Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: news, rumored price, release date, and more

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic next to each other.
Galaxy Watch 6 Classic (left) and Galaxy Watch 6 (right) Andrew Martonik / Digital Trends

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 is one of the best smartwatches that you can buy right now, especially if you’re using a Galaxy smartphone. But as good as it is, there’s also no denying how much of an iterative update it was over the Galaxy Watch 5. It’s about time we see some bigger changes to Samsung’s smartwatch family.

Thankfully, it looks like Samsung will be shaking things up a bit with the Galaxy Watch 7 series later this year. From the rumored design, specs, release date, and more, here’s everything we know so far about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: release date

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends / Digital Trends

Most major tech companies have a set release schedule for their biggest products, including Samsung. For the past few Galaxy Watch releases, Samsung’s smartwatches have been launched alongside Samsung’s foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip series.

The Galaxy Watch 4 series was announced on August 11, 2021, and launched on August 27, 2021. Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 5 series on August 10, 2022, and it came out on August 26, 2022. The Galaxy Watch 6 series was announced on July 26, 2023, and became available to buy on August 11, 2023.

This year, we could see the Galaxy Watch 7 series a little earlier than normal. It has been reported that Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event, which would also reveal the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, will be held in early July, possibly on July 10 (typically two weeks into the month and on a Wednesday). Since Samsung has a history of announcing the Galaxy Watch alongside its foldables, we should also expect the Galaxy Watch 7 to be shown on this same day.

The earlier announcement and launch are due to the 2024 Summer Olympics, which Samsung reportedly wants to take advantage of for marketing purposes. The Summer Olympics will be in Paris, France, starting on July 26, 2024, and it’s rumored that Samsung will hold the Galaxy Unpacked event in Paris.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: price

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Typically, brands stick to the same price range for products like phones and smartwatches, with maybe a small price increase or decrease every now and then.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 series starts at $300 for the smallest Wi-Fi-only variant (40mm). The 4G/LTE model is an extra $50, putting it at $350. It’s probably safe to assume that the base model Galaxy Watch 7 will be similarly priced.

For the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, it starts at $400 for the 43mm Wi-Fi-only version. With the Galaxy Watch 7, there may be at least one or two other variants geared for this price range or higher. It’s not clear whether Samsung will be doing a Classic model with the Galaxy Watch 7 again, go back to the Pro option, or create a new variant altogether.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: design

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 (left) and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic (right) Andrew Martonik / Digital Trends

Some reports suggest that Samsung may go back to a square or rectangular face, which would be a drastic change from the current circular design of the past several years.

Samsung first used a rectangular display on its Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which debuted in 2013. It was $300 and had a rectangular 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display with 320 x 320-pixel resolution. It had a metallic frame and a variety of straps, and it also featured a 1.9-megapixel camera. With this in mind, Samsung is no stranger to rectangular-faced smartwatches.

Though reports of a move to a rectangular face have surfaced, it’s not clear whether that will be happening for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 series or if it’s for another generation later down the road. It’s said that it is “enthusiastically being considered internally,” according to a report from SamMobile.

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Other than that, we have yet to see any other design rumors or leaked renders of the Galaxy Watch 7. The only other rumor is that we may see three versions of the Galaxy Watch 7: the base model, a “Classic” or “Pro” variant with a rotating bezel, and a third model.

In previous years, we’ve seen Samsung alternate between the Classic and Pro variants. Since the Galaxy Watch 6 had a Classic model, we could be going back to the Pro model with the Galaxy Watch 7. However, since we could see three models this year, there may be a chance that Samsung will have a regular version, a Classic, and a Pro model.

There are many unknowns in this regard right now, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: specs

Galaxy Watch 6 Classic Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 appears to be getting a big boost in processor power this time around.

According to @TheGalox on X (formerly Twitter), the Galaxy Watch 7 will have the Exynos W940 chip inside, which will be 50% more power efficient and 30% faster than its predecessor. According to a report from the New Daily, the Exynos W940 could use a 3nm process, which is a huge improvement over the 5nm Exynos W930 that’s currently used in the Galaxy Watch 6.

Exynos W940, the processor powering the Galaxy Watch7 series, will apparently be 50% more efficient and 30% faster than the previous model pic.twitter.com/XUFAe0c8ZA

— Anthony (@TheGalox_) March 14, 2024

We should also see a bump in the internal storage capacity of the Galaxy Watch 7 as well. Currently, the Galaxy Watch 6 only has 16GB of internal storage. This could double to 32GB with the Galaxy Watch 7.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: software and updates

Galaxy Watch 6 Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Currently, the Galaxy Watch 6 comes with Wear OS 4 and Samsung’s One UI 5.0 Watch interface.

With this in mind, we should expect the next iteration of the software to be on the Galaxy Watch 7. This would be Wear OS 5 and One UI 6.0. Furthermore, Wear OS 5 would be based on the current Android 14 software.

At the moment, Samsung offers about four years of software updates for its lineup of Galaxy Watches. It’s possible this could extend to seven years of updates to match Samsung’s software commitment to the Galaxy S24 series, but that’s just speculation on our part.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: battery and charging

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

When we tested the Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic, we were pretty impressed with their battery life. On average, we got about a day and a half to two days of use on the watches before having to put them on the charger.

From what we’re seeing, the Galaxy Watch 7 should improve even further on battery life. Since the Exynos W940 is supposed to be 50% more efficient, there should be a big boost in battery life. We aren’t sure if that would mean several days of use before needing to charge, but it would be nice if that’s the case.

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Christine Romero-Chan has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade. She graduated from California…
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