smartwatches – Earlybirds Invest

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic and Galaxy Watch Ultra flat on table

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

All of these offers come from Amazon. This means the free gift cards are all Amazon ones.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 + free SmartTag 2 4-Pack

Brighter display, better battery life

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 offers a new ‘squircle’ look, with new band attachments, backed by new software, a 50% brighter display over last year’s model, and a slightly larger battery. The watch is available in four configurations: a 40mm display in Wi-Fi or LTE and a 44mm display in Wi-Fi or LTE.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 may not be as fancy as the other new models, but it will meet most people’s needs at a lower price. I happen to like the new design, too. It has adopted a more square bezel while keeping the circular screen. It looks much more like the Galaxy Watch Ultra lineup, but it is smaller and much sleeker — it’s actually 11% thinner.

While more petite, this smartwatch is actually quite resistant. It still comes with an IP68 rating, which makes it resistant to both water and dust. In fact, it also gets a 5ATM rating, which means you can submerge it as deep as 50 meters. On top of that, it even gets a MIL-STD-810H certification. You’ll have a hard time damaging this little guy!

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

The watch has a large 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display with a pretty impressive 3,000-nit brightness. This is something you would usually only find in the highest-end smartwatches, really. It also gets a pretty sharp 480 x 480 resolution, which equates to a 327ppi (pixels per inch) pixel density.

Even the battery life is pretty impressive at 30 hours per full charge, even with the always-on display enabled. This gets extended to 40 hours if you turn it off.

As you can see, this is a very capable smartwatch and very few of you would have any reason to upgrade. The free SmartTag 2 4-pack is really just a cherry on top. It’s a $99.99 added value, so it’s a nice deal if you’ll actually take advantage of them.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic + $100 Amazon Gift Card

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic + $100 Amazon Gift Card

Going squircle, still Classic

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic continues the Classic lineage but with a squircle redesign. Available in Wi-Fi and LTE, with a 3,000 nit display and big 445mAh battery, enjoy all of the best Samsung smartwatch software experiences in style.

Personally, the main benefit of upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is the aesthetics. It looks much more like a traditional watch, instead of keeping that tech gadget look. This refined design will make it a better option for office-dwellers or anyone who cares about fashion.

The benefits don’t end with aesthetics, though. You’ll also get twice the storage, as it comes with 64GB. The frame is made of stainless steel, instead of aluminum, so it will be even sturdier. I also love that it has a rotating bezel, giving you a fun way to interact with the watch.

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority

Of course, it still has the same IP68, 5ATM, and MIL-STD-810H ratings, and the rest of the specs are also pretty much the same. If you deem the above-mentioned upgrades worthy, the free $100 gift card is definitely a nice incentive to upgrade.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025)

If you want the best of the best, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra was refreshed in 2025. Its only main competitor is the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which is obviously for Apple users. This means that those who want a premium smartwatch experience on an Android phone have no better option than this one.

How is this different than the first Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra? Well, Samsung added a few improvements. For starters, it gets 64GB of storage, which is twice as much as the predecessor. There’s also a really nice-looking Titanium Blue color version. It also comes with Wear OS 6 out of the box, in the form of Samsung’s One UI 8 software.

Otherwise, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2025 model is pretty much the same, but this isn’t a bad thing. It gets a large 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 480 x 480 resolution and 3,000 nits of brightness. It’s also more resistant. Aside from the same IP68 and MIL-STD-810H ratings, it also gets an improved 10ATM certification. This means it can be submerged as deep as 100 meters, which is twice as much as the other Galaxy Watch 8 series.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2025 Titanium Blue flat on table

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

As the color names entail, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is also made of titanium, which is better than both aluminum and stainless steel. This material is known for being both light and resistant.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) is mainly for those who know they will be a little rougher on their smartwatches. It’s better equipped for more torture, or even swimming.

The battery life is quite impressive with this one, at 60 hours per charge with Always On Display enabled. Turn off the feature and you’ll get 80 hours!

It’s definitely pricey at $649, though. It’s nice to at least get a free $100 gift card!

Regardless of which smartwatch you’re getting, we can only advise that you act quickly. These free gift offers don’t usually last very long after the initial launch, and other similar offers on smartphones released at the same time have already disappeared. It’s only a matter of time before these deals disappear, too.

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UNA and Pebble are fighting against the tide

A rendering depicting Core Devices' new PebbleOS smartwatches: the Core 2 Duo and the Time 2.

(Image credit: Core Devices)

I’ve reviewed almost every mainstream smartwatch brand out there today, and it feels like they’re all starting to converge on the same priorities.

Some wearable brands are honing in on offering medical-grade health tracking and adding new data points like blood pressure and glucose. Others, like Garmin, are going all-in on AI as a pretense to charge more for premium features with its Connect Plus subscription.

Basically, we’re entering the heavyweight era of smartwatches, where brands bring in doctors for more accurate data and squeeze LLMs onto your wrist. And while that’s exciting in its way, it doesn’t leave much room for experimentation — for smaller brands, tiny teams, or indie devs to try something new — because every watch needs a laundry list of features to compete.

Part of that is Apple’s fault. I’ve previously written about how Apple’s locked watch ecosystem forced wearable brands to focus on fitness and how brands like Pebble today can’t offer messaging, third-party app stores, or other smarts because of Apple’s restrictions. Until the EU forces Apple to open up its ecosystem, that won’t change (on iOS, at least).

That’s why I’m considering dropping money on the UNA Watch or Pebble Watch, even though they’re objectively less feature-packed than other watches on the market. To support brands that will go off the beaten industry path and try new things.

More modular smartwatches, please

Three UNA Watch models with different strap colors in a row on a dark table, showing different data on each watch face.

(Image credit: UNA)

I’ve seen other “hackable” watches recently like Spectra that count on their community to come up with exciting ideas. But the UNA Watch is especially intriguing to me, assuming it lives up to the brand’s promises.

I appreciate that you can take out the battery and replace it yourself. A lot of wearable tech isn’t repairable — especially smart rings — and when your watch naturally loses capacity, manufacturers would rather that you buy a new watch than keep your old device chugging along.

With the UNA Watch, you can unscrew everything yourself, either to replace things or add new features years later. Based on the Kickstarter comments, they’ll choose what new modules to make based on what the community asks for, such as the mic/speaker for Bluetooth calling.

Pebble originally tried letting people add “smart straps” to augment their watches after the fact. I feel like UNA follows that legacy, except that the modules will slot directly onto the watch itself. The question will be how many modules you’ll be able to add.

The UNA Watch Kickstarter will take place until May 2, with plenty of early-bird deals available to save $75 on the eventual list price. It’s expected to ship in August 2025. Meanwhile, if you’re more interested in Pebble, its new watches are also available for preorder now, with lower prices but a later scheduled release date of December 2025.