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Just Bought A Galaxy Watch 8

mountainbikermark

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It's supposed to arrive next week and I'll be back to post a bit of a review .
I got $175 trade in for my GW6 plus another $50 off. $124 plus tax.
I'm kinda excited because it's about as large on my wrist as the Ultra but has the lighter weight and thinness of my GW7 .
 
Congratulations I'm looking forward to seeing it and getting your impressions on it nice little deal 💯
The screen protector , bumper cover , and extra bands I bought from Amazon have begun to arrive already . The watch shipped yesterday and is scheduled to deliver Monday BUT it's Fedex so I'm keeping my hopes down that it'll show up on Monday .
A bumper cover is a must have for me on every GW I've ever owned besides the Ultra because the glass sticks up above the bezel on all of them , including the GW8 . No biggie on the classic because the rotating bezel rises above the glass. Sapphire glass is shatter resistant not shatter proof and my job isn't conducive to products lasting long without protection . I'll probably do like I do my others and just pop it on in the morning and off when I get home .
 
The screen protector , bumper cover , and extra bands I bought from Amazon have begun to arrive already . The watch shipped yesterday and is scheduled to deliver Monday BUT it's Fedex so I'm keeping my hopes down that it'll show up on Monday .
A bumper cover is a must have for me on every GW I've ever owned besides the Ultra because the glass sticks up above the bezel on all of them , including the GW8 . No biggie on the classic because the rotating bezel rises above the glass. Sapphire glass is shatter resistant not shatter proof and my job isn't conducive to products lasting long without protection . I'll probably do like I do my others and just pop it on in the morning and off when I get home .
That's a good idea I think you have it protected well. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
 
The watch arrived a little while ago .
Something that NEVER happened on the GW7 or Ultra that has already happened on the GW is going into airplane mode due to overheating . Not cool at all .
Now the good .
It's supposed to be the same screen as the 7 and Ultra but it's crisper and more realistic plus the blacks are amazingly blacker . The UI is a little different in tidbits here and there and to be honest where I find Wear 6 to be Meh or even dislike they seem to have tweaked things just a little more . An example , the egg shape to the notifications and tiles is actually not quite as oval and a hair larger . Bold fonts on the 8 are truly bold and not just a slight thickening of the regular font .
Watchmaker is acting stupid on the 8 but it did the same thing when the Ultra updated to Wear 6 . A bunch of reboots , force closes and a couple of cache clears and it magically started working .
Graphite , to me, is black . To Samsung Graphite seems to be more of a light charcoal gray as the photo will attest and the black is with the bumper/cover I had on it .
The (p)leather band that came with the watch has a silver clasp and clips plus white stitching . Yuk. Fortunately I already bought a black leather (real cowhide) band with black accents and black stitching . It's also wider at the clamps for a more Ultra look and not so dressy watch looking .
I set it up as an existing based on the Ultra and all the settings took and worked great but most of the apps I have on the Ultra didn't cross over . No biggie. I've already added them on . Speaking of that , with Wi-Fi on everything downloads as fast as on my phone , ala VERY fast, but took Scott the same time to install .
The biggest thing , so far , is how comfortable it is . Samsung really hit it out of the park with this one . As comfortable as the GW7 feels it has those sensors sticking seemingly inches out so it never really gets comfortable if you have it the proper snugness . Hopefully the photo will show how the 8 sensor is basically flush so it rests perfectly on my arm . Specs state the 8 is only 10% more slim than the 7 but the photo shows it's thinner PLUS no extremely protruding sensor array for what feels like a much more comfortable wear . It feels like my Active 2 . I just can't say enough about the difference in comfort , especially vs the 7 . The Ultra is twice as thick weighs a lot more and is just a beast so to compare those 2 would be unfair as it's mandarins to grapefruits
I can't speculate on the battery yet but I'm hoping it's on par with the GW7. I could get as much as 2 days on that watch without turning anything off I usually keep on . I got the Bluetooth, non LTE , version just like with the 7 .
The new style clip works just like the Ultra but they are not interchangeable . That's a little disappointing . The band I'm using on my Ultra right now is supremely comfortable , is tough as nails and the beating the leather had taken along with sweat stains have given it a superb look that'll be missed . It started as a medium light brown that is now a dark carmel and lots of scratches . It also has hinges at the clip for extra comfort . Anyway I'll adapt .
As things progress I'll post back and hopefully the overheat was just a glitch .
 

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I got a software update and Watchmaker is working fine . I read even though security patch is still listed as May that the update was to fix a couple of holes in the security .
It also added 6 bloatware apps that didn't add onto the Ultra . Other than Calm they're already gone .
 
Thank you for sharing some excellent points on the watch, and some early thoughts and navigation on set up.
First day at work with the usual pattern is settings and usual texts , steps , etc and the battery is beating even the Ultra . Took it off charger at 430 this morning and at 345 when I left work it was 89% . The GW7 would have been around 70-75% and Ultra 75-80%.
Super comfortable all day. Vibration is as strong as the Ultra , volume of tones and such was on par with the Ultra (that's a very good thing) and speakerphone was about the same as the Ultra in volume but not quite as good with sound quality . It was a little distorted at max volume , unlike the Ultra and 7 .
Range from the phone is within inches , all 3 of them . In front of my airfryer they are connected . 3 steps to the left and all 3 drop when my phone is downstairs on the other side of the house so about 40' and between 1 floor and 2 doors .
Oh and with Wear 6 on the GW8 the timer has its own ring tone whereas with Wear 6 on the Ultra it shares the call ringtone. Something different and kinda cool .
 
I made this face to go with this watch . I think the gray ticks really offset the graphite body of the watch and the hands bring out the blacker than black screen background it has . On the Ultra and 7 it's meh .
 

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