Incrementally higher than its predecessor…once more

We referred to as 2023’s Galaxy Watch 6 a “modest improve” from the Galaxy Watch 5, which itself additionally received described as “very comparable” to its predecessor, the Watch 4. So it’s maybe not stunning that Samsung’s newest smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 7, represents one more minor enchancment over the past technology. That’s simply the character of a yearly replace cycle for a tool that’s already doing most issues proper.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch 7 in late July of 2024 and I began testing the watch in October. A collection of occasions (Black Friday, the vacations, CES) pushed this evaluate onto the again burner, which implies I spent plenty of time with the watch in a much less formal capability, carrying it on and off for round three months earlier than formally evaluating it for this evaluate.

Design and {hardware}

Samsung caught with a flat, spherical face and tremendous skinny aluminum bezels that give the Galaxy Watch 7 a extra basic timepiece vibe than the sq. “I’m a pc” Apple Watch or the futuristic orb that’s the Google Pixel Watch 3. The Watch 7 retains the curved case design launched with the Watch 5, which is meant to permit higher contact between the sensors and your wrist. Sadly, the sensor node stands out from the underside fairly a bit. It took a few week of carrying the watch earlier than it felt snug, and the primary night time I tried to sleep with it, I used to be so bothered by it that I wrenched it off in the midst of the night time.

That convex sensor node now homes 13 coronary heart fee sensor LEDs, in comparison with simply 4 on the Watch 6. We didn’t discover something missing with the center fee detection on the earlier mannequin and, when evaluating the identical exercise on my private Apple Watch Sequence 9 with the Galaxy Watch 7, I noticed almost the identical beats-per-minute (bpm) readings. Performing a coronary heart fee verify manually on every watch gave the identical end result as effectively.

Identical to final 12 months, the watch is out there in a 40mm or 44mm case, which have a 1.3-inch and 1.5-inch display, respectively. I examined the smaller mannequin and was impressed with how readable I discovered it. Personally, I exploit a 45mm Apple Watch as a result of the 41mm model is simply too laborious to learn, however regardless of being seemingly smaller, the Galaxy’s display was almost as simple. Holding the 2 aspect by aspect, I noticed why: throughout the center (the place the majority of textual content is displayed) the 40mm Samsung watch is definitely wider than the 45mm Apple wearable. That’s as a result of rectangular screens are measured on the diagonal, however the diameter of a circle is identical size from any angle. The Galaxy Watch has a thicker bezel, however working your finger alongside it’s a method of interacting with the display, so it’s useful to have further house for that.

Two new colours, inexperienced and cream, add to the silver hue from final 12 months. My silver evaluate mannequin is elegant and the up to date sport band has a scalloped texture (very harking back to the Apple Watch Extremely’s Ocean band, however a lot much less cumbersome). 4 pops of coloration thread simply previous the attachment factors add a little bit persona. You may as well customise the heck out of the watch faces, from background colours to clock fonts and issues. I used to be a fan of the brand new Extremely Data Board face and, general, I felt like I had extra interesting choices within the faces gallery than with the Apple Watch — even earlier than heading to the Play Retailer to search for extra choices.

The upgraded processor within the Galaxy Watch 7, Samsung’s personal Exynos W1000, has one foremost CPU core and 4 smaller effectivity cores to run and swap between apps sooner. We didn’t discover the Watch 6 to be notably gradual, and I discovered the Watch 7 to be impressively quick when skimming by notifications, controlling Spotify, beginning a exercise and haphazardly opening and shutting apps as I received to know the interface. RAM is identical at 2GB, however storage has doubled to 32GB (with 21GB out there out of the field). I didn’t have lengthy sufficient with the watch to place the capability to the check, however the RAM appeared to maintain the watch zipping alongside.

There are two new parts on the Watch 7: a dual-band GPS receiver and a sensor that measures your superior glycation end-products (AGEs) index. The AGEs index is assessed as you sleep and gauges your metabolic well being by detecting gathered sugar/lipid compounds in your pores and skin. Greater ranges are related to sooner growing older and antagonistic well being situations. As a substitute of a quantity, the result’s a dot on a spectrum. Mine was simply to the excessive aspect of the center, and ideas for enhancing my ranges included consuming greens, limiting processed meals, getting extra sleep and being extra lively. Sure, little watch, I do know.

As for the GPS, it took a little bit effort to get it working the best way I needed. I used to be getting reliably correct cadence and distance measurements (as checked towards my Apple Watch and simply taking a look at a map) however the mapping part was lacking after I appeared on the exercise on my cellphone. After some analysis (thanks, Reddit) I realized that exact mapping is off by default. To show it on, you want to first activate Location Data in Samsung Well being Settings in your cellphone. Then, within the Put on app, faucet Watch Settings, Samsung Well being settings, activate Actions to detect, then faucet Exact Location beneath the exercise sort you wish to monitor. After that repair, I noticed correct routes within the exercise particulars part. y.

Sleep monitoring

I’m glad to report I (most likely) do not need sleep apnea. After organising the sleep apnea detection characteristic, you solely must put on your watch to mattress for 2 nights for it to log indicators of the situation. Sleep apnea detection is a brand new characteristic that debuted with the Watch 7, however Samsung has mentioned it’ll roll out to earlier suitable fashions sooner or later.

After the watch tracks seven nights of sleep, it’ll award you one among eight “sleep animals,” which include an outline of the kind of sleeper you might be. This has been a characteristic because the Watch 4 and one thing the Pixel Watch does as effectively. I loved discovering out that I’m a lion (that’s one of the best sleeper and I’ll take a win wherever I can discover it). Those that fee “decrease” on the sleep animal meals chain, can discover sleep teaching suggestions throughout the Well being app on methods to enhance their sleep. Not surprisingly, this includes reminding you to maintain a constant bedtime whereas limiting distractions, alcohol and caffeine earlier than sleep.

For the sake of science, I slept for 3 nights in a row carrying each the Galaxy Watch 7 and my Apple Watch Sequence 9 so I might examine what they tracked. The 2 appeared to log the identical patterns of awakeness and sleep, however Samsung was far more beneficiant, telling me I received a median of about 45 extra minutes of sleep and about 3 times as a lot deep sleep. I do know a lot of our emotions about well being are a matter of perspective, so I’ve to say I choose the Galaxy Watch’s assessments. Although, I want Samsung would name the sunshine sleep stage “core” sleep like Apple does — that makes it really feel extra helpful.

After testing the Watch 7, nevertheless, I don’t assume I’d put on it (or any watch, actually) to mattress voluntarily once more. The dimmest the display will get is 5 nits, which is far brighter than the only nit the Apple Watch and Pixel Watch can hit. If you go into sleep mode, the watch face stays off till you faucet it, however the LED sensors beneath are additionally a lot brighter than the competitors and have been sufficient to wake me. One night time, I turned on sleep mode early as a result of the display was too vibrant as I used to be placing my child to mattress at round 8PM. I saved sleep mode on as I watched TV then went to mattress a number of hours later. At 4 within the morning, I received a congratulatory vibration that woke me as much as inform me I’d met my sleep purpose. After all, I couldn’t get again to sleep after that and I used to be, to place it mildly, displeased. That didn’t occur once more, regardless of leaving sleep mode on for longer than eight hours on a number of events, so both it was a fluke or the January 2025 software program replace mounted the flaw.

Well being and exercise monitoring

One of many new well being options for the Galaxy Watch 7 is a day by day Power Rating, which is calculated within the Samsung Well being app, however available on the watch. The rating considers sleep metrics and yesterday’s exercise ranges to inform you learn how to method the day forward. On mornings after I received the next quantity, the watch instructed I push myself by growing the depth of my exercises or making an attempt one thing new. On days with a decrease rating, I used to be capable of see why. This characteristic is nothing new within the trade, after all. Garmin has its Coaching Readiness rating and Fitbit has been giving individuals Every day Readiness scores for years (and it’s lastly free).

The measurement, together with different insights and commentary throughout the Well being app, is the place Samsung has put a lot of the AI-powered methods for the Galaxy Watch 7. I noticed numerous suggestions akin to a suggestion to decrease my exercise objectives (so I might truly attain them) after a number of days of being a little bit of a slug.

The entire exercise and well being options from the earlier fashions are right here — our evaluate of the Galaxy Watch 6 goes into these in depth. However briefly, like every health tracker, the Galaxy Watch information your general exercise ranges utilizing totally different metrics. On this case, it’s three issues: steps, lively time (what number of minutes through which you progress with an elevated coronary heart fee) and exercise energy (these you burn along with the power used from simply present). You may modify your objectives and resolve whether or not you need the watch to nudge you to fulfill them. There are round 90 exercises the watch can monitor and it could actually auto-detect a number of of these together with strolling, working, bike using, high-intensity interval coaching and swimming.

Total, I discovered the exercise monitoring to be correct and I appreciated how a lot faster the Galaxy Watch was at detecting I used to be out on a stroll in comparison with my Apple Watch. Additionally, not like the Apple Watch, which is able to ask me whether or not I needed to trace my train, the Galaxy Watch simply goes forward and routinely tracks it. The Galaxy Watch is on par with the Pixel Watch 3 by way of how shortly it assumes I’m on a stroll however, just like the Apple Watch, the Pixel needs me to verify I need the exercise tracked. So if I’m on a stroll with the canine and have gloves on, I’ve to do some finagling to faucet the beginning button earlier than seeing my stats. Galaxy’s display alternatively (actually) simply goes forward and shows period, steps and coronary heart fee particulars. Samsung’s wearable can be faster to present me credit score for getting up and strolling round after it prompts me to get transferring.

All exercise and well being monitoring runs by the Samsung Well being app, which is colourful and intuitive — I truly discovered it extra pleasurable to browse than Apple’s Well being app. I noticed a drugs widget that not solely jogged my memory to take a capsule on the identical time every day, it additionally advised me about potential drug and allergy interactions. When it’s time to take the med, the watch buzzes and lets me mark it as taken with out pulling out my cellphone. Samsung launched the characteristic on the finish of 2023 and, because it seems, Apple got here out with its model a full 12 months earlier, however I credit score the extra navigable interface of Samsung Well being for permitting me to truly discover and use it — I’d simply by no means seen it in Apple’s app.

As a substitute of a separate app, like Health from Apple (through which you’ll additionally discover the corporate’s subscription-based exercises), there’s merely a tab (additionally referred to as Health) inside Samsung Well being. There are dozens of movies to attempt totally free in your cellphone, from suppliers like Zumba, Pocket Health club, FitOn and extra. And once you play the movies from right here, coronary heart fee metrics out of your watch will present up in your cellphone’s display, identical to Health+ exercises with the Apple Watch and Fitbit Premium lessons with the Pixel Watch. Finally, you’d must pay to entry all of the movies a given supplier presents, nevertheless it’s good to have a little bit free content material you may dip into as wanted.

One factor I’ve to level out is that even when the watch is on silent, by default it’ll nonetheless audibly coach you once you hit or method sure metrics after you begin a exercise. The primary time I tracked a yoga exercise, the watch began blurting out energy burned and objectives achieved whereas your complete class was silently mendacity in shavasana. I used to be much more red-faced than normal. Save your self the embarrassment and disable audio guides within the settings once you begin a exercise.

Efficiency and use

The Watch 7 was the primary to run Google’s new Put on OS 5 — earlier than the Pixel Watch 3, even. Samsung layers its personal One UI over Google’s software program so the expertise is a little bit totally different from the Pixel Watch. For instance, you may both swipe from the left or proper fringe of the display to drag up notifications or tiles (respectively) or you may drag your finger across the display’s bezel, a motion meant to enrich the bodily spinning bezel of the Galaxy Watch Basic variant. On a screen-only interface, I discovered my finger was typically in the best way of what I used to be making an attempt to have a look at, so I ended up simply swiping, as on a Pixel or Apple Watch.

Again in 2023, Samsung launched gesture controls to the Galaxy Watch by an replace to One UI 5, however the characteristic, which began as an accessibility assist, did not get a lot consideration till Apple highlighted and expanded such features with the launch of the Sequence 9. The double faucet characteristic on the Galaxy Watch 7 works equally to the way it does on the Apple Watch, performing easy features like pausing timers, answering calls and so forth. Each watches carried out the identical by way of detecting after I was making the gesture however I truly used the gesture extra typically with the Galaxy Watch as a result of a little bit pinch animation displayed over icons that the gesture might management.

The Galaxy Watch 7 additionally helps a “knock knock” characteristic, through which you dip your fist downward twice such as you’re rapping on a desk and it’ll open an app you designate within the Buttons and Gestures menu from the Put on app’s watch settings. I set it to open the timer app and, later, the Google Assistant, which I discovered fairly handy.

Talking of the Google Assistant, because the Galaxy Watch 4, customers have been capable of swap the default assistant to Google’s as an alternative of Bixby. I like to recommend doing that. Asking Bixby a query (like, maybe, “What’s the capital of Finland?”) directed me to have a look at my cellphone. Once I posed the identical question to Google Assistant, the phrase Helsinki appeared throughout the watch display. None of those are model new options — earlier fashions allowed you to swap the assistant and gestures began with the Galaxy Watch 4. However the higher processor and new sensors on the Galaxy Watch 7 have little question helped enhance the accuracy and responsiveness.

Notifications might use some work, nevertheless. Usually, I’d really feel a vibration, however after I lifted my wrist to verify what it was, I’d simply see the common watch face. I might swipe to see what had triggered the ping, however I would like to simply see it instantly.

Battery and recharging

I used to be shocked to see how many individuals complained in regards to the Galaxy Watch 7’s battery life after I learn customers’ impressions at different evaluate websites and on Reddit. At first, I discovered I used to be getting by an entire day and night time, plus partway into the following day earlier than needing a recharge. That was on par with my Apple Watch Sequence 9 (each have round a 300mAh battery). However I didn’t have the always-on show (AOD) enabled on the Galaxy Watch.

As soon as I turned that on, the battery’s capability steadily dove in the direction of empty. One Sunday, I left the home round midday with the watch at 40 p.c. I walked for 20 minutes, frolicked at a espresso store and performed with a number of options on the watch and the paired Galaxy cellphone. By the point I headed house at 3PM, the watch’s battery had dropped to 4 p.c, prompting it to recommend I activate watch-only mode. After that, I solely used the watch with the AOD off.

That mentioned, utilizing the watch with out AOD isn’t terribly inconvenient. Once I elevate my wrist, the show wakes shortly. I bear in mind being pissed off at how ridiculously laborious it was to verify the time on my Apple Watch Sequence 4, feeling dumb as I lifted my arm three or 4 occasions earlier than the face lit up (I do know I might faucet to wake it, nevertheless it was the precept of the factor).

For those who plan to make use of the watch as a sleep tracker and in addition wish to use the AOD, chances are you’ll must put aside time on the finish of the day to recharge your watch earlier than heading off to dreamland (or toss-and-turn land, relying in your sleep animal). The excellent news is that the watch recharges comparatively shortly. I clocked it going from 4 p.c to 75 p.c in beneath 40 minutes. Each the Apple Watch Sequence 10 and the Pixel Watch 3 have been proven to recharge sooner in different exams, however I didn’t discover the Galaxy Watch to take unreasonably lengthy.

Worth

One optimistic carry-over from final 12 months is value. Just like the Watch 6 at launch, the Watch 7 begins at $300 for the 40mm mannequin. That’s $49 cheaper than the bottom value for the Pixel Watch 3 and $99 cheaper than the Apple Watch Sequence 10. The Garmin Forerunner 165, our prime decide for a working smartwatch, is $250. There’s no spinning-bezel Basic variant of the Galaxy Watch 7 (there wasn’t a Galaxy Watch 5 Basic, both). As a substitute, when saying the seventh gen watch, Samsung additionally launched the $650 Watch Extremely and $400 Galaxy Ring — each of which make the flagship watch really feel like a discount. After all, when you’re after a real finances smartwatch by Samsung, there’s the Galaxy Watch FE with a barely smaller show, much less highly effective processor and fewer sensors.

Wrap-up

Whereas the Galaxy Watch 7 might look almost similar to its predecessor, a few inner enhancements and software program additions (and sure, some AI stuff) make it an interesting companion for a Samsung cellphone. It even does a number of issues higher than the Apple Watch Sequence 10 (our present decide for the greatest general smartwatch). As with most new releases, you most likely don’t must improve if you have already got the prior mannequin. However when you’re a fan of Samsung’s handsets and are on the lookout for a pretty accent with stable sleep insights, useful health instruments and surprisingly approachable well being information, this might be it.

For a very long time, the Galaxy Watch was our decide for one of the best Android watch you might purchase. However with the discharge of the Pixel Watch 3, Samsung’s wearable was knocked off its podium. The Galaxy Watch 7 does many issues proper and its basic appears to be like and customizable watch faces will probably be a favourite for some, me included. Samsung additionally appears to be steadily enhancing the Well being app — I used to be particularly excited in regards to the beta Meditation and Temper-tracking options, and hope they make their approach from the cellphone to the watch.

The hassle the corporate has put into the Well being app is simply making the Galaxy Watch extra helpful and Samsung has developed an efficient set of wearable sensors that may present extra superior well being metrics like AGEs index, EKGs and physique composition. The center fee and distance accuracy was on par with my Apple Watch Sequence 9 however the Galaxy Watch was truly faster to detect I used to be out on a stroll — it additionally routinely logged the exercise for me.

But when an always-on show is essential to you and you wish to use the look ahead to sleep monitoring, chances are you’ll wish to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, this can be a succesful watch that makes a enjoyable companion for an Android cellphone, notably Samsung handsets, and I used to be unhappy to take it off when the evaluate was over.