It had been almost two years since I had totally given up on smartwatches. With a duopoly emerging in this segment of wearables, there has been no major innovation in smartwatches. What started out as a cool extension of your smartphone soon ended up being a nagging reminder of intensive intrusiveness – buzzing notifications, guilt-inducing health warnings, and an additional gadget to charge. In case the battery dies, you are towing dead weight. Hence, when Samsung sent their newest Galaxy Watch 8, my expectations were low.
Unlike the Apple Watch series, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch models have always been about extensive health tracking at the cost of laggy performance and subpar battery life. Samsung, however, made bigger promises this year and hence, I was eager to pair it with my test unit of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and give the conventional smartwatch another try. For science, I also paired it with the Google Pixel 10 for a few days to check it compatibility with non-Samsung Android phones.
Does it do enough to make me want a smartwatch again? Let’s find out.
Design and Display
The Galaxy Watch 8 gains a new design theme inspired by the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. The iconic circular dial shape is now contained within a squircle casing, finished in brushed aluminium. Even with the basic silicon strap, the Watch 8 commands a lot of attention. In fact, it ends up being the best-looking smartwatch in the market today, outdoing the Apple Watch in terms of presence. The contours and curves make it comfortable to wear all day, and the strap remains soft and pleasing on the skin. The 4.4cm display doesn’t look ungainly despite its bigger dimensions.
The circular display is a key highlight—a vibrant Super AMOLED screen that is bright and clear, even in direct sunlight – thanks to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. The display is responsive to touch, and the always-on display feature makes it easy to glance at information without draining the battery. In the typical old-school fashion, Samsung retains the touch-based bezel-mounted navigation for the UI, although the highly responsive display panel makes it seldom useful.
Smart features and OS compatibility
Running on the latest version of Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch 8 offers a seamless and powerful user experience for Android users. The One UI for Watch interface, which is fluid and highly customisable, offers a decent selection of watch faces. That said, Samsung’s design team should have added more interactive new watch faces instead of adding to the older collection. Third-party apps available through the Google Play Store allow for installing more functional and style-centric smartwatches.
Since it’s Wear OS, you get to see all the usual Google features like NFC payment for Google Pay, Gemini as the voice assistant, and access to Google apps. It also comes with Samsung Pay, if you love to stick with Samsung’s ecosystem. A built-in speaker and microphone allow for taking calls on the wrist, although the volume levels are not loud enough for the outdoors. Our version came with LTE, which allowed only Jio SIM cards to be installed as eSIM (Airtel prepaid doesn’t provide eSIM for wearables).
However, what grabbed our attention the most was the general performance. The new 3nm 5-core chipset has solved the one big problem Samsung watches have had for ages – the laggy performance. With extensive usage scenarios (with all features turned on), the Galaxy Watch 8 retained the fluidity of the user interface. Apps load as expected and animations are no longer jarring. The ‘watch-only’ mode is another useful addition for those moments when the battery is nearing its end but you need a basic timepiece on your wrist.
That said, the full Galaxy Watch experience is limited to Samsung Galaxy phones only. Once paired with a non-Samsung watch, you lose access to advanced monitoring and analysis of Samsung Health, as well as the ability to put eSIM on the device. You lose out on all Samsung features but continue to experience the Google-centric alternatives.
Health and Fitness
Health and fitness tracking is a core strength of the Galaxy Watch 8. The watch comes equipped with a comprehensive suite of sensors, including a heart rate monitor, ECG, and a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) sensor for measuring body composition. The Watch 8 can also give a fair idea of your blood pressure, provided you sync it with medical-grade device. Note that these sensors are provided to give you a fair idea – you should always consult a doctor in case you are unsure of the data obtained.
As far as basic fitness tracking is concerned, the Galaxy Watch 8 accurately tracks a variety of activities, from walking and running to swimming and cycling – all on its own. The watch also provides advanced sleep tracking and stress monitoring, offering actionable insights to help you improve your overall well-being. I admire the sleep data even during sort naps in the day, thus giving a holistic view of your sleep health. The stress detection gives a good insight into when you need to call it a day, and the Mindfulness app is a good addition to keeping track of your mental wellness.
In case the outcome of the data isn’t acceptable, the updated fitness coaching features provide personalised workout plans and real-time feedback to keep you motivated and get it all right. If you like to stay on top of your fitness routine and seek as many insights as possible, the Galaxy Watch 8 ends up being an easy recommendation.
Battery and Charging
Battery stamina on the Galaxy Watch 8 is a notable improvement over previous models, though it still requires nightly charging on the days when the watch has to work overtime in detecting activity (GPS usage in exercise tracking drains battery). With Always On Display enabled and an hour of activity tracking, I was able to go through the day and have enough left for a night’s sleep monitoring.
However, once I enabled the on-device LTE, the battery stamina dropped drastically. In fact, after pairing it with our Google Pixel 10, the Watch 8 conked off midway through the day! This could be down to the LTE network, but even with no AOD switched on, I expected better. Hence, battery stamina is still an area Samsung needs to work on.
As far as charging is concerned, Samsung’s proprietary puck wireless charger takes over 1.5 hours to fill the battery from dead. The charging is slow, and the lack of a Qi-standard wireless charging option is a miss.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is priced competitively within the premium smartwatch segment. The base model is priced at Rs 32,999 for the smaller 4 cm size, while the LTE version costs Rs 36,999. The 4.4cm size with Bluetooth only comes in at Rs 35,999, and adding LTE connectivity bumps the price to Rs 39,999. This continues to keep it as the more accessible yet feature-rich alternative to the Google Pixel Watch 4.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 review: Verdict
As far as modern-day smartwatches go, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is an excellent package that offers a hot blend of style, performance, and comprehensive features. If you are after the most polished smartwatch experience in the Android universe, look no further. Samsung’s One UI interface is pretty and functional, while the new 3nm chip keeps the performance smooth. As a health and fitness monitor, the Watch 8 does a great job, not burdening us with the guilt of missing out on a day’s activity. Sleep tracking and stress monitoring are two more reasons to have it on your wrist. Battery stamina could have been better for the LTE variant, and the limited feature compatibility with non-Samsung phones may put off those who don’t like to stay within ecosystems.
That said, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is objectively one of the best smartwatches you can buy, regardless of the price tag. As for me and my aversion to smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 8 could make me give these smart wearables another go.
