Choosing a Samsung watch should be simple. Pick the one you like the look of, strap it on and get on with your day. Except Samsung now has a sizeable range of Galaxy wearables, and working out which one is worth your money isn't quite so straightforward.
Some are built for keeping tabs on your health and fitness, others put more emphasis on rugged design or longer battery life, and several share so many features that it's easy to wonder what you're actually paying extra for. The differences become much clearer once you look beyond the spec sheets.
We've tested every Samsung watch in this guide ourselves, so our recommendations aren't based on manufacturer claims or a quick comparison of specifications. We've worn the watches for workouts, sleep tracking and everyday use, comparing their GPS and heart rate accuracy, battery life, comfort and health features. That first-hand experience helps us explain not just which Samsung watch performs best, but which is worth buying for your needs and where you could save your money.
The best Samsung Watch overall
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is the best Samsung smartwatch for most people. It's slim, lightweight and comfortable enough to sleep in, with accurate fitness tracking and all the smartwatch essentials you'd expect, from notifications to apps. It also makes a better job of explaining your health data than simply throwing a load of graphs at you. Samsung Health pulls together information about your sleep, heart rate and workouts to create scores such as Fitness Index and Energy Score, with suggestions for how to improve.
TechRadar's Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor Matt Evans tested the Watch 9 for three weeks, taking it running, cycling and bouldering. He found its GPS and heart rate tracking largely accurate, and liked how comfortable it was to wear day and night. Some of its health scores can be a little optimistic, though, so don't take every bit of feedback as gospel.
There are a couple of things worth knowing before you buy. Battery life is around a day with regular workouts and sleep tracking, so you'll need to factor in daily charging. Some health features, including ECG and blood pressure monitoring, also require a Samsung phone. Even so, its mix of comfortable design, dependable tracking and useful smart features makes it the easiest Samsung watch to recommend to most people.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch9 review
The best budget Samsung Watch
If you want a much smaller and cheaper Samsung fitness tracker, then the sub-$100 Galaxy Fit3 is the perfect pick. It's got a small, rectangular display reminiscent of a Fitbit, lightweight design (less than 20 grams), and a whopping 13 days of battery life.
The 1.6" AMOLED display won't dazzle you, but it provides insight into all your fitness tracking and health metrics, including workouts for over 100 different exercises. It also supports notifications and media controls. When it does run out of juice you'll get 65% battery from just a 30-minute charge.
The 5ATM and IP68 ratings mean you can use it in the rain and dust, just don't take it swimming. There's also built-in sleep tracking, daily activity scores, step counting, and heart rate monitoring.
Emergency features like fall detection, SOS messages, and onboard Medical info keep you safe, and there are over 100 Watchfaces so you can customize the experience.
The Fit3 is designed to be light and unobtrusive, with none of the flashy hardware of the Watch models, and a cheap price tag to match.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 review
The best Samsung Watch for battery life
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is the best Samsung smartwatch for battery life, lasting up to 60 hours with its always-on display switched on. That gives you more freedom to wear it overnight for sleep tracking without worrying about finding time to charge it the next morning.
Samsung has squeezed an 800mAh battery into a titanium case that's 12% slimmer than its predecessor, with straps that are 25% lighter. It's still a big, chunky watch on the wrist, but the redesign makes it sit more comfortably during workouts and overnight. Its rugged construction is built for outdoor adventures with a sapphire crystal display and water resistance for swimming and diving.
There's plenty here for serious fitness fans. Dual-frequency GPS, trail-running tools and advanced metrics such as Daily Cardio Load and Vascular Load give you more insight into your training and recovery. The 5,000-nit AMOLED display is also exceptionally bright, making it easy to check your stats in direct sunlight. A programmable Quick Button is handy for starting workouts without navigating through menus.
TechRadar's Senior Fitness & Wearables Editor Matt Evans put the Ultra 2 through five days and four nights of testing, examining its battery life, sleep tracking and workout performance. He found it delivered on Samsung's 60-hour claim with the always-on display enabled. Garmin still has the advantage if you want a watch that lasts a week or more (see our guide to the best Garmin watches for our recommendations), but the Ultra 2 offers a more fully featured smartwatch experience for Samsung users.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra2 review
The best Samsung watch for discounts
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is the best pick for those who want an all-round workhorse but doesn't come with the new design or heftier price tag of the latest models. Now the Watch8 is out, you can often pick up the Watch 7 as cheap, or cheaper, than the so-called budget Galaxy Watch FE.
As you might expect, it comes with Wear OS 5, upgradeable to Wear OS 6, and a host of health tracking and fitness features. There's a wide range of colors, two sizes (40mm and 44mm), and options for Bluetooth as well as LTE. There's no Classic option like you might expect (we'll get to the Galaxy Watch 6 shortly), but there are various colorways and a choice for pretty much everyone.
Fitness comes powered by Galaxy AI for interesting insights into your health, fitness, and the progress you're making as you train. You'll get a daily personalized Energy Score (also powered by AI), as well as improved Heart Rate Tracking, Wellness Tips, and sleep tracking. The latter even comes with detection for sleep apnea.
There's also 32GB of onboard storage, and battery life is rated for up to 40 hours of use. We really like the new design with the invisible bezel and the snappy performance of the new Exynos chip. Battery life hasn't been improved over the last one.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review
The best Samsung Galaxy Watch for traditional watch lovers
The Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Classic is the upgraded Watch8 with new ways to navigate around the watch. Every Classic edition of the previous watches, usually brought out biannually, has featured a rotating bezel. This serves a dual function of making the watch look nice, like a dress watch, and providing a way to interact with the watch by using it as a digital crown.
However, the Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Classic takes things a step further by adding the Quick button from the Ultra, leaving you with a Galaxy Watch8 with two new ways to navigate and interact with the display. Throw in a leather-effect band rather than a pure silicon one, and the impression the two watches leave on you are very different.
However, under the hood, the watches are functionally the same. They're great, but the Galaxy Watch8 Classic costs more, and unless you're in love with the boxier style, I think you get less value out of the total package here. However, dress-watch fans will adore it.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch8 Classic review
How to choose the best Samsung smartwatch
As you can see, there's an embarrassment of riches in the Samsung lineup that ensures there's really something for everyone. When picking the best Samsung Watch for you, consider your budget and what you need from a smartwatch.
If you need a watch for the great outdoors, climbing, and hiking, then the Ultra is an obvious pick. If you want the cheapest option available, or a simple fitness tracker, consider the Fit3.
The hardest decision will likely be for those choosing between the Galaxy Watch8, Watch 7 and Watch8 Classic. If that dress watch design is important to you, take the Classic route, otherwise, there are enough upgrades in the 7 to warrant picking the newest model.
If battery life is top of your priority list, definitely consider either the Ultra or the Fit 3. If fitness tracking and health features are the most important aspect, then consider one of the new models for 2025.
Do Samsung Watches work with iPhone?
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
No, while some older Galaxy Watch models worked with iPhone, the lineup in 2024 are Android smartwatches. However, while they won't work with iPhone, they will work with other Android OEMs such as OnePlus and Huawei. Naturally, of course, the best experience comes from pairing a Samsung Galaxy Watch with a Samsung smartphone.
How we test the best Samsung Watches
Of the picks in this guide, all of them have been put through their paces by our experts, using them everyday to see how they fit into your life. We test fitness tracking, battery life and charging, durability, and more. Each products gets a score for pricing, design, features, performance, and an overall rating based on all of those factors.
Looking to save money on a Samsung product? Check out our Samsung coupons for the latest deals on top-rated tech and gadgets.
- Not committed to Samsung? Try our best smartwatch list instead
