Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: Specs, Ultra & Watch 6 differences, and more

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is one of the best Android watches of the year, and with the year winding down, you may be deciding whether to grab one as a last-minute holiday gift, whether to yourself or someone else — or if you should choose an alternative like the Pixel Watch 3 or OnePlus Watch 2.

Out of the holiday smartwatch deals, both the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra have substantial discounts, while the Galaxy Watch 6 is as cheap as $50 with any watch trade-in. Do you need something more premium like the Ultra, or can you make do with the Watch 6? This Galaxy Watch 7 buyer's guide will help you decide.

Our Galaxy Watch 7 review largely had a healthy range of positives and only a couple of nitpicky complaints, saying it lacked "pizazz." You might be bored of its appearance without a Galaxy Watch 7 Classic or Pro as an alternative. But you can be assured that it's a very good smartwatch.

With that out of the way, we'll explore everything you need to know about the Galaxy Watch 7, from Watch 7 vs. Watch 6 (or Ultra) differences to trade-in deals and specs.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: Price, availability, and models

The Galaxy Watch 7 was announced on July 10 and shipped to customers on July 24; you can order it from Samsung.com, Amazon, Best Buy, and select U.S. carriers. The Galaxy Ring ($399) and Galaxy Watch Ultra ($649) shipped out on the same date.

After the Galaxy Watch 5 and 6 both got minor price bumps, the Galaxy Watch 7 remains at the same price point as last year: $299 / £289 / €319 / CA$409 / A$599 / ₹29,999 for the 40mm Watch 7 and $329 / £319 / €349 / CA$449 / A$599 / ₹32,999 for the 44mm Watch 7. Samsung lets you upgrade to an LTE version for $50 extra.

After dipping as low as $200 during holiday deal events in late 2024, the Galaxy Watch 7 can still be found at a discount on several sites for the holidays — though we don't know how long the deals will last.

If you buy from Samsung.com, you can trade in any smartwatch in "any condition" for $100 off, while you can get $150 off with certain Samsung or Apple watches. We've seen better trade-in credit in the past, so you may want to wait for another deal event if you missed your Black Friday window.

Both Galaxy Watch 7 sizes ship in Green. The 40mm Watch 7 also has a Cream option, while the 44mm Watch 7 has a Silver option. You can choose a Sport, Fabric, or Athleisure watch band as your default option.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: Specs and sensors

The Exynos W1000 is Samsung's first 3-nanometer CPU used in a smartwatch, built with five cores instead of the usual dual-core design: one Arm Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.6GHz. Samsung promises it loads apps 2.7x faster than the Exynos W930 in the Galaxy Watch 6, while outperforming it in single-core and multicore benchmarks by "3.4x and 3.7x, respectively."

Samsung told us that much of that extra processing power goes into the revamped health sensor array. Although the Galaxy Watch 7 tracks the exact same data as the Galaxy Watch 5 or Watch 6, the bottom sensor has 13 LEDs for heart rate and blood oxygen readings instead of four LEDs. Samsung says this new "multi-optical path" gives the Watch 7 94% accuracy during high-intensity workouts, compared to 88% on the last generation.

Our Galaxy Watch Ultra fitness test showed real-world improvements in heart rate accuracy during workouts, and the Galaxy Watch 7 has the same sensor array, so this health & fitness reliability applies to both watches.

Most smartwatches have red, green, and infrared LEDs for capturing your health data, but Samsung added blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet LEDs to the Galaxy Watch 7 to "pursue unexplored aspects of health monitoring on wearables." The Watch 7 and Ultra launched with an experimental metric called AGEs Index that Samsung says is "one of the many new advanced features planned" with these LEDs.

Unfortunately, the new metric isn't especially useful — we found that Samsung gave everyone near-identical AGEs Index scores regardless of differences in health — and we don't know what to expect from future health metrics yet.

A more exciting upgrade is dual-band GPS, which triangulates your position from multiple satellite angles to avoid obstacles like buildings, foliage, or mountains. It's vital for accurate outdoor workout results, and it's rare to find in affordable smartwatches. Thankfully, this new GPS system did excellently in our fitness test, living up to Samsung's promises.

Samsung also gave the Galaxy Watch 7 32GB of storage. That might sound like overkill, but we noticed that the Galaxy Watch 6's 16GB of storage was closer to 6GB thanks to the default OS. With extra storage, you'll have plenty of space for large music playlists or podcasts, if you like to leave your phone at home during walks or workouts. It also leaves room for all the best Wear OS apps you could want.

One UI 6 Watch (Wear OS 5) key features

All of the recent Galaxy Watches have or will receive One UI 6 Watch soon, based on the latest Wear OS 5 update. So these features aren't necessarily specific to the Galaxy Watch 7, but they're worth explaining for anyone unfamiliar with Wear OS watches or considering another brand like the Pixel Watch 3 with "stock" Wear OS software.

The Galaxy Watch 7 offers an Energy Score, calculated by Galaxy AI algorithms based on your recent sleep, stress, and activity data, indicating if your poor sleep or hard activities are impacting your body, and tracking new metrics like movement during sleep or sleep latency.

Galaxy AI also takes your Watch 7 data and generates wellness tips for how to improve your health, tracking specific metrics like your resting heart rate over time to help you judge your progress. Plus, the Watch 7 has FDA-approved sleep apnea detection.

Another new Galaxy AI feature is AI-powered suggested replies, making it potentially easier to respond to your Google or Samsung Messages without having to pull out your phone or type on the small QWERTY keyboard. You'll need a Galaxy phone to use these, however.

While past Galaxy Watches had shortcut gestures like double-tap in the accessibility menu, One UI 6 Watch makes those gestures more readily available to all users.

Galaxy Watch 7 vs. Watch 6

Before we highlight the Galaxy Watch 7 vs. 6 differences, let's look briefly at what's the same:

• Both ship with 1.3- and 1.5-inch displays and the same resolutions
• Memory (2GB)
• Battery capacity (300/425mAh)
• Health sensors (HR, SpO2, ECG, skin temp, BIA)
• Connectivity (Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, WiFi, optional LTE)
• Protection (Sapphire Glass, IP68, MIL-STD-810H)

As for the biggest changes, we've already noted how the new Exynos W1000 beats the Exynos W930. However, our Galaxy Watch 7 reviewer noted that, while "this is the zippiest smartwatch I've ever used," she's "not seeing" the 2.7x boost over the Galaxy Watch 6 that Samsung promises. "In the day-to-day, it's faster, but not noticeably."

We think the Exynos W1000's biggest impact is its efficiency; despite having the same battery capacity as the Watch 6, the Watch 7 consistently lasts about two days per charge, while the Watch 6 falls closer to 1 to 1.5 days. We suspect the Watch 7 will stand the test of time a little better.

As we said above, the Galaxy Watch 7 will deliver more accurate heart rate and GPS results. Our Galaxy Watch 6 fitness test disappointed us, so we welcomed these upgrades, but if you're not much of an athlete or just don't need exact results, then you don't necessarily need the Galaxy Watch 7.

The Galaxy Watch 7 launched with Wear OS 5 and the One UI 6 Watch skin and will get consistent software updates through summer 2028. The official Wear OS 5 rollout began on November 19 for the Galaxy Watch 6 series, with older models receiving it by early December.

As mentioned above, the Galaxy Watch 7 has more HR LEDs and LED colors than the Watch 6. Although Samsung's first use of these sensors — the AGEs Index — didn't impress us, their team has promised future health metrics using this data, which the Galaxy Watch 6 won't be able to access. It's a vague reason to upgrade, but still worth mentioning.

The Watch 6 and 7 have nearly identical weights—the Watch 7 40mm and 44mm weigh 0.1g and 0.5g less, respectively—but Samsung notes that the newer watch is 0.7mm thicker, and its measurement doesn't include the sensor array. The extra LEDs make the Watch 7 sensor bump more dome-like, so it "sits slightly higher on your wrist" than the Watch 6, according to our reviewer.

Galaxy Watch 7 vs. Watch Ultra

Despite the $350 price gap between the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, the two watches aren't all that different, aside from the obvious design differences. You can read our dedicated Galaxy Watch 7 vs. Ultra guide, but we'll break down the main differences below.

The Watch 7 Ultra uses titanium grade 4 instead of aluminum, with a 47mm case that weighs 60.5g without the strap (26.7g more than the larger Watch 7). It feels significantly heavier and measures 2.4mm thicker; while you can wear the Galaxy Watch 7 for sleep tracking relatively comfortably, that won't apply to the Watch Ultra.

Both the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7 44mm have 1.5-inch, 480x480 AMOLED displays, so there's no visual upgrade except for a brightness boost from 2,000 to 3,000 nits on the flagship watch.

Like the Watch 7, the Watch Ultra has a digital bezel along the display edge. Unfortunately, while the Ultra's side button is a crown, it's inactive so you can't scroll through menus. On the other hand, the Quick Button lets you pause and restart workouts quickly instead of having to swipe through menus with sweaty fingertips.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra has the same 590mAh battery as the Watch 5 Pro, or 165mAh extra capacity compared to the Watch 7 44mm. On paper, Samsung says the Ultra lasts 60 hours with AOD, but our reviewer found it lasts closer to 48 hours with it. Still, that matches what the Watch 7 hits without AOD; for the most battery life possible, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is the clear choice.

Like the Watch 7, it has 2GB/32GB memory and an Exynos W1000 CPU, plus the same sensors. The upgraded LEDs and dual-band GPS are the same, too. The Galaxy Watch Ultra has LTE capabilities built in, while you must pay extra for it on the Watch 7.

Mainly, you're paying for some serious ruggedness. The Galaxy Watch Ultra passes the ISO22810 diving standard for 10 minutes in water at 100-meter depth. It has an 85-decibel siren and Samsung's promise that it can survive elevations up to 29,527 feet or temperatures between -4°F and 131°F (-20ºC to 55ºC).

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7?

The main reasons to buy the Galaxy Watch 7 if you have a Watch 6 are the faster processor, more accurate health data, pinpointed GPS, and extra storage. Admittedly, the last three are more niche features that some users won't need; the Exynos chip is the key upgrade, giving the watch more compute headroom that'll make future Wear OS updates run more smoothly.

If you're switching from the Watch 5, you can check our Watch 6 vs. Watch 5 guide to check the other upgrades you'll receive. And if you have the Watch 4, I'd argue that there's no reason to wait, as the differences between three generations are significant at this point. Especially since you can trade it in to get the Watch 7 for $40!

If you don't like certain aspects of the Watch 6 like the design or digital bezel, that hasn't changed with the Watch 7. Unless you want to hold out for the Galaxy Watch 8 (which is rumored to switch to a squircle) or pay double the price for the Watch Ultra, your only other option is to look into the other best Android smartwatches on the market.

We've seen reports of "ghost notifications" on the Galaxy Watch 7 in recent weeks. We hope that Samsung will find the source of these and fix them, as it's a bad look for this Wear OS watch to buzz users constantly with nonexistent notifications. Otherwise, most users have had few complaints about the Galaxy Watch 7's software.