Samsung’s latest smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 8, arrives in an interesting position. For years, the standard Galaxy Watch models carried their own distinct identity — simple, circular, and minimal. With this generation, however, Samsung has shifted the design closer to the Watch Ultra, blurring the lines between its different models.
That might sound like a loss of uniqueness, but in reality, the Watch 8 feels like the perfect middle ground: lightweight, comfortable, and equipped with nearly all the same features as its more premium siblings. After spending time with it, here’s our in-depth look at how the Galaxy Watch 8 (the 44mm model) holds up across design, performance, health, and more.
Design
The Galaxy Watch 8 takes a different approach this year. Instead of sticking with the simple pebble-like design of previous models, Samsung has aligned it more closely with the Watch Ultra. This gives the Watch 8 a “mini Ultra” vibe, thanks to its squircle-shaped housing and slightly bulkier bezels around the circular display.
While it may have lost some of its unique design identity, the result is a watch that feels sleek, modern, and comfortable. The lightweight, slim body makes it easy to forget you’re even wearing it. Samsung’s new Dynamic Lug bands also help the watch sit flush on the wrist without digging in, enhancing comfort for all-day and overnight wear.
One minor drawback is the buttons — they look elegant, but because they protrude so little, they can feel less tactile to press. The Galaxy Watch 8 also misses out on the Quick button from the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, so accessing favorite features quickly is not possible.
Display
Samsung has upgraded the Galaxy Watch 8’s display to an impressive 3,000 nits of peak brightness, up from 2,000 nits on the Watch 7. This makes visibility excellent in all conditions, whether indoors or outdoors. Colors are vibrant, and the screen remains sharp and readable at all times.
The digital rotating bezel is still here, complete with haptic feedback, making navigation intuitive and satisfying. Combined with One UI 8 Watch, which introduces smoother animations, better notification handling, and stackable tiles, the overall display and UI experience feels fluid and polished.
Health and fitness
The Galaxy Watch 8 comes with the same BioActive sensor that debuted with the Watch Ultra, which means you’re getting one of the most capable health and fitness trackers Samsung has ever made. It can monitor all the usual metrics, including heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, body composition, sleep, heart rate zones, and skin temperature.
Workout tracking is extensive. The watch can automatically detect a wide range of exercises, and activities like walking, running, and cycling are tracked with impressive precision. That said, more complex bodyweight workouts such as crunches, lunges, or planks can still trip it up, showing less consistent accuracy.
Sleep tracking remains a strong point for Samsung’s smartwatches, and the Watch 8 is no exception. It provides detailed insights into different sleep stages, can detect snoring, and even offers sleep coaching to help you improve rest quality. Importantly, the new sensor setup also enables sleep apnea detection.
Samsung Health ties everything together by pulling data from the watch and presenting it in clear, actionable ways. Features like the Energy Score give you a quick snapshot of your overall wellness, while Wellness Tips offer personalized suggestions for improvement. These recommendations aren’t always spot-on at first, but they become more useful over time as the AI adapts to your patterns.
On top of these, Samsung has added advanced metrics like vascular load and the Antioxidant Index. The latter requires you to remove the watch and use your thumb on the rear sensor, which is a slightly awkward process but enables more precise readings that sync directly with your phone.
Overall, the Galaxy Watch 8 is incredibly well-equipped for fitness and wellness, making it a serious option whether you’re a casual health tracker or someone who wants more advanced insights.
Software
The Galaxy Watch 8 ships with One UI 8 Watch out of the box, and it’s one of the most polished smartwatch software updates Samsung has released. The new Now bar makes it easy to stay on top of ongoing tasks like timers or media playback directly from the watch face, while gesture controls such as the double pinch let you scroll notifications, take photos, or control music without touching the screen.
Notifications have also been revamped, with a cleaner stacked design and smarter delivery options depending on whether you’re using your phone. There’s also Google Gemini support, which works smoothly on the Watch 8, giving you a capable AI assistant right from your wrist.
Samsung Health gets new tools like Bedtime guidance and Mindfulness tracking, while customization has been improved through custom tiles, smarter watch face recommendations, and a more personalized app layout.
Overall, One UI 8 Watch brings meaningful refinements that make the Galaxy Watch 8 feel smoother, more connected, and more customizable. One UI 8 Watch will also be coming to the Galaxy Watch 7, though it was still in beta at the time this review was written.
Performance and battery
With One UI 8 Watch, the Galaxy Watch 8 runs smoothly. The 3nm Exynos W1000 is a beast of a chip, and while there is some hitching when scrolling, it’s not frequent enough to matter. The watch feels very fast and fluid, just like its predecessor did.
However, Samsung has not upgraded the available storage on the regular Watch 8. You still get 32GB storage here, while the Classic model gets 64GB like the Watch Ultra.
On the 44mm model, you can expect around 1.5 days of battery life with typical use and almost two days with light use. Things change if you switch on features like continuous heart rate monitoring, though: you can expect to have to charge the watch every morning.
Samsung has added a new battery protection feature: the watch can stop charging at 90% and resume at 85%, which helps prolong battery health over time. Charging itself feels pretty slow, with a full charge requiring up to an hour and a half. And like the Watch 7 and Watch Ultra, the Watch 8 misses out on wireless charging with a Galaxy phone because of how the health sensor is designed.
Verdict
The Galaxy Watch 8 may not have a strong individual identity like its predecessors, but it’s all the better for it. By blending comfort, advanced features, and design cues from the Watch Ultra, it strikes a sweet spot.
It’s lightweight, incredibly comfortable, and packed with the same health and fitness features found in Samsung’s more premium models. While battery life is not the best, the trade-off is a form factor that feels unobtrusive and easy to wear day and night.
If you want a smartwatch that does almost everything the Watch Ultra can, but in a lighter and less bulky form, the Galaxy Watch 8 is the perfect middle ground.
Galaxy Watch 8
What we like
Beautiful lightweight design
Bright OLED display
Full-featured health and fitness tracking
Good battery life
One UI 8 Watch with Google Gemini integration
Fast and smooth
What we don’t
Battery life could be better
Charging feels slow
Squircle design may not be for everyone