Galaxy Watch 8 evaluate: Hey, I just like the Squircle design

Smartwatches have a singular benefit over different units: around-the-clock connectivity. Connectivity to you, that’s. Your cellphone is in your pocket; your earbuds are solely worn if you’re listening to one thing. However a smartwatch rides in your wrist, with temporary breaks for charging. Which makes it an excellent well being monitoring gadget. 

Now, with the debut of the Galaxy Watch 8, Samsung has gone all in on well being metrics out of your watch. From exercise to sleep to emphasize ranges to physique composition, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 can observe nearly every part you do. (Who wants a health tracker?) It takes a holistic method to find out how you feel and the way it will help you are feeling higher.

Knowledge is not nice until you current it in a manner that is smart and feels actionable. Samsung’s method is attending to be excellent. I have been utilizing a 40mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 (the smallest one) for 10 days; listed below are my ideas to date.

Galaxy Watch 8 design: Thinner {hardware} and the return of the ‘squircle’

The primary notable improve on the Watch 8: it is thinner and lies flatter on the wrist than earlier generations of the Galaxy Watch. Extra exactly, this watch is 11 p.c thinner, and the sensor pack on the again can also be flatter, that means the watch is theoretically extra snug to put on. Personally, as a much bigger man with loads of padding already, it is laborious for me to note.

What is straightforward to note: the redesign of the strap mechanism. It is much like the strap on the 2024 Galaxy Watch Extremely, though the straps for one will not match on the opposite. The primary change is how the lugs connect to the case. Whereas the Watch Extremely lugs angled right down to extra naturally conform to the form of your wrist, these come straight out of the perimeters of the watch. 

The outcome, no matter wrist dimension, is that the watch will lay extra flat. I discover it extra snug, and I believe the smaller your wrists are, the extra you will agree. I am undoubtedly not a fan of proprietary lug methods for third-party bands, nonetheless.

The opposite main redesign entails the Samsung “cushion,” as the corporate calls it. Final 12 months’s Watch Extremely had a form of “squircle” design to it with a spherical watch face on a rounded sq. base, and this 12 months the Korean tech model is doubling down on the squircle. 

To my eyes, the black face on the silver background is an aesthetic look. I initially wore the watch with the included white silicone band however switched to a steel hyperlink bracelet after about 5 days. I used to be stunned by how good the Watch 8 seems with this dressier steel band.

Usually, I am not a steel band form of man. I typically skew towards cloth and velcro, however once I noticed simply how good the watch appeared with the steel strap, I needed to attempt it. I am not an entire convert, however undoubtedly do not thoughts it on this watch.

The first distinction between the Watch 8 and the Watch 8 Traditional is the absence of the rotating bezel. The Watch 8 nonetheless has a touch-sensitive rim across the face you can run a finger round as a “faux” rotating bezel, but it surely’s simply not the identical. It can be problematic when you attempt to swipe up together with your finger. In the event you’re too near the sting, you by accident set off the bezel as a substitute.

There are two buttons on the aspect of the watch that I barely used, preferring the swipe-based navigation system. The primary factor I used the buttons for was to activate Google Gemini AI, which is enjoyable to make use of on a watch. And for the reason that Apple Watch has very restricted AI performance (no less than for now), this can be a significantly better smartwatch for AI nerds on the lookout for a wearable.

Galaxy Watch 8 software program modifications

That is the primary smartwatch to run Gemini on the watch face. That is an enormous win for Samsung, particularly with new Google {hardware} possible coming quickly. In my expertise, Gemini and Google Assistant are principally six of 1, half dozen of the opposite. Nonetheless, if the dying of Google Assistant is all that can sate Google’s urge for food for product homicide, then that is one other step in that course.

Aside from Gemini, OneUI 8 brings a number of new enhancements, together with the “capsule”. That is principally Samsung’s model of Apple’s Dynamic Island. It reveals you info at a look in a pill-shaped graphic on the backside of the watch face. This feels prefer it belongs on the watch face, much more so than on a cellphone display screen. I dig it.

There’s additionally a complete set of widgets you can arrange within the widget panels to the precise of the watch face. You may select which widgets you need to see and reorganize them as wanted. That is similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s cowl — however once more, what was annoying on a cellphone display screen works higher on a smartwatch.

With the Galaxy Watch 8, Samsung needs to maintain you wholesome

The primary focus of the software program comes from Samsung Well being, which runs on the watch and in your Android cellphone. That is dwelling for all of the biometric knowledge the watch collects, together with a brand new metric: antioxidant ranges in your pores and skin. To measure your antioxidants, you might want to take off the watch and press your thumb towards the sensor on the again of the watch whilst you provoke the scan out of your cellphone.

How helpful is that this? It is debatable for 2 causes. Firstly, if you measure your antioxidants, the excessive finish of the size is labelled “sufficient” — as if to say, even when you eat all of the veggies on this planet, you will solely ever be sufficient. Second, after checking with different gadget reviewers, nobody I knew rated it above “poor.” 

I am undecided if that is an indictment of the meat-eating tradition right here within the U-S-of-A or Samsung’s measurements. Suffice it to say, I do not eat sufficient veggies — and likelihood is, neither do you. 

Plenty of the remainder of Samsung’s well being software program has been current for no less than a 12 months, together with power scores, sleep monitoring, AGEs index, BMI, and extra. Total, I like how Samsung organizes the knowledge into an easy-to-understand set of knowledge that you need to use to enhance your well being. For instance, for sleep teaching, you are first assigned a sleep animal, which represents the way you sleep. Apparently, my animal is a penguin as a result of I get up a number of occasions at night time. Sleep teaching gives you ideas for how you can sleep higher, like hitting your sleep goal time constantly.

What I am not keen on is how simple it’s to dismiss that info. A coach is simply as efficient as the eye it calls for, and most of Samsung’s teaching directions are simple to only swipe away. I am undecided what extra Samsung might demand of somebody apart from a tapped “Okay” button, however truthfully, this seems like low-hanging fruit for AI, which is what Samsung is supposedly all about today.

Samsung has a sleep coach that makes ideas, however I wish to see it go additional. For instance, if a sleep coach pops up in your watch and says “Hey, you are form of stressed and it is virtually time for mattress. How about some meditation?” and also you dismiss it, AI might inform you the following night time, “Hey, so that you ignored our meditation suggestion and also you slept fairly badly final night time. How about tonight?” Or it might say, “Hey, you relaxed for a superb 20 minutes earlier than bedtime, however you then continued to make use of your cellphone for 2 extra hours. Perhaps let’s not try this tonight?”

Battery life is… high-quality

I examined this watch over a two-week interval, which included two street journeys. Usually, I discovered myself away from Wi-Fi and utilizing my cellphone and watch often. I additionally wasn’t all the time capable of let my watch die fully from daily, which skewed my battery longevity knowledge. I had one other fun-filled day of actions deliberate for the next morning, so I might find yourself having to plug the watch in when it had 30-40 p.c left, versus 15 p.c, which is what I usually use to find out battery life. Having mentioned all that, I did get some good outcomes from battery testing.

There is not any query this watch can final you a full day on a cost. It undoubtedly will not final you two days. I averaged about 33 to 35 hours per cost once I let the watch get right down to round 5 p.c. It took over an hour to cost again to full, which often took between 65 and 75 minutes. Taking into account that that is the smallest watch with the smallest battery, that is not too dangerous. I am not keen on how lengthy it takes to cost, however I am unable to argue with the battery life.

Greater than as soon as, I wore the look ahead to a day and an evening, then charged it the following morning once I went to eat breakfast or seize a bathe. That was often sufficient to high it up for the remainder of that day. Which is ok since I by no means put on the watch within the bathe anyway. (I examined it in a pool and on a number of water rides, nonetheless.)

Not way back, I might have put this battery life on a par with different smartwatches. However up to now 18 months or so, OnePlus and Google have proven us what’s potential with a dual-chip structure that offloads many of the primary well being monitoring to a lower-powered processor.  These watches have battery life measured in days quite than hours. 

I am undecided why Samsung has not adopted this pattern. Nonetheless, 35 hours is sufficient battery life, and undoubtedly delivers extra power than my vegetable consumption.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 value it?

I say sure. I actually just like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, regardless of the battery life. I like the stylish look, the software program is de facto tight, and the Google Gemini integration is an enormous perk. Nonetheless, until you actually need that Gemini app or the brand new antioxidant characteristic, there’s additionally not a lot incentive to improve if you have already got final 12 months’s Galaxy Watch 7.

Samsung is a well-liked sufficient model that it isn’t laborious to seek out third-party bands, however when you’re like me and you’ve got a shelf filled with different straps that you’ve got purchased and like, you will be out of luck, until you purchase a third-party converter to make use of your third-party straps.

When you’ve got a smartwatch older than the Galaxy Watch 7, then the brand new Watch 8 is definitely worth the improve. The look is polarizing, however I am a fan, and I might like to see Samsung carry this design ahead, personally. The remainder of the watch is a treasure trove of knowledge and well being metrics. In idea, when you comply with the recommendation of the watch with out outright dismissing it, it may aid you dwell a greater life. And you may look good doing it.