Samsung Galaxy Watch7 Smartwatch Review

I have long considered smart watches from Samsung to be among the best on the market. Yes, for functionality, power and the ability to install any applications from a large library of applications for watches in the Samsung Store you have to pay with a rather modest battery life, but this is not very critical, especially with the fifth version of this watch , where the battery life in the most active mode

(I do not recognize others for smart watches) and the AOD mode (always on screen) was brought to two days of work, and the charging speed decreased to an hour and a half, after which I switched from my then Huawei Watch GT 3 to this model, and have not changed Samsung watches since.

But I have my own problems related to the fact that I always sleep in the watch (I need to track my sleep), so I charge the watch in the morning, and if I am ready to wait 40 minutes, during which the watch charges from 50 to 100%, then two hours without the watch, which happened with the previous model Galaxy Watch4, did not suit me at all.

At the same time, it is clear that those people who do not sleep in the watch could easily charge the watch at night, like a smartphone.

I was on the fifth model for quite a long time – in fact, until recently. I studied the sixth generation , but did not think of switching from my fifth model to the sixth.

And now the seventh model has appeared on the market – Samsung Galaxy Watch7 . I bought it, tested it for about a month, and now I am ready to share my impressions.

Technical specifications

Display: 1.5″, 480×480 pixels, Super AMOLED, 327 PPI, touch, Sapphire crystal glass, brightness up to 2000 nits, AOD
Processor: Exynos W1000 (3 nm), penta-core
Operating system: Wear OS 5.0 with OneUI 6 shell
Memory: 2/32 GB
Compatibility: Android from 6.0
Wireless communications: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC
Battery: 425 mAh, Qi charging 10 W
Dimensions: 44.4 x 44.4 x 9.7 mm
Weight: 38.8 g
Speaker/microphone: yes
LTE: eSIM (in a special modification)
Coordinate determination: GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
Vibration: yes
Payment system: Samsung Pay, Google Pay and others
Monitoring: sleep, physical activity, workouts, heart rate, blood oxygenation, hand temperature, ECG and blood pressure (only with Samsung smartphones)
Sensors: second-generation BioSensor (SpO2, pulse, ECG, blood pressure measurement), barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor
Protection: IP68, 5 atmospheres, 50 meters, MIL-STD-810H standard
Case and strap color options: green, silver

In terms of pure specifications, the differences from the 6th version are as follows: a more powerful processor, twice the built-in memory, an updated new-generation biosensor, and Galaxy AI functions have been added.

The watch is available in two sizes – 40 mm and 44 mm, for each size there are three types of straps available (and each in turn is available in three color options), and for both options there is a package with WiFi only, and with WiFi + eSIM.

There is also a luxury model, the Galaxy Watch Ultra, which has a completely different, much more interesting design, but it also costs twice as much (not only because of the design, of course).

Delivery set

The traditional long, narrow package for the Galaxy Watch. Samsung watches have always had somewhat wild watch faces by default, which no one in their right mind would use, and they have not changed. The new watch face is even more ridiculous than the sixth model had. No, it is clear that we will put whatever watch face we want, the choice is huge, but still it is somehow strange.

Package contents: watch with strap (I chose the sports strap option, I like it better), charger, user manual.

Samsung understands well that changes to the familiar design cause anxiety and uncertainty about the future in many users, so starting with the Watch4 model, the design of the watch remains virtually unchanged.

Here, for comparison, is the Watch5 and this Watch7.

The watch case is made of anodized (reinforced) aluminum, the display glass is sapphire, scratch-resistant.

Traditional two control buttons, touch screen, also moving your finger along the edge of the screen starts scrolling – similar to rotating the bezel ring. The microphone is located between the control buttons.

The lower ceramic cover of the watch houses sensors, including optical and electrical sensors of the new generation. The strap mount is exactly the same as the previous model. The strap mount is standard at the edges, so old straps will fit here too.

Operation of the device

The watch fits well on the hand and is convenient to use.

I don’t know if the new display is any different from the display of the sixth model, but it was of excellent quality there, as it is here.

The screen has an effective oleophobic coating, fingerprints hardly remain on the screen.

In direct sunlight the image is clearly visible (maximum brightness is 2000 nits, which is just great). I took a photo of how it looks.

The AOD mode was already excellent in the sixth version: indoors, the dial in the “sleep” mode differed from the dial when turned on only by a slight decrease in brightness. Here – the same.

Here is the screen turned on.

And this is the screen in AOD sleep mode. I think it’s just great! But I will note that the sleep mode is almost invisible in the sun, the environment should not be too bright.

Pairing with a smartphone occurs in a standard way: the watch displays a QR code that needs to be scanned in the Galaxy Wearable app to add the watch to the smartphone, and Wearable can also recognize watches that are ready for connection without any codes – at least, this is what happens on Samsung smartphones.

You will need two apps on your smartphone: Galaxy Wearable, which works with the watch, and Samsung Health, which displays all measurements.

Here are these watches in Galaxy Wearable. Home page, watch face selection. There are a great many watch faces for these watches in Google Play, both paid and free, to suit every taste. Many watch faces are customizable to your preferences, and there are also entire watch face designers.

Now let’s see how it all looks on the watch.

Dials. My working one is the one on the right (MD318). It is very informative and flexible.

Swipe down from the dial – – quick access panel: mode selection (sleep, theater), power off, settings, disable all notifications, AOD mode, mute sound/vibration, flashlight, screen brightness, enable power saving, volume, Wi-Fi, airplane mode, connect headphones, find smartphone, etc. Quick switches – their number and order – can be customized.

Swipe right from the watch face – notifications: SMS, app notifications, etc.

You can reply to a message with preset phrases (they can be edited on your phone).

You can also reply directly from your watch – with text, emoticons, voice message, handwritten text (it will be recognized, but it is very inconvenient to use, it is easier to use your voice).

Incoming call, conversation from the watch. The audibility is quite decent, you can use it.

Also, if you have a version with eSIM support, you can download eSIM here and you can make and receive calls from the watch without any smartphone – it all works fine, I checked (I bought a special eSIM for the watch). In Spain, providers do not provide the ability to have both a physical SIM card and an eSIM for one number. But in some other countries, this is possible: then you can use the same number on your smartphone and watch. And here in the settings you can specify how the eSIM will be used – in companion mode (then the call comes to the smartphone, and the watch will only have a notification) or in separate device mode (then the call comes to both the smartphone and the eSIM: where they answered – they answered there).

Swipe left from the dial to display app widgets. You configure them yourself on your smartphone or watch. I set sleep, workouts, steps, calendar, reminders, and an audio player (it can control playback from your smartphone or play tracks downloaded to your watch).

Swipe up from the dial – installed applications, of which there are quite a lot. You can also download any applications for the watch from Google Play. Some applications may have different skins – for example, the stopwatch. Also, some applications can display several screens with information.

Application icons and timer.

Stopwatch and Google maps.

By the way, if the route is running on a Google map on your smartphone, you can track it directly on your watch – it’s very convenient!

Exercises, starting walking.

Training screens, training management.

Wear OS is multitasking, all applications can work in the background, you can always return to the watch face, launch some other application.

Now there is a training session going on, I returned to the dial: the icon at the bottom shows that the training is going on, and I can return to it.

Phone book, calculator.

Calendar reminders, images.

When used with a Samsung smartphone, the watch can measure blood pressure and ECG. Both are actually fictitious. Even after calibration, blood pressure will only be “measured” normally for those whose blood pressure is normal and stable. And when it jumps, you won’t be able to measure anything useful with the watch, I checked. And this “ECG” is only needed to determine the possible presence of atrial fibrillation.

Well, now let’s see how it all looks in the Samsung Health app.

Main page – informers are configured there. Sleep.

Stress and oxygen in the blood.

Cycling trip.

Payments

About setting up payment from the watch. The payment application (you choose what you will use by default – Samsung Wallet, Google Pay or some other contactless payment system) is launched by long pressing the “return” button. If the Samsung Wallet application is not configured, it will be launched in the smartphone for configuration.

When you first launch Samsung Pay, you will be asked to enter a PIN code for protection, then you will need to connect your bank cards to the system. When paying, of course, you can choose which card to pay with. To pay, you need to press and hold the bottom button, then place the upper edge of the watch, without removing it from your hand, on the corresponding terminal icon. The watch will require you to enter the PIN code only after it detects that you have removed the watch from your hand. If you do not remove the watch, then enter the PIN code once after putting on the watch, after which it will no longer be requested.

It’s convenient to use, and I usually pay for the watch.

Evaluation of measurement accuracy

I compared the pulse and blood oxygenation level with a medical pulse oximeter. The differences in pulse were very small – the new sensor measured the pulse more accurately. The difference in oxygenation level could be 1-2 units, or it could be exactly the same.

Regarding sleep tracking. The watch determined sleep quite accurately, but the watch did not always determine the continuation of sleep: for example, I woke up at six in the morning, decided to sleep some more, fell asleep ten minutes later, and the watch determined that I had already gotten up at six, and did not count the next segment of sleep. And all previous Samsung watch models had this – unfortunately, nothing has changed here. Huawei watches track sleep more accurately.

The workouts were tracked quite accurately for a watch of this level (not a specialized sports watch), I didn’t see any obvious errors with the pulse, while previous models had this. Well, I’ll also note the excellent work of the automatic activity detection: here you don’t have to bother your head at all and don’t have to turn on anything special – the watch itself clearly determines the activity and records the necessary parameters.

Autonomy

I didn’t notice any difference in battery life compared to the previous model. As usual, I didn’t check the maximum power saving mode (there’s no point in buying such a watch to use it minimally), and in the most active mode of use – heart rate tracking every 10 minutes in normal mode (during training, of course, tracking is already in continuous mode), advanced sleep tracking, stress, oxygenation level, training definition, AOD mode, Wi-Fi connection, payment by watch, using various applications such as a calculator, calendar, working with applications, tracking an hour-long training – the watch lived somewhere for two days. However, I noticed that for some reason the stopwatch noticeably discharged the battery. During strength training, I use a stopwatch for rest between sets, so when the stopwatch worked for an hour, it ate up about 8% of the charge – that’s a lot.

Usually, after a day of charging, the watch showed about 50% of the remaining charge, so after a night I just had to put it on charge for about 45 minutes.

The charging time hasn’t changed compared to the sixth version either: they still charge from 0 to 100% in about an hour and a half, which is quite decent, considering the circumstances.

But wireless charging has become more complicated. In the sense that now the watch only charges from its own charger: because of the new sensor, the watch has become thicker, and it no longer charges from a regular wireless charger. And it also does not charge from the reverse charging of a Samsung smartphone.

Observations during work and conclusions

Any stated functions of Galaxy AI here relate to complex health indicators and issuing corresponding recommendations.

Energy Score – an assessment of your energy level based on sleep, activity and heart rate data.

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) is a non-invasive indicator of metabolic health.

Wellness Tips – personalized recommendations for improving health based on collected data.

To be honest, I don’t see much sense in all this. Well, this AGEs shows me that my metabolic state, which reflects the process of biological aging, is slightly above average – so what?

Observations on the testing results.

It is noticeable that the platform is more powerful – the watch did not slow down much before, and now it has become even faster. Subjectively, it tracks pulse and training better, more accurately. There is more memory – this is significant, because you can download audio tracks and applications here: on the old watch with 16 GB of memory, I had about 4 GB free.

Is there a significant difference with the sixth and fifth models? There is no significant difference, it hardly makes sense to urgently run to change the fifth (and especially the sixth) model for this one. However, I liked this watch, and I kept it for myself (the fifth model worked for me for quite a long time).

I still think this watch is one of the best smartwatches on the market. Yes, the battery life of a couple of days (or even less) is not for everyone, but that’s the price for using an advanced and flexible operating system.

And if you compare the capabilities of the Samsung Watch with the capabilities of the Huawei Watch GT, with all due respect to them, the Samsung watch is much more advanced. But the Huawei watch has noticeably better battery life.

And here each user chooses for himself what is more important to him. Personally, I am for advancedness. And it is not difficult for me to put the watch on charge for 30-40 minutes every morning.