The smart watch is getting smarter, and Samsung looks to be at the forefront of that movement with their latest series of Samsung Galaxy Watch9 smart watches. The watches are lighter, more intuitive, and more powerful than ever, but the question is whether it’s enough of a leap to make the upgrade.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch9 comes with the watch and strap, which, for the 44mm version (the one we tested), comes in graphite or silver; and a wireless charger. Like the Galaxy Watch8, the watch has a sapphire crystal glass front, an Armor Aluminum 2 body, and IP68 water resistance. The watch has the same 3,000-nit brightness as its predecessor as well.
“The Samsung ecosystem makes it really easy to set up the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 and use it with your phone effortlessly.”
Some of the internal specs of the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 are the same as the Watch8, including 32 GB of storage with 2 GB of RAM and the same GPS, but the Watch9 has a slightly bigger battery—with a 445 mAh battery compared to the Watch8’s 435 mAh (with the 40 mm versions having a 390 mAh and 325 mAh respectively). They have also changed their processor, moving from the Exynos W1000 to the Snapdragon SW6100 Wear Elite.
While both the new and previous models provide you with a running coach, an energy score, can detect sleep apnea, your vascular load, blood pressure, and an ECG, the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 offers new features like a fitness index that lays out how well-balanced your core fitness metrics are, allows you to check your vitals in one simple view, and gives you a heart health score to help you set your fitness goals moving forward.
Let’s start with the things I love about this watch, of which there are quite a few. First, the Samsung ecosystem makes it really easy to set up the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 and use it with your phone effortlessly. The ability to see your photos when looking at message notifications is so much better than “___ sent a photo.” The UI is also gorgeous, with crisp, easy-to-read watch layouts and fitness trackers. Navigating the menus with the watch’s bezel is incredibly smooth and responsive. It just looks and feels like great tech all around.
Gemini being a part of the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 is such an excellent tool to have on your wrist for those quick questions or deep dives. What’s also so smart about the smartwatch is how much more smoothly it detects your activity and logs it for you. If I go for a walk, it detects it faster than any other watch I have seen with this feature, and it is so fast and understanding when you are taking a break, not counting those breaks in your time, and understanding when you are all finished.
What I don’t care so much for are the usual incremental upgrades to the hardware that could make a good watch great. The battery is always the first thing I look at. I have had the same Huawei watch for years, and it still provides me with well over a week of battery life on a single charge; meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Watch9, as well as all the other prominent watches in North America, can’t seem to run for two straight days.
Why is this battery issue so important? For all the amazing things the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 can track, you have to strategically figure out when you are charging the watch to keep all that tracking going. You can get some charging in while in the shower, but if you miss one of those opportunities (and especially when you are active and the tracking is working overtime), you are looking at the watch going into “watch only” mode, removing all of the features of the watch and just showing you the time against a black background.
Notifications are also a bit of an issue. Often enough, it works fine, but other times the watch wouldn’t respond to your movement to show you the notification, causing you to fiddle around with it and eliminating the convenience that the gestures are meant to provide—that is, when you get the notifications. Some vibration settings were so subtle that I couldn’t feel them if I was engaged in activity or when I was asleep. I will say that I love that you can set your watch and phone alarms from the same menu, though.
“If you are going to use all that tracking, then rejoice! It becomes worth the smaller inconveniences because nobody is tracking health quite like Samsung.”
The last issue isn’t a problem with the watch per se, but a question about how people use their watches. The Samsung Galaxy Watch9 tracks 20 different health metrics. Realistically, how many people are fully utilizing this aspect of the watch, which is easily one of the factors behind the battery life not reaching that next plateau? The question becomes, what do you need out of your watch? If you are going to use all that tracking, then rejoice! It becomes worth the smaller inconveniences because nobody is tracking health quite like Samsung.
The 44mm Samsung Galaxy Watch9 will cost you $409.99 USD, with the 40mm version coming in at $379.99 USD. So I have two questions. If I have the Samsung Galaxy Watch8, am I upgrading, and if I were buying my first Samsung smartwatch, would I be buying the latest and greatest? I think the answer to both is no. It’s not to say the Watch9 isn’t good, but with the older model coming in $80 cheaper than the new model, the upgrades are not worth the price jump to me.
That being said, the Samsung Galaxy Watch9 successfully delivers what it promises. It makes no claims that it can’t live up to, and for Samsung users, it is a slam dunk for its ease of use. They have thought of doing things with a smart watch that nobody has been thinking about, and Gemini is head and shoulders above the capabilities of Apple Intelligence. It’s a very good watch, but I just wish that they were motivated to make bigger leaps from generation to generation.
