Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review: So much better than you think

So this is my review of the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. It’s the usual, expected upgrade to last year’s Galaxy Watch 6 — and yeah — that definitely doesn’t sound all too exciting for a Samsung smartwatch at first.

In fact, there’s even a “Galaxy Watch Ultra” this year, which is pretty much all that everyone’s talking about these days it seems. Especially since that thing is supposed to be Samsung’s long-overdue answer to the excellent Apple Watch Ultra (review).

But you know what? After using the regular Watch 7 for a couple of weeks now, I really believe this is the best Samsung smartwatch for most folks. ‘Cause compared to the past few generations of Galaxy Watches, this guy isn’t just an iterative upgrade that you might think. Let’s talk about it.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review: Specifications

• Case: 40 / 44mm, Stainless steel frame
• Color options: Silver, Green, Cream
• Dimensions and weight:
  • 40mm: 40.4 x 40.4 x 9.7 mm, 28.8 gm
  • 44mm: 44.4 x 44.4 x 9.7 mm, 33.8 gm
• Durability: 5 ATM + IP68 rating, MIL-STD-810H certified
• Display: 1.3 / 1.5-inches Super AMOLED panel, Sapphire crystal protection
• Processor: Exynos W1000 (3nm)
  • 1x Cortex-A78 (1.6 GHz) + 4x Cortex-A55 (1.5 GHz)
  • Mali-G68 MP2 GPU
• Memory: 2GB RAM, 32GB storage
• Software and UI: Wear OS 5 with Samsung’s One UI Watch 6 on top
• Sensors: Samsung BioActive Sensor (Optical Bio-signal + Electrical heart rate + Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis), Temperature, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro, Geomagnetic, Light
• Companion app:
  • Setup: Galaxy Wearable, Galaxy Watch 7 Plugin
  • Health data: Samsung Health
• Battery: 300 mAh (40mm), 425 mAh (44mm)
• Price in Nepal: NPR 44,999 (40mm) | NPR 49,999 (44mm)
• Check the full specifications of Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 here
• Buy Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 here

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review:

Performance

• Exynos W1000 chip (3nm)
• 2GB RAM + 32GB internal storage

Alright.

So the one consistent complaint I’ve had with every Samsung smartwatch I’ve ever used is that… they don’t feel smooth enough. Not for a flagship smartwatch at least. I would have no trouble jumping between different apps and stuff but the occasional lags and delays would painfully remind me of how underpowerful Samsung’s custom Exynos chips are.

Well… Samsung still didn’t go with a Qualcomm processor like I had hoped but that doesn’t matter at all since the Watch 7’s new “Exynos W1000” chip is easily one of the best things about it. So much so that I haven’t even had to dial down the system animations to make the whole thing appear smoother, more responsive.

Everything just works as you’d expect and after all this time of wearing this thing on my wrist, I’ve only ever noticed the Watch 7 show any sign of stutter on a couple of occasions.

Like when ending a particularly lengthy workout, for example. I’m still not convinced that the W1000 has a “three times faster CPU” like Samsung claims but yeah, this is the first Galaxy Watch that actually feels snappy enough to keep up with everything I do. And apart from a faster processor, the Watch 7 bumps the internal storage from 16GB to 32GB for all the apps and watch faces I’d wanna install so that’s good to see as well.

Battery

• 300 mAh (40mm), 425 mAh (44mm)
• WPC-based wireless charging

The other interesting thing about the Exynos W1000 is its supposed power efficiency too. Mostly because this is literally the only other chip fabbed under a more efficient 3nm process besides what you’d find on the latest iPhones, Macs, and iPads. The chip itself is apparently 30% more power efficient, whereas even Wear OS 5 has some efficiency gains when recording workouts so I was super looking forward to the battery life on the Watch 7.

And for what it’s worth, I’m not completely disappointed with what I’m getting here.

No, Samsung didn’t magically figure out how to make it last a week long or so — like a Huawei or an Amazfit smartwatch — although the Watch 7 has been lasting me around 30 hours on average. That’s with it tracking at least an hour’s worth of workout every day, getting me a couple dozen notifications, and measuring everything it can at all times. Including my heart rate and stress levels, while I’ve also enabled blood oxygen monitoring overnight.

I know that’s… definitely not too impressive but let me remind you that I’m wearing the smaller 40mm version of the Watch 7. So if you decide to go with the 44mm model instead, that should comfortably last you a day and a half at the minimum.

As for the charging speed, it still takes about an hour and a half for a complete refill. Although the weird thing is that the Watch 7 no longer supports reverse wireless charging from a Samsung phone. More on that in just a minute but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, since the whole process always felt a bit finicky and… just not that efficient to me.

Software

• Wear OS 5 (with One UI Watch 6 on top)
• 4 years of guaranteed updates

Okay, I wanna talk about the software side of things now.

And like always, Samsung smartwatches are the first to taste the latest version of Wear OS. And one thing you need to know right away is that the new Wear OS 5 update itself is mostly centered around under-the-hood optimizations. Like that power efficiency thing I mentioned a while ago, instead of some big, fresh, fancy features.

But that’s obviously not to say that the Watch 7 feels boring to get around or anything. Oh no. ‘Cause Samsung’s custom “One UI Watch 6.0” skin on top of Wear OS 5 is definitely a breath of fresh air that I’ve been waiting for.

It’s got an entirely new typeface across the system UI that looks a lot more modern, the system animations feel a lot more fluid, and there are a few new watch faces and a few redesigned widgets to go along with it all as well. And if you were looking at Apple’s latest smartwatches and thinking “Hey… that double-tap thing is pretty cool. Why can’t my Galaxy Watch do that?” then you’re in luck.

Double pinch away

The Watch 7 has that exact same feature that Samsung likes to call “double pinch”, which should be coming to older Galaxy Watches too by the way. It only works in a handful of apps right now — and it works fine — like when I gotta accept an incoming call or pause a stopwatch.

So yeah, the Watch 7’s software experience is pretty much as good as it gets. I have come across a couple of bugs here like how the notification doesn’t show up properly sometimes but I’m sure Samsung will sort it out with a future update. And talking about updates, there are 4 years of updates to look forward to on this thing so there you go.

Health and Fitness Tracking

• 100+ workout modes
• Heart rate, stress, sleep, body composition analysis
• Upgraded Samsung BioActive sensor

Alright, remember what I said about the Watch 7 not being compatible with reverse wireless charging anymore? Well… there’s actually a good reason why Samsung chose to do this.

A damn good reason in fact because the Galaxy Watch 7 finally, finally uses a next-gen health sensor… which apparently messes with the shape of the back glass to support wireless power sharing but whatever. I’m more than happy to say goodbye to some feature I barely had any use for if that means we’re getting better health readings.

The second-gen BioActive sensor on this guy has a whole bunch of new colorful LEDs that are supposed to increase the accuracy of literally everything. Heart rate, stress, sleep, blood oxygen levels… the whole nine yards. I didn’t have that many complaints about heart rate measurement on a Samsung smartwatch during idle conditions before, although I always wished they could’ve been a bit more consistent during workouts.

And yes, that’s exactly what you get here. I don’t workout a lot but I do go on occasional walks, runs, hikes, and play Table Tennis to keep myself active. And when I recorded those on my Watch 7, I’ve been getting noticeably better heart rate readings with it.

Especially when I’m hitting the anaerobic heart rate zone. There was this one time when the watch failed to log my heart rate mid workout (maybe I wore it a bit loose I don’t really remember) but other than that, I’ve found the Galaxy Watch 7 to be an excellent fitness tracker.

I just wish I could say the same about its location tracking.

Its dual-band GPS isn’t all that impressive

I had really big hopes for the Watch 7 in this matter since this is Samsung’s first ever smartwatch with dual-frequency GPS but take a look for yourself.

I promise you that I didn’t literally walk through buildings as it suggests so… yep. This thing still struggles to accurately pinpoint my location even when I’m walking around a relatively open space outdoors.

Anyway, the Watch 7 also has a few new features like creating a custom workout routine to include different exercises — and even the ability to race against yourself to monitor and improve your form — that you might find interesting. Whereas that new BioActive sensor also enables something called an “AGEs Index”.

Without getting into too much detail, the “Advanced Glycation End products” — AGEs — index can be a good indicator of your overall metabolic health and biological aging process. It can even predict the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart attack, and stroke but that turned out to be the biggest nothingburger on the Watch 7 for me. Talk about expectation vs reality!

Just… look at this.

I don’t even know what to make of all this ‘cause Samsung doesn’t give me any particularly useful data to work with. Am I doing better? Worse? I really can’t tell! This is still labeled as an experimental feature for now, to be fair, so I hope Samsung figures out a way to make it more insightful in the coming days.

Energy score, finally

But I gotta say the new “Energy score” on the Watch 7 has been a fantastic way to start my day. This is actually something I’ve wanted Samsung to come up with for the longest time, and it’s finally here.

It’s almost exactly like the “Daily Readiness” score on Fitbit and Google‘s Pixel smartwatches — or Garmin’s “Body Battery” score — and what it does is basically score my sleeping habit and my workout activity of the previous day on a scale between 0 and 100. To quickly visualize how ready I am for the day, and how I should plan my workouts for maximum efficiency.

Talking about sleeping habits, the Watch 7 is also capable of detecting signs of sleep apnea now. It’s unfortunately not available here in Nepal so I couldn’t test it out, although you should know that this only works with a Samsung phone. Alongside other features like ECG measurement, irregular heart rhythm notifications, and even that “double pinch” thing I talked about before.

Design and Build

• Stainless steel case (40 / 44mm)
• 20mm band
• 5 ATM + IP68 dust/water resistant
• MIL-STD-810H certified

O…kay.

Beneath all the performance upgrades and all the health and fitness tracking features, the Galaxy Watch 7 is one well-crafted, one fine-looking smartwatch as well. I know it doesn’t look all that different from last year’s Watch 6 or anything but maybe that’s a good thing.

It’s still every bit as durable as you’d expect, thanks to that stainless steel frame, a sapphire crystal glass protecting the display, and a…ll the durability certifications you could possibly imagine.

Display

• 1.3 / 1.5-inches Super AMOLED panel
• Sapphire crystal glass protection

While I don’t think I even need to talk about how insanely good Samsung’s display game is right? The Watch 7 does have a digital bezel instead of a physical one that I love so so much — and there isn’t even a “Watch 7 Classic” this year by the way — but that’s it.

And the only way this guy appears any different from last year’s Watch 6 is with the color options and band styles. So the Watch 7 now comes in silver, green, and cream colorways whereas its default strap choices also feel quite well thought out if you ask me. Like this “Sport” band that I’ve been rocking which has this subtle stitching next to the lug that adds so much character, so much animation to the watch.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review: Conclusion

Alright. So that’s it for my full review of the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.

And there’s just no other way to say it: all in all, this is a very impressive smartwatch. I’ve never said this about Samsung’s past few generations of Galaxy Watches but this thing just hits different. From that upgraded health sensor to all the new health and fitness tracking features and the much-needed performance boost itself, the Watch 7 finally feels like a no-compromise Samsung smartwatch that you and I deserve.

Of course, it’s far from perfect though.

The Watch 7 still doesn’t have a multi-day battery like I’d want and a couple of its perks like dual-band GPS and AGEs index need a lot of fine-tuning as well. Not to forget, a bunch of the new features that Samsung has been advertising for the Watch 7 will eventually arrive in older Galaxy Watches too. Including the three-year-old Galaxy Watch 4 (review) lineup.

But if you’re in the market for a new Wear OS smartwatch — or if you’ve been meaning to upgrade from Watch 4 or Watch 5 — this is easily one of the best options out there. Especially to those with a Samsung phone ‘cause that’s when you get to enjoy all that the Galaxy Watch 7 has to offer.

• Watch our video review of Samsung Galaxy Watch 7

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review: Pros and Cons