is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
One thing is immediately noticeable as I try on the new Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic just ahead of Samsung Unpacked. The squircle has taken over.
The circle-face-in-a-square-case design was introduced last year with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and it has now made its way to the rest of the lineup. At a glance, it’s the most noticeable change about this year’s Galaxy watches. And I can’t lie, I was resistant. The initial photos and renders that Samsung shared with the press had me bracing. The circular design was iconic! The Ultra was square and squat! But to my surprise, when I slipped on the regular 40mm and 44mm Galaxy Watch 8, the squircle shape wasn’t so bad.
It was, dare I say, sort of sleek? Side-by-side, the Classic seemed chunkier compared to the previous version of the watch, but not so much that I felt it had fully lost the Classic’s distinctive design flavor. (Speaking of which, the rotating bezel is here, it’s satisfyingly clicky, and, oh, how I’ve missed it.)
A visit from the Squircle Squad.
Jeffrey Kim, Samsung’s senior product lead for smartwatches, told me there are a few reasons why Samsung went full squircle for this year’s lineup. It allows the watches to sit flatter on your wrist, and it allows the case to be 11 percent thinner while housing a slightly larger battery. Emphasis on slightly — we’re talking around 10-20mAh of extra battery, depending on the model.
You’ll have to take my word for it, but the squircle watches do sit flatter on your wrist, and they are more comfortable. I noticed the effect more on the bigger Galaxy Watches — the 44mm 8 and the 46mm Classic, which sadly only comes in a single size. My colleague Allison Johnson also gave me a gut check on the flatness, so you can’t accuse us both of having Stockholm syndrome.
I swear, the squircle looks nicer in person than in renders.
Otherwise, the hardware updates are minor. The Classic gets the Ultra’s Quick Button so you can program shortcuts. The watches also sport a new lug system for swapping straps. Samsung has refined it from last year, and the button mechanism is significantly easier to use (though I did lose a press-on nail in the process of trying it out).
The Ultra now comes in blue and has twice the storage (64GB), and that’s about it. There are no new sensors. The processor is the same as last year’s models. The materials are also the same. You’ll notice more of a change if you’re coming from the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, given that Samsung only updates those models every other year now.
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