There’s no shadow of doubt that the Android system has opened so many opportunities for consumers to use a variety of smartphones from different brands, and in more recent years, accompanying accessories like earphones, tracking bands and even full-blown smartwatches.
This carries an appeal for people to try different combinations and let them match their preferences, where the ecosystem is open for all to experiment with. For those taking the Apple route, it’s all about staying in the garden, being a closed ecosystem, offering literally no variety. While that’s generally seen as a boring and restrictive move, some are actually seeking for complete simplicity, in which yes, a closed ecosystem would be ideal for them. One phone, one earbuds and one smartwatch, literally one choice, from the same brand.
Does Android Have An Open Or Closed Ecosystem?
The general consensus is OPEN, but is there a brand out there that carries the Android banner that has created their own ecosystem that’s truly closed? Well, no still, as Android’s openess doesn’t fully close the door for people. In fact, lots of Android-based brands have been aggressively developing and marketing their own supplementary smartphone accessories, vying to get customers to stick to one brand, promising seamlessness while maximizing profits. Surely there has to be a ranking of simply who does it better right?
Who’s At The Top Of The Android Ecosystem Food Chain?
Personally, I have regarded Samsung to be a brand that’s always at the top of their game when it came to smartphones and their wearables / hearables. The seamless connectivity is there, with years and years of experience from their Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch lineup, offering those benefits directly to Galaxy smartphone users regardless of being the affordable A series, mainstream S series and exotic Z series.
They’re also leading the pack in product lifecycling, offering 7 years of OS updates and support, and while it may laughable to a few people that the phones might not last that long, the only true additional expense of using your phone for that long is probably just the need to replace the batteries, which is always going to be an available service which will cost a lot less than buying a whole new phone.
Well, that pretty much secures and encourages long term use of your smartphone, but what about the question about their wearables and hearables? What direct benefit / incentive do you actually get from picking everything from the Galaxy lineup? This piece was literally made to answer that.
But before that, let me be clear, the Galaxy ecosystem isn’t CLOSED, it’s still very much open. You can use any other brand’s (that isn’t Apple) wearables and hearables, so let’s just call it a Hybrid Ecosystem. While other brands are also, by extension very much offers the same hybrid ecosystem, I’m simply saying that Samsung is just at the top of the foodchain when it comes to creating an incentivising ecosystem of their own, while not leaving out the rest.
The Galaxy Ecosystem
To understand the true Galaxy Ecosystem, you need to understand how it works, and why it works as such :
- One UI is central command, one of the most comprehensive and well-designed Android-based operating systems, on some occassion even surpassing the likes of pure Stock Android on Google devices
- Wearables such as the Galaxy Watch and Watch Ultra run on Google WearOS, but skinned as One UI Watch
- Both Hearables and Wearables depend on one app, the Galaxy Wearables app, which is available and downloadable for all Android devices that have the PlayStore, but is already pre-installed on Galaxy Smartphones.
- Galaxy Health is also a necessity for all fitness and wellness tracking, again pre-installed on Galaxy, downloadable on even non-Samsung smartphones.
2024 Galaxy Ecosystem Loadout
Galaxy Buds3 Pro
The Galaxy Buds3 Pro are Samsung’s latest and greatest hearable for the 2024 year, offering a leap in design, quality and features. It headlines with AI, which focuses on both music playback, noise control and call quality. How it achieves that is through Adaptive noise control.
Galaxy AI – Adaptive Noise Control [All Device]
The buds will constantly alternate between ANC and Ambient modes based on your surroudings, such as enableing ANC when you’re at a noisy, busy street, and going into Ambient when you’re at a quiet library.
It doesn’t stop there. The Buds3 Pro will also be able to pick up voices and important signals like sirens, and will lower volume and increase ambient sound to ensure that the operator is able to pick up those signals, which is Samsung’s own way of delivering situational awareness even when you’re fully immersed in noise-cancelling heaven. It will only kick in when you need it the most, which means you can enjoy your music on this closed design rather than forcing yourself to pick up open-ear earphones.
Galaxy AI – Real Time Interpreter [Samsung Device Only]
Galaxy Interpreter definitely uses AI to help translate and break barriers, considering AI’s existence is all about LLM (Large Language Models), and having that AI generate condensed versions of those big data. Pinching and holding your earbuds enables listening mode to pick up the speaker’s language, and will then use AI to translate and read back into your preferred language in real time.
Alternatively, you can place the phone mic toward the speaker to access conversation mode, short press your Galaxy Buds3 or Buds3 Pro and listen to your conversation translated in real-time.
Samsung Seamless Codec [Samsung Device Only]
While the Galaxy Buds3 Pro already does sound good and plays music well regardless of device, there are advantages to being on home-ground. The Galaxy Buds3 Pro isn’t the first Galaxy Buds that has SSC. It’s been available for quite a while now, with its more commercialized implementation seen on the Galaxy Buds2 Pro, pushing the envelope on the high-res 24-bit front. The SSC and SSC-UHQ codecs are Samsung’s proprietary tech, which is a scalable codec. This seamless codec’s job is to minimize audio cutouts from disruptive waves from Wi-Fi, especially in places like malls, since almost all stores would have their own Wi-Fi network. SSC simply adjusts the bitrate of your audio transmission to compensate, prioritizing latency and consistency.
360 Audio is also just for #TeamGalaxy, giving you full spatial audio coming from all directions. It does provide a level of immersion the way the buds constantly change direction to follow your movement, and I have to say that it’s a feature that has its fair share of fans and otherwise. Personally I won’t miss it though, if I’m not on a Samsung device.
If you’re on a non-Samsung Android phone, you’ll still have SBC and AAC, which are more mainstream options. This is more of a concern for audiophiles. Regular consumers would not pay too much attention to this, as I’m sure it will still sound good regardless of the fact, just that it won’t be performing at its absolute best potential.
Galaxy Watch Ultra
This is a good smartwatch that’s brilliant if you’re on OneUI. This high end wearable is packed to the brim with sophisticated hardware, and to put a name to the face, the BioActive sensor. This sensor has several-generation lineage of learning and upgrades, to a point where it has every possible sensor jammed into that little round case to capture telemetry data of every possible movement you make, from walking, running, climbing, curling, you name it. Swimming and sports aside, where the Galaxy Watch series started shining in would be health. Granted that industry standards for wearables have raised to a point where having an ECG on your watch has become a staple in what makes a high-end wearable.
A level above that would be understanding what additional features you get when you’re using that said ECG :
- ECG’s function is about testing and recording your heart’s activity through cardiac cycles in repetition.
- In that respect, you are able to track your blood pressure and general heart condition, for problems such as irregular hearth rhythm (heart skipping a beat)
- Additional benefits include sleep apnea detection
- Combining all these telemetry data, Galaxy AI complies and calculates your individual Energy Score to let you know how much perceived energy you have.
These compelling features are at the top of their game when it comes to WearOS. Currently your best bet to get ECG readings on the go that’s current would be the Glaaxy Watch Ultra. However, these features are locked behind needing a Galaxy smartphone to operate. The apps are on the Watch itself, but it needs the OneUI tie-in to be fully utilized. At this point, I know people would literally call this closing the ecosystem, citing that the brand just wants to economise everything to themselves and just maximize profit. To some degree that’s true, but playing the Devil’s Advocate here tells me it has a lot to do with optimization on a software level to communicate with the hardware to make things more accurate and smooth. But then again, they might’ve just done it because the tech is theirs and they get to decide who gets it and otherwise.
Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, if you’re looking to get competent ECG data for reference, use a Galaxy smartphone with this, otherwise, it’s time to visit the doctor, which is always the more sound advice. Even if the ECG function was for all Androids, that data is to be used for reference ONLY and NOT to self-diagnose TREATMENT without CONSULTATION.
Now that the health part is taken care of for the most part, you’ll have no problems using the Galaxy Watch Ultra to track general runs, sports and workouts, right down to sleep tracking and blood oxygen level even if you’re not on a Samsung device. It’s still very much an Android smartwatch, anything related to that would be customizing watch faces (which you can from the Play Store), keeping track of tasks and calendars (which you also can), and app support (duh, it’s all from Google Play).
Is It Worth The Jump, Time and Investment?
Of course, on a deep level, I’d say that it would be in your best interest to conform to the ecosystem, using the phone, earbuds and smartwatch together. Not only are you provided with pure seamlessness and the world’s easiest setup, but also ALL advertised features to be working well. It makes sense even on a manufacturer level. The Galaxy Watch Ultra in particular uses Samsung’s own Exynos W1000 chipset, which would understandably be tuned to work well with OneUI moreoever just Android. It would simply have the supported extensions to enable the use of those additional sensors that take care of ECG and its other cardiac related features.
The Buds3 Pro on the otherhand is more friendly outside the Galaxy Ecosystem. SSC may give seamlessness as well as access to high quality audio, but that’s really targeted towards a niche set of users that are dedicated to playing high-res audio files on their device, something in which the majority of people just won’t do. People really just want to make sure their phone calls sound good, their Spotify and YouTube Music, which are things that the Buds3 Pro can definitely handle with ease.
Sticking to an ecosystem isn’t so bad. The Pros definitely outweigh the cons, but the cons alone are not discouraging enough to stop you from using what you want. After all, it’s still very much a pair of wireless earbuds and a WearOS smartwatch.
