First Looks: Samsung Galaxy Watch up-close

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Samsung dropped the Gear branding and has debuted the new Galaxy Watch. It has a new “optimized” Exynos processor which enables its battery to last for up to 80 hours, thousands of watch faces and two sizes to choose from, water resistance to 5ATM, available in LTE capable editions, has workout support, and more.

Shown here is the larger 46mm edition in silver finish. The other size is a 42mm option and comes in black or rose gold finishing to choose from.

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Here's the same silver finish 46mm edition worn on the wrist; it is indeed a bit large and it's better suited for those with a bigger frame. The 46mm edition sports a 1.3-inch circular Super AMOLED display (360 x 360 pixels resolution) and is protected by Corning's new Gorilla DX+ cover glass.

For the first time, the Galaxy Watch features analog watch ticks and hourly chimes, and a depth effect that casts shadows defining every detail on the watch face for a traditional look and feel - and it shows from our photos too!

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Like previous Gear watches, it has the trademark circular, rotating bezel that’s used for UI navigation. 

Galaxy Watch brings users all the benefits from the Galaxy Ecosystem creating a seamless experience with SmartThings (smart home control), Samsung Health, Samsung Flow (unlocking PCs and tablets), Samsung Knox (for security), Samsung Pay (seamless payments anywhere), and Bixby (voice control). If you have a premium Spotify subscription, you can listen to songs offline or without a smartphone with the Spotify Offline mode.

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In addition to the rotating bezels and touchscreen, the Galaxy Watch has two button controls on its right flank.

Also note the realistic watch face rendering even at this angle.

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On the left flank, the watch case looks clean and neat with no other controls.

Inside, the watch comes with 4GB of internal memory and is paired with 786MB of RAM for the Bluetooth-only edition, while the LTE edition is equipped with 1.5GB of RAM.

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On the flip side, you'll notice an optical heart rate sensor for heart rate monitoring (HRM). Other sensors built within the watch include an accelerometer, gyro, barometer and an ambient light sensor.

The Galaxy Watch also features WPC based wireless charging for easier fuss-free charging without connecting cables.

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Here's a close-up the prettier looking rose gold finish. Note that this is a 42mm diameter watch and it comes with a tad smaller 1.2-inch circular Super AMOLED display (with the same 360 x 360 pixels resolution display).

Apart from the watch and screen size, the other noticeable difference is the internal battery capacity. The larger 46mm version has a 472mAh battery, but the 42mm edition is fitted with a 270mAh battery. It remains to be seen if battery life would be longer on the larger watch, but we'll find out when we review it.

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Here are all three watch finishings (from left to right):- Silver 46mm, Black 42mm and Rose Gold 42mm. The size difference between the watches may not be very evident in this shot, but your wrist can readily feel the difference, so trial the watches and choose the size that best fits you.

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You also get plenty of hardware straps and software watch faces to choose from to tailor the look for the occasion at hand.

The Galaxy Watch will be available starting in the U.S. on August 24, in Korea on August 31, and in additional select markets on September 14, 2018. Watch this space for updates to availability and price soon.