Coming from a Galaxy Watch 4 40mm that I have worn for years, the Galaxy Watch 9 44mm initially felt like a big, odd-shaped watch on my wrist. I was not convinced that I would want to wear it all day every day. A few weeks later, I am much less conflicted about it. The 44mm size has grown on me. So has the squircle design. And the Silver finish looks rather striking on my wrist.
I had it on me throughout a recent Kerala trip that involved three days of train travel one way, rain, beaches, harsh sunlight, high humidity, and plenty of walking around. Here I am about to share that experience with you, and by the end, you’ll know whether it is worth paying Rs 44,652 for this watch.
The Galaxy Watch 9 brings a large, bright display, smooth performance, strong health tracking, and a build that handled my Kerala trip with ease. The design took some getting used to, but it grew on me. At Rs 44,652, it is a polished choice for Android users, although some advanced features require a Galaxy phone. It shows big main character energy until the battery loses steam, but overall, it is a worthwhile upgrade.
I have already covered the design in detail in my first impressions, so I won’t repeat it here. The important thing is how the Watch 9 feels after actually living with it.
The 44mm Watch 9 looked oversized on my lean wrist at first. The circular display inside that squarer outer case also took some getting used to. I did not dislike it, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
Gradually, the larger screen became useful when reading notifications and swiping through various screens of information while on the move. The watch is fairly light and manageable for all-day and all-night wear. Sure, not everyone would want to wear a watch, and those won’t find the 44mm variant accommodating.
The shape and the Silver finish are visually arresting. I used an analog watch face, and the thing looked like a proper watch.
One annoyance I have with the watch is the number of holes in the supplied strap. Besides a snug fit, this is important for proper health measurements. Thus, for a tighter fit, I ended up manually piercing another hole. And since this is a proprietary strapping mechanism, you can’t use any other regular smartwatch strap lying around or cheaply available in the market.
The Watch 9 was almost always present on my wrist during the Kerala trip. Firstly, on the train journey, I was looking at it to measure the halt time at various stations, the duration between two stations, etc. I wasn’t always carrying the Galaxy phone with me. But it was good to have a device that told me the time, notifications, and even allowed me to make calls from its small but not tiny screen.
The 480×480 resolution 3000-nit sAMOLED display was a noticeable upgrade over what I have on my Galaxy Watch 4. In Kerala, it was exposed to bright sunlight, and on-screen elements, including text, were always legible.
This watch also went through rain, sticky coastal humidity, and long stretches outdoors. Samsung has equipped it with 5ATM water resistance and an IP68 ingress rating. I had it on for a brief swim in a pool in one of the hotels we stayed at. It also withstood drizzle once, and I wasn’t very worried. You just need to enable Water Lock to avoid accidental interactions with the watch while it is in contact with water.
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Performance is where the Watch 9 feels properly new. The watch feels snappy with the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite processor and Wear OS 7-based One UI 9 Watch OS combination. The menus open quickly, animations are slick, the app launches quickly, and the experience is feature-rich.
Google Gemini integration makes it feel closer to an Android smartphone. Like an extension, if you will. The voice-based trigger wasn’t working for me, and even with the button-based activation, albeit useful, it isn’t something I am excited to use. It’s a very subjective thing, and your experience may vary.
But that’s the thing. Samsung has filled in so many features into this wearable that at some point you’d be surprised to find some or the other feature buried in the settings, Wearable app, Samsung Health, and Health Connect. By the way, for a few of these features, you’d need a compatible Galaxy smartphone.
The list of health-tracking capabilities includes ECG, blood pressure monitoring, sleep tracking, sleep apnoea risk detection, body composition, heart rate monitoring, vascular load, antioxidant index, and newer metrics such as Energy Score and Daily Cardio Load.
But I did not spend my Kerala trip obsessively monitoring any of them. I had to save battery, but even when I turned all tracking on, I appreciated how the monitoring and data collection are quietly done, and you can open the Samsung Health app to check the stats when you need. The results are fairly accurate and consistent, but you should still take these stats for personal reference and not as a substitute for professional medical advice.
One feature I couldn’t test is the Blood Pressure feature, as it requires calibration with a traditional cuff, and that calibration needs to be repeated every four weeks.
And one feature I was closely paying attention to was sleep tracking. Since the watch is light enough, I didn’t mind wearing it while going to bed. It gives a detailed report including sleep stages and recovery, and I was addressing my sleep routine to fix any inconsistencies.
As for workouts, although I am not a big workout enthusiast, I did some weight training, and again, the amount of granular data given is very informative.
The Watch 9 44mm has a 445mAh battery, and Samsung rates it for up to 40 hours with AOD off and up to 30 hours with AOD on.
I was getting about 2 days’ worth of juice with very conservative use. This was with AOD off, and most of the tracking also off. And once I turned on all tracking and AOD, the battery lasted close to 36 hours. Overnight, it lost about 20% of its juice with all the sleep tracking features on.
Of course, your mileage may differ if you use GPS regularly, track a lot of workouts, monitor health continuously, or rely on LTE. You should have the charger handy.
And for charging from 0 to 100%, the total time taken is 90 minutes. Not particularly snappy, but serviceable.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 44mm is one of the most premium smartwatches you can buy. There is a lot on offer here for Rs 44,652. The big, bright display was genuinely legible and usable. The performance was consistently smooth, and the health and workout tracking gave me enough information without constantly demanding my attention. Because of its build and display quality, I could also wear it always, including overnight and while going for a swim, without much worry or fuss.
The proprietary strap and squircle dial are things you may either like right away or take some time to get used to. I was in the latter camp. But after wearing it for a few weeks, I found the design and the overall experience easy to live with. Battery life, meanwhile, is respectable, although it is something you need to keep an eye on.
Sure, that is a trade-off for all the health and workout tracking and other features running. But some of the more advanced health features also require a compatible Galaxy phone, while features such as blood pressure monitoring need additional setup and regular calibration.
All in all, Android users, and especially Samsung phone users, can consider the Galaxy Watch 9 if they want a polished everyday smartwatch and don’t mind charging it every day or two. Personally, I found the larger display, smooth performance, strong outdoor visibility and extensive health and fitness features worthwhile upgrades over my old Galaxy Watch 4.
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