Intro

The summer Galaxy Unpacked event has happened and the Galaxy Watch 7 is now reality. An unsurprising, not very exciting reality — the Galaxy Watch 7 is very much reminiscent of the Galaxy Watch 6, opening up the room for the brand-new Galaxy Watch Ultra to truly shine.No matter, we are here to talk about the new Watch 7 — what's new, what's good? On the outside, it looks very much like the Galaxy Watch 6 before it — a circular timepiece with a touch-sensitive bezel to interact with the UI. Under the hood, we get a nice spec bump in both performance and internal storage. Plus, with an upgraded BioActive sensor and new AI algorithms, the Galaxy Watch 7 can help you build out effective and motivating workout routines.

Galaxy Watch 7 new features

  • New Exynos W1000 processor — 3 nm, 5-core
  • 36 GB, up from 16 GB
  • Galaxy AI-powered fitness and wellness suggestions
  • New BioActive sensor — more accurate
  • New reading — AGEs index

Table of Contents:

Design & Sizes

The Galaxy Watch 7 has morphed a bit, it's just slightly bigger and thicker than before, and its two variants measure as such:
  • 40 mm - 40.4 x 40.4 x 9.7 mm, 28.8g
  • 44 mm - 44.4 x 44.4 x 9.7 mm, 33.8g

The bezel around the circular watchface is, again, touch-sensitive — you can navigate the UI either by swiping on the screen or along the edge of it.  Screen sizes are to 1.3 inches for the 40mm model and 1.5 inches for the 44mm one. AMOLED panels, of course, and with Always On functionality.

No change in peak brightness — that's still 2,000 nits for the Galaxy Watch 7. Which is not bad at all — we wouldn't say we had any trouble viewing the Galaxy Watch 6 outside, and it had the same peak brightness.

For protection, we get the usual IP68 rating and 5ATM rating — this means the Watch 7 should survive just fine at up to 50 meters submersion. However, keep in mind that 5ATM is still not good enough for extreme pressure or fast water flow, so aggressive diving or putting it under strong water jets is not advised.

Bands

The Galaxy Watch 6 came with a new band-latch mechanism, which was still somehow compatible with older Galaxy Watch bands. The Watch 7 seems to make no change here, and also comes with a selection of new, colorful bands. So, you can accessorize with your old ones, or enjoy the new Ripple band.

Software & Features

Galaxy AI on your wrist?

Galaxy Watches have been rocking Wear OS for a while now — Samsung and Google came together, mixed up Tizen with Android, and came out with a smartwatch platform that took the best of both worlds. But you know, Samsung must be Samsung, so the Wear OS on Galaxy Watches has an extra skin on top, called One UI Watch.

So, the software here is One UI 6 Watch on top of Wear OS 5. It comes with new Galaxy AI features for the Watch 7 — it will analyze sensor data and deliver personalized health information, workout routine suggestions, and a holistic look at your wellbeing. The sleep tracker is now a Sleep AI Algorithm with new metrics for movement during sleep, sleep latency, heart and respiratory rate — these are all taken into account to give you a "sleep score" and help you improve on that habit.

There's also an entirely new metric — advanced glycation end products (AGEs) index, which measures biological aging based on dietary habits and lifestyle.

Of course, the good old sleep apnea, ECG, and Blood Pressure monitoring make a return.

For those that do work out regularly — a new Race feature will continuously track your routine and measure it against past performances in real time. Essentially, you will be racing against a recording of yourself from last time, to give you that extra bit of motivation. 

There's also a new dual-pinch feature, which allows you to quickly interact with the Watch 7 or even the connected Galaxy Phone by simply bringing your fingers together in a rapid motion — a feature we've seen on the Apple Watch before and a welcome addition to the Galaxy Family. We'll see how reliable and intuitive it is!

Battery and Charging


The battery in the Galaxy Watch 7 is the same size as before — 300mAh (40mm model) and 425mAh (44mm model). However, the Exynos W1000 is built on a 3 nm process and is supposedly increasing battery efficiency by up to 50%.

The Galaxy Watch 6 was comfortably hitting about a day-and-a-half of use, with Always On Display and all other perks on. We hope to see 2 days this year around!

Samsung didn't boast about any charging speed increases, though.

Models and Prices

As in the past, the Galaxy Watch 7 will come in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm. You will also have a choice of cellular-equipped Watch 7 models, so you could go on a run without your smartphone bogging you down.

Thankfully, there will be no price increase (no leaks suggest such). With that in mind, here are the Galaxy Watch 7 prices:

  • Galaxy Watch 7 (40mm): $299.99 Wi-Fi only; $349.99 Wi-Fi + Cellular
  • Galaxy Watch 7 (44mm): $329.99 Wi-Fi only; $379.99 Wi-Fi + Cellular

Specs

Here's a table of the core Galaxy Watch 7 specs:

SpecsGalaxy Watch 7
Size and Weight40 mm - 40.4 x 40.4 x 9.7 mm, 28.8g
44 mm - 44.4 x 44.4 x 9.7 mm, 33.8g
Processor, RAM, StorageExynos W940 (3nm), 4GB RAM, 32GB storage
SoftwareWear OS 5 with One UI Watch 6
Battery and Charging300/425mAh battery capacity
15W wireless charging
SensorsAccelerometer, gyro, compass, heart rate, barometer, skin temperature, blood oxygen, altimeter, ECG, geomagnetic, light
 The processor here is a big deal. Jumping to a 3 nm process from 5 nm should yield both performance and energy efficiency boosts. The Exynos W1000 would be the first time Samsung uses a 3 nm processor in any of its devices — even Galaxy S phones still have a 4 nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Summary

The Galaxy Watch 7 has a pretty nice spec bump, but we wouldn't say you should rush upgrading from a Watch 6. However, it seems to be headed in the right direction, and people that have been holding off on Android smartwatches because they are not-so-great may feel inclined to give it a second look!

We are quite impressed by all the measurements Samsung has crammed in and the new dual-pinch control option is definitely going to be a nice quality-of-life improvement. We acknowledge that the Galaxy Watch 6 does have most of these trackers, too, minus the AGEs indes and probably the AI suggestions. However, the new Exynos W1000 processor sounds like it'll boost that Galaxy Watch 7 performance to a point where it's not... well, frankly — annoying. If it stays snappy, responsive, fun, and useful, it'll be a must-buy for Android users looking for a smartwatch.

But remember — you will get the most out of it if you have a Galaxy phone. FDA-authorized trackings for Sleep Apnea, Blood Pressure, ECG don't work outside of Samsung's ecosystem.

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