Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 review: making smartwatches easy

Date:
Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:46:33 +0000

Description:
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 simplifies the smartwatch experience, but some might find it a bit too simple.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: One minute review Every time a new smartwatch is released,
its sold on its ability to collect new and improved types of health data. Any old fitness tracker knows more about your bodys comings and goings than you do, but without interpretation, these figures, statistics and metrics are all just numbers to you and I. A graph of my blood oxygen through the day, or my HRV while sleeping, wont tell me how fit I am.

Thats why the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 feels like a breath of fresh air. Its core upgrade isnt some new facet of health to track, or a different kind of number which it can count, but something simpler. It ties into recent Samsung Health changes to actually provide actionable advice based on your data. Its the aggregate watch. All your workouts and body data are condensed into a Fitness Index, which compares your wellness in several different departments to other Samsung users on average, and helps you expand your exercise regimen to improve. Your sleep schedule, daily cadence and heart rate turns into your Energy Score, which helps you understand if, and when, its time to workout. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

All of that is to say, that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is far more useful
than most wearables Ive tested, because it actually makes your data mean something. Its smarts may be unnecessary for prolific exercisers, who already know how to use their data, but the average person who cares about health but hasn't yet dived into their fitness with the same granuarity will find it incredibly useful.

Perfect it is not. There are all the usual smartwatch quirks: navigation, and information locations within the UI, can sometimes feel counterintuitive, and itll easily pick up scuffs and marks over time. More significantly, the battery life is poor: itll go for about a day of use on a single charge, or even less if youre doing multiple exercises per day, but this has always been a sticking point with Samsung watches.

Some features are also only available if you own a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and although one could argue that these are more minor tools, its still a shame that not all buyers get the same smartwatch.

Still, this feels like one of the most accessible smartwatches you can buy,
in terms of its feature set and performance. Its worth buying if youve been
on the fence, liking the idea of a smartwatch but never feeling like they justify themselves; this one does. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals
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your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (Black) at Amazon for 349 Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Specifications Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (40mm)

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (44mm)

Price

From $379.99 / 349.99 / AU$647

From $409.99 / 379.99 / AU$697

Dimensions

42.7 x 40.4 x 8.6mm

46.0 x 43.7 x 8.6mm

Weight

30g

34g

Case/Bezel

Armor Aluminum

Armor Aluminum

Display

1.3-in super AMOLED

1.5-in super AMOLED

GPS

GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo

Battery Life

Up to 30 hours

Up to 40 hours

Connection

Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0

Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 6.0

Water Resistance

5 ATM

5 ATM Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Price and availability (Image credit: Future) 40mm Bluetooth model starts at $349.99 / 319 / AU$649 44mm model starts at $399.99 / 349 / AU$699 Available to pre-order July 9 The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, alongside the Galaxy
Watch Ultra 2, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

There are many variants of the watch. You can choose between Bluetooth or LTE connectivity, in 40mm or 44mm size, in a range of body and band sizes and colors, with certain different types of band. You can see some of the prices below for the main four configurations. Swipe to scroll horizontally Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 prices

variant

US

UK

AU

40mm Bluetooth

$379.99

349.99

AU$647

40mm cell / LTE

$429.99

399.99

AU$747

44mm Bluetooth

$409.99

379.99

AU$697

44mm cell / LTE

$459.99

429.99

AU$797 At that price, the watch slightly undercuts the Apple Watch Series 11 bearing in mind that Apple s sizes are slightly bigger. However its slightly more expensive than the Galaxy Watch 8 was, which is sad but unsurprising in the current tech market given the supply chain crisis.

Its worth pointing out that lots of the new Galaxy Watch 9 features come from Samsung Health, and many other Samsung wearables are also compatible and get many of the new tools as a result. They wont be baked into the watch
interface like on the Watch 9, but youll still get access to the new tools
for cheaper.

And of course, if youre not interested in this aggregated data, there are budget wearables for literally a fifth of the price which will do the job
just fine. If you need any old smartwatch or tracker, you can get one
offering a lot better value for money. Value score: 4/5 Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Design (Image credit: Future) Relatively thin and lightweight: solid on wrist 3,000 nits screen works well outdoors Unchanged design from Watch 8 To look at it, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is incredibly similar to its predecessor. Youre getting the same circle display, housed in a squircle
metal cushion. The similarities are more than aesthetic: design-wise, this is basically the same watch.

Thats not a complaint; we gave the Watch 8 a five-star design score . Its a sleek watch, with two barely-protruding but easy-to-tap buttons on the right edge. Its small enough to be comfortable to wear in bed, and light enough not to wiggle around when youre running or working out.

The watch has a 5ATM rating for waterproofing (up to 50 meters), a MIL-STD-810H certification for protection (against extreme temperature, altitude, dust, drops and many more military-grade requirements) and is also IPX8 rated. That is to say, its pretty well protected though itll show its
war wounds. My review unit, as youll see in images, quickly picked up a few dings and scrapes.

All these similarities extend to the screen. A Super AMOLED panel with a max brightness of 3,000 nits, its nice and bright for when youre out in sunlight, or to double as a torch if you need one. Not once did I struggle to see what was going on. (Image credit: Future) Mostly, the screen was responsive, but a few times it wouldnt recognize my touch if my swipe began off the screen (as the screen isnt huge, its easy to miss on gestures). On the 40mm, then, some gestures can be a little finickity, but I dont imagine this is the case on
the 44mm model.

You can buy the watch with Sport, Misty or Fabric bands, in a range of
colors. My test sample had the former, which quickly gave me a rash; if you have sensitive skin, Id recommend avoiding this strap. Luckily, loads more
are available to buy online, and theyre easy to replace with a simple press-to-release catch system on the watch body.

The watchs user interface seems quite simple on the surface, but mastering it can speed up the way you use your watch. Swiping down for quick settings or right for notifications is easy, as is pulling up to see your app drawer. Swiping left brings you Tiles, which are basically on-watch widgets which you can customize. They let you easily see metrics, start tracking certain activities or see information from weather or calendar apps, and learning to use these properly transformed my time with the watch.

Its not quite perfect, and there are some navigation quirks which are quite annoying. Its hard to change app on the fly; for example if youre tracking your cycle ride while also navigating on Google Maps and managing your tunes on Spotify, youll constantly have to jump back to the main menu rather than swiping between menus. But these are minor gripes. Design score: 5/5 Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Features (Image credit: Future) Aggregates all your data for useful scores Offers pointers and feedback which are mostly useful Requires Samsung phone for all features The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 feature set
revolves around the brands redesigned Samsung Health. The key note change is this: instead of simply recording and reporting all your health and fitness metrics, the watch (and app) will boil all your data down into several key metrics, and then provide feedback and analytics.

Some are really useful. Fitness index was a handy way to compare my strengths and weaknesses in several departments, while Heart Health is a handy way to nudge you towards best cardiovascular practice. However not all are equal: Daily Cardio Load should help you decide whether youre exercising enough, but it only takes into account logged workouts, rather than actual activity (ie, 20,000 steps will count for less than a 100 meter run), so its feedback
doesnt feel relevant. Likewise, the energy score felt light years from accurate; Id wake up feeling exhausted, and be told by the watch that my energy level was excellent.

But for good or ill, its great that Samsung Health actually does something with the data the Watch 9 collects. Features like the sleep score and sleep coaching, and the aforementioned Fitness Index, can give you useful pointers towards various goals. For example, the latter tool can give you recommendations to hit health targets, and show you data over time.

Again, the results are sometimes mixed. Running coach which is admittedly in beta gave me a laughably incorrect assessment of my running habits, giving
me a 4-week training plan which I could complete in two days. (Image credit: Future) Some might find the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9s approach a little oversimplistic, and if youre in that camp, you might need a device geared
more towards pros.

I was constantly surprised by what the Galaxy Watch 9 could track. You can
use its sensors to measure body composition, stress and antioxidant levels in the body obviously these wont match the accuracy of an actual medical test, but its useful for contributing to the aforementioned metrics. I also really appreciated receiving a sweat loss figure during runs, telling me how much to rehydrate.

During testing, I paired the Galaxy Watch 9 with both a Samsung phone, and later a non-Samsung one. Unfortunately, some features are gated for Galaxy device owners, like ECG or blood pressure, so if you have another device
youre missing some of the tech youre paying for.

Generally, Bluetooth connection was reliable. I had a few unexpected drop-outs, but most of the time, the watch could re-pair to my phone easily. Only once did I need to reboot the watch to regain connection.

Beyond the fitness tools, the Galaxy Watch has plenty of useful extra tools like a torch, music controls and Play Store for extras. I really appreciated the ability to set vibration alarms, so my wrist-mounted wake-up call wouldnt also rouse my partner, and set alarms on my wrist before bed. Features score: 4/5 Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Performance (Image credit: Future) Mostly
accurate for exercises and sleep tracking Battery only lasts a day per charge Lots of activities to train, but they range in usefulness Lets start with one of the weak elements of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: its battery life. In my testing, it generally lasted a day of serious use; by that I mean workouts tracked most days (sometimes multiple a day), a night of sleep tracking, and notification handling. In fact, during busy days, Id have to top it up in the afternoon.

A sole day of battery life isnt ideal, as it means charging the device takes up a significant amount of your potential use time. By reducing my workout frequency, turning off raise-to-wake and reducing notifications handled, I managed to get the device to last closer to two days, but not everyone will want to switch off many features of their fancy smart device.

When it comes to tracking activities, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 felt largely accurate. Its location results matched other trackers Ive used, as well as
GPS mapping tools, and heart rate data was comparable to another fitness
watch I used at the same time.

Sleep tracking was a little more iffy. The watch was great at recognizing sleep time versus idling in bed time, avoiding a common wearable problem in which your pre-sleep book reading or post-wake-up dawdle would count as more sleep. However it didnt always catch my waking up during the night, and sometimes didnt report all my sleep data after I woke up. Oh well I was just happy to wear a fitness tracker which wasnt so big that it disrupted my
sleep. (Image credit: Future) The watchs sleep coaching is quite useful:
after a test, I was told I sleep like a penguin, and given some tasks to accomplish to get better rest. Since many of these are self-reported, I lied
a little bit yes, Galaxy Watch, of course I meditated before bed but pointers to get out of bed quickly after an alarm were handy.

Generally, the Samsung is adept at auto-recognizing pauses in your workout: when I stopped at traffic lights, it could tell when I was motionless, and when Id resumed. Its a little more unreliable for auto-tracking exercises though. When I took the watch on holiday and spent days wandering around a city, itd sometimes track my wanders and other times neglect to. Dont rely on this tool.

The Galaxy Watch has about ten activities available to track via its menu,
but you can easily add more from a pre-determined list, or create your own activity if your favorite one is missing (there was no bouldering, so I had
to make my own). These are often quite basic when making bouldering, I could only set it to track duration and calories burnt but it all contributes to the fitness metrics.

Done a workout? Good luck finding the data. As far as I can tell, you cant
see past workouts on the watch, even via the Samsung Health applet. You can see any done on that day on Samsung Health, but your long list of past workouts is hidden incredibly well within the app (I only found it by
clicking a View Records pop-up at the top of the app not the other View Records which takes you to your steps. Its silly!) . Presumably, the brand doesnt think youre going to want to see historic data, but I often find this useful to check against. Performance score: 4/5 Samsung Galaxy Watch 9:
Should I buy? (Image credit: Future) Buy it if...

You want advice, not numbers

The Galaxy Watch 9s focus on actionable intel means its useful for general health users who could do with some advice, motivation or pointers in order
to work out better.

You want something lightweight

I really appreciate how slender and non-bulky the Galaxy Watch is. You can
run with it or sleep in it without it weighing you down.

You want something that survives everyday life

This is no rugged Ultra watch, but its protections ensure itll survive normal life. No bumps, splashes or unexpected dust storms are going to stop it working. Don't buy it if...

Youre on a budget

This isnt a super cheap smartwatch, and plenty of brands make good-value wearables for a much lower price. They wont do everything the Samsung does, but theyll do a lot.

You dont have a Samsung phone

Some features are exclusive to Samsung phones, which also have the necessary Watch software pre-installed.

You need a multi-day device

Because of its low battery life, I cant recommend the Galaxy Watch for multi-day use. Expect to charge it regularly. Also consider

Apple Watch Series 12

Apples newest fitness tracker mostly offers AI-centric upgrades, but its
still the best wearable for Apple fans due to its wide range of features and tools. You'll need an iPhone though. Review coming soon

Garmin Venu 4

A weighty, powerful watch and the best Garmin watch for generally active people.

Read our full Garmin Venu 4 review How I tested I used the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 for three weeks, wearing it on my wrist most of the time over that period. For the first week it was used alongside my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the second two with the Fairphone 6 Plus.

During that span of time I slept with it, wore it while working, and took it on a week-long holiday. I also tracked various kinds of exercise including runs, walks, bouldering, cycles and tennis, and used all of Samsung Healths features all that time.

Ive been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar for eight years, and in that time have tested countless smartwatches and Samsung Galaxy devices. Ive completed multiple marathons and am training for another, giving the Galaxy Watch 9 something to work towards. Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: Price Comparison 349 View voucher gift 349 View voucher gift 349 View voucher gift 349 View voucher
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