I am not going Extremely, and also you needn’t both

Samsung launched a bit of every part throughout its second Unpacked occasion of 2024. It introduced the extremely anticipated Galaxy Ring to market, added two new foldables to the portfolio, and launched its first Extremely-tier smartwatch. Misplaced in the course of all that pleasure was one other wearable — the Galaxy Watch 7 — which obtained a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it point out earlier than Samsung moved proper alongside to its Galaxy AI bulletins.

And sure, I do know why Samsung solely gave its base smartwatch just a few seconds of showtime, it’s not that a lot totally different from the Galaxy Watch 6 that got here earlier than it, and the model new, far dearer Galaxy Watch Extremely has understandably taken heart stage. However I believe the much more modest Galaxy Watch 7 deserved higher. Despite the fact that it doesn’t revolutionize what it means to be a smartwatch, I nonetheless assume it’s the Galaxy wearable you should purchase in 2024.

Samsung hasn’t modified its base Galaxy Watch design in just a few years — no less than for the reason that Galaxy Watch 4 — and you understand what? I’m okay with that. It was already a handsome wearable that was equally trendy and purposeful, and Samsung has solely refined its design since then. Its AMOLED panels have gotten greater, its bezels have slimmed down, and it’s shaken up the controls a time or two, however the Galaxy Watch 7 nonetheless feels acquainted as quickly as you strap it in your wrist. In reality, the final Samsung wearable I spent a lot time with was the Galaxy Watch 4, but I really feel like I can soar into this new mannequin like no time has handed.

In a world the place smartwatches are trending maximalist (together with Samsung’s personal now with the Extremely’s arrival), the Galaxy Watch 7’s unassuming, minimalist design appears like a breath of recent air. Don’t get me flawed, I do know I’m a part of the issue — I nearly all the time have a cumbersome, do-it-all Garmin GPS watch on my wrist as a result of I barely should cost it, however I’m glad Samsung isn’t catering completely to the likes of me. I imply, altering from one thing so sizable to one thing so slim makes me admire the already comfy design that rather more. Carrying the Galaxy Watch 7 feels nearly like sporting a model of a traditional Put on OS watch just like the Moto 360, solely that wasn’t deserted and as a substitute reached its ultimate type — clean, responsive, watch-shaped.

On prime of that, I’d assume twice about sporting most of my GPS watches to a proper event like a marriage, however I’d don’t have any downside strapping on the Galaxy Watch 7 — with the appropriate watch face, in fact. Samsung’s dedication to its spherical AMOLED panel even means I can soar proper again to a few of my previous favourite faces. I’ll dip into the Endangered Animals face at times, or generally I’ll roll with the Steps Problem face (particularly on days after I run), however I’ve principally been having fun with Samsung’s Perpetual face. It’s… crowded, to say the least, cramming the day and month across the edges, in addition to the section of the moon within the heart. Perhaps the predominantly black background is only a approach to present Samsung’s deep AMOLED colours, but it surely works for me.

There may be, nonetheless, one factor that Samsung modified about its Galaxy Watch 7 design: The Digital Bezel isn’t any extra, and I’m upset. It’s a function I bear in mind from way back to the unique Galaxy Watch Lively, and now it’s simply gone. We had some points with its reliability on the Galaxy Watch 6 sequence, however I’d have quite Samsung tried to repair it than quit. There’s no choice for a rotating bodily bezel on the Galaxy Watch 7, both — you must return a era and seize the Galaxy Watch 6 Basic as a substitute.

As an alternative, the Galaxy Watch 7 makes use of a house and again button for tactile navigation, whilst you’ll should swipe via the show for every part else. The brand new controls work simply high quality — they’re extra according to what most smartwatches use — however there was one thing so satisfying about whipping your finger across the fringe of the face to scroll up and down.

Whereas the Galaxy Watch 7 could look like a forgotten replace, a few of the options hidden inside verify that it isn’t true. Sure, Samsung spent most of its time introducing Galaxy AI options and well being updates whereas speaking in regards to the Galaxy Watch Extremely as a substitute, however wouldn’t you? In any case, the shiny new updates sound extra thrilling on a shiny new watch than sprinkled in on a type issue that’s already acquainted. Nevertheless, whereas Samsung could not have talked about its updates in relation to the Galaxy Watch 7, I’m comfortable to report that Galaxy AI is the significant replace this wearable wanted to stay a top-tier health tracker.

Sure, it’s time to speak about Samsung’s up to date method to well being monitoring. I’ll readily admit that I haven’t been satisfied by many of the generative AI options that dot flagship Android telephones proper now. There’s merely not sufficient polish on the Portrait Studio for me to make use of it, and Gemini hasn’t fairly taken Google Assistant out of my pocket, however I believe that Samsung infusing its Galaxy Watch 7 with Galaxy AI is likely to be what lastly will get me onboard. I do know, I’m as shocked as you might be.

What largely gained me over is a metric Samsung is looking the Vitality Rating. It’s like Garmin’s Physique Battery, which I verify nearly each day. Vitality Rating combines your sleep, the day gone by’s exercise, and some different knowledge factors to indicate the way you would possibly really feel on a given day. Nevertheless, whereas the Physique Battery merely provides you an general studying and a bunch of information factors, Samsung’s Vitality Rating breaks down every a part of its readout to recommend how you can enhance your rating.

My Vitality Rating readout isn’t fairly good — I don’t all the time work out with the Galaxy Watch 7 on as a consequence of my coaching plan being on my Coros Tempo 3, and I can’t all the time get the watch band tight sufficient on the 44mm case — but it surely’s extra digestible than another measurements and rather more helpful than Galaxy AI options like doodling a UFO over a baseball stadium and watching it come to life in Sketch to Picture.

Samsung’s Galaxy AI additionally helps you to compete towards your self in just a few out of doors actions — no less than in very particular instances. In case you have an everyday operating or biking route, you should utilize your Galaxy Watch 7 to race towards a ghost model of your self from the final two weeks, battling over tempo and coronary heart charge to see the way you enhance over time. It’s a intelligent function that I believe solo runners or cyclists would profit from as a approach to inspire themselves, however I additionally see issues with it. It’s not wholesome to compete towards your self each single day, as pushing your self too far can result in harm. However, in the event you’re simply beginning a operating journey, it’s a great way to get your self out the door and solely fear about your personal earlier efforts.

A few of Samsung’s different Galaxy AI updates look like they need to be helpful, however they’re a bit trickier for me to check out. Sleep apnea detection, for instance, could be extremely helpful in the event you assume you would possibly endure from the situation, however I already know that I don’t, so I don’t have a lot use for it.

Additionally, needless to say you want a suitable Samsung telephone and to be signed in together with your Samsung account to make use of the entire Galaxy AI monitoring options. You’ll be able to nonetheless monitor actions, sleep, and coronary heart charge with different suitable telephones, however the extra in-depth insights, like sleep apnea detection and Vitality Rating, are unique to Samsung telephones. Different non-health Galaxy AI options, like Steered Replies in Google Messages and voice-to-text summaries from recordings made in your Galaxy Watch 7, require a Samsung telephone, too.

One factor that apprehensive me when Samsung rolled out what seemed like an unchanged Galaxy Watch 7 was whether or not or not it had quietly mounted one in every of our predominant points with its predecessor — the sensors. Though Samsung had no issues packing the Galaxy Watch 6 sequence with spectacular options, we frequently struggled to get spot-on coronary heart charge knowledge throughout our actions, and we observed that the single-band GPS wasn’t all the time correct between tall buildings and beneath bushes. Nicely, I’m comfortable to report that Samsung has largely righted its wrongs.

For starters, single-frequency GPS monitoring is out, and dual-frequency monitoring is in. Samsung upgraded from its earlier L1 frequency to the extra fashionable (and extra correct) L1 plus L5 mixture that we frequently see on GPS watches, which places its Galaxy Watch 7 on a lot better footing towards the likes of the Coros Tempo 3 and provides it a bonus over the Apple Watch Collection 9 which nonetheless solely has single-frequency L1 monitoring. But it surely’s simple to say that the watch is extra correct; now it’s time to check it out.

So, I strapped my Coros Tempo 3 on one wrist and my Galaxy Watch 7 on the opposite and headed to a weekly run membership. Our weekly route has a great mixture of waterfront miles and dips between tall buildings, so I figured it will be a great likelihood to see whether or not or not the dual-frequency setup may sustain with a GPS watch I put on every single day. The outcomes are… blended, to say the least. Despite the fact that each the Galaxy Watch 7 and Coros Tempo 3 have been spot-on whereas heading across the wide-open piers in Baltimore’s Interior Harbor, each struggled mightily when confronted with a stretch round taller buildings.

The map to the left is just about good, with slight variations across the piers as a result of every watch was on a special wrist, whereas the map to the appropriate is a little bit of a large number. It not solely put me contained in the partitions of the constructing with each watches but additionally dropped me within the harbor for a second with the Galaxy Watch 7 as I went across the first nook. The Galaxy Watch 7 additionally recorded my run as each quicker and barely longer than the Coros Tempo 3, selecting up an additional 0.07 of a mile within the final 14 seconds. So, whereas I’d say the dual-frequency GPS is general a bit extra correct than the Galaxy Watch 6, it’s nonetheless not good — however neither is a equally priced GPS watch.

Samsung additionally utterly overhauled its BioActive sensor — an announcement that it made previous to even launching the Galaxy Watch 7. It claims to have doubled the efficiency of its present photodiodes, thereby reducing the quantity wanted and liberating up area so as to add blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet LEDs to the present array of inexperienced, purple, and infrared LEDs. This could imply that the Galaxy Watch 7 can monitor coronary heart charge, sleep high quality, blood strain, and stress ranges extra precisely, in addition to a claimed enchancment of 30% extra correct monitoring throughout exercises.

Since I already had two watches on for a weekly run membership and would in all probability get just a few humorous appears to be like, I figured including one other sensor to the combination wouldn’t do any hurt. So, I pulled the Coros coronary heart charge monitor round my bicep and obtained comfy with feeling like a science experiment.

As soon as once more, the up to date sensor setup is near that of my Coros Tempo 3 and coronary heart charge monitor, however not fairly good. I lower out a 15-minute stretch the place I didn’t should cease for any site visitors lights, and the 2 wearables have been inside a heartbeat (or two) of one another for the complete length. The Galaxy Watch 7 skews a bit increased throughout the complete vary, peaking at 162 beats per minute (bpm) on the 27-minute mark to the Tempo 3’s peak of 160bpm on the identical level, however each watches completed with the identical general common of 153bpm throughout my whole 45-minute run. So far as I’m involved, that’s sufficient constant accuracy for most individuals to belief the Galaxy Watch 7 in a approach they couldn’t fairly depend on its predecessor.

It’s humorous — I don’t normally assume that you should purchase one thing that feels prefer it’s been forgotten about. However, whenever you take a look at the Galaxy Watch 7, you notice that Samsung didn’t actually neglect about it. As an alternative, it saved a design that already labored (nicely, apart from the digital bezel) and spent most of its time updating the health-tracking metrics with the facility of Galaxy AI. In my eyes, that’s all it wanted to do.

I’m additionally comfortable to advocate the Galaxy Watch 7 for the sheer incontrovertible fact that most individuals in all probability don’t want the Galaxy Watch Extremely. Just like the Apple Watch Extremely (which it bears greater than a passing resemblance to), Samsung’s top-tier watch has its greatest battery, hardest construct high quality, and highest price ticket — most of which your common consumer doesn’t want. I’ve had no points sporting the Galaxy Watch 7 for runs on back-to-back days with out charging, and nothing in regards to the new squircle design makes the Watch Extremely really feel like one thing I need to put on every single day.

The Galaxy Watch 7, then again, is an easy watch that checks the entire packing containers that your common Galaxy fan wants and does so at a value that feels rather more comfy within the face of the far dearer Galaxy Watch Extremely ($649.99 at Amazon). You possibly can possibly complain about the truth that Samsung hasn’t bumped its battery capability (the 44mm case nonetheless homes a 425mAh cell, and the 40mm model solely packs 300mAh), however I believe the extra environment friendly 3nm processor makes up for it. I usually get two days of juice out of my watch earlier than I want a charger, and even then, I can get again to nearly a full cell whereas I eat breakfast and bathe.

Whereas some would possibly discover Put on OS 5 a bit underwhelming, I fairly like what Samsung is doing. It lets every widget stretch throughout the AMOLED panel, making it simple to learn your operating metrics and the present climate and reply to texts utilizing Galaxy AI-powered solutions with even the fattest of fingers (it’s me, I’ve these fingers) with out unintentionally bumping different buttons. Whenever you examine it to the rounded pebble of the Pixel Watch ($349.99 at Amazon), Samsung’s massive however easy interface simply is sensible.

So, in the event you’re already within the Samsung Galaxy and searching for a brand new smartwatch, it’s robust to look previous the Galaxy Watch 7 (and its non-compulsory LTE-enabled model, which prices a bit bit further). It won’t be an entire evolution in wearable know-how, however generally, the most effective enhancements are those you don’t see instantly.