Julian said the larger Watch8 Classic is close to two full days in a day. There are also some automatic tracking activities every day. Naturally, hopefully the 44mm Watch8 sits somewhere in the middle, maybe a day, and then add a few more hours. (If you also purchase the Galaxy Ring, you can extend battery life because the ring and watch share a health monitoring task when used together.)
In addition to brighter screens, there’s also the by-now standard dual-frequency location tracking, which helps with fitness tracking, and the new Running Coach feature, which copies what Google introduced last year on the Pixel Watch 3. Google Assistant has also been replaced with Gemini, but I mostly used it as I would Siri, for simple verbal commands like turning on the flashlight or starting a timer.
It is also worth noting that Samsung has recently switched to a new dynamic lug system. Instead of using small pins to swap the band. I didn’t notice this first because that’s how you swap bands on last year’s Samsung Watch Ultra as well as Apple Watch.
Personally, I really like this system because I find using tiny pins frightening and annoying that breaks my nails. However, I am sorry for everyone who wishes to be able to use the old round watch band on the new Squircle watch. Samsung offers four new bands with dynamic lugs, but if you’ve been building for a while, that’s not much.
Eat your vegetables
Provided by Adrienne
I compared basics like step counting, sleep tracking, and heart rate to my URA ring and was shocked by how well the two matched. One day, Watch8 tracked me down for 14,100 steps. OURA, 14,099 (Thanks, dual-band GPS!). Sleep count and heart rate are also mostly. Automatic activity tracking works well, usually the same as Samsung watches. Within a minute or two, the dog was picked up on foot, as was running and swimming in the pool.
