Samsung's Latest Smartwatch Introduces New Metrics, a Longer-lasting Battery, and Hints at the Future of Wearables

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. Consumers are catching on to the fact that not every generational upgrade to their favorite tech can be life-changing. Instead, companies are forced to improve their products little by little.

I've thought about this a lot as I tested the. It arrives with a few improvements under the hood: a new processor, some additional health metrics, and a longer battery on the 40mm device. Also: Galaxy Watch 9 vs. Galaxy Watch 8: I've compared both models, here's my adviceIt isn't a groundbreaking smartwatch, but it's great for a first-time buyer, with upgrades that point to the future Samsung aims to create through its wearables.

The question is whether those upgrades are as helpful to users today as they will be when the next generation of wearables arrives. The future of wearablesOne of the goals of the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip is to divest in the smartphone as the center of the personal device ecosystem, adding instead several different AI-powered wearables that integrate and work together. Intelligent eyewear represents that next step, Samsung's press release says, hinting at smart glasses to come -- something we've been watching closely now for over a year.

Also: How Qualcomm's new wearables chipset could spell the end of smartphone dominanceIt would follow then that Samsung's forthcoming smart glasses will work with the Galaxy Watch 9 to summarize what wearers see, read and translate information, contextualize content, and activate gestures recorded by the watch, making the Galaxy Watch 9 a crucial component in its smart glasses' ecosystem integration (and maybe one of the reasons why its taking so long to launch). In fact, the intelligent eyewear will operate through voice activation and gestures, but those gestures are activated through the Galaxy Watch 9. What Galaxy Watch 9 does best I love working out with the Galaxy Watch 9. It's mighty good at what you're buying it for: counting steps, tracking your exercise, and delivering post-workout encouragement. The bright, 3,000-nit super AMOLED screen is easy to see between weight-training reps, and the bevy of new health-tracking features means there's always lots to look at.

The Galaxy Watch 9 ships with Google's Wear OS 7 and Samsung's One UI 9 Watch, including features like Heart Health Score, Fitness Index, and Daily Cardio Load. They offer a nice blend of short-term and long-term insights, allowing me to check daily cardio load to see if I'm getting my steps in, and then checking Heart Health Score just how those daily changes evolve into a longitudinal metric. Also: I went running with the Galaxy Watch 9 in London, and it taught me something newIt's accurate, too.

I put the Galaxy Watch 9's heart-rate monitor to the test during a recent Stairmaster workout and compared that data to the gold standard heart rate monitoring chest strap, the Polar H10. What I found surprised me: the Galaxy Watch 9's average heart rate for the workout was within 3 beats per minute of the Polar H10's, and the max heart rate was within 1 bpm of the Polar H10. The Polar H10 measured around 8.3 calories burned per minute, while the Galaxy Watch 9 measured 7.9. The Galaxy Watch 9's hydration guidance is also helpful on runs, buzzing you with a reminder to hydrate based on your energy exertion. While it may seem intuitive, I can imagine this feature being useful for cardio warriors spending hours in the sun training for a marathon or casual users who tend to forget to hydrate. Battery life and wearSamsung said the watch will last you around 30 hours with the smartwatch's always on display enabled, and that's exactly what my testing proved during the first week of wear.