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.
If last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 was tried and true, this year’s Galaxy Watch 8 is a bit more like tried and fine.
This isn’t overtly bad. Most smartwatch newbies will be delighted by the $349.99 Galaxy Watch 8 — provided they can stomach the new squircle design. It’s more that if you’ve been a fan of Samsung smartwatches, it feels like Samsung has more or less been retreading safe, dependable ground with incremental tweaks since the Galaxy Watch 5. Aside from Gemini, there’s not much here that moves Android smartwatches forward. Truly, on the hardware side of things, the squircle is the Galaxy Watch 8’s main talking point.
Let me just get this out of the way. Yes, I’ve read all your screeds in the comments about how the squircle is an aesthetic sin. When I first saw photo renders of the Galaxy Watch 8, I, too, internally screamed and called it “a watchface only a mother could love.” While I always aspire to Kendrick Lamar levels of haterade, I must regretfully tell you that the Galaxy Watch 8’s squircle is barely noticeable on the wrist. Maybe it’s the silver-and-white combo of my review unit creating an optical illusion or maybe Samsung hired a warlock to cast a high-level Stockholm syndrome spell on my eyeballs. I don’t hate the squircle on this watch, and I suspect you won’t either.
As for why Samsung did this, I’m sorry, but its reasons have functional credit. The watch is thinner, sits flatter against your skin, and is more comfortable.
Specs Material: aluminum, sapphire crystal
Processor: Exynos W1000, 32GB storage, 2GB RAM
Display: 40mm: 1.34”, 44mm: 1.47”; OLED, 3,000 nits
OS: Wear OS 6, One UI 8 Watch
Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
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