Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 hands-on: Solid, dependable, and attainable

We got some time to play around with the device at Unpacked as it was unveiled and the first impressions are good. This appears to be a well-rounded Samsung smartwatch that's available in both Wi-Fi and LTE models, offering plenty of flexibility and versatility to users.

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You can get the Galaxy Watch 7 in 40mm and 44mm sizes, with a 1.3-inch and 1.5-inch display respectively, in the very familiar Samsung design with a circular watch face, slim borders and a minimalist look with the use of Armor Aluminum. I particularly like the new sports stitch band which feels more comfortable.

The smartwatch felt nice and quick thanks to the W1000 Exynos platform, the first 3nm chipset from Samsung, which is 3x faster than the previous model. We're particularly looking forward to trying out the new BioActive Sensor that further improves the accuracy of the watch's health and fitness tracking features.

The Galaxy Watch 7 is running One UI Watch 6 based on Wear OS version 5. It has many of the health and fitness tracking features that you've come to know and love on Samsung's watches, such as auto workout detection, Fall Detection, and more.

This smartwatch is aimed for those looking for a solid digital watch experience alongside your smartphone as an extension and also for a comprehensive wellness experience for sleep tracking, health tracking as well as fitness tracking, all linked into Samsung Health.

What’s great to see is the new enhanced user experience when paired with a compatible Galaxy smartphone, with double pinch gesture controls that allow you to do things like stopping the timer, answering calls, taking pictures and even controlling music with play and pause.

Pre-orders for the Galaxy Watch 7 are open today with the release scheduled for July 24. Prices start at $299.