Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic review: Rotating bezel, Gemini AI and all-new health tracking

The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic feels like Samsung’s most confident wearable in years. It borrows the cushion design and “serious” look of the Ultra model, keeps the beloved rotating bezel alive, and now throws in Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, straight out of the box. Add to that Samsung’s new Quick Button and upgraded health metrics, and the Classic suddenly looks like the smartwatch to beat, until you check the price.

I wore the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for nearly three weeks, switching between workouts, sleep tracking, and daily notifications. Here’s where Samsung gets it right, and where the new Classic leaves you wanting more.

Design and display: Timeless, with a modern polish

At first glance, the Watch 8 Classic is easy to confuse with the Ultra. It has the same squared cushion frame, stainless steel body, and chunky wrist presence. Mine came in white, and it immediately stood out, people actually recognised it as “the Samsung watch with the spinning ring.” That bezel still feels amazing, and it’s one of the few smartwatch inputs that genuinely makes sense. Flick through menus without smudging the screen? Yes, please.

The downside of all this “Ultra-like” design is size. At 46mm and 64 grams, the Classic is big. If you have slimmer wrists, it’s going to look oversized, and the smaller display doesn’t help. Samsung shrunk the screen to 1.34 inches compared to the 6 Classic’s 1.5, and while it hits 3000 nits peak brightness (the brightest I’ve seen on a smartwatch), it feels oddly small inside the chunky frame. Watching it glow outdoors was satisfying, but I couldn’t help but wish Samsung had stretched the screen a bit more.

The strap system has been reworked with a new Dynamic Lug design. Swapping bands is easier, and it actually helps the watch sit tighter on your wrist, which in turn improves sensor accuracy. I used the bundled Hybrid Band, which was comfortable enough for daily wear, but Samsung’s wide strap catalogue is a big plus.

Software and performance: AI on the wrist

This is the first Samsung watch to ship with Google’s Gemini built in, and while it’s still early days, it’s genuinely useful. I could set reminders, pull weather updates, and even ask Gemini to summarise tasks without touching my phone. Sometimes it cut me off if I paused mid-sentence, but when it worked, it felt like a glimpse of what smartwatches should be doing in 2025.

The Watch 8 Classic runs One UI 8 on top of Wear OS 6, powered by the new Exynos W1000 chip. With 2GB RAM and 64GB storage, it’s fast and smooth. New touches like the Now Bar make a real difference, it shows running tasks in a single glance, and the multi-info tiles let you cram more detail into widgets. Paired with the rotating bezel, the whole interface feels more thought out than most Wear OS watches.

That said, you’ll get more out of this watch if you’re already in Samsung’s ecosystem. Certain health features like antioxidant index, vascular load, even parts of Running Coach, only work with Samsung phones. On my non-Samsung Android, I still had a good experience, but there’s an unmistakable sense that Samsung wants to keep its best tricks for its own hardware.

Health tracking: Metrics galore

Samsung has loaded this watch with every sensor you can imagine: heart rate, SpO2, ECG, bioelectrical impedance, dual-frequency GPS, even an infrared temperature sensor. And then it added new stuff.

The antioxidant index is one of those “only Samsung would try this” features. It scans your carotenoid levels (the pigments from fruits and vegetables stored in your skin) and gives you a score from 0 to 100. Most of the time, I landed in the “low” range, which was a not-so-gentle reminder that maybe I should eat fewer fries and more carrots. Whether you’ll take it seriously or not depends on your lifestyle, but it’s a neat attempt at connecting diet to health data.

Vascular load is another new metric. It measures how much stress your vascular system is under during sleep and pairs that with your lifestyle data for broader insights. Alongside sleep tracking, blood pressure, ECG, and the returning Energy Score, the Watch 8 Classic genuinely feels like a health dashboard on your wrist.

Accuracy was solid. Step counts were close to what I usually get with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and sleep tracking matched my Oura ring’s logs pretty closely. The Running Coach feature also felt practical; it gave me mid-run prompts to adjust pace, which is a step forward compared to the static coaching I’d seen before.

Battery life: Decent, but not stellar

Inside is a 445mAh battery, a bump from the Watch 6 Classic. Samsung claims 30 hours with always-on display or up to 40 hours without. In my testing, that held true. With always-on turned off, I comfortably got 40 hours, including workouts, sleep tracking, and notifications. With always-on enabled, I was closer to 32 hours.

That’s fine, but not great at this price. Charging is also slow, 90 minutes to full via 10W wireless charging. Competitors like the Apple Watch or even some budget wearables are now pushing faster recharge times. For a watch that wants to be worn 24/7, this is a bottleneck.

Verdict: A premium watch that isn’t quite Ultra

The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is a joy to use. The bezel is still one of the best input methods on any smartwatch, Gemini adds real utility, and the health-tracking features are some of the most comprehensive on the market.

But at Rs. 46,999 (Bluetooth) and Rs. 50,999 (LTE), it’s a hard sell. The regular Galaxy Watch 8 offers almost everything for much less, and for a little more money, the Ultra 2 gets you a bigger screen and better battery life. The Classic sits awkwardly in between.

Still, if you love the rotating bezel, want Samsung’s latest health tricks, and don’t mind the chunky design, this is the Galaxy Watch to buy. It’s proof that sometimes, old-school mechanics and futuristic AI can coexist on your wrist.