While it doesn’t really break new ground in smart wearables, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic’s use of Samsung’s spinning bezel gives it a distinct edge over other smartwatch options.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Rotating bezel is just SO DAMNED GOOD | OK, maybe the rotating bezel isn’t for everyone. Still… |
| Good battery life | Sleep tracking is tricky, and not always accurate |
| Larger display easier to see in direct sunlight | Expensive |
Score: 4/5
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In this review
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Specifications
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Design
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Performance
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Battery
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Verdict
Ethical disclaimer: The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic used in this review was supplied to me by Samsung Australia, and Samsung has indicated that they’re not going to ask for it back as long as I don’t flip it on eBay or similar.
Which, to be clear, I’m not going to do, but I bring this up also because I strongly feel that ethical disclosure is a hugely important matter that’s either ignored or buried in far too many online reviews these days. Whether or not a product is a loan item or stays with me has zero influence on my reviews, and it never will. That kind of selling out for freebies isn’t journalism, it’s a parasitic selling out of an audience.
Given the preponderance of paid-for awful “reviews” plus the rise of AI-generated slop content, I think being upfront and transparent is vital.
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Design
Samsung’s strategy for its smart wearables has varied over the years. Back when it first dipped its toes into the smartwatch market it did so with a model that had an integrated (and deeply, truly creepy) camera on board. Don’t believe me? I was there…
Ignore the domain mentioned in this video, by the way. An earlier self-publishing avenue of mine, now owned by domain squatters.
That was a long time — and a lot of Galaxy Wear devices — ago.
As the years passed, Samsung has mostly flipped into a setup where it offered two models in most given years – last year was an odd blip in that arrangement – with a base model at a more affordable price point, and then the “Classic” model for those who want a more classically styled smartwatch that looks a bit more like a premium timepiece.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, as the suffix suggests, is this year’s “watch” looking model, built around a 46mm 438×438 Super AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 3000 nits, a big jump up over the 2000 nit brightness of the preceding Galaxy Watch 6 classic.
You don’t always need a smartwatch display to present itself bright enough to light up a nuclear furnace, for sure, but it does make a significant difference to legibility in outdoor environments.
I’ve been testing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for the past couple of weeks and when on outdoor runs, it’s great to be able to quickly see and make out my run metrics even when the sun is shining at its brightest.
It’s a chunky lad, for sure. Is that to your style taste? Let me know below!
There’s no “small” model of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, and that larger style won’t suit all wrist types. Samsung does sell a number of alternative watch band styles, but in terms of the watch itself, it’s available either in Black or White finishes, though the differences here are pretty subtle. Both models feature a silver stainless steel finish, the displays themselves are of course near infinitely customisable to any colour… so where’s the White/Black difference, exactly?
It’s partially in the default bands provided with each unit, but those can be swapped out too if you’re keen. The most evident – and it’s pretty darned small – difference is in the area around the side buttons and on the interior display bezel. On the white model, they’re stainless steel silver, while the black model has small black accents. That’s kind of it, unless the white model (which I haven’t tested) also has a white back, but then, who looks at the back of their watch unless they’ve got translucent skin, bones and flesh?
If you do have translucent arms, it might be a good idea to step away from the radioactive isotopes and seek medical help, but I digress.
Controls from top to bottom are (by default) a home button, a quick exercise launch button and back button that takes you back one step in the user interface. They’re suitably thick and chunky so that even when I have been running with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, they’ve been easy enough to press when needed.
Speaking of running, I have sweated a lot on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic during my review period, and without too much worry, because it’s IP68 rated for dust and water ingress. Like any other water resistant object that’s not a permanent condition and I’m not likely to take the watch to the bottom of the sea any time soon, but for basic sports purposes, and rinsing off afterwards it should be fine.
Still, while I like the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic’s design, Samsung annoys me. Sure, it’s true that a lot of tech companies annoy me from time to time (and I’m certain I annoy them, possibly in equal measure), but with Samsung, it’s a repeated crime, and it comes about like clockwork. If only I had a digital timepiece to hand to measure it…
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic features Samsung’s rotating bezel as its key design metric, allowing you to spin the bezel to change selection options or display tiles. The reason that Samsung annoys me on a schedule is that it only drops the rotating version of its watch bezel onto its Classic line of smartwatches every second year.
The rotating bezel is a great design difference. Why Samsung doesn’t capitalise on this every year mystifies me.
It’s long been an annoyance to me that Samsung doesn’t offer the one true defining point of difference in its wearables every single year that it can, because I’m unabashedly a fan of the concept. It would be as if Apple decided that it would only offer the digital crown on every second year’s worth of Apple Watches, and nobody is suggesting that would be a sane move.
Also read:
Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic Review
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic comes in two different variants; $899 will buy the baseline Bluetooth-compatible version, while $999 scores you the Bluetooth+LTE version, though as always it’s worth keeping in mind there that carriers that support smartwatch calling typically charge an additional monthly fee on top of your mobile phone plan for the privilege.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is built around Samsung’s Exynos W1000 processor, and that’s an interesting choice given that it’s the same underlying CPU used in last year’s Galaxy watches, though it’s not uncommon for wearable processor upgrades to take their time in appearing.
Also read
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Review
In one sense the lack of processor upgrades isn’t a huge hurdle as long as the watch itself is responsive, because the typical tasks you ask of a smartwatch don’t tend to be that computationally intensive, and often when they are they’re handed off to a paired smartphone anyway. Pairing up the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is via Bluetooth, and predictably it’s just a tad easier if you’re pairing to a Samsung phone than other Android models, though they are supported as long as you’re happy to install Samsung’s Galaxy Wear and Samsung Health apps on your phone.
Responsiveness isn’t really an issue for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, and I do find the mix of being able to use the side buttons, the touch display and the rotating bezel to be a really pleasing one. There are UI elements that work best with the spinning bezel that I adore so much, and others where a simple tap or press is more appropriate, and here you’ve got access to them all.
Samsung used Google’s WearOS, but with its own small optimisations on board. You still use tiles that you spin to in order to access them, but there’s a new compact set of widgets available at a glance, plus the “Now” bar, which displays an icon of currently running apps as you’re using them. Listening to my appearances on ABC Radio via the ABC Listen app? You’ll get a small icon of that app running on your watchface to show that it’s working.
One of the challenges for any smart wearable is that – at least in my view – most of the “best” functions you might want a smart wearable for are already somewhat solved problems. They’re best for notifications, but that’s been in place from day zero, and health tracking in most aspects is well covered by most premium smartwatches, including the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic does incorporate Google’s Gemini AI assistant for direct spoken interactions, although unlike the Google Pixel Watch 4, that’s via either a long button press or the “Hey Google” command, not just with a wrist raise if you’re a big fan of AI interactions. I’m not particularly in that crowd, and to be fair to Samsung here it had Gemini on board before the Pixel Watch 4 launched; it’s just that Samsung didn’t offer me a Galaxy Watch 8 Classic to review until after the Pixel Watch 4 was in the picture.
Samsung incorporates a new running coach in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic that’s meant to both help you track your running and present a variety of different running plans depending on your goals. It’s surprisingly effective, because every time it’s told me that I’m running slower than my own desired pace, I really do tend to pick up my pace. That’s right, I’m letting my smartwatch bully me, but it’s in the interests of my heart health, so I’ll allow it.
On the sleep tracking side, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is meant to be able to detect Sleep Apnea. At first, despite this feature passing TGA certification some months ago I couldn’t get this to activate, but one software update later it worked and detected that my own sleeping patterns aren’t affected that way.
The broader sleep tracking picture remains a little muddy, however. In testing, I found the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic often fell into the trap of thinking that I was asleep when I woke up overnight if I didn’t move about much.
I’m no sleep scientist, but I’m pretty sure that staring at the ceiling pondering why I can’t sleep isn’t quite the same thing as actually being asleep
However, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic didn’t always pick that up.
The secondary problem here is one of size; I’m not a fan of wearing a watch to bed generally, but for a larger timepiece like this the issues of it catching on bedsheets or just being an annoyance on my wrist add up even more. That’s very subjective and your own tolerances may of course vary.
Battery
The last big-battery Samsung wearable I tested out was the Galaxy Watch Ultra, a model that Samsung claimed was capable of up to 48 hours of regular operation from its 590mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic runs from a 445mAh battery, significantly smaller than the Ultra but with a similarly large display in play, so I was cautious as to how well its battery might last. Samsung’s claim, for what it’s worth, is for up to 30 hours of battery operation.
Samsung’s claim is, it turns out, generally pessimistic, which is unusual directly from a company that actively wants to sell smartwatches.
In my own testing I can pretty easily hit a day and half, sometimes even a little more with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic with moderate use.
If you were heavily hammering it with lots of Gemini requests or calls it could well drop below that, but this is generally a good all-day smartwatch battery option. You can always eke out a little more battery by disabling the always-on display as needed, too.
Recharging the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is via Samsung’s provided USB-C connected watch charging puck, but you’ll have to supply your own actual charger to do so. Charging isn’t particularly quick, however, which can be annoying.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: Alex’s Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is a good smartwatch, but it’s absolutely sitting within a very particular niche given its price point. Much of what it does is handled by the cheaper Galaxy Watch 8 range, and that’s a smartwatch available in a thinner frame and with choices around screen sizes, too. What you don’t get there is the much larger display, classic watch style and, of course, the rotating bezel.
Is the rotating bezel worth paying the extra for?
If your answer to that is yes – and I think I’ve made it clear that I’m a fan of it, as subjective as that is – then it’s a strong contender, albeit in a field with lots of alternative quality options.
It’s hard to recommend that anyone upgrade a smartwatch if you’ve already got a perfectly functional model on your wrist right now, but if you’re looking for a new premium model, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is definitely worthy of consideration.
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Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic: Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic retails in Australia at an RRP of $899 for the Bluetooth-only version, or $999 for the Bluetooth/LTE variant.
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