The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is a good option for sports.

I’ve had my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and the truth is that I think it’s one of the most interesting smartwatches of the year thanks to its design, screen and comprehensive health and sports system, although it does have some room for improvement.

A few weeks ago Samsung presented its new devices for the remainder of the year: Galaxy Fold 6, Flip 6 and Watch 7 and Ultra.

All of them have already passed through the hands of the team, except for the one to be analyzed on this occasion: the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, which I have had the pleasure of trying out for a few weeks.

Its main strengths? An exquisite design, a delightful screen and a complete health and sports monitoring system. Now, it has its drawbacks, such as software that cries out for a Samsung mobile and a somewhat short battery life.

Design: when something works, don’t touch it, although a rotating crown would not be a bad idea

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 maintains the same design as previous generations, which I think is an absolute success. I think the Korean firm hit the nail on the head some time ago both in terms of personality and comfort and I think that with a watch, when something works, it’s best to leave it alone.

As usual, it has a fairly nice plastic strap, but if you’re not convinced by it, you can easily remove it by pressing the button on the bottom.

As for the device itself, it continues with the circular dial (more round smartwatches like this, please) with a superb premium construction and two buttons on the side.

One activates the digital assistant and also allows you to go back and forth between apps, and another activates Samsung Wallet and allows for specific contextual actions in certain apps, such as pausing a physical activity, for example.

The only thing I missed was a rotating crown, as I think some of the touch controls are not as refined and a button like this could be used to move around some screens more comfortably.

This is not something new for Samsung, since they already did the same thing with a delightful rotating bezel in the Galaxy 6 Classic, so it is something that I have missed quite a bit.

Screen: an absolute delight in both size and quality 

The screen is an absolute joy.

Not only because of how well the 1.5-inch panel is used, since there are hardly any black borders, but also because of the fabulous color representation, where everything looks great thanks to its 480 x 480 SuperAMOLED resolution.

The best thing, of course, is its maximum brightness which Samsung does not offer figures for, but I can assure you that it is an absolute delight.

Not only in very bright conditions, where it doesn’t matter if the sun is shining directly on it, as everything is seen perfectly, but also because of an automatic brightness that plays in another league and does its job to adjust to any situation almost immediately.

To all this it adds an extreme fluidity in absolutely everything that it achieves surely thanks to its Exynos W1000 processor, whether in the transitions between applications, navigation through the menus or anything else that comes to mind.

It also has an always-on display mode that takes your favorite dial as a basis, makes it minimalist and always on so you can check the time whenever you want.

And to emphasize, it has endless automatisms that help you during the day to day, such as useful quick accesses like cinema mode so that the screen does not turn on when you move, do not disturb mode, a button that locks the screen for when you shower and much more.

Health and sport: countless sports modes and great monitoring 

For some years now, Samsung has been focusing on everything related to health and it shows because, in addition to the classics of heart rate, stress, blood oxygen level and sleep quality, it also incorporates a bioelectrical impedance analysis that will allow you to measure your body composition, blood pressure, body temperature and electrocardiogram.

And although it must be made clear that they are not a medical device and should not replace the care of qualified personnel, it provides truly accurate data in everything it proposes.

Case in point: I recently had a test to measure my body fat, BMI, muscle mass and basal metabolism, and that same week I received the device, so I took the test. The results? Exactly the same. An excellent level of monitoring.

And as for sports modes, more of the same: everything is excellent.

Software: a delight in terms of customization and functions, although it is vital to have a Samsung  mobile phone.

Inside, as usual, it comes with Wear OS 5, a layer designed specifically for this type of product and it fits like a glove.

The interface is really easy to use and it is also full of tutorials of all kinds that teach you how to get the most out of it and, of course, it has endless applications, as well as an application store where you can download whatever you want.

In addition, it has an endless number of watch faces available so you can customize the device to your liking and a very complete app from where you can change any device setting.

The only criticism that can be levelled at the software is that it is virtually necessary to have a Samsung mobile phone to get the most out of it. I don’t mean to say that it doesn’t work with any Android device (with iPhone forget it, obviously), but some functions are lost along the way and its use is somewhat more cumbersome.

For example, to access health records you need to download Samsung Health, to pay with the watch — it has NFC, how could it be otherwise — you need to download a plug-in, and so on with hundreds of other features of the device.

Battery: a little short, but more than enough for a full day’s use 

This is undoubtedly the weakest aspect of the device, as its 425 mAh battery lasts for a maximum of 2 days of use and, depending on usage, this figure can drop to one day. In the end you’re going to have to be charging the device every day, come on.

In this sense, it is not that different from the competition, as the Apple Watch Series 8 has similar figures, but a little more effort would be good.

It also takes a while to charge, as it takes about 2 hours.

Verdict: Is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 worth it?

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is one of the most interesting smartwatches I have tried this year.

Its exquisite design and absolutely delightful screen are its two great virtues, to which it adds an excellent health monitoring system and a complete sports mode.