their Android app all that well. I assumed it was a dead app, but I continued to use it. Turns out their iPhone app is great and up to date.
• Retrospective Jefit premium comes with an Apple Watch app and it’s fantastic, but something like $70 per year.
• I get what people are saying about Snapchat and the camera. Android was buggy switching between cameras, but iPhone is not really noticable. It’s not something to care about though.
• Disabling iMessage and Siri is a nice feature. Not being able to use carplay without Siri kind of sucks.
• Carplay is indeed wireless. Danni told me that it wasn’t but I confirmed it with my Atoto A6 headunit.
• Carplay doesn’t really need to exist. Much like Android Auto, it doesn’t provide any value. We were better off with offline maps downloaded to a built-in GPS app. I’ll likely get an iPad mini and mount it in the car, then drop Carplay all together. For now I will use it because I can change playlists on longer drives without risking my license.
• iPhones magsafe is way stronger than ESR Halo Rings. I confirmed this on my last trip to Italy using my wallet and a colleagues iPhone 14. Qi2 is very nice though; charging is good enough for overnight, and it’s hold is great.
• The iPhone wake-up alarm is a lot louder and more effective than Androids.
• iPhones standby mode is really cool to wake up to in the morning. I have the time and upcoming calendar events, which is nice to check without picking up your phone.
• Standby mode actually causes your alarms to not trigger. I don’t know if this bug has been fixed as I stopped using it.
• Due to the standby mode and good alarms, I no longer feel the need to buy an digital alarm clock. See how that goes over time though.
• Using my Google account for saving game progress was a BAD idea.
• Lack of free SSH clients is really annoying. I refuse to pay for Termius. I might trial their free tier and use tmux to jump hosts.
• JuiceSSH ended up being fantastic.
• Audio sounds better on my $30 true wireless ear buds, for both Finamp and Spotify. This is likely just Apple having an equalizer configured and GrapheneOS not. It was interesting though; rock and hip hop had deeper, fuller basses with less distortion or tin on the higher notes.
• Note: Manet arguable the best Jellyfin music streaming app and the developer is working on a Watch app.
• Face ID doesn’t really suck with day to day use. Because it’s so easy to authenticate with Face ID, it seems to be over used. For example, Bitwarden requires Face ID constantly to unlock your passwords however Android cached access with the fingerprint because it was inconvenient to do it five times in five minutes.
• Widgets are more plentiful and look better. Though, still not greatly useful. The only ones I like are the world clocks for work (I work multiple timezones) and pagerduty for knowing when I’m on-call (as expected, it still sucks though, typical PD). There’s really no great utility here. Weather might be handy to add tbh.
• The home screen is still crappy. I had so much information on a single home screen on my Android and I could check my emails without opening the app. I could also quick-launch contacts in apps like Snapchat. The iPhone only shows 24 apps per home screen slide, with four being consumed for small widgets and eight for large. This means you really need to have multiple screens to show all apps. I’ve dropped widget use and just have the apps there, as I use quite a few apps quite regularly.
• Wallet not supporting loyalty cards sucks. I had to install Stocard and TBH I will probably develop my own version of this because I don’t like Stocard.
• The calendar app is pretty good compared to the Android version. I wish that I could see events at a monthly glance, but it’s otherwise a lot nicer to use.
• The contacts app is much of muchness.
• Ditto for Messages with iMessage disabled. Waiting for RCS to check.
• Telstra refuses to support RCS. No comment on changing stance yet.
• Retrospective, but hey. SMS on Apple Watch does not work without your phone connected. Same for phone. Never tested SMS to Android with iMessage enabled though.
• Auto reading verification codes via sms is nice.
• The phone app is much of muchness. Not being able to call a contact by typing in their name on the keypad sucks.
• Lack of spacebar to move the cursor sucks. Apples cursor moving feature sucks.
• On that, moving the cursor around text is absolutely horrendous.
• Being able to disable everything in iCloud is kind of nice.
• Reminders syncing with Nextcloud Tasks is super neat. Removes a lot of jank and I’ll likely start using it.
• It’d be nice to use Apple Notes with Nextcloud but for now I’m stuck to Nextcloud Notes. Interestingly, i could probably sync iOS notes with an IMAP server, but I’m not keen to experiment there because it’s kind of weird.
• Changing Siris accent is nice. I found the standard accent rather grating, but the male Indian accent is fantastic.
• It’s also really nice to have multiple Siri accents in a house with multiple Apple devices, as you can tell whose Siri has been activated.
• Looking into the WWDC 2024, I might consider using Apples home stuff if, and only if, it integrates with Home Assistant.
• Apple Wallet is way cleaner than Samsung Pay and Google Wallet.
• Wireguard VPN to access home services over 5G works about as can be expected. I have noticed that sometimes connections will error on first try but succeed on second try. I think this has to do with the custom DNS I run for local-only hostname resolution, and I think apps are using factory DNS settings for certain calls. Either that or first route isn’t via the VPN for some reason. It’s odd, but once it’s working it ‘just works’.
• RetroArch seems to run great. Haven’t figured out syncing saves though.

Anyway, I’m on iPhone now and so far it hasn’t been too restrictive for my limited use. I’m trying to avoid third party apps and use only system apps and so far it has been perfectly functional.

I’m pretty excited to buy the AWU2 next month. I think that will be a huge QOL improvement. Will update this blog with watch features when I get it.