Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic / Watch 8 review

The Galaxy Watch 8 series is Samsung’s latest shot at keeping your wrist relevant. There’s the slim, featherweight Watch 8, and the heftier Watch 8 Classic with its familiar rotating bezel. Both cram in more sensors, brighter displays, and some AI smarts. They’re still fundamentally the same experience we’ve been living with for years, but only 

The Galaxy Watch 8 is the sleek one: 30–34g depending on size, a thin squircle aluminium body, and comfort levels that mean you’ll forget it’s even there. Even overnight, it doesn’t nag your wrist. The Classic, meanwhile, is bulkier and flashier at 46mm and 63.5g. The returning rotating bezel is tactile and satisfying, but Samsung’s new lug system, meant to make the sit closer to the wrist, ends up fiddly. Depending on the strap, it can feel less balanced, and while running or at night, the top-heavy case is impossible to ignore, especially in the Classic form. Both watches look sharp, but only one wears effortlessly.

The lug redesign is the biggest aesthetic change. It does bring the case slightly closer to your wrist, but not enough to make the Classic feel less chunky. The 8 also comes in slimmer, lighter aluminium for the regular model, while the Classic sticks to stainless steel. So while the 7 already felt wearable, the 8 doubles down on extremes: ultralight or unapologetically heavy.

This is where reality checks in. Both watches last about 30 hours with Always-On Display enabled, maybe a little more if you baby the settings. Add GPS workouts or all-night sleep tracking and you’ll be charging daily.

Fast charging helps: about 20 minutes nets you 45%, and a full charge takes 80 minutes. But the dream of a “two-day smartwatch” is still a few hours away. 

Under the hood, the new Exynos W1000 3nm chip keeps everything smooth. Apps launch instantly, swipes are lag-free, and even animations in Samsung Health or Google Maps feel fluid. The Super AMOLED screens punch out up to 3,000 nits of brightness, a huge leap over the Watch 7’s 2000-nit ceiling, making outdoor visibility finally reliable. Storage doubles on the Classic to 64GB, giving you breathing room for apps and playlists.

Health and fitness has always been one of Galaxy Watch’s biggest strengths and Samsung has really gone to town with this latest generation, adding esoteric (yet vital) metrics. Sensors? Samsung stuffed in the lot: heart rate, ECG, body composition, sleep apnea detection, Vascular Load, and the aforementioned Antioxidant Index that measures carotenoids in your skin. Results are even backed up with a suggested change in diet for the day. Pair it with SmartThings and the watch will even coach your sleep environment. Instead of just counting sheep while you sleep, it tracks your vascular load, crunches the numbers over three nights, and then dishes out advice on how to tweak both your snooze and sweat routines! “Tracking your vascular load helps to track your overall health and lifestyle habits”, confirms Samsung, in case you were wondering. 

Beyond the brighter screen, the big jump is in AI and health features. It’s the first-ever Wear OS watch with Google Gemini integration for dictation, navigation, and quick AI summaries. The Watch 7 already did the basics well, but the 8 leans into “data maximalism,” trying to turn every possible body function into a graph. It’s impressive, but a little overwhelming. 

Both models go further with Google Gemini AI integration. From dictating messages to navigating maps straight on your wrist. Impressive, but also holds the potential to drain battery life. Although, I’ve never felt it easier to get around the labyrinth of apps and quick settings. Tiles let you group similar apps within a single screen for quick access so I had the 7-minute workout app, Running and Other workout along with heart rate monitor, all on the same page, regardless of what watch face was selected. Similarly, customising watch faces with complications, colour, font etc was quicker than ever on the watch itself. In fact, besides peeking into granular health data or having a macro view of your sleep tracker through the week, you rarely need to open the Health app on your Samsung phone to use these watches. 

Gesture control comes to the Watch 8 too with pinch, knock and twist of the wrist being available to respond to notifications, calls and basic navigation. Samsung’s One UI 8 brings more polish to the animations, quick view of all open apps, depthless notifications and more. But the stackable tiles are my favourite and had me flicking the bezel to get to what I wanted in a jiffy. No prodding around endlessly. 

Samsung hasn’t redefined what a smartwatch is. Instead, it’s polished the formula with brighter screens, more sensors, and some genuinely useful health tools. The Watch 8 is the smarter buy being lighter, comfier, and easier to live with. The Classic is a flex piece, but not something you’ll want to sleep in.