Samsung has made some of the best smartwatches in the Android space, and this remains true with the latest Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. Although it sees a slight price hike in Malaysia, the new smartwatch is also more feature-packed now with the inclusion of Galaxy AI smarts.

While there are some aspects of the Galaxy Watch 7 that could still be improved upon, it is still a largely competent smartwatch that easily stands out among the competition. If you’re an Android user looking to get a smartwatch, the Watch 7 is certainly worth a gander.

What It Is

One of the new headline features of Galaxy Watch 7 is Galaxy AI, which involves using AI algorithm for sleep and health analyses. With the latter, the smartwatch can even deliver personalised insights and tailored health experiences; more on this further down the review.

Beyond that, Samsung also highlights the Watch 7’s Double Pinch gesture, which is not unlike the Apple Watch Series 9‘s double tap gesture. It can be used to answer calls, dismiss alerts, take photos, and launch apps. Beyond that, the Watch 7 features a 1.3-inch 432 x 432 circular Super AMOLED display – for this particular 40mm model – protected with sapphire crystal, an Exynos W1000 chip, IP68 and 5ATM ratings, as well as a 300mAh battery that promises up to 40 hours of battery life.

For the Malaysian market, the Galaxy Watch 7 retails at RM1,199 – that’s a RM100 increase from the Galaxy Watch 6 – for this 40mm model, while the larger 44mm variant is priced at RM1,299. Do note that these are prices for the Bluetooth models; if you want the LTE version, it’s a RM300 add-on.

The Good Stuff

After using the Galaxy Watch 7 as my daily driver over the past few weeks, what particularly impressed me is the sheer amount of data that the smartwatch can collect with its new BioActive Sensor. Whether it’s the quality of my sleep, workout intensity, or body composition, the Watch 7 can provide these data and give meaningful analyses.

I am especially fond of the Watch 7’s sleep analysis. It can measure the quality of my sleep based on several factors from heart rate variability, skin temperature, sleep stages, and many more. These data are found within the Samsung Health app, and using Galaxy AI, it can generate an energy score daily; very helpful to gauge my energy level for the day.

I also really enjoy using the Galaxy Watch 7 to track my workouts and fitness level. The smartwatch can track a plethora of different workouts – including rock climbing! – and it can measure my maximum heart rate for the whole workout and total calories burnt too.

As for the body composition analysis, it’s as useful as ever. It can give me insight on my skeletal muscle, fat mass, body fat percentage, BMI, and even my body water percentage. While the feature is not meant to be used as a diagnostic tool, these data can still be helpful to track my fitness progress, making it an excellent motivation tool.

Beyond that, I like the Galaxy Watch 7’s minimalist appearance. Although the overall design isn’t remarkably different from its predecessor, I do like the new watch band. The blue and orange stitchings, while serving no practical purpose, add a touch of flair to the wearable, which I find quite eye-catching.

Oh, the Watch 7’s sport band itself also proved to be comfortable for all occasions. It doesn’t irritate my (admittedly quite sensitive) skin even during intensive, sweaty workouts. I also love the fact that I can just click the button on the back of the strap to easily remove it.

Collectively, I do think the RM1,199 price tag for the Galaxy Watch 7 is fair. After all, it offers more features for the money, and it’s not an exorbitant asking price either for a smartwatch of this calibre. Now, let’s talk about some shortcomings of the Watch 7.

The Bad Stuff

Understandably, for such a feature-packed smartwatch, the battery life of the Galaxy Watch 7 isn’t particularly long, though I do wish it could have been slightly better. On average, I can comfortably get a day’s worth of usage out of the watch’s 300mAh battery on a single charge. I wear it to bed to track my sleep, and after a full day of use with a number of push notifications and workout tracking, I’m left with about 10% at the end of a typical day.

Granted, I enabled the always-on display (AOD) to get this level of battery life, which Samsung says can typically provide about 30 hours of use. With the feature disabled, it can deliver up to 40 hours of use, and true enough, I can (barely) stretch the battery life to two days before it runs out of juice. It would’ve been great if I can get this level of battery life even with AOD enabled.

And then there’s the Double Pinch gesture of the Watch 7, which feels…well, gimmicky. In fact, I rarely use the feature throughout the review period, and this can be attributed to the limited usage of the feature around the smartwatch’s user experience. Yes, I can perform the gesture to answer a call or dismiss alerts, but I rarely felt the need to do that in the first place.

Is It Worth It?

All things considered, I believe the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is still one of the best smartwatches in the market now for Android users. (Given that it’s not compatible with iPhones.) Of course, it would have been great if the battery life is a tad better and for the Double Pinch gesture to be more useful in practice, but that doesn’t take away the fact that this is a feature-packed and accomplished smartwatch.

Whether you want to read push notifications on your wrist, track your workouts, or get some meaningful insights on your sleep quality, Samsung’s latest smartphone can do all of these and more. Plus, I definitely see myself paying RM1,199 for a smartwatch as feature-rich as the Galaxy Watch 7.