Shit…. I think I really like this watch…
I caught myself muttering this on a random Thursday night, about a week or so after receiving the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for review. Prior to the newest iteration arriving at my doorstep, I had been wearing the original Galaxy Watch – yes, the one that was released in 2018. I had been wearing the original model to death, and it was on its last legs. While I was very fond of the Galaxy Watch (which explains why I have been wearing it for the past 7 years), it wasn’t perfectly suited to my current needs, and in the 7 years since the original’s release, other companies have either entered the smartwatch game or released iterative improvements on a yearly basis.
In toying with the idea of getting an upgrade, I had been thinking about what I’d buy, and factoring in my current lifestyle, I was leaning towards more fitness-oriented devices to better track my heart rate, steps, VO2max, amongst other biometrical parameters – think Garmin or Coros, to name a couple of brands. Frankly, Samsung had kind of gone the way of the “vanilla” side of smartwatches: it does everything well enough, but the tech offerings were “good enough” but not spectacular when compared to fitness-specific wearables. I’d even briefly considered the Galaxy Watch 8, the little sibling of the Classic, but decided to look elsewhere when the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic arrived for review.
After a couple of weeks with the device and completing my first half-marathon while wearing it, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is everything I’m looking for in a smartwatch, and I will be very upset to be returning it back to Samsung. While questions still abound with accuracy, the consistency in the data collected by the watch is sufficient. Combined with a classy design, brighter display, improved battery life, and the return of the rotating bezel, anyone who isn’t wearing the Galaxy Watch 7 should absolutely consider this if they are wanting to upgrade their smart timepiece.
Initially, upon opening the box and taking out the watch (sans straps), my first observation was the weight of it: it is significantly heavier than the original I had been wearing, and while it’s effectively the same device, the extra tech Samsung put into the Galaxy Watch 8 made it feel a bit on the heavier side. That, and the extra watch face real estate (46mm diameter compared to the 40mm diameter of the one I have been wearing), made it look and feel bulkier on my dinky little wrist – It feels like the old school, oversized, fully loaded G Shock watches that were popular in the 90s. Suffice to say, I wasn’t 100% convinced this watch was for me. But after getting used to the size and the weight fairly quickly, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic does not feel cumbersome, and other than the occasional scenarios where the watch would catch on my pocket, I couldn’t feel a discernible difference despite the size and the weight.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic arrived in a small box, and when I pulled the top cover off, I was greeted with an elegant, stainless steel watch with white trims around the buttons, the back of the watch, and the inner circle of the dial. I’m not particularly fond of the white but thought it accented the stainless steel well enough to not really stand out… until I pulled the cardboard layer that rests the watch out of the box and was greeted with conspicuously white straps. Assembling it together makes the watch a snowy-white timepiece; the stainless steel surround almost disappears amongst the white and makes the watch stand out even more. While there were many compliments on the watch and how nice and clean it looks (which I concur), I’ve found the stitching on the straps already tainted with grime, turning it into a greyish hue. No doubt that in due time, the straps themselves will inevitably succumb to the same effect that the stitching did. Samsung does offer the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic in black, which would be my preferred colourway and should camouflage the dirt buildup a bit better.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic introduces a new system to attach the band to the watch; the Dynamic Lug system reduces the gap between the watch and the skin, helping to provide more consistently accurate readings. While the process of attaching the strap was a bit tedious due to the smaller locking/unlocking button, once the strap was locked in, the strap felt secure and helped the watch fit snugly around my wrist.
Another update is the screen’s brightness and a small improvement to the battery: Now running at 3,000 nits (compared to 2,000 nits in the Galaxy Watch 7), the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is brighter and makes it handy to read the screen in all light conditions. While the screen is slightly smaller, and the increased brightness may be of concern to some users wanting a longer usage time in between charges, a 20 mAh increase on the battery means 24+ hours of wear on one charge isn’t out of the question.
Design-wise, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic took a page from the Galaxy Watch Ultra and updated the shape from a circular design to a rounded square design. While the redesign didn’t add much in terms of aesthetics, once I got used to the weight, the extra real estate of the watch itself had no impedance on my wrist in everyday wear. The rounded square design does provide extra protection to the rotating bezel, while simultaneously allowing the white-ringed bezel to stand out amongst the stainless steel. I’m a big fan of the physical rotating bezel, as it provides an easy way to scroll through the screens while providing tactile interactivity when using the watch. It’s a physical feature that has remained consistently useful throughout the Galaxy Watch’s many iterations, and the bezel on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic feels as functional and satisfying as it does on the original.
In addition, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic introduces a third physical button to its watch face. Mimicking the look of an adjustment dial on an analogue watch, the action button allows for customised quick access to an assigned app with a single or double press. This came in handy for instantly accessing an app, but the options are very limited. The action button feels like it was a half-baked, last-minute decision. There is so much potential for the action button; hopefully over time the software team will be able to polish its functionality to make it a useful, context-sensitive button that separates it from other smartwatches.
Internally, the biggest addition to the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, as with all Samsung devices in 2025, is the addition of AI. On the Galaxy Watch, the AI is a two-fold addition: One, it integrates Gemini AI for a faster way to streamline daily use – rather than getting my phone out regularly, the watch allows me to interact with Gemini AI far more conveniently (albeit looking like a knock-off spy while doing so), and two, it integrates with the various health features on the watch to provide further insight into my health, from sleep pattern analysis to fitness coaching. In the lead-up to my first half-marathon, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic was the perfect device to train with, from providing me with insight on how well I slept to giving feedback on my posture when running. Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of AI in this day and age to replace good old-fashioned hard work, the implementation of AI on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic as a tool proved to be very handy and informative. Other features like antioxidant index are handy, but having to remove the watch in order to measure from the rear sensors might see you testing occasionally rather than regularly.
Diving further into the health and fitness aspects of the watch, Samsung has provided an in-depth set of tools to help analyse your lifestyle. While there are details which can be very useful, the caveat with solely relying on technology to be your sole medical advisor might have drawbacks: there’s no guarantee that this, or any device, is completely accurate – rather, it is beneficial as a measure for consistency. While I don’t know for sure if my heart rate is correct at any given time, having the watch track and compiling my heart rate data helps tell a story of my cardiovascular activity over a period of two weeks and helps to provide insight into my overall health.
For the eighth iteration of the Galaxy Watch, Samsung has brought back the rotating bezel again, and this time in their most advanced watch yet. Integrated with AI, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic provides more insight into the wearer’s health statistics, along with new health features and quality-of-life additions and tools, while a physical redesign allows for a larger screen and better fit around the wrist. It hasn’t quite lived up to its potential though, as the trio of physical buttons and rotating bezel provides a myriad of actions, but the software design for the interactivity of said buttons is lackluster. Starting at $849, it is an eye-watering price for a smartwatch, especially if there are other cheaper options in the market than the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. But given the features it has, the build quality, and the exorbitant prices of other competitors in the smartwatch market, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is actually a great go-to in the Samsung Galaxy Watch range.
Score: 8.5
Shit…. I think I really like this watch…
