The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 stands out thanks to its 3nm Exynos chipset and upgraded health and fitness tools. But anyone with an older Galaxy Watch or another Android brand can use this buyer's guide to decide if the upgrades are enough to justify the price.
Whether you use a trade-in deal or one of the pre-Black Friday Samsung deals, the Galaxy Watch 7 can be found for an extremely affordable price, well below its value thanks to its four years of Wear OS support.
Our Galaxy Watch 7 review runs through our pros and cons with the device, while this guide focuses more on how it compares against the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch Ultra for specs and features, as well as any other info you should know like its recent "ghost notification" bug.
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.
Of course, we've already seen the Watch 7 dip as low as $210 on Amazon; it's currently $239 as of mid-November, but should drop again for Black Friday. You can either deal-hunt for the lowest possible price or, if you buy from Samsung, get a $100 credit by trading in "Any smartwatch, any condition," or up to $225 off with a Galaxy Watch 5 or 6, so the total you pay could be less than $100 with the right watch.
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 it should carry over to the cheaper watch.
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.
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." That may impact your decision on whether to upgrade.
In terms of battery life differences, we found that the Galaxy Watch 7 lasted two days per charge without AOD or GPS use or about 33–36 hours with one GPS workout. Compared to the 40-hour Galaxy Watch 6, the Watch 7 may be slightly more efficient.
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 due to receive it "sequentially" by generation. Basically, you can buy the Watch 6 now for cheap and receive the same software, so long as you accept that it'll get its last update in 2027 instead of 2028.
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.
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.
Upgraded but consistent
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 has the fastest performance in an Android watch, packs in dual-band GPS and new heart rate sensors, and has the same bright, thin-bordered displays and reasonable price as last year. It's our top pick for the best Android smartwatch of 2024.
