At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to find any meaningful difference between Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 7 and the Galaxy Watch 6, at least on the outside.
That’s because Samsung hasn’t changed much about the Galaxy Watch. It’s using the same design as before, the same case sizes, similar specs, similar software features and the same starting price of $300.
And you know what? That’s not really a bad thing. The Galaxy Watch 6 was already a great Wear OS device, and the Watch 7 improves it. Sure, the lack of major upgrades is kind of boring, but the watch still aces the fundamentals and maintains the Galaxy Watch’s reputation as one of the best smartwatches around. Here’s why we think it deserves a spot on your wrist.
The Galaxy Watch 7 is one of the best Wear OS watches you can get, now with even better performance, more accurate fitness tracking and the same gorgeous display.
What we liked about it
Familiar design that’s plenty stylish
The Galaxy Watch 7 looks like the Watch 6, which looked like the Watch 5, which looked like the Watch 4…
You get my point. This watch is familiar to anyone who’s seen a semi-recent Galaxy Watch, and that’s fine. It’s instantly identifiable as a Galaxy Watch with its round shape, protruding lugs and aluminum build. It’s available in the same 40mm and 44mm sizes as before, with my preference being the 44mm version. I received the silver version to review which looks great no matter what you’re wearing, but if you’d prefer something different, you can get either model in green. The 40mm isn’t available in silver, however; instead, Samsung chose a cream color that’s a bit off-white and looks equally as good.
From an aesthetics standpoint, I prefer what Google has done with the Pixel Watch and its stone-like curvatures. However, the Galaxy Watch 7 is good-looking in its own respect, albeit a bit more utilitarian.
Samsung tweaked the bands that the Galaxy Watch 7 ships with to include blue and orange accents beside the lugs, and I’m not mad about it. It gives the bands an adventurous vibe that’s both sporty and fashionable. There’s also a new fabric band and one called “Athleisure” that’s built for athletes but is also a great go-to for stylish flair.
The watch is still 5 ATM water resistant, which means it’ll survive in up to 50 meters of water. It also passed military-grade drop tests for durability, comes with sapphire crystal glass to protect the screen and has reinforced “Armor Aluminum 2” for extra durability against dings and scratches. Overall, you won’t need to worry about wearing this watch almost anywhere you go (just don’t go deep-sea diving–save that for the Galaxy Watch Ultra).
A beautiful screen and reliable performance
I think of Samsung immediately when I think about beautiful screens because the company has been making them for so long. The Galaxy Watch 7, subsequently, has a beautiful screen.
The 40mm model gets a 1.3-inch AMOLED display, while the 44mm has a 1.5-inch AMOLED. Both offer sharp resolutions, 2,000 nits of peak brightness, beautiful colors and high contrast. Mind you, this is identical to what was on the Watch 6, but there’s no reason to fix something that isn’t broken. These screens are wonderful to use and interact with. Plus, you get an always-on option so you can glance at the time or your widgets without having to raise your wrist.
Under the hood, Samsung threw in a new 3-nanometer Exynos W1000 chip that regularly gives me reliable performance. Whether I’m jumping back and forth between my workout progress and Spotify, managing my tasks in Todoist or surfing through Google Play to find my next favorite Wear OS app, the watch handles everything I do with ease. I’ve used plenty of smartwatches in the past that would stutter or slow to a crawl during normal usage (like the Galaxy Watch 6 from last year), so I’m happy to report that those days seem to be over.
Another great performance note: Samsung doubled the storage on the Watch 7. There’s now 32GB of storage instead of 16GB so you have more room for your apps, music, GPS maps and more.
More accurate fitness tracking, now with AI for recovering
On the Galaxy Watch 7, Samsung includes an improved 3-in-1 BioActive sensor that can track everything from heart rate and blood oxygen to skin temperature and body composition. The improvements lie in the sensor’s accuracy, which Samsung has increased for this generation so that any data tracked is better representative of your fitness habits.
During my usage, I didn’t notice any significant accuracy shifts compared to the Watch 6, but I will say that my calorie burn seemed to be lower on the Watch 7, which I’m guessing is a good thing since watches tend to overestimate how many you burn each day anyway. Other than that, heart rate tracking, strain, stress, blood oxygen and more all seemed to work the same way as before.
That’s a good thing, mind you. Samsung has one of the best suites of fitness features you’ll find on any watch. It’s comparable to the list of features Apple gives you on the Apple Watch with over 100 different workout options, heart rate zone tracking, special badges you earn for reaching achievements, menstrual cycle tracking, stress tracking and more. Plus, Samsung threw in dual-band GPS with the Watch 7 so you’ll get more accurate GPS readings when exercising outdoors.
Sleep tracking also got an upgrade with the Watch 7. Samsung says it’s using the improved BioActive sensor to more accurately record sleep stages and the quality of sleep, which is always nice to see. It’s also using Galaxy AI to determine how well you slept in response to the strain you put on your body the previous day. Samsung then tallies it all up and runs it through an algorithm to give you an Energy score, which will give you an idea of how well you recovered on a scale of 0 to 100.
Does the score mean all that much? Not really, especially if you wake up feeling refreshed and it gives you a score of 55 (which has happened to me). But it’s a nice guide to let you know whether you had a rough night of tossing and turning and whether your body is responding correctly to the strain you put it through. Samsung even gives you proactive ways to improve your sleep in the Samsung Health app which usually entails going to bed earlier or making dietary adjustments, but is nonetheless nice to see.
There’s a lot of fitness stuff packed into the Galaxy Watch 7, all of which is easy to use and robust enough for everyone from beginners to professional athletes. While the experience hasn’t changed much from last year, it doesn’t have to — Samsung has a good thing going here.
The Wear OS 5.0 features are rock solid
Wear OS is in a really good place right now. There were times that it was easy to hate Google’s smartwatch operating system, but ever since the company teamed up with Samsung back in 2021 to re-develop it, it’s been on the right track.
The Galaxy Watch 7 ships with Wear OS 5.0, which is debuting on Samsung’s watch. Compared to Wear OS 4.0, there’s not a lot that feels different or new. A couple of new features I like are the hand gestures; like the most recent Apple Watches, Samsung lets you double-pinch your index finger and thumb to select buttons on the screen. You can also double-knock your watch-wearing fist to launch apps or tools like the flashlight. The former works more reliably than the latter, but both are handy in a pinch (pun intended).
Otherwise, there are some new features with the always-on display that lets you launch apps without having to raise your wrist, some performance and battery life optimizations, and improved system stability, all of which are great to have. Samsung says it’ll update the Watch 7 for four years down the road, so you won’t have to worry about missing out on the latest features.
Wear OS has reached a point where you know what to expect. There are Tiles that you can swipe through on the clock face to show you information, detailed notifications with quick actions, a wide library of apps to download in the Play Store, smart home controls, offline music support and plenty of third-party clock face options. It’s a familiar OS that isn’t demanding a redesign or revitalization like it once was, and that’s pretty great.
What we didn’t like about it
You need a Samsung phone for the best experience
Like many Samsung products nowadays, it’s more conducive to pair them with other Samsung products for the best experience. With the Galaxy Watch 7, that couldn’t be more true.
If you want to record an EKG, take your blood pressure or track irregular heart rates, you’ll need to pair the watch with a Galaxy phone since the Samsung Health Monitor app is only available on Galaxy phones. Likewise, sleep apnea detection only works with Galaxies, as does using the remote shutter for taking photos from afar. Other features like do not disturb will only sync with a Galaxy phone; paired with any other Android phone, you’ll have to enable it manually.
I’ve also noticed that the pairing experience is much smoother with Galaxy phones. The apps you need are pre-installed and ready to go, and when you turn your watch on, it automatically pops up on your phone to set it up and pair the two. It’s a lot more work to pair it with other Android phones for that reason.
The Galaxy Watch will work fine if you use a phone from Google or OnePlus for example, but you’ll be missing out on some features and have a harder time setting it up.
AGEs index is completely useless
There’s a very weird new feature on the Galaxy Watch 7 that’s supposed to measure your metabolic health, but it’s pretty clear it’s just a gimmick.
Called the Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) index, the feature essentially looks at bodily compounds produced when “protein and fat molecules are oxidized by sugar molecules” while you sleep, which translates to your overall metabolic health. It then gives you an idea of your metabolic age, a data point that’s somewhat commonly used in case studies.
What does that mean for you? Basically nothing. Samsung grades your age on a chart from high to low, and mine’s always hovering around the middle, sometimes dipping into “high” for whatever reason. Samsung has offered no explanation of how this feature works, nor does it seem like the feature is accurate considering it’s non-invasive and uses the same BioActive sensor that’s used to track your workouts and heart rate.
It’s a very weird feature that Samsung has decided to focus on with the Watch 7, and I must admit, I only looked at it a few times before giving up on it. It’s not worth paying attention to whatsoever.
It’s time for a battery life upgrade
I know I’m not alone when I say this: smartwatches are long overdue for some serious battery upgrades. While the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Galaxy Watch Ultra enjoy two-day battery life (and watches from Garmin get nearly a month on a full charge), the rest of the industry is stuck with 18 to 24 hour battery life.
The Watch 7 falls firmly in that category. I can make it last a day, but absolutely nothing past that. Sometimes, the watch will die before I go to bed, and that’s after tracking one workout and managing my notifications during the day. Sure, I could turn off the always-on display to limit battery drain, but who in their right mind turns it off?
The watch doesn’t take long to recharge, thankfully. You can fill its tank in less than an hour with the charger Samsung includes, but it’d be nicer if you didn’t need to rely on fast charging to get through a day.
OnePlus recently shipped a smartwatch that uses two different chips to improve efficiency using a unique power-sipping technique for lighter activities. The Galaxy Watch 7 has no such configuration; instead, all operations are run through the same power-hungry chip, hence why the watch only lasts a day instead of two to three days like the OnePlus Watch 2.
It’s amazing to me that Samsung didn’t steal this idea from OnePlus for its new watches. Maybe it will in the future, but until then, you’ll need to settle for less-than-stellar endurance. That is, unless you buy the Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Bottom line
For $300, the Galaxy Watch 7 nails the basics and offers enough versatility to appeal to many different users. While some features are reserved for Galaxy phone owners, the core experience of the Watch 7 is good enough for anyone with an Android phone to consider purchasing.
It might not have great battery life, and some of the health features are a bit strange. But overall, the Galaxy Watch 7 continues Samsung’s trend of producing really good Wear OS devices, and this one is certainly worth your consideration.
