Galaxy Watch 8 evaluation: 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 telephone is in your pocket; your earbuds are solely worn whenever you’re listening to one thing. However a smartwatch rides in your wrist, with temporary breaks for charging. Which makes it a super well being monitoring system. 

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 monitor nearly every part you do. (Who wants a health tracker?) It takes a holistic strategy to find out how you are feeling and the way it may also help you’re feeling higher.

Knowledge is not nice until you current it in a approach that is sensible and feels actionable. Samsung’s strategy 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 this point.

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, which means the watch is theoretically extra comfy to put on. Personally, as an even bigger man with loads of padding already, it is arduous for me to note.

What is simple 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 all the way down to extra naturally conform to the form of your wrist, these come straight out of the perimeters of the watch. 

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

The opposite main redesign includes the Samsung “cushion,” as the corporate calls it. Final 12 months’s Watch Extremely had a kind 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 a cultured 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 sort of man. I usually skew towards cloth and velcro, however once I noticed simply how good the watch regarded with the steel strap, I needed to attempt it. I am not an entire convert, however positively do not thoughts it on this watch.

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

There are two buttons on the facet 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 (at the least for now), this will probably be a significantly better smartwatch for AI nerds searching for a wearable.

Galaxy Watch 8 software program adjustments

That is the first smartwatch to run Gemini on the watch face. That is a giant win for Samsung, particularly with new Google {hardware} seemingly coming quickly. In my expertise, Gemini and Google Assistant are mainly six of 1, half dozen of the opposite. Nonetheless, if the loss of life 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.

Apart from Gemini, OneUI 8 brings just a few new enhancements, together with the “pill”. That is mainly Samsung’s model of Apple’s Dynamic Island. It exhibits 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 telephone display. I dig it.

There’s additionally a complete set of widgets that you could arrange within the widget panels to the best 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 telephone display 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 telephone. That is house 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, it’s good to take off the watch and press your thumb towards the sensor on the again of the watch when you provoke the scan out of your telephone.

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

I am unsure 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. 

Lots of the remainder of Samsung’s well being software program has been current for at the least a 12 months, together with vitality 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 should 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 solutions for learn how to 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 barely as efficient as the eye it calls for, and most of Samsung’s teaching directions are simple to only swipe away. I am unsure what extra Samsung might demand of somebody other than a tapped “Okay” button, however truthfully, this appears like low-hanging fruit for AI, which is what Samsung is supposedly all about as of late.

Samsung has a sleep coach that makes solutions, however I want to see it go additional. For instance, if a sleep coach pops up in your watch and says “Hey, you’re kind of stressed out and it’s almost time for bed. How about some meditation?” and also you dismiss it, AI might let you know the subsequent night time, “Hey, so you ignored our meditation suggestion and you slept pretty badly last night. How about tonight?” Or it might say, “Hey, you relaxed for a good 20 minutes before bedtime, but then you continued to use your phone for two more hours. Maybe let’s not do that 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 telephone and watch continuously. I additionally wasn’t all the time in a position to let my watch die utterly from everyday, which skewed my battery longevity knowledge. I had one other fun-filled day of actions deliberate for the next morning, so I’d 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 isn’t any query this watch can final you a full day on a cost. It positively will not final you two days. I averaged about 33 to 35 hours per cost once I let the watch get all the way 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 consideration 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 subsequent morning once I went to eat breakfast or seize a bathe. That was often sufficient to prime it up for the remainder of that day. Which is okay since I by no means put on the watch within the bathe anyway. (I examined it in a pool and on just a few water rides, nonetheless.)

Not way back, I’d have put this battery life on a par with different smartwatches. However previously 18 months or so, OnePlus and Google have proven us what’s attainable 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 somewhat than hours. 

I am unsure why Samsung has not adopted this pattern. Nonetheless, 35 hours is satisfactory battery life, and positively delivers extra vitality 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 really like the stylish look, the software program is de facto tight, and the Google Gemini integration is a giant perk. Nevertheless, until you actually need that Gemini app or the brand new antioxidant function, 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 arduous to seek out third-party bands, however in case you’re like me and you’ve got a shelf stuffed with different straps that you’ve purchased and like, you will be out of luck, until you purchase a third-party converter to make use of your third-party straps.

You probably have 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’d 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 concept, in case you observe the recommendation of the watch with out outright dismissing it, it may enable you dwell a greater life. And you will look good doing it.