The Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Series duo not only unifies the design language but also possesses many useful AI features.

The Galaxy Watch8 and Galaxy Watch8 Classic are not just regular hardware updates, but also represent a strategic shift for Samsung. The Watch8 Series is a fusion of distinctive design and a deeply personalized health monitoring system. There are two core strategic directions clearly demonstrated through the Galaxy Watch8 Series. The first is to unify the design language by adopting a cushion design. The second is to focus on artificial intelligence (AI) to create a core differentiator. In addition, the Galaxy Watch8 Series also impresses with the One UI 8 Watch interface and a set of 4 AI-powered health features: Bedtime Guidance, Vascular Load, Antioxidant Index, and Running Coach.

“Squircle” design language

The entire Galaxy Watch8 Series has abandoned the traditional round dial design in favor of the “squircle” (a hybrid of square and round) or cushion design – a groundbreaking change. This design has a circular display placed inside a square bezel with softly rounded corners. Squircle creates an overall look that is both modern and individual, while maintaining the familiarity of a classic watch face. The squircle design language first appeared on the high-end Galaxy Watch Ultra model, and is now the standard. This makes the Galaxy Watch series stand out from the square design of the Apple Watch, as well as the traditional round dial models from other competitors. This move by Samsung shows a bold strategic decision, demonstrating the company’s confidence in its new design DNA, bringing high recognition and creating a unique identity for the Galaxy Watch.

Galaxy Watch8 – Minimalist, thin and light

The standard Galaxy Watch8 embodies a minimalist design philosophy and is optimized for everyday wear. By completely redesigning the internal components and improving the installation ability by 30%, Samsung has reduced the thickness of the watch by 11%, to just 8.6mm. Galaxy Watch8 becomes the thinnest Galaxy Watch model to date.

Another notable improvement is the “Dynamic Lug” strap system. This system allows the strap’s latch to move flexibly, helping the strap hug the curve of the user’s wrist. Thanks to that, the Galaxy Watch8 not only provides a more comfortable and stable wearing feeling, but also significantly improves the accuracy of the Samsung BioActive sensor. When the watch is in better contact with the skin, less likely to shift and let in light from the outside, optical measurements such as heart rate, blood oxygen concentration (SpO2), especially new features such as Pressure on Blood Vessels will give more reliable results. To quickly experience this strap removal mechanism, you need your fingernails and the operation will be a bit difficult the first few times, especially when the watch and strap are new.

Galaxy Watch8 has 2 size options: 40mm and 44mm, with an aluminum watch case and 2 elegant colors: Gray (Graphite) and Silver (Silver).

Galaxy Watch8 Classic – Classic rotating bezel

If the Watch8 is for those who love minimalism, the Galaxy Watch8 Classic will be aimed at those who love the traditional mechanical watch experience. The most anticipated feature – the physical rotating bezel – is back on the Watch8 Classic. This rotating bezel not only provides a sophisticated, luxurious look but also brings a unique tactile navigation, allowing users to scroll smoothly through menus and notifications and intuitively without touching the screen – simply rotate the bezel in the desired direction.

In addition to the physical rotating ring, the Watch8 Classic also features a customizable “Quick Button” inherited from the Galaxy Watch Ultra Series, allowing quick access to frequently used applications or features. This combination provides a diverse and convenient control experience.

The Watch8 Classic comes in only one 46mm version, using a stainless steel case instead of aluminum, so the watch is also thicker (10.6mm) and significantly heavier (63.5 grams) than the standard Watch8. The product has 2 color options: Black and White.

Both the Galaxy Watch8 and Galaxy Watch8 Classic feature a Super AMOLED display with sapphire crystal glass for enhanced scratch resistance. One of the most impressive hardware upgrades is a 50% increase in screen brightness, reaching a maximum of 3000 nits. This ensures excellent visibility, even in harsh sunlight, solving one of the biggest problems with outdoor wearables.

In addition, the durability of the Watch8 Series is also quite good. The entire new product line meets the 5ATM water resistance standard, IP68 dust and water resistance, along with the MIL-STD-810H military durability standard. These safety certifications give users peace of mind in everyday activities and even harsh conditions of use.

Galaxy Watch8 Series Performance and Hardware

The heart of the Galaxy Watch8 Series is the Exynos W1000 processor, manufactured on Samsung's advanced 3nm process. This chip has 5 cores, including 1 high-performance Cortex-A78 core clocked at 1.6 GHz and 4 power-saving Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.5 GHz, accompanied by the Mali-G68 MP2 GPU. The watch's battery is improved by about 8% compared to the previous generation. Specifically, the Galaxy Watch8 has a 325 mAh battery for the 40 mm version and 435 mAh for the 44 mm version, while the Galaxy Watch8 Classic 46 mm has a 445 mAh battery. According to Samsung, the estimated usage time is about 30 hours when the Always-On Display (AOD) feature is activated and up to 40 hours when this feature is turned off. Both models support fast wireless charging based on the WPC standard.

All Galaxy Watch8 Series models come with 2GB of RAM, ensuring smooth multitasking, but there are differences in storage. The standard Galaxy Watch8 comes with 32GB, while the Galaxy Watch8 Classic gets a 64GB upgrade. The doubling of storage isn’t just a simple upgrade; it positions the Classic as a more “professional” device that can operate independently, allowing users to store music, podcasts, apps, and offline map data without the need for a phone.

In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy Watch8 Series fully supports the most advanced technologies, including LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 + 5 GHz) and NFC for contactless payments. A notable upgrade is the dual-frequency GPS system (L1 + L5), providing more accurate and detailed positioning. This is especially useful for those who often participate in outdoor activities such as running, cycling or hiking.

Wear OS 6 and One UI 8 Watch

The Galaxy Watch8 Series is the first smartwatch line on the market to come pre-installed with Wear OS 6. On this platform, Samsung built the One UI 8 Watch interface, bringing many significant improvements to optimize the user experience on the round screen. Multi-Info Tiles are redesigned to display more information in a single interface, from health indicators, weather to events. Users can customize by combining 2 small information tiles from different applications into 1 large tile, reducing page scrolling.

Inspired by Galaxy smartphones, the “Now Bar” is a small status bar that appears at the bottom of the main watch face when a task is running in the background (such as a timer, an ongoing workout). Users can tap on this bar to quickly access that task. This is a smart solution for managing multitasking without interrupting the main screen. In addition, notifications from the same app are now grouped and stacked, making the notification area more neat and easier to manage.

Gemini AI Assistant on Your Wrist

The biggest highlight in terms of software is the integration of Google Gemini, making the Galaxy Watch8 the first smartwatch to feature this new generation of AI assistant. Gemini promises to completely change the way users interact with watches. Unlike previous virtual assistants, Gemini is capable of understanding and processing natural language, performing complex and cross-application requests with just one command. For example, you can give a voice command: "Find a nearby milk tea shop and text Hang to meet there", Gemini will immediately automatically perform both actions. Or a simple command like "Start a 30-minute run" will launch the Samsung Health app and start tracking.

Gemini has a lot of potential, turning the smartwatch into a true hands-free control center, surpassing rivals like Siri on the Apple Watch in terms of multitasking capabilities. However, this is also a double-edged sword because it depends on a network connection for cloud processing, which can lead to slow processing or lag. The success of this feature depends heavily on Samsung and Google's optimization capabilities, ensuring a smooth user experience and quick response.

In addition to Gemini, AI is also applied to other health features, transforming the role of the watch from a passive data recorder to an active coach. Energy Score synthesizes physical (sleep, activity) and mental (stress) indicators to give an overall score, helping users visualize their energy levels during the day. High Stress Alert will automatically issue a warning when it detects a user's stress level is high and prolonged, thereby recommending time to rest and relax. Meanwhile, the Mindfulness Tracker feature supports recording mood and provides guided breathing exercises right on the wrist to relieve stress.

4 super useful new features

Not only improving existing features, Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Series also equips a set of 4 new health monitoring tools, pioneering the application of advanced biomedical technologies to consumer devices.

Bedtime Guidance

Going beyond the usual bedtime reminder, Bedtime Guidance aims to optimize sleep quality based on biological science. Its working mechanism is based on analyzing 2 main factors using AI:

• Circadian Rhythm: By analyzing sleep data from the last 3 days, the watch determines the user's natural sleep-wake cycle, understanding when their body tends to naturally fall asleep and stay awake.
• Sleep Pressure: This feature tracks and accumulates a user’s “sleep debt.” This pressure increases during waking hours and decreases during sleep. The AI ​​will assess this pressure level based on the activities of the day and the quality of sleep from previous nights.

Combining both factors after AI analysis, Galaxy Watch8 will provide a personalized ideal bedtime, helping users not only get enough sleep but also sleep at the right time when the body needs it most, thereby maximizing refreshment and energy for the next day.

Vascular Load

Pulse Pressure Monitoring is one of the most groundbreaking features, providing a new perspective on long-term cardiovascular health by monitoring pressure on the circulatory system during sleep. Scientifically, this feature is an application of Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA) technology, performed through the Photoplethysmography (PPG) optical sensor integrated in the BioActive sensor.

The sensor shines light onto the blood vessels in your wrist and measures the change in blood volume with each heartbeat. AI analyzes the shape and speed of these pulse waves to estimate a key metric called Arterial Stiffness. As arteries become stiffer (due to aging or lifestyle factors), the pressure waves from your heartbeat travel faster and the reflected waves from the peripheral blood vessels return to your heart faster, putting more strain on it. Vascular Load is the term Samsung uses to explain this complex metric to the average user, providing insight into the amount of stress your cardiovascular system is under while you sleep.

This feature helps users understand the impact of lifestyle choices—such as a high-salt diet, stress, or lack of exercise—on their heart health. Of course, these metrics and recommendations are meant to be a tool to track health and lifestyle trends, not a diagnostic medical device.

Antioxidant Index

A first for a smartwatch, the Antioxidant Index feature allows users to measure antioxidant levels in their body in just a few seconds, providing an indication of healthy aging. After some research, Migovi found that the technology behind the Antioxidant Index feature is most likely Non-invasive Raman Spectroscopy – a technique that is only used in specialized laboratory equipment.

The measurement process is simple: users just need to place their thumb on the BioActive sensor on the back of the watch for 5 seconds. The sensor will emit a safe beam of light onto the skin. When the light interacts with molecules in the skin, it will be scattered back. Carotenoid molecules - an important group of antioxidants found in orange, red and dark green vegetables and fruits - will create a characteristic Raman spectrum "fingerprint". By analyzing the intensity of this signal, the watch can estimate the concentration of carotenoids in the skin, thereby giving an overall index of the body's antioxidant capacity. Migovi quickly measured during the experience and the index was 60, Low. When combined with other SmartThings devices, such as Samsung refrigerators, AI can link and give advice on foods to supplement, whether or not in the refrigerator.

Running Coach

Running Coach is a comprehensive personalized training system for both beginners and experienced athletes. Here are the steps to use Running Coach:

• Competency Assessment: The process begins with a 12-minute test run.
• Level Classification: Based on data from the test (speed, heart rate, VO2 Max), the AI ​​will evaluate and rank the user's level on a scale of 1 (beginner) to 10 (expert).
• Build a plan: AI will automatically create a personalized training plan, suitable for the user's current level and goals (e.g. conquer a 5km, 10km, half marathon or marathon).
• Real-time guidance: During each workout, the watch provides guidance on pace, heart rate zones, and other details, along with words of encouragement from the voice assistant to keep users motivated.

Running Coach turns the Galaxy Watch8 Series into a true virtual coach, helping users exercise more effectively and safely.

Conclusion

In competition with its biggest rival, the Apple Watch, Samsung is taking a different path. While Apple holds the advantage in terms of operating system smoothness, stability, and a large application ecosystem, Samsung is trying to surpass it by pioneering breakthrough health monitoring technologies, integrating AI. Features like Antioxidant Index and Vascular Load are efforts to “democratize” medical technology, bringing complex measurements to ordinary users. Along with that, the integration of Gemini promises to bring a smarter and more capable virtual assistant to the Galaxy Watch8 Series, capable of handling multi-step tasks that Siri currently cannot do.