At $499.99, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic costs $150 more than the base Galaxy Watch 8 and has all of the same features, including Google Gemini to answer your questions, and Galaxy AI for sleep coaching and a training plan for running your next 5K or marathon. For the premium in price, the Watch 8 Classic provides extra style and usability with its popular rotating bezel, last seen on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic , and two days of battery life in our testing, instead of one on the base model. The Classic is a justifiable splurge for fans of the look, but the Galaxy Watch 8 provides the same fantastic health and lifestyle capabilities for a lower price, so it's our Editors’ Choice among Android-compatible smartwatches .
Design: Updates a Timeless Look
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is the first model in Samsung’s Classic series in two years, following the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic ($399.99). It updates the Classic series with all of the many AI-based features Samsung has introduced on its wearables since 2023, in exchange for a $100 price bump from the previous generation. Design-wise, it carries forward the deluxe build and rotating bezel that act as trademarks of the Classic series while featuring an updated look from its predecessor.
Like the base Galaxy Watch 8 , the Watch 8 Classic has a squarish frame surrounding the circular watch face, and a new dynamic lug system for bands. First introduced on last year’s Galaxy Watch Ultra ($649.99), the cushion shape and the dynamic lug system help the wearable move more naturally and comfortably with the wrist throughout the day.
I prefer the simple rounded shape of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, though the Watch 8 Classic is still undeniably attractive. For this review, Samsung sent me the Watch 8 Classic in black, with a matching Hybrid band that feels like leather. The watch also comes in white, and you can pick from several different sporty or fabric strap options in various colors when buying the watch on Samsung’s site.
The Watch 8 Classic is only available in one 46mm size. If you want a smaller Samsung watch , the base Watch 8 comes in a 40mm size for $349.99 or a 44mm size for $379.99.
Altogether, the Classic measures 46.4mm by 46mm by 10.6mm (LWD), exceeding the 44mm version of the base Watch 8 in size (43.7mm by 46mm by 8.6mm). Despite its larger overall build, the Watch 8 Classic's screen matches the smaller base model, measuring 1.34 inches with 327 pixels per inch (ppi). The 44mm base model has a bigger screen than the Classic, measuring 1.47 inches with the same resolution. All screens in the Watch 8 series reach a maximum brightness of 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits on the previous generation, and all are covered in Sapphire Crystal Glass.
The Watch 8 Classic's frame is stainless steel, a more premium material than the aluminum body of the base Watch 8. It features an extra, customizable Quick button in addition to the Home and Back buttons on the Watch 8.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi come standard on all Galaxy Watch 8 series models, or you can pay an extra $50 for a model with LTE connectivity. For other specs, all Galaxy Watch 8 series models have a five-core Exynos W1000 processor with 2GB of memory. The Classic has 64GB of storage compared with 32GB on the base Watch 8.
The entire Watch 8 series lineup shares the same durability ratings. An IP68 rating provides peace of mind that the Watch 8 Classic can withstand dust and a dunk in water, a 5ATM water-resistance rating means it can be submerged up to 164 feet underwater for 10 minutes, and a military-grade MIL-STD-810H certification signifies it can endure extreme temperature changes, blowing sand, and other environmental stressors such as vibration and shock.
To use the Watch 8 Classic, you’ll need to pair it with an Android phone running Android 12.0 or higher and with more than 1.5GB of memory. To get the most from the watch, you’ll want to pair it with a Samsung phone , as the watch restricts some features like gesture controls, AI insights, and snoring detection to the platform.
Features: New Health Metrics and AI Assistance
I tested the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic with a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 , so I could see all of its features in action, and it has a lot of them. New to this generation, the Watch 8 Classic has an antioxidant test unique to wearables. To get this information otherwise, you usually have to go to a doctor and get blood drawn.
The test gives insight into your dietary health and provides a warning sign for long-term diseases like diabetes. You have to take your watch off for this test, but the process is easy. Start the test using the watch or the Samsung Health app, though you’ll want the app open on your phone to gauge progress. Then, take off your watch and put your thumb on the sensor on the back for a few seconds until the app gives the all-clear.
I tried the feature a few times, and the watch consistently told me that my antioxidant levels were low. It prompted me to add more fruits and vegetables to my diet while occasionally offering more specific suggestions, like five pieces of kimchi or a serving of radish greens. My test results were consistent from one day to the next and deviated significantly when I asked a friend to test their value.
The Watch 8 Classic can now measure vascular load while you sleep to determine your arterial health. It takes three nights to establish a baseline value, then shows you results after each night on a sliding scale compared with your baseline instead of a static or average value. On this test, I regularly scored in the green “consistent” range, though I would have liked to know how that value compares with others of similar demographics.
Otherwise, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic improves on the last generation’s Galaxy models thanks to AI. Samsung’s Galaxy AI has gained two new functions. It can now provide sleep coaching with tailored advice to improve your rest over time. Galaxy Watches were already proficient at measuring sleep, as prior models can track your sleep cycles as well as key health metrics, including respiration, skin temperature, and SpO2. With a nearby Samsung phone, the watch can listen for snoring, and the Galaxy Watch 7 and later can check for sleep apnea.
Similarly, Samsung smartwatches have long been able to track activity and exercise, with specific modes for various exercises like biking, hiking, running, swimming, and walking, and even sports like archery, badminton, or golf. While exercising, the watch tracks stats like duration and heart rate, and can monitor advanced running form metrics such as cadence and vertical oscillation.
Galaxy AI takes this tracking further with a Running Coach. To get started with this coach, you need to take a 12-minute running test to set a baseline. It then grades your skill level from 1 (beginner) to 12 (pro) and creates an exercise plan for you based on your level with the eventual goal of training for a 5K, a marathon, or a similar running event. These new Galaxy AI features build on the holistic Energy Score and prescriptive Wellness Tips introduced on the Galaxy Watch 7.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic retains all of the other health-tracking capabilities from prior models. It comes with an accelerometer, a barometer, a compass, a gyroscope, and a temperature sensor built in. Samsung's BioActive sensor allows for optical heart rate and electrical heart monitoring. And in addition to tracking activity, exercise, sleep, and stress, you can use the watch to measure body composition stats like body fat percentage, fat mass, and skeletal weight, similar to a smart scale through Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA).
Like previous Galaxy Watches, the Watch 8 Classic can monitor your blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels, a feature missing from the latest Apple Watch models. It can also give you a detailed picture of your metabolism through overnight advanced glycation end products (AGEs) index tracking.
Aside from its robust suite of health tracking features, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic does what you’d expect of a smartwatch, adding a lot of convenience to your wrist. You can use it to make calls, send texts, and tap for mobile payments. It provides access to Google Play, complete with every major third-party smartwatch app you could want to download, including Google’s staples like Maps and Gmail.
The Watch 8 Classic has gesture controls, so you can pinch your fingers together to answer calls or take a photo, twist your wrist to dismiss an alarm or silence a notification, or make a knocking motion to launch a favorite app.
The Galaxy AI features come as part of Samsung’s One UI 8 interface, which is one version newer than what’s currently available on the Galaxy Watch 7. Older models like the Galaxy Watch 7 will eventually get access to One UI 8, but the AI features introduced this generation will remain exclusive to the Galaxy Watch 8 series and the Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Underneath Samsung’s interface, the Watch 8 Classic runs Google’s Wear OS 6, which is again one version newer than the software currently on the Watch 7. Google’s software comes with even more AI assistance in the form of Google Gemini. Google’s voice-activated AI assistant can answer questions, send texts, and interact with Samsung Galaxy Watch apps like Calendar, Clock, Health, and Reminder. Unlike Samsung's Galaxy AI features, Gemini will become available on older Samsung watches as part of the Wear OS 6 update.
Competitors like the Apple Watch Series 10 ($399), the Pixel Watch 3 ($349), and the OnePlus Watch 3 ($329.99) don’t have antioxidant tests, body composition measurements, or AGEs index tracking. The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic joins its siblings in having the best set of features of any current smartwatch, but it struggles to stand out from the rest of Samsung’s current smartwatch lineup. It has the same features as the base model but lacks the extra durability and multi-sport tracking of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, so the bezel is the big differentiator.
Battery Life: Unexpected Longevity
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic does hew closer to the Galaxy Watch Ultra in one relatively unexpected way. In a rundown test with the always-on display active, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic lasted a surprising and impressive 49 hours before it reached 5% charge and I plugged it in.
That result puts it slightly ahead of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, which lasted 46 hours in the same test. While assessing the battery life of both watches, I used the GPS for at least one workout. I had sleep mode enabled for seven to eight hours overnight, but otherwise did not turn on any power-saving modes during the battery rundown tests.
The base Galaxy Watch 8 only lasted 26 hours under the same conditions in my testing, exceeding its predecessor's very weak 22-hour tested battery life. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic lasted roughly 24 hours in our testing.
With the always-on display enabled, you’ll need to charge the Galaxy Watch 8 every day, but only every other day for the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. That extra convenience will add up over time.
With the always-on display disabled, the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic still outperformed the base Watch 8. It lasted 60 hours, compared with 39 hours for base Watch 8.
The Watch 8 Classic's battery life is surprising because its listed capacity comes much closer to the base models, as opposed to the Watch Ultra, which it matched in practice. It has a total of 445mAh of charge. The 40mm Watch 8 has 325mAh, the 44mm version has 435mAh, and the Watch Ultra has a much bigger 590mAh battery.
Samsung is tempering expectations around the battery life of both the base Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic, officially claiming that they’ll all last roughly 30 hours with the always-on display enabled and 40 hours with it disabled.
On the other hand, the Watch 8 Classic's superior battery life makes sense because its screen size matches the smaller Watch 8, while its battery capacity exceeds the larger version. The Classic's combination of a relatively small screen and a large battery adds up to extended power compared with the other Watch 8 models.
While the 49 hours of battery is certainly impressive for a Samsung smartwatch, you can find even longer-lasting options in the Android ecosystem. In particular, the OnePlus Watch 3 went 98 hours between charges with the always-on display enabled in my testing.
Setup and Controls: Smooth and Customizable
For the most part, setting up and controlling the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic works just like it does on prior Galaxy Watches. If you’re familiar with past models or even other Android-based smartwatches, you’ll be right at home with the latest model. The physical rotating bezel and extra Quick button on the Classic allow for extra navigational options over the base Watch 8.
The Watch 8 Classic product box includes the watch face, the top and bottom bands, a USB-C cord with a magnetic charging pad, and a small booklet with warranty information. Samsung doesn’t provide a power brick, so you’ll need to supply your own if you want to charge it from a wall outlet.
Snapping the bands onto the watch takes a little extra finesse than it does with the base model, and Samsung includes a card with a visual guide to help. You have to turn the metal fittings that attach to the watch 90 degrees from the rest of the strap to gain enough leverage to push them into place. Getting it right took me a second of fiddling, but once I understood how to apply proper force, they snapped pleasingly into place. Detaching them requires pushing a button on the bottom of the watch face, which I had trouble pressing with my trimmed nails. Keep a paper clip nearby if you want to change bands frequently.
With the straps on, I powered on the watch by pressing and holding the top button, and it sent a pop-up prompt to my nearby Samsung phone to start pairing. If you don’t see the prompt, you can start the process manually by adding a device in the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app. Once you initiate the pairing process, you’ll use that app to agree to terms and conditions and permissions, and then it will show you a tutorial on the navigation controls while updating the watch.
The watch will show the same tutorial when you first put it on. You can tap the top Home button to return to the main watch screen from any other screen, double-tap it to open your most recent app, press it five times to send an SOS call, or long-press it to launch your voice assistant of choice, which defaults to Gemini. The center Quick button launches the Workouts app by default, but you can change what it does via the Galaxy Wearable app. The double-press and long-press actions of the Home button are also customizable. The bottom Back button goes back one screen.
You can also go back by swiping right from the left edge of the screen. Swipe right from the middle of the screen for notifications. Swipe down for a quick panel of settings. Swipe up to open the app drawer. Swipe left for a customizable list of information tiles.
The information tiles have been refined for this generation. Now, instead of a single tile like your Sleep Score taking up a whole screen, the tiles compress multiple cards of information vertically on top of each other. At a glance, you can see your steps, Energy Score, and Sleep Score, for instance. You can also tap any of the cards for more details.
The tiles are customizable. You can rearrange the data on the tiles, or add, remove, or rearrange the tiles themselves. You can also manage the options shown in the quick settings menu or rearrange the app drawer right from the watch screen. All of this and more can also be configured via the Galaxy Wearable app. The app also lets you browse and customize watch faces and manage notifications and other settings on your watch.
On any screen that extends below the displayed page, you can turn the Classic's physical bezel to scroll. From the home page, the bezel scrolls as though swiping the screen in that direction, so you’ll see notifications if you turn it to the left and browse your tiles by turning it to the right.
The bezel clicks slightly as it moves to add a tactile feel, and it works responsively for interface control. When using the physical bezel for navigation, I never accidentally moved past my intended target but could reliably scroll quickly or slowly based on my intent. As on the base Watch 8, the rest of the buttons proved snappy and reliable, as did swiping on the display. I also tested all gestures, including the new wrist shake move to dismiss an alarm, which promptly produced the proper response. I never noticed any significant lag during my week of testing, and most control responses were instantaneous.
To utilize all of the Watch 8 Classic’s functions, you’ll need two additional apps. The Samsung Health app shows your tracked activity, sleep, stress, and workout details. The Samsung Health Monitor app starts the sleep apnea test and shows results if you use your watch to take an ECG.
I do find it cumbersome to have to use three apps to manage the tracked data of a single wearable device. The number of necessary apps here matches the base model and at least hasn’t increased from last generation, and Apple has a similar count for its smartwatches.
Activity Tracking: Exercising With the Running Coach
Although the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is a capable activity and exercise tracker in several ways, its most impressive fitness feature is the Galaxy AI-powered Running Coach. I tested the Running Coach on the Galaxy Watch 8 and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for four different workouts and seamlessly switched between the two wearables without losing any data. For all the details on the first couple of workouts, check out my Galaxy Watch 8 review .
Throughout my workouts, the Running Coach would give pacing feedback or warnings of upcoming segments at regular intervals spaced roughly 30 seconds to a minute apart. I was not using any synced headphones during this testing, so I had to raise the watch to my ear to consistently hear its guidance, but I enjoyed the flexibility of not needing extra equipment. For comparison, Apple is gearing up to launch a Workout Buddy with similar vocal encouragement as part of its watchOS 26 software , but it requires synced Bluetooth headphones like AirPods and a recent iPhone with Apple’s AI built in. With Samsung’s coach, the watch itself is enough, as I'd left my phone at home while testing it.
I found the first 40-minute workout tiring but exhilarating; the second workout in my program was shorter and easier. It asked me to jog at a pace of 12 minutes per mile for 90 seconds, then walk at a comfortable pace for three minutes to regain my breath afterwards and repeat this process four times. During the jogging portion, it showed me a handy graph to help guide my pace. This workout made me think the Running Coach had actually underestimated my fitness level, as I didn’t need nearly that much time to recover and didn’t find the prescribed jogging pace all that fast. It placed me at level 2 out of 12 after my initial test and recommended a 5K training plan specifically. Garmin and Polar have similar programs, but they let you choose your event instead of dictating it for you based on your fitness level.
The workout after that followed the same pattern, only with 90-second walking breaks instead of three-minute breaks. I found this workout easy as well, and the audible Coach delivered pace reminders at its usual cadence while I was running, while sometimes interjecting to warn of upcoming segment switches.
Throughout this testing, my Energy Score kept going up and up, from the 60s and 70s at the start of testing after a rough night of sleep to consistent scores in the 90s by the end of the process. I also felt the difference in my level of awareness throughout the day. I had an easier time motivating myself to get out there for those short workouts, so even though they weren’t strenuous, perhaps the Running Coach assessed me properly after all, and the easier workouts were just what I needed to build consistency.
While exercising with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, I wore the proven Apple Watch Ultra 2 on my other wrist as a control device. Across all of my workouts, including CrossFit sessions outside of the Running Coach program, the two devices stayed within 5 beats per minute (bpm) of each other. The Classic sometimes jumped up or down when I first raised the watch to look at it, but it always settled on an accurate value and promptly responded when I increased the intensity of my activity during workouts.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic didn’t automatically recognize my walks around the neighborhood or even my CrossFit workouts as quickly as the base Galaxy Watch 8 did, but it was consistently as accurate as its sibling once it started recording. During runs, the watch correctly tracked my location and pace using its GPS, and calculated helpful form metrics like asymmetry, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation.
During testing, I also used the Watch 8 Classic to take an ECG, measure my stress, and calculate my body fat. The results all seemed anecdotally correct, and the process for each was the same as on the Galaxy Watch 7 and the base Watch 8.
Overnight Tracking: Finding My Sleep Animal
According to the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, I sleep like a penguin. Penguins stay alert to protect their eggs, and apparently, I get plenty of sleep but wake up too often throughout the night. I found this out after wearing either the Galaxy Watch 8 or the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic to bed every night for just over a week, with baseline progress thankfully transferring from one to the next when I switched.
During overnight testing, I wore the Apple Watch Ultra 2 on my other wrist to gauge accuracy. The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic proved to be an accurate sleep tracker, showing sleep duration and sleep stage charts that matched those from the Ultra 2 to a reasonable degree.
After seven nights of collecting data, the Samsung Health app can finally tell you your sleep animal, and the AI-powered Sleep Coaching has enough data to get started. The Sleep Coach separately tracks nights when you have to get up for work or school , and nights when you don’t, which I found helpful.
It asks you to strive for consistency, but gives credit for coming close. Specifically, it checks that the midpoint of your sleep stays within two hours across the different subsets of nights, and I usually fulfilled that criterion.
The Sleep Coach calculates ideal times to get to sleep based on your schedule patterns and your body’s circadian rhythm. It also prompts you to start preparing for sleep a couple of hours before its recommended bedtime. For me, it provided a checklist of items that could help me fall asleep faster, such as doing breathing exercises before bed or kicking caffeine intake by a certain time.
My checklist is tailored for the first week of the coaching program, during which I’m supposed to focus on relaxing before bed. During week two, it says I should focus on not doing any other activities in my bed, so it's a place for just sleeping. Week three will switch back to concentrating on relaxing before bed.
I haven’t been able to consistently do all of the items on the list, and my Sleep Scores haven’t dramatically improved. However, the Sleep Coach seems to be taking the right approach. While some of the advice is generic, the Sleep Coach gives enough specificity that it feels tailored to me, which keeps me motivated to follow its advice as much as I can. Since it structures its program by the week, it implicitly acknowledges that building better habits takes time.
