6/10
Open rating explainerInformationWIREDComfortable for all-day wear. Bright, durable display. Useful health tools like Vitals, sleep apnea detection, and reliable sleep tracking. Raise-to-talk Gemini. Samsung ecosystem integration.TIREDSlow charging, and battery life falls short of Samsung’s claims. Health features can feel like data overload. Heart Health Score requires a blood pressure cuff.This past summer, Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch9 alongside the Galaxy Watch Ultra2, its more rugged, shock-resistant smartwatch for outdoor adventures.
The Watch9 is the everyday option, and it’s a solid smartwatch and fitness tracker with a plethora of health features. It’s available in a 40-mm size in cream and graphite, and a 44-mm size in graphite and silver, starting at $80. Compared with last year’s Galaxy Watch8, it’s a modest update, though. There’s a faster processor, a slightly larger battery capacity, and an expanded suite of wellness metrics.
After two weeks of testing the 40-mm model, I wouldn’t necessarily upgrade to the Watch9 from the Watch8. But if you have an older Galaxy Watch or you’re invested in Samsung’s ecosystem and are looking for a smartwatch, the Watch9 is the best choice.
A Familiar (Squircle) Face
The Galaxy Watch’s main hardware update is its new processor. It now utilizes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, which Samsung claims enhances CPU and GPU performance along with efficiency. In testing, the watch responded smoothly when scrolling menus, launching apps, and dismissing notifications.
Wear OS 7 also adds more customizable widgets and live updates from compatible apps. One of the more exciting new additions is raise-to-talk for Gemini. Lift your wrist toward your mouth, and you can start talking to Google’s AI assistant. The Google Pixel Watch has had this feature for two generations now, so I’m happy to see Samsung finally catch up.
Samsung has also slightly increased the battery capacity. The 40-mm model has a 390-mAh battery (up from 325 mAh), while the 44-mm models get a 445-mAh cell (up from 435 mAh). Unfortunately, that doesn’t translate to an improvement in battery life, which is probably because it’s being used to power the watch’s expanded suite of health features (more on that later). Samsung still estimates up to 30 hours of battery life, but I averaged closer to 25 hours with Always-On Display enabled. That’s enough to get through a full day and night, but not enough to make charging something you can forget about. A full recharge also took me about 100 minutes on average, which is significantly longer than the 45 minutes it takes the Pixel Watch 5 to reach a full charge.
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Photograph: Boutayna ChokraneBeyond that, not much has changed about the Galaxy Watch’s build. It retains Samsung’s cushioned or “squircle” silhouette, which is a circular display encompassed by a square bezel with rounded corners. I’m not too keen on the hybrid aesthetic and personally prefer Apple Watch’s square face or the Pixel Watch’s circular shape. Samsung’s squircle leaves some unused space that could make for a larger display, and it creates crevices that collect dust and require the occasional wipe-down. It’s not a deal breaker, though, and the Watch9 is still comfortable enough to wear all day and night.
Samsung has also kept the two-button layout on the right side. The top button takes you to the home screen from an app, opens your most recently used app with a double press, and activates a customizable shortcut when held down. The bottom button takes you back one screen, with another shortcut available via a long press. The buttons and touchscreen were both responsive, but I found some of the controls tedious. For example, to finish a workout, you have to first press the lower button to pause, then hold it down to end it. You can also swipe right on the touchscreen and tap finish, but I prefer using the physical buttons, particularly when I’m sweaty.
The AMOLED display remains unchanged, but it has been solid for a couple of years now. It’s bright, reaching up to 3,000 nits, and I had no trouble reading it under direct sunlight. It’s also durable enough for everyday workouts and easy outdoor activities, maintaining its IP68 and 5ATM ratings for water and dust resistance, as well as its MIL-STD-810H certification for durability in harsher environmental conditions.
Courtesy of SamsungTo accommodate different activities, Samsung offers silicone Sport, two-tone Misty, and nylon Fabric bands. I tested the Sport Band, which I found practical for runs and heated workouts. It stayed securely on my wrist and handled sweat without becoming irritating or uncomfortable.
A Lot to Keep Track Of
Like many smartwatch launches this year, Samsung’s biggest pitch is health tracking. The Watch9 adds Hearing, Vitals, Sleep Apnea, Daily Cardio Load, Fitness Index, and Heart Health Score to an already crowded collection of health and fitness tools. It’s an impressive suite, but I’m not so convinced that all of it is useful.
Let’s start with what I actually found helpful. Similar to Apple’s Hearing Protection, Samsung’s Hearing features take a preventive approach, notifying you of unsafe noise levels. Vitals monitors overnight blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, and skin temperature. After establishing a baseline over seven nights, the watch can flag measurements that deviate from your normal range. The FDA-cleared Sleep Apnea function uses the company’s algorithm to identify signs associated with sleep apnea and breathing disturbances. These aforementioned features can identify changes you might otherwise miss, and they matched up well against both the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Google Pixel Watch 5, but Samsung is playing catch-up with this kind of baseline monitoring.
Samsung’s new fitness-focused metrics are cool, but I could live without them. Daily Cardio Load is designed to help you understand how you’re pushing your body during workouts. Fitness Index is Samsung’s attempt to distill several measurements—including body composition, cardiovascular fitness, and endurance—into a single snapshot of your overall fitness. To generate it, you need to wear the watch for at least two days, record a running or walking workout, track your sleep, and take a body composition measurement. I’m generally skeptical of turning physiological measurements into a single score, and the Watch9 hasn’t changed my mind. I’d use these scores to spot long-term trends rather than treating any individual result as a definitive assessment of my health or fitness.
Photograph: Boutayna ChokraneThe Heart Health Score is meant to provide insights into your circulatory system, but you’ll need to calibrate the watch against a separate blood pressure cuff. Most people, including me, aren’t going to buy a separate device to unlock this feature, especially considering competing wearables like Apple and Oura can identify potential hypertension without requiring this calibration. The only benefit to Samsung’s system is that it can take an active reading.
The Watch9 also carries over many of Samsung’s existing health features. Sleep tracking remains reliable in my testing, and the watch consistently delivers a sleep score each morning alongside the AI-powered Sleep Coach. I would have preferred Samsung to spend some of this generation’s energy refining the accuracy and usefulness of its existing health features rather than continuing to pile on new scores and metrics. Still, the additions make the Watch9 a more competitive health-tracking smartwatch.
Ultimately, that’s what makes the Watch9 a complicated recommendation. Samsung has added more ways to measure your body, but more data isn’t necessarily better. For first-time Galaxy Watch buyers, the Watch9 is a feature-packed option.
Key SpecsMaterialAluminumGPSL1+L5 Dual-Frequency GPSCompatibilityAndroid; some core features exclusive to Samsung phonesConnectivityCellular and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi optionsMemory/Storage2GB/32GBDurability5 ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H$380 at Samsung (40mm)$380 at Best Buy (40mm)
