\nDesign and features<\/p>\n
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With a design that more or less answers the question \u201cwhat if the squircle watches went full circle?\u201d, Samsung has built something with its own personality.<\/p>\n
Your typical watch is a circle, and an Apple Watch is a softened square, also known as a circle. With the exception of a triangular Hamilton Ventura<\/a>, this about the norm, but in Samsung\u2019s Watch 8, there\u2019s a slightly different approach: a softened square with a circle inside.<\/p>\n The design gives Samsung something different to work with, and a look that stands out. It gives the circular form a space to hide its technology in, while providing it with an unusual frame.<\/p>\n If anything, the look is an identity, something Samsung calls the \u201ccushion design\u201d, built in aluminium and glass, and protected by the premium sapphire up top.<\/p>\n Inside, there\u2019s a Samsung-made Exynos W1000 5-core 3 nanometre processor, and the hardware is paired with 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, and Google\u2019s WearOS with Samsung\u2019s One UI over the top.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t really need to think about that. What you will want to think about is the Samsung \u201cBioactive\u201d sensor, a health system made of an optical heart rate sensor, electrical heart rate sensor (ECG), plus a bioelectrical impedance analysis for measuring more of the health than you might expect. <\/p>\n A temperature sensor is also found in the watch, as are sensors for barometer, accelerometer, light, and even geomagnetism (used for proximity and position tracking).<\/p>\n Depending on the model you choose, the wearable will come with WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and GPS, though you can also get it with 4G LTE.<\/p>\n There are two sizes to choose form \u2014 40mm and 44mm \u2014 and they\u2019re all rated for IP68 and MIL-STD-810H military spec for durability, the body made from aluminium and the screen protected by Sapphire glass.<\/p>\n Each screen is a little different, the 40mm providing a 1.34 inch circle in a square body, while the 44mm provides a 1.47 inch circular in a square body.<\/p>\n Samsung has also provided a way to replace bands easily called a dynamic lug system, offering a slim button on the reverse of the watch that detaches the bands quickly and easily.<\/p>\n In-use<\/p>\n There\u2019s not a lot you\u2019ll need to remember using the Galaxy Watch 8, with a touchscreen at your disposal compared to the combination of touch and a physical control ring on the slightly bigger Watch 8 Classic. The two are otherwise identical, and both lean on the touchscreen, as do most smartwatches in general.<\/p>\n Using the Watch 8, you\u2019ll swipe down for power controls, swipe up for an app menu, and swipe left and right for widgets and notifications. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, there are two physical buttons that feel otherwise useless at times: one is dedicated to Google\u2019s Gemini, an AI you mightn\u2019t care about whether it\u2019s on your wrist or not, and the other acts as a back button.<\/p>\n For the bulk of this review, once the realisation of how the buttons worked had cemented, we largely steer clear of them. The fact that one served Gemini \u2014 a feature we don\u2019t often use \u2014 we realised we could live without touching it.<\/p>\n You can change the shortcut to another assistant, the much less used Bixby by Samsung, a smart assistant we\u2019re not even sure Samsung acknowledges on mobile anymore, but that\u2019s it. The choice isn\u2019t truly yours for how you change the shortcut, and is just a choice of assistants.<\/p>\n Not being able to change that shortcut is a bit of a missed opportunity. AI on phones hasn\u2019t been quite the game-changer many expected \u2014 you only need to glance at the half-baked version of \u201cMagic Cue\u201d<\/a> Google rolled out to the Pixel 10 Pro XL to see that. But having a dedicated button for an AI assistant on the wrist just feels like a waste, especially if you\u2019re not going to use it.<\/p>\n Performance<\/p>\n The good news is that once you begin using the Galaxy Watch 8, it all gets a little easier. The watch is fast and responsive, and outside of a little lag between your phone\u2019s notifications and a delay on your wrist, feels as connected as the rest of the hardware.<\/p>\n Samsung has added some more watch faces and provided ways to play with the complications, giving you that little bit more control you might have wanted.<\/p>\n In fact, the more you play with the watch, the more you realise the main focus is on health activity, with watch faces focused on the time and activities rather than the playful antics of cartoon characters.<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t as many playful watch faces at all, a fact that dissatisfied the little ones when playing with this screen. Kids won\u2019t really be interested in the Galaxy Watch 8 look, which is fine, because as an adult, there\u2019s a lot here.<\/p>\n Health features<\/p>\n Most of what\u2019s here is about health, with the \u201cbioactive\u201d sensor focused on that. You only need to check out the watch\u2019s insistence to use Galaxy Health to get that message.<\/p>\n Inside the app and with the extra Health Monitor app on the Galaxy Store (only on Samsung\u2019s store, which means it only works on Samsung phones), you\u2019ll be able to get an assortment of features working, ranging from ECG to heart rate to SpO2 blood oxygen to the sleep apnoea tracking just activated in Australia.<\/p>\n There are also others you may not be thinking about, such as the antioxidant tracker, a new feature that has you check the carotene levels in the skin<\/a> on your thumb from the past two weeks to see whether you\u2019ve been eating enough fruit and veggies. <\/p>\n We\u2019re not sure if wine necessarily plays a part, but given that red wine does have antioxidants in it<\/a>, we may need to have a regular glass to see if our index goes up, while also indulging in the regular assortment or fruits and veggies.<\/p>\n Samsung has included other features, too, which can really add to the health feature set in ways you don\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n Take the blood pressure monitor, which needs a few steps of configuration, but once it\u2019s done, it works a treat. You\u2019ll not want to throw away your blood pressure cuff \u2014 we keep using the monitor from Withings<\/a> \u2014 but the Galaxy Watch 8 covered an almost identical reading tested seconds apart.<\/p>\n The fact that this is included and can be calibrated is a bit of a clever bonus, particularly since it doesn\u2019t need a cuff to use. We probably wouldn\u2019t really on it over our standard blood pressure monitor, but in terms of a regular test, it\u2019s definitely convenient to have it directly inside the watch.<\/p>\n Battery<\/p>\n The battery is where things get pear-shaped quickly for Samsung\u2019s circular watch. A big always-on screen just doesn\u2019t fare well for Samsung, it seems, and the closer it gets to building a true Apple Watch competitor, the closer it also gets to the similar battery woes Apple deals with.<\/p>\n Much like how the Series 10 Apple Watch struggled<\/a> to hit beyond a day and more or less required a charge nightly, the Galaxy Watch 8 also has that problem, at least in the 44mm size model we reviewed.<\/p>\n We could get beyond the 24 hour mark, but then the watch would run out of juice about 4 to 6 hours later, which meant it shutting down or going into the emergency power mode when we were nowhere near a charger.<\/p>\n On one day, the Galaxy Watch 8 struggled to even hit a day, needing a recharged around 10 am after a little over 24 hours on the wrist, and when recharging it, it struggled to stay on until we went to bed, barely lasting 10 hours. In that instance, we\u2019d had a phone call diverted to the phone while the sensors were tracking more fitness.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just not a fantastic result, and really tells you the Galaxy Watch 8 is a one-day watch that you\u2019ll want need to charge nightly.<\/p>\n Value<\/p>\n The price airs on the expensive side, too, starting at $649 for the 40mm Bluetooth model and $699 for the larger 44mm version. We ended up reviewing the model with LTE in the hardware for on-the-go mobility, which adds a hundred bucks to the variants, making it $749 and $799 respectively. This review is focused on the $799 44mm WiFi\/Bluetooth\/LTE Galaxy Watch 8.<\/p>\n That price tag can feel expensive for the hardware, which is a little more than competitor offerings sans-LTE, but still somewhat near where it probably should be.<\/p>\n It just feels expensive because while the design has changed, the watch hasn\u2019t really been firmed up in the ways it probably should have been. A day of battery life is a small amount to really pay for.<\/p>\n What needs work?<\/p>\n So what needs work? The battery is clearly one of those things, which just doesn\u2019t deliver any real confidence in being able to use the wearable for a whole lot. Use the screen or features or sensors more, and the battery basically responds with a big fat \u201cnope\u201d.<\/p>\n The controls bother me somewhat, largely because that top button is useless on a single push when you\u2019re on the main clock screen, asking you to hold it down to launch an assistant you might not even use, be it Bixby or Google\u2019s Gemini. <\/p>\n Given that it could have launched a menu or any other shortcut, it just feels like Samsung\u2019s approach to controls hasn\u2019t been as thought out as the health features, and didn\u2019t seem like it encouraged exploration of the apps compared to how Apple\u2019s, well, does.<\/p>\n But the other thing that bothers is the Android integration, which is more deeply tied with Samsung devices and sometimes struggles with Androids that aren\u2019t made by Samsung.<\/p>\n We tried this review in two stages: first with a phone we\u2019re familiar with from Samsung, the Galaxy Fold 7<\/a>, and then another we were reviewing from Google\u2019s Pixel 10 range.<\/p>\n When it came to a phone made by Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 8 performed flawlessly outside of battery life, remaining connected to the mobile and triggering all the sensors when it needed to. It seems to work excellently with Samsung mobiles, as well you\u2019d expect it to.<\/p>\n But use the Galaxy Watch 8 with any other Android not made by Samsung, and the watch doesn\u2019t quite work as well. The health sensors and footstep tracking kick in when you\u2019re walking, but messages and notifications don\u2019t appear to go through even when they\u2019ve been told to, and at times, the watch just shows a \u201cdisconnection\u201d icon for the phone, even though it can still get calls sent to it from the phone.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all a little maddening, and really tells you that Samsung\u2019s watches play best with a Samsung, even though they\u2019re made to work on Android.<\/p>\n Even though the Galaxy Watch 8 is technically an Android wearable, it\u2019s difficult to recommend unless you have a Samsung Android specifically. It just isn\u2019t as compatible, which genuinely feels like a bit of a miss from Samsung\u2019s end.<\/p>\n What we love<\/p>\n If you do have a Samsung phone, however, what delivers exceedingly well for Samsung is the assortment of sensors found in the watch.<\/p>\n The combination means you can check your heart rate, ECG, step count, blood oxygen, muscle and fat separation made from your body weight, antioxidant levels, blood pressure, stress levels, and more.<\/p>\n There\u2019s just so much here packaged in the \u201cbioactive\u201d sensor stack that it really feels like a wearable made for your health.<\/p>\n Health may be a part of pretty much every smartwatch, but in the Galaxy Watch 8, it\u2019s here in a big way. Simply put, the Galaxy Watch 8 is built to be good for your health.<\/p>\n Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Watch 8 vs the competition<\/p>\n Working out where the Galaxy Watch 8 fits into the Android wearable landscape is interesting if only because while it\u2019s an Android-compatible wearable, it clearly doesn\u2019t deal with all Android phones the same way.<\/p>\n In our testing, Samsung Galaxy phones were fine, but Google Pixels less so, a problem given that Google Pixel phones are essentially the best example of a stock phone out there. Which means the Galaxy Watch 8 is a fine choice for someone with a Samsung phone, but less so for owners of just about any other Android made by any other company.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a little like the world Apple is trying to create, where if you buy an Apple Watch you can only use it with an iPhone, a move that keeps you locked to an iPhone to a degree. Samsung isn\u2019t far from that, keeping you tied to a Samsung in ways.<\/p>\n But even for folks with a Samsung phone, there\u2019s still more choice out there.<\/p>\n For instance, if you want something in a similar size but with a different look, Google\u2019s upcoming Pixel Watch<\/a> will get you there, though we don\u2019t know the battery life just yet. If you still want a Galaxy Watch but need more battery life, the more expensive Galaxy Watch Ultra is your best bet, providing up to two days of regular life.<\/p>\n Alternatively, if you need a good week to two weeks of battery life and can live without the full touchscreen experience, the Withings ScanWatch 2 Horizon is our pick<\/a>, or alternatively the ScanWatch 2 if you don\u2019t want the diver-style casing<\/a>. Both offer similar hardware and health features in the casing of an analogue watch, complete with a tiny screen for notifications and making your way around the watch\u2019s health features.<\/p>\n Final thoughts (TLDR)<\/p>\n We started this review asking an important question Android owners are always keen to answer: simply put, if the Apple Watch is for iPhone only \u2014 and only the iPhone \u2014 what can Android owners use instead?<\/p>\n The answer is a polished, durable and clever wearable that comes with the same pitfalls and caveats of the Apple equivalent, battery life being chief amongst them.<\/p>\n In its eight incarnation, the Galaxy Watch is easily one of the best health and time-focused gadgets you can find on Android, though Samsung phones are clearly the intended market here. A Samsung phone will work with everything this wearable has to offer, while other Android models may want to seek elsewhere.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/samsung-galaxy-watch-8-review-2025-09-1024x660-jpg.webp.webp\"\/)
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