Tried & Tested: Samsung Galaxy Watch9

How often do you pick up your pocket computer at the buzz of a notification, only to end up whiling away at least twenty minutes doomscrolling on Instagram? I had an epiphany while I had Samsung’s latest mainline smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch9, on a week-long test. It struck me that this extra screen on my wrist was actually keeping me from spending those unintended minutes on my phone.

At first glance, the Watch9 seems identical to last year’s Watch8, with its brushed-aluminium squircle casing and invisible quick-release lug system. Something worth noting about the 40mm variant is that the supplied S/M sport band may feel inadequate for wrists bigger than 6.5 inches. For the sake of testing, I relied on the band’s innate elasticity and the last two notches to secure this smartwatch. Once strapped on, it disguises its weight very well, while the 1.3-inch Super AMOLED screen doesn’t scream ‘wrist computer’. It packs Samsung’s digital bezel for scrolling through the UI, which works in tandem with the two pushers on the right. Out of which the top one is your power/home key and long-press wakes up Gemini. The lower pusher is the back button by default and its double-press can be configured to any watch app. I have repeated ‘default’ because you can swap the pushers based on orientation of the watch with regards to the left or right wrist. Sadly, there’s no Classic variant this year, like the Watch8 Classic, which not only offered a stainless-steel casing but also had a ratchety rotating bezel that appeals far more to the watch enthusiasts among us. While I miss the tactile bezel, the lack of it makes the Watch9 a cleaner and under-the-radar choice, especially keeping the Watch Ultra2’s excessively fortified footprint in mind.

The two noteworthy changes to the internals are a bigger 390mAh battery and a switch to a 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite processor. I have no recollection of any jitters during my quality time with the Watch9. And even the raise-to-wake function has managed to never skip a beat. It runs on Google’s latest Wear OS 7, topped by Samsung’s One UI 9. While the accuracy may vary, the activity tracker in my use automatically detected walking, heart rate and even the quality of my sleep during a two-hour flight from Pune to Delhi. Something to note here is that Samsung reserves some advanced features for its own Galaxy range of phones – an ECG and blood pressure monitor, sleep time syncing and DND functions, NFC-based Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay as well as a camera control trigger, which relays a live feed from your phone’s viewfinder, allowing you to place the phone elsewhere and set-off a timer. I couldn’t put the ECG monitor to use as it needs to be calibrated alongside an actual ECG machine. It also gives you hourly reminders when it detects extended periods of inactivity, encouraging you to leave the desk and take a walking break. This newer Galaxy Watch builds over its predecessor with software functions like Fitness Index, Daily Cardio Load, Vitals, Heart Health Score and Hearing Protection.

Touching base with its rather limited shortcomings. Despite the larger battery, the Watch9 (40mm) remains a single-day watch at best, with everything turned on. I ended my evenings at 13 per cent charge during the action-packed weekend at the AMG Experience BIC 2026. Juicing the watch back to 100 per cent takes up to 1 hour and 20 minutes, which could be faster. Lastly, the included magnetic puck doesn’t have a detachable cable, meaning you have to carry an extra cable for your phone and the watch.

On the bright side, the claimed 3000 nits of brightness makes it effortlessly legible even under Delhi’s afternoon sunlight. Being an Android device, it is innately open source and what it entails is that there’s a huge community of third-party developers which bring imitations from iconic timekeepers such as an info-rich G-Shock dial to an IWC chronograph with Mercedes-AMG detailing. Apps like Facer also allow you to design your own custom watch faces. Personally, the biggest draw of having a feature-rich smartwatch is the ability to swap dials on a whim and sport different looks based on the occasion. I fearlessly braved the torrential rains in Delhi, with the knowledge that the Watch9 is safeguarded by a 5 ATM, IP68 dust and water protection rating. There’s also MIL-STD-810H – a United States military standard for temperature, vibration and shock durability. I may or may not have banged my wrist between the pickleball bouts, safe to say the watch has remained spotless. One detail us watch aficionados will appreciate is the use of a sapphire crystal covering the display to keep everyday scratches at bay.

Its onboard 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage are more than enough to handle the aforementioned tasks. In my testing, I could only occupy 1.2GB of its RAM and 14.1GB of ROM. You can even store an offline Spotify playlists or transfer your MP3s to the Watch9 and stream music via embedded speaker or your earbuds of choice. Having mentioned the onboard speaker, it also has a mic which can be used to receive calls or use AI clients like Gemini. It is however only useable in a mildly noisy and closed environment like a moving bus full of people or a hotel lobby. A loud, open area backdrop such as a roadside or a track day event at the BIC is just asking for too much. The 1.3-inch display not only lets you type messages with its full keyboard, which also has gesture or swipe typing but has predicted replies to save time in a pinch.

Cutting to the chase, why would you spring up for a base Galaxy Watch? Well, if you appreciate the cleaner aesthetic and smaller size over the pricier variants – Watch9 (44mm), its only redeeming featuring being the 55mAh bigger battery which comes at a premium of ₹3,000 (Bluetooth-only); then there’s the Watch Ultra2 which commands a premium in excess of ₹30,000, but is armed with a huge 800mAh battery, 10 ATM and IP69 with MIL-STD-810H, EN13319 Depth gauge protection and a brighter screen with up to 5000 nits of brightness. It comes down to what you value as the end user. In my book, the base variant offers great value considering that it consistently delivers Samsung’s robust ecosystem, which includes the ease of pairing and data syncing, proven build quality and promising software support until 2031 (major Wear OS updates and security updates). The last one is something most of the Taiwan-based competitors fail to deliver. What does the Galaxy Watch9 leave me with? Answering phone calls and text messages from the minuscule screen on my wrist didn’t feel intuitive at first, but eventually cemented my opening thought: this little screen might actually keep you from reaching for your smartphone ever so often.

Price: ₹38,999/-

More info: www.samsung.com/in/watches