Samsung just made its Galaxy Watch 8 series more…Ultra.
On Wednesday, at its Samsung Unpacked event, the company announced two new watches: The Galaxy Watch 8, and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic.
The biggest change is one that’s also immediately recognizable: The Galaxy Watch 8 now has a squircle design, with a circular dial placed on a square-ish case. That’s right, it’s very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra; Samsung obviously liked the design and decided to make it a bit more mainstream.
You’d expect Samsung to make the Classic variant a bit more…classic in terms of design, but the company opted to make it quite similar to the Watch 8 and the Ultra. In other words, if you don’t like the squircle design, tough luck.
Samsung says the Galaxy Watch 8 is the thinnest, and most comfortable watch in its lineup yet. Other highlights include brightness of up to 3,000 nits, and the new Exynos W1000 chip powering both the Watch 8 and the Watch 8 Classic.
In terms of features, highlights include Bedtime Guidance, which measures your circadian rhythm and tells you when is the optimal time to go to sleep, Vascular Load, which monitors the stress levels on your vascular system during sleep, and Antioxidant Index, which measures your carotenoid levels.
As fas as AI smarts goes, all the Galaxy Watch 8 devices come preloaded with Google’s Wear OS 6 and Gemini, meaning you can ask Google’s AI assistant to find you a nearby restaurant or tell it to start a specific workout.
Besides these new models, Samsung also made a small update to its Galaxy Watch Ultra, which now comes with 64GB of storage memory.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic: Specifications
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Dimensions: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: 40/44mm, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: 46mm
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Display size: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: 1.34/1.47 inches, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: 1.34 inches
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Chip: All models: 5-core Exynos W1000
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Memory and storage: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: 2GB memory, 32GB storage, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: 2GB memory, 64GB storage
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Battery: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: 325/435mAh, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: 445mAh
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic: How to pre-order
Both new models, as well as the slightly updated Galaxy Watch Ultra, are available for pre-order starting today at carriers and retailers in the U.S. General availability starts on July 25.
Pricing starts at $349.99 for the Bluetooth version of the Galaxy Watch 8 (that’s $399.99 for the LTE model), $499.99 for the Bluetooth version of the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic ($549.99 for the LTE model). The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra starts at $649.99.
