Galaxy Watch 8 Ultra hands-on: why the new face?

The Verge

Samsung just announced the new Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic. They have a new squircle face, Gemini, and an Antioxidant Index to tell you to eat more fruits and veggies? Unfortunately, they’re also more expensive.

Transcript

00:00Another year, another three Galaxy Watches to unpack.

00:06Wait, wait, get it? Unpack?

00:08Anywho, let's dive into the Galaxy Watch 8, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic,

00:14and I guess there's a slightly updated Galaxy Watch Ultra.

00:18Emphasis on slightly.

00:23Hardware-wise, the first thing you'll probably notice is the squircle.

00:27It's still a circle. There's just this square thing behind it.

00:33Which, to be fair, Samsung told us at a demo before Unpacked that it has very good reasons for this.

00:39Three very good reasons, even.

00:41First, it lets them make the watch thinner.

00:44Second, the watch now sits flatter on the wrist.

00:47And third, it can house a slightly bigger battery.

00:51Again, emphasis on slightly. Teeny-weeny slightly better.

00:55In pictures and renders, the squircle was not my favorite,

00:59but it grew on me a little while trying them on.

01:03I wouldn't call it Stockholm Syndrome, but on the bigger sizes,

01:07I did notice that it sat more flush with my wrist.

01:10The squareness also isn't quite as in-your-face when it's in-person,

01:15but I get the feeling that this might be a polarizing design choice since many of you,

01:20and I mean many of you, have told me over the years that the roundness is one of the things you like most about the Galaxy Watch's design.

01:27Otherwise, it's a pretty incremental year for hardware.

01:30The sensors are the same, the processor is the same, you can still fast charge, and LTE is still an option.

01:37Like I said earlier, battery sizes have been bumped up a smidge,

01:41and the Galaxy Watch 8 still comes in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm.

01:47That said, there are a few differences.

01:49The Classic, for example, now only comes in a single 46mm size,

01:54which is sort of a bummer if you were a fan of the smaller version.

01:57Of course, the Classic still has that iconic rotating bezel, which, I don't know,

02:02after all these years, I still love it so much. It's just so satisfying.

02:06Compared to the regular 8, the Classic also gets the Ultra's quick button,

02:10so you can program shortcuts.

02:12And, oh, there's a new lug system, so that it's a bit easier to swap the straps.

02:17That is, unless you have nails like me.

02:20Oh no, my nail.

02:21I popped off a press-on while trying the lugs out, and even though that was annoying,

02:26I still prefer this new lug system to the old one.

02:29On the Ultra, you also get a bump up from 32 to 64 gigabytes of storage,

02:34and a new blue color. That's literally it.

02:38Okay, incremental hardware updates out of the way.

02:41Let's talk about what's new with the software.

02:47First off, we've got Wear OS 6 with Gemini on the wrist.

02:51And this is a first for an Android smartwatch and, frankly, any smartwatch

02:56to really get a generative AI assistant.

02:59And speaking of assistants, it's going to replace Google Assistant.

03:02You can either use a wake word or you can long press the top button.

03:06The point is that, one, it's going to be better at natural language,

03:10and, two, once you've got all your services set up,

03:13it can handle much more complex queries.

03:15Some of the demos I saw were along the lines of, you know,

03:19make a 10-minute running playlist or start a run to burn the calories in a slice of pizza.

03:25You know, things that require the use of multiple apps in a sequential order.

03:30Okay, you've got to be smart with your prompt for Gemini,

03:34because a 1,000-calorie run for a whole pizza, that's like 10 miles,

03:38and I ain't doing that in this weather.

03:39Now, a caveat is that my demo space was kind of loud.

03:44The Wi-Fi was dodgy, and some of the units weren't all completely set up.

03:49So there was a bit of latency and some surprises, but I could see the vision.

03:54One note, it won't require a subscription, and so long as you have LTE,

04:00you don't necessarily need the phone, but you do need a Wi-Fi connection

04:04or an internet connection of some sort.

04:06I'm going to reserve final judgment after a bit of testing,

04:09but feel free to share Gemini on the wrist testing ideas in the comments.

04:14There's a bunch of new health features, too,

04:16like the ability to measure your vascular load while you're sleeping.

04:20It's basically a proxy for figuring out how stressed you are while snoozing,

04:25because apparently you can be stressed while you're sleeping.

04:27There's also a new bedtime guidance feature that will suggest when you should go to bed for optimal sleeping.

04:33There's also a running coach, so you take a 12-minute run test

04:37that tells you what running level you are, and then creates a custom training program for you.

04:42It's more or less meant for beginners and intermediate users,

04:45though Samsung says you could use it to train for a marathon if that's what you want.

04:49But I didn't get to try those. I did, however, get to demo the new antioxidant index.

04:54Let's get into it.

04:55The idea is that it's meant to give you some guidance into how well you're eating in your diet.

05:01Antioxidants, if you don't know, are these molecules that inhibit oxidation

05:06or the creation of free radicals in your body,

05:09and those things are associated with things like aging and cell damage.

05:13You get antioxidants by eating your fruits and veggies.

05:16So this is sort of like a, are you eating enough fruits and veggies index?

05:22Hmm?

05:23Anyway, Samsung says this feature works by using LEDs to measure carotenoid levels in your skin.

05:28Now, carotenoids are the things that make carrots orange or other plants bright yellow or red.

05:34You stick your thumb on the sensor, it beep-boop-bops,

05:38and essentially gives you a gauge on whether you're eating enough fruits or veggies based on what's in your thumb skin.

05:46If you don't get a good score, it'll give you some suggestions on things to add to your diet.

05:51I did not get a great score.

05:5343!

05:54I went up!

05:56To be fair, it was just 4th of July here in America,

06:00and in America we eat hot dogs and hamburgers and maybe some corn with thick slabs of butter?

06:07I can't even front though, I had a vegetarian July 4th this year, so this is a sad result for me.

06:14But it is a good example of why you should sort of take this kind of feature with a grain of salt.

06:20Samsung itself even says it could take up to two weeks to see if your score changes.

06:25And, I mean, come on.

06:26We all know that we should be eating more fruits and veggies,

06:28just like even if you are eating enough, you should be eating more.

06:33Anywho.

06:35So we're going to have to do some rigorous testing before weighing in on whether the totality of all these updates are good,

06:41but I do know one change that I'm not super fond of, and that's the price.

06:47The Galaxy Watch 8 and the Classic are both more expensive.

06:50The Watch 8's starting price is up by $50 at $349.99, while the Classic is up by $100 at $499.99.

06:59Tack on some more if you want LTE versions or the larger size of the regular 8.

07:05The Ultra is the same, though, at $649.99.

07:08I asked Samsung if this was because of tariffs, but they didn't really have an answer for me on that front.

07:13Mainly, it's they did profit analysis and number has to go up.

07:18Yeah.

07:19There you have it.

07:20This was the first look at the new Galaxy Watches.

07:22Nothing groundbreaking or mind-blowing, but hey, there's Gemini on the wrist now, and that's a first.

07:30That's something.

07:33You know, more so than the shape, I just think squircle is a bad word because it sounds like squirtle,

07:39and then you just think of the Pokemon and like squirtle, squirtle, and squirtle, squirtle is really cute,

07:45but like squircle, squircle is eh.

07:48It's not great.

07:49It's not great, Bob.

07:50It's just not great.

07:53It's just nice.

07:54Thanks.

07:55It's just a great day.

07:57I'll give you some feedback.

07:58I hope you'd like to assist in starting out soon.

08:00See you on your show.

08:01Bye-bye.

08:02Stay tuned.

08:03Stay tuned.

08:04Bye-bye.

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