Samsung Galaxy Watch8

The Samsung Galaxy Watch8 is available at City Hub Electronics, Nairobi, in 40mm and 44mm sizes. It brings a 3,000 nit display under sapphire crystal, the 3 nanometre Exynos W1000, and an updated BioActive sensor that adds antioxidant index and vascular load to Samsung’s health tracking.

Display

The 44mm model carries a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED at 480 x 480, roughly 327 ppi, and the 40mm model uses a 1.34-inch panel. Peak brightness is rated at 3,000 nits, up from 2,000 nits on the Galaxy Watch7.

That brightness increase is the most useful hardware change in this generation. Reading notifications, navigation prompts and workout metrics in direct sunlight is where smaller smartwatch displays usually fail, and this panel handles it.

The cover glass is sapphire crystal, which is substantially harder than the strengthened glass used on cheaper watches and resists the scratches a watch picks up from door frames and gym equipment.

Note that the 44mm display is slightly smaller than the previous generation, down from 1.5 inches to 1.47 inches.

Health and Fitness Tracking

The BioActive sensor is a cluster rather than a single component, covering heart rate, blood oxygen, skin temperature, ECG and blood pressure.

This generation adds antioxidant index, vascular load measured during sleep, an AGEs index and Running Coach. Vascular load in particular is measured overnight and is aimed at giving a picture of cardiovascular strain rather than a single point reading.

One limitation to state clearly at the counter: ECG and blood pressure measurement are only available when the watch is paired with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. A customer pairing this with an iPhone or a non-Samsung Android phone does not get those two features, and they are often the reason people buy the watch.

Dual-frequency GPS on L1 and L5 gives more precise location tracking than single-band GPS, which matters for runners and cyclists logging routes.

The full sensor set is accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate, barometer, altimeter, compass, SpO2 and skin temperature.

Performance and Software

The Exynos W1000 is built on a 3 nanometre process with five CPU cores and a Mali-G68 GPU, paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There is no card slot.

It runs Wear OS 6 with One UI 8 Watch. The chipset is unchanged from the Galaxy Watch7, so this generation’s gains come from the display and the health sensors rather than from raw speed.

Connectivity covers dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC for payments. Versions are available as Bluetooth only or with LTE via eSIM.

Battery and Charging

The 44mm model carries a 435 mAh cell, up modestly from 425 mAh on the previous generation, charging wirelessly at 10W.

Battery life is the honest weak point of this watch. Reviewers consistently found roughly one day of use, at a time when two-day battery life has become common on Wear OS watches. A customer who wants to track sleep as well as a full day of activity will be charging daily.

If daily charging is a dealbreaker, say so before the sale rather than after. The Galaxy Watch9, which arrived in July 2026, addresses exactly this with larger cells and a 30 hour rating with always-on display enabled.

Design and Build

The 40mm model weighs 30 g and the 44mm model 34 g, both 8.6mm thick, which is light enough to wear overnight for sleep tracking without discomfort.

The frame is Armor Aluminum 2 with a sapphire crystal front. The watch is rated IP68 and 5ATM, immersible to 50 metres, and is MIL-STD-810H compliant, though Samsung notes that this does not guarantee ruggedness in extreme conditions.

It is ECG certified and carries a blood pressure monitor, subject to the Samsung phone pairing requirement noted above.

Colours are Graphite and Silver. A range of interchangeable bands is available.

Specifications

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch8 at City Hub Electronics.