Best Samsung Galaxy Watch 2023: Which Samsung watch should you buy?

Unlike its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 feels far less iterative this time around by bringing some genuinely welcome changes to the table.

For starters, the fact that Samsung’s done away with the 30% of yesteryear’s chunky bezels whilst also making the display 20% larger is fantastic, and it makes the Galaxy Watch 6 look and feel like a far more confident device overall. It’s very reminiscent of when Apple made significant upgrades to the display in the Apple Watch 7.

Just like how the Galaxy Watch 4 brought Wear OS 3 to market, the Watch 6 is the first of its kind to come with Wear OS 4 out of the box, which makes it a pretty good investment right now in terms of longevity. The newer OS brings about several impressive features including the ability to track your different stages of sleep, which is always handy for figuring out how to improve your circadian rhythm.

Samsung’s bevy of health tracking features make a return here, including the Body Measure function for a holistic look at your current bill of health, as well as the ability to run an ECG and blood pressure test, although these two are only available if you pair the watch with a Samsung Galaxy handset.

What holds the Galaxy Watch 6 back is its battery life. If you want to make it safely to the end of the day without cause for concern then we recommend switching off the always-on display. It is the type of wearable that you’ll need to charge daily, so if you want a longer battery life above all else then you may want to check out the TicWatch Pro 5.

Reviewer: Thomas Deehan
Full review: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review

After a short hiatus from the Watch 5 series, Samsung decided to revisit its ‘Classic’ timepieces with the new Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. With a few years’ difference between the wearable and its predecessor (the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic), Samsung’s created a worthy upgrade here that’s well worth checking out if your old Galaxy Watch is starting to show its age.

As its name implies, the 6 Classic has a more distinguished style that separates it from the more sport oriented look of the standard Galaxy Watch 6. This includes the use of a tougher stainless steel chassis as well as a new hybrid eco-leather band that’s best paired with a suit.

The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic also boasts the physical rotating bezel that helped to put the Galaxy Watch line on the map many years ago, letting you scroll through menus and apps just twisting the bezel like a dial. It works brilliantly and is definitely a step up from the digital rotating bezel on the Watch 6.

Beyond all of that however, there isn’t much else to lure users to the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which is a shame given that it also brings a significant price bump over the entry level Watch 6 so if you’re not too fussed with the professional aesthetic here, then you might be better off saving your money.

The other specs are exactly the same as the Watch 6, boasting Wear OS 4 and the new Exynos W930 chipset, although this isn’t a bad thing per se. The watch works well in everyday use and while the battery life could definitely be improved, there’s a lot to like here.

Reviewer: James Stables
Full review: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review

If it’s loads of battery life you want in a Galaxy Watch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro offers it in spades.

It comes packed with a 590mAh cell, which is large for a smartwatch of this ilk and offered around two days of regular use before needing to be charged. In addition, its charge times are pretty decent, with it taking an hour and 22 minutes to go from dead to full, and from dead to 38% in 15 minutes – handy for when you need a quick boost and you’re about to head out.

The core feature set is the same as the standard Galaxy Watch 5, but the Pro model brings with it some noteworthy additions that serious fitness fanatics will appreciate. Particularly, the addition of GPX file support, as usually found on hardened fitness trackers from Polar and Garmin, will be useful for hikers and cyclists as it allows you to plot a root in an app like Strava and load it onto the watch. Once there, the Pro offers turn by turn navigation to ensure you follow the route exactly. Besides this, there’s the same handy BioActive sensor for health reporting, as well as its sleep-tracking animals and relatively accurate GPS. Even on this Pro model though, the new temperature sensor remains largely useless almost a year after its initial launch.

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro’s design is largely the same as the standard Watch 5, but it offers a more rugged and hard-wearing appearance involving a raised edge display with a titanium bezel for protection as well as the same durable Sapphire crystal as the standard Watch 5. Like its sibling, the Pro is both IP68 and MIL-STD-810H certified, which is a testament to the watch’s durability.

The controls on the Watch 5 Pro feature a pleasing level of tactility and proved to be a welcome addition to such a fitness-focused device for a quick pause of a workout, and while there isn’t a rotating bezel as with other Samsung watches of old, the digital scroll is a somewhat worthy successor. The Watch 5 Pro opts to use a Super AMOLED display which is vibrant and one of the brightest we’ve seen on a wearable. Furthermore, all icons were readable and easy to see, thanks to the high brightness and excellent contrast.

Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro review

The slightly older Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 isn’t all too much of a downgrade admittedly from the fifth and sixth-gen options above, and can now be had for lower prices as a result of the new models. Here’s why it’s our favourite affordable Galaxy Watch.

It offers a minimalistic design, like the Galaxy Watch Actives of old, which looks great, and also feels rather comfortable too, with a lightweight housing that clocks in at just 26g, without the strap of course. That strap itself is comprised of smooth silicon that’s easy on the wrist when you’re working out.

Perhaps the headline difference between the Watch 4 and its predecessors is the fact it runs on an Google’s Wear OS 3 – this makes a change to older Galaxy Watches than ran Samsung’s own Tizen OS.

This new UI offers a tiled interface which brings with it easy access to the most frequently used functions, as well as integration with key services such as Google Maps, Google Pay and YouTube Music which is, bizarrely, a first for WearOS watches.

Alongside the new OS, there are a host of functions for fitness tracking and health monitoring, chief among which is the new BioActive sensor which compiles multiple sensors into one unit, offering a good all-round option.

Its fitness tracking features during testing proved to be rather accurate, as was the case with the likes of heart rate and distance measurements, while the Google Fit and Samsung Health apps provided a wealth of data for even the most hardened of fitness fanatics to get stuck into.

Compared to its predecessor, the Watch 4 also offers an improved battery life with two days’ worth of use before you’ll need to charge it. This compares well against trackers and smartwatches from other manufacturers we’ve tested too, with it beating off the Apple Watch 7 by 30 hours.

Reviewer: Thomas Deehan
Full review: Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Review