Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is a great smartwatch for Android users even if it is not a massively overhauled update to the Galaxy Watch 6. If you value strong core smartwatch features, rich fitness and sleep tracking support and like the idea of having serious health monitoring features, it will certainly appeal.
Pros
- Great overall smartwatch experience
- Software is nice and slick
- Useful addition of new Energy Scores
Cons
- The battery life is nothing special
- New AI-powered health insights a mixed bag
- Sports tracking still not spotless
Key Features
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Runs on Wear OS 5 The first major smartwatch to carry the software
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Enhanced Bioactive sensor For more detailed health tracking
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Dual-frequency GPS A boost for outdoor route tracking
Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is the latest instalment of Samsung’s flagship smartwatch that seeks again to be the best smartwatch available to Android users.
It’s aiming to do that mainly through promised software and performance improvements as well as using AI to make the latest Galaxy wearable a better one to track your health, fitness and more.
Having launched alongside the more headline-grabbing Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Ring, the Galaxy Watch 7 has had less attention, but that isn’t to say it’s not a solid performer.
Design and Screen
- Looks identical to the Galaxy Watch 6
- Comes in the same 40mm and 44mm case sizes
- New Bioactive sensor
If you put the Galaxy Watch 7 alongside the Galaxy Watch 6, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Samsung has stuck to the same 40mm and 44mm case sizes options and that case is once again made from aluminium with sapphire crystal offering protection against scratches. There’s a pick of silver, green (pictured) or cream bands to match up with it.
There’s also the choice of going for a Bluetooth model or adding 4G, but this essentially feels like the same watch to wear as its predecessor.
That’s not a bad thing, because the Watch 6 had a very likeable design and like the 6 the 7 isn’t too thick, there’s a nice (removable) strap attached to it and the two physical buttons sit almost flush with the case to give it a clean, minimalist look.
The digital bezel remains and works well to let you slide your fingers around to scroll through screens. It does lack that more satisfying feel of the physical one that was included on the Watch Classic, though. Interestingly, Samsung didn’t introduce a Galaxy Watch 7 Classic alongside the Watch 7 and it’s not clear if it will.
It’s more of the same with the screen, with the 44mm Watch 7 sticking to a 1.5-inch, 480 x 480 resolution Super AMOLED touchscreen circular display. It’s still a great smartwatch screen that excels by offering those lovely deep blacks you associate with AMOLED displays. The colours are sharp, accurate and it’s nice and bright too.
The most notable design change lies around the back where Samsung has sought to upgrade its BioActive sensor adding more LEDs to improve the accuracy over the last version of the sensor. It’s responsible for delivering biometric data including heart rate, blood oxygen, body composition and blood pressure monitoring. It also helps to unlock a new metabolic health-centric insight, which I’ll get into later.
On the durability front, you’re getting a smartwatch that’s suitable to be submerged in water up to 50 metres depth. It also carries an IP68 dust resistance rating. I’ve taken it swimming and it’s performed well in the water, though the water ejecting process is a pretty audible one.
Software and Smartwatch Features
- Still for Android users only
- Uses Wear OS 5 and Samsung
- New Wear is more about boosting performance
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 – like the Watch 6 – is for Android users only. If you’re a Samsung smartphone owner, you’re also going to get some extra functionality that isn’t available when paired with a non-Samsung smartphone.
These exclusive features include the new voice-to-text summaries and some health features like the new sleep apnea risk detection. In some instances, you’ll need to be logged into a Samsung account to make the most of all of the available Watch 7 features.
You need to set things up in the Galaxy Wearable app, have the Samsung Health app for fitness and health tracking and also have the Samsung Health Monitor app downloaded. The latter is built for the more serious monitoring business of ECG-based heart rate measurements and blood pressure tracking. You need a Samsung smartphone and a phone connection to be able to install and set up that Health Monitor app.
On the watch itself you’re getting Google’s Wear OS 5.0 and Samsung’s One UI 6.0 laid on top. That’s all being powered by a new Exynos W1000 processor. There’s also 2GB of RAM and Samsung has moved from 16GB to 32GB storage.
I can’t say I had massive issues on the performance front with the Watch 6 and the Watch 7 runs smoothly, with no screen lag. Apps and modes don’t labour to load either, something that was an issue on older Galaxy watches. The bump in processor feels like giving Samsung’s smartwatch the best on offer to make sure that performance remains slick.
As a smartwatch, this is still going to be a wearable where you have access to both Samsung and Google’s apps and software, including Google Maps, the Play Store, Samsung Bixby and a dedicated Samsung Smart Things app.
The overall experience of using the Watch 7 as a smartwatch has been very good. The notification support works well and while it’s nice to have AI-powered features like suggested replies and useful voice-to-text instant summaries, it’s the core experience that makes the Watch 7 easy to get on with.
That extends to the app support where notable apps like Strava, Spotify and Calm are well integrated and optimised on the Watch 7. The double pinch gestures, while not new, feel good to close notifications and go back to a screen when you can’t reach it and it’s generally a really nice watch to use as a smartwatch.
Fitness Tracking
- New AGEs metabolic health insights
- New dual-band GPS
- AI-powered health recommendations
Samsung has packed the Watch 7 with a lot of the features included on the Watch 6 with some notable additions tied to improving tracking accuracy and offering new insights. There’s a lot that this smartwatch promises to track and tell you about your general wellbeing.
As a fitness and sleep tracker, it will do all of those basics: tracking daily steps, active time and active calories and it uses animations to prompt you to keep moving during the day. When it’s time to go to bed, it’ll keep track of typical sleep stats, break down sleep stages and capture metrics like temperature, blood oxygen, heart rate and respiratory rate. Sleep tracking accuracy was one of the aspects that Samsung claimed would be boosted by that improved BioActive sensor.
For step counts, I found it was around 800-1000 steps out from two other fitness trackers. For sleep, it offered similar sleep duration to the Apple Watch Series 9 and Oura Ring and offered similar data for deep and REM sleep stages.
Data like skin temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate didn’t feel wildly out either. Add in features like Samsung’s sleep coaching and a FDA-authorised sleep apnoea risk-detection feature and there’s plenty for sleep data-loving fans here.
On the health tracking front, you’re still getting the ability to take ECG heart rate measurements when placing your fingers on the electrodes built into the physical buttons and it felt very reliable in my testing. It’s still one of the few smartwatches where you can track blood pressure after you’ve calibrated it with a blood pressure monitor and continue to do that regularly.
Samsung includes its body composition analysis mode again to provide data on weight and aspects including body water, body fat and BMI. Though again, this is reliant on you inputting your weight first and I found that some measurements didn’t line up with ones from a set of smart scales.
There’s a new feature that delves into metabolic health, which aims to offer insights into your diet and general lifestyle. Samsung aims to use its optical sensors to measure advanced glycation end products (or AGEs). These are created when sugar molecules and proteins combine and accumulate in all areas of the body. Certain behaviours that can increase the production of AGE are apparently associated with ageing more quickly.
This information is captured overnight and then presented in a colour coded Index. I found mine sat generally in the orange and crept up a little after a pretty unhealthy couple of days. Samsung does offer some advice on how to improve your AGEs index, which is good to see and the information isn’t just left for users to interpret. The next step would be to add some actionable insights.
Another new insight is Energy Scores, which sounds a lot like the Oura Ring’s Readiness scores and looks at your sleep time average, consistency, heart rate and previous day activity to gauge your readiness scores. I wore it alongside the Oura Ring on some intense exercise days and some days where I may have had some alcohol and not a lot of sleep and those scores told a similar story when they needed attention or said I was in good shape.
These scores partly form what Samsung is calling its AI wellness insights and personalised suggestions, which is for Samsung smartphone owners only. It’ll highlight areas such as stress and sleep and nicely summarise that, though I haven’t seen many recommendations offered.
When it comes to using the Watch 7 to track your exercise, there’s plenty on board here. You’ve got sports modes aplenty with options like the ability to train in specific heart rate zones, get audio feedback, adjust data screens and there is a pretty responsive automatic workout detection support.
The big news here is the addition of dual-frequency GPS to boost outdoor tracking accuracy near tall buildings and densely wooded areas along with the ability to build interval workouts as well as race against previous times. These have been added mainly for runners and cyclists.
I found the GPS performance was similar to my experience on the Galaxy Watch Ultra. While data like pacing and calorie burn was similar to a dedicated sports watch, the Watch 7 typically over reported the distance.
It seemed to fare better with distance tracking on shorter runs compared to longer ones. For other activities like pool swims, indoor rows and indoor cycling sessions, the Watch 7 felt more reliable, particularly on the heart rate front, where it was a little more erratic for more intense workouts.
Battery Life
- Up to 40 hours battery with raise to wake
- Up to 30 hours with always-on display
- Uses same charging cradle
The Galaxy Watch 7 hosts a 425mAh capacity battery, the same size battery inside the Watch 6. Samsung states that it should get you a maximum of 40 hours or around 1.6 days when you use the raise to wake gesture support. If you decide to keep the screen on at all times, then that drops to 30 hours, so that’s less than 1.5 days.
I’d say that’s been very representative of my time with the Watch 7 and I’d wish it performed better on that front. Using it with the screen on drops it below 1.5 days as Samsung suggests. Given all of the promised performance improvements here, it’s battery where I’d wish it was more noticeable.
You do have a power saving mode, but not the additional exercise power saving mode you do get with the Galaxy Watch Ultra to push things further without sacrificing too many features. It still means you can use it like a smartwatch without too many restrictions.
When it comes to charging, it uses the same black disc-shaped cradle as the previous Watch, which manages to get the battery from 0-100% in just over an hour.
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Should you buy it?
You want one of the most feature-packed smartwatches
If you’ve got an Android phone and want a smartwatch that offers a great mix of design, performance and features, this is one of your best options.
You want great sports tracking and the best battery life
There are better options for Android users if you’re looking for the best sports features and battery performance, which are clearly areas Samsung still needs to work on.
Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 doesn’t look that different to the outgoing Galaxy Watch 6 – so this is really about adding value on the software and performance front.
In some ways it does that, in others it doesn’t – and you’d have to think that some of the new software features should come to the older Watch 6.
While I think Samsung has made some interesting additions on the wellness and communication front, it’s slightly disappointing to see that things haven’t got better on the battery front.
It still offers a good all-round package and remains one of the best smartwatch choices for Android users, but with the Wear OS competition improving mainly with the OnePlus Watch 2R and Mobvoi, plus the new Pixel Watch 3, Samsung might have to do a bit more to ensure it’s putting its flagship smartwatch ahead of the competition.
Trusted Score
How we test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review. We use industry-standard testing to compare features properly and we use the watch as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- Tested for a week
- Thorough health and fitness tracking testing
- Worn as our main tracker during the testing period
FAQs
Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is waterproof and carries the same 5ATM waterproof rating as the Galaxy Watch 6, making it safe to be submerged in water up to 50 metres depth.
While the designs of the Galaxy Watch 6 and 7 remain largely the same, Samsung has introduced an upgraded BioActive sensor to the Watch 7 along with features like dual-frequency GPS, a new 3nm processor and new AI-powered features like suggested replies for text messages.
Full Specs
| Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £289 |
| USA RRP | $299 |
| Manufacturer | – |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Waterproof | 5ATM |
| Battery | 300 mAh |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Operating System | Wear OS 5 |
| Release Date | 2024 |
| GPS | No |