At a glance
1. Best overall
2. Best premium
3. Best design
4. Best battery
5. Best last-gen
6. Best budget
7. Best bargain
How to choose
Ever since Samsung and Google teamed up for Wear OS, the best Samsung watches have ascended to new heights of quality, both, in terms of hardware and software. We appreciated the era of Tizen OS watches, but with these older models slowly losing support, you'll want to stick to nothing older than the Galaxy Watch 4.
Still, choosing which Samsung watch to buy is a challenge. Our top pick is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, which is easily the best Android smartwatch on the market with few rivals. But some may prefer the style and improved controls of the older Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, the superior battery and durability of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, or the newest cost-effective but feature-packed Galaxy Watch FE.
If you want the absolute best Galaxy experience on your wrist, there's the new Galaxy Watch Ultra. You may also wonder whether you can make do with the excellent Watch 4 Classic, which is still being sold. It won't perform as well as the newer watches, but if saving money is your priority, you may accept those limitations.
Keep reading to explore the best Samsung Watch options out there — as well as the Galaxy Watches you shouldn't buy anymore.
Michael Hicks is Android Central's resident smartwatch geek, having reviewed or tested dozens of wearables from Samsung, Google, Apple, Garmin, Fitbit, Coros, Polar, Withings, Amazfit, and others. In particular, he reviewed the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Watch 6, and Watch 6 Classic, plus several Samsung phones and tablets.
At a glance
Best overall
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 can do more accurate health tracking thanks to its redesigned sensor layout. It also has double the onboard storage and comes in two dial sizes.
Best premium
The Watch Ultra is Samsung's most expensive Galaxy watch yet. If you have the budget and are fond of the design, you can expect excellent health and fitness tracking, a bright display, and long battery life.
Best design
The Classic is a classier version of the Watch 6 with a stainless steel casing and a useful rotating bezel for easier controls. It's attractive, but also quite heavy for smaller wrists.
Best battery
Other than the Ultra, no other Galaxy Watch lasts nearly as long as the Watch 5 Pro, both, for casual use and GPS tracking. Plus, it has an exclusive tool to download Routes for hikes or cycling.
Best last-gen
With the Watch 7 getting all the attention, the Watch 6 is still a great deal with its new, lower price. It offers speedy performance, a gorgeous display, and solid battery life.
Best budget
The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE is essentially the Watch 4 with a mildly refreshed design, Sapphire Crystal protection over the display, and a complete suite of fitness tracking features.
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Best bargain
Although the Watch 6 Classic is our favorite premium design option, the Watch 4 Classic has the same rotating-bezel perk and is frequently available on sale for much less.
Best overall
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 might not seem like a big upgrade to the Watch 6, going by the specs on paper and the way it looks. But some clever re-jigging of how the health sensors are laid out makes tracking and monitoring vital statistics way more accurate than the previous model. This has broken the wireless charging capability off the back of a Samsung phone, but it's the price you pay for more precise data readouts.
The Galaxy Watch 7 comes in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, with each having an LTE option for a bit more money. The displays are crisp, vibrant, and easily legible outdoors. There's a faster Exynos W1000 processor here which helps power the slick interface. It's one of the first Samsung watches to ship with One UI Watch 6, based on Google's Wear OS 5. There are a few Galaxy AI-powered features like Energy score, which we found to be quite handy.
Battery life has improved slightly, despite it having the same capacity as the Watch 6. The only trouble is that the Watch 7 is not compatible with any of the older Galaxy Watch chargers, which means you'll need to carry along the bundled cable or invest in newer chargers.
Best premium
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is the new name for the Pro series of Samsung watches, but with a new twist. Samsung has opted for a whole new squircle design here, which actually resembles the Apple Watch Ultra quite a bit. The extra girth of titanium around the display is for added protection against falls and bumps, as this is aimed mainly at enthusiast users who are into adventure sports or extreme outdoor activities.
It's also Samsung's most expensive watch at a whopping $649 sticker price. It has a pretty big battery that can last multiple days on a single charge, but it's also quite heavy even for a pro smartwatch user. Underneath all this armor, it's not too different from the Galaxy Watch 7. It shares the exact same set of sensors, processor, and storage, making it just as capable. Even the display is the same 1.5-inch AMOLED, but with a higher 3,000 nits of brightness.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra is for those who want something unique-looking on their wrist, great battery life, and a durable device that's not afraid of getting roughed up. If it's just long battery life you're after, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro offers the same capacity as the Ultra and is much cheaper now, not to mention has a more classical watch look too.
Best design
You'll find very little difference between the Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic. It has the same CPU, battery and display sizes, sensors, and so on. The difference is that it brings back Samsung's physically rotating bezel that gives you tactile clicks as you turn it, instead of the mainline watch's touchscreen simulation of a bezel.
As our Watch 6 Classic review explains, the bezel provides "a sleek look and a control scheme you can always rely on." It's more reliable than the capacitive bezel because you can feel it when you've turned it enough instead of just guessing with your fingertip. At the same time, you do need two fingers to turn it instead of one with the capacitive bezel, so you may prefer simplicity to accuracy.
Samsung built the Watch 6 Classic with stainless steel instead of the base watch's aluminum, making it look more premium but also weighs 20g heavier than the Watch 6. It's among the heavier Android watches we've tested, and so people with smaller wrists may want to steer clear; but it's still lighter than some Garmin watches or the Apple Watch Ultra, so it won't be a total dealbreaker.
Best battery
When Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro back in August 2022, plenty of people weren't thrilled at losing the Classic design and bezel. Thankfully, Samsung is still selling the Watch 5 Pro for "adventurers" as part of its main lineup.
As detailed in our Galaxy Watch 5 Pro review, this smartwatch boasts a rugged outdoor-ready construction with a three-day battery life, a durable titanium construction, and blazing performance thanks to some great internal hardware. Although it may be too bulky for some folks, it's lighter than the stainless-steel Classic.
When we compared the Watch 6 Classic vs. Watch 5 Pro, we noted that underneath the surface, these two watches are very similar in terms of health sensors, charging speed, protection, and so on. The Pro's 1.4-inch AMOLED display falls right between the two Classic options; it has a larger display border and no rotating bezel, making it harder to use with sweaty fingertips. It has a slightly slower last-gen processor with 0.5GB less RAM, as well.
Why still consider the Watch 5 Pro? You may happily trade away the Classic's perks in exchange for its three-day battery life, which it consistently delivered in our reviewer's tests; for comparison, the Watch 6 series can last up to 40 hours but mostly is a once-a-day charge with robust use.
Plus, Samsung has reserved its exclusive Routes tool for the Watch 5 Pro: it lets you search a database for offline GPX maps and download them to your watch, so you can follow along on hiking or cycling trails in areas with no cell reception. For more serious athletes, the Watch 5 Pro may be the best Samsung watch on a budget.
Best last-gen
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is the next best thing to the Watch 7, especially at its current discounted pricing. Even though there's a clear through-line between the Watch 4, 5, and 6, and this 2023 watch isn't that different, it does have some key upgrades that make it a better long-term investment.
If you compare the Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Watch 5, the Watch 6 adds the Exynos W930 chip with 2GB of RAM, which Samsung says delivers 18% faster performance, 25% faster switching between apps, and a more compact design. Our reviewer found that it delivered ultra-fast speeds with smoother transitions than the last generation, and appreciated the 1mm-thinner design than the Watch 5.
Perhaps most significant, the display has a significantly thinner border, giving you 1.3- or 1.5-inch options instead of 1.2 or 1.4; all this, while keeping the Watch 6 the same size (more or less) as the Watch 5. The new 2,000 nits maximum brightness ensures you'll never have problems with outdoor readability, and our reviewer noted that the capacitive bezel for scrolling through Tiles — while less reliable than the Classic's physical bezel — is "much more useable" with this generation.
Overall, unless you really care about style (the Classic) or hate daily charging (the Pro), this is the watch to choose. It'll get at least four years of software support, so it'll last you through the summer of 2027.
Best budget
The Galaxy Watch FE is the latest addition to the family and is targeted towards first-time smartwatch users and younger audiences. Compared to the Watch 6, the FE has a duller display, an older processor with lesser RAM, no cellular option, and only one dial size. But when you look at its price of $199, it's really hard to complain.
The Watch FE looks nearly the same as the older Galaxy Watch 4, save for a new dual-color accent on the strap, which will soon be a running theme on newer Galaxy wearables and accessories. You also get a more durable Sapphire Crystal glass over the display, just like the Watch 6. The Watch FE has similar specs to the Watch 4, with its 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display in the 40mm dial. It's powered by the latest One UI 5 Watch software, which is based on Google's WearOS.
The watch comes in three colors, Black, Silver, and Pink Gold. The battery capacity is also exactly the same as the Watch 4 at 247mAh. Going by our experience reviewing the Watch 4, you should expect the FE to offer a comfortable fit, decent battery life, and very good health-tracking abilities. In fact, it has nearly all the sensors found in the Watch 6, so you barely have to compromise with health tracking.
Comparing the Galaxy Watch FE vs. Watch 4, it does not make sense to get the latter anymore since it's too old, and it only has one more year of OS upgrade left. You could also consider the base model of the Watch 6. It costs only a little over $200 for the 40mm, non-LTE version, and compared to the Watch FE, it offers a faster processor, more RAM, the latest wireless standards, and a brighter display.
Best bargain
We've already discussed at length everything you need to know about the Watch 4 Classic. It has the same stainless steel casing and rotating bezel as the Watch 6 Classic, except the 6 Classic's bezel is 15% thinner, making it slightly more stylish and easy to turn. Otherwise, the Watch 4 Classic has all of the same perks and downsides as the standard Watch 4.
Why buy the Watch 4 Classic compared to its siblings? Quite simply, if you want a rotating bezel and that "classic" wristwatch look, but are balking at the steep price of the 6 Classic. Although the Watch 4 Classic may not be in stock at some retailers anymore, you can often find it at a hefty discount. This model should still receive Wear OS 5, even if it won't receive any version updates after that.
How to choose
Which of the best Samsung watches are still worth buying?
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You'll notice that all six of the best Samsung watches are Wear OS watches. Anyone familiar with Samsung's older models knows they used to run the company's proprietary Tizen OS, before Samsung and Google joined forces.
We genuinely loved the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch Active 2 for everything they offered at the time. But Samsung's software support for Tizen has essentially ended, as it has gone all-in on Wear OS instead. You won't see any new apps developed for the older ones, they won't sync well with newer Galaxy phones, and you'll miss out on new perks like Google Assistant. So if you see them on sale, we recommend you steer clear.
We've also removed the Galaxy Watch 5 from our list, simply because it doesn't make sense anymore now that the Watch 6 sells for much less. The Galaxy Watch 4 might seem very old now, but considering it will get four years of software support till 2025 and it retails for close to $100, makes it a good bargain.
For the best longevity and features, of course, you'll want to choose between the compact, powerful Galaxy Watch 7, the ultimate rugged Watch Ultra, the stylish Watch 6 Classic, or the wallet-friendly Watch FE. Amazon Prime Day is also just around the corner, where we should see big savings.
