Samsung has several smartwatches on store shelves these days. The latest of which is the Galaxy Watch 6 series of watches, which we think are quite good. That said, the company hasn’t stopped selling its older model. Those include the Galaxy Watch 5 series and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

That gives consumers a few different options when it comes to Samsung smartwatches. The range comes at a few different prices and the older models tend to go on sale often. With the abundance of choices, which one should you choose? A quality smartwatch should have a high performance battery, some fitness or sleep tracking features, and convenient app compatibilities.

We did the leg work assessing the value, bonus features, and quality of Samsung smartwatches using our experience with these impressive wearables and hands-on testing.

Best Samsung smartwatches: Our top 5 favorite picks

When it comes to features, the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is identical to the less expensive Galaxy Watch 6. It has the same processor, battery, fitness tracking sensors and sizing options as its regular sibling. Where it differs is in design. While the standard model has quite a plain case made from aluminum, the Classic is designed to look like a traditional mechanical watch. The rotating bezel has a ridged perimeter, and the case is built from stainless steel.

That rotating bezel does make it quite a different experience to use in that you don’t have to use the touchscreen for everything. You can simply turn the bezel to scroll up and down menus and lists or cycle through different screens. In some instances — where touching the screen gets fiddly — having that as a backup control method very much helps.

Otherwise, you have a solid Samsung watch with all the latest software features built into a package made with high-quality materials, which we think looks much nicer than the standard model. It’s built to the same durability standards and can cope with getting wet, too.

The Galaxy Watch 6 is the latest base Galaxy Watch model, and we think it’s a great option for most buyers looking for new features at a lower cost. It’s relatively inexpensive but has all the top features that you’d want from a smartwatch in 2024.

Samsung kitted out the Galaxy Watch 6 with a bigger display for both the 40mm and 44mm models. The company also upgraded the processor and RAM inside to make it faster and more responsive at just about every task. If you’re using them side-by-side, the Galaxy Watch 6 is definitely faster than the Galaxy Watch 5.

Add to that the advanced health and fitness tracking sensor — including all-day SpO2, stress tracking, and body composition sensing — and you have a fully-featured wrist-worn gadget that surely stakes its claim as one of the best smartwatches for Android phone users, again.

Because the Watch 6 Classic is entirely different, Samsung saw value in keeping the Watch 5 Pro in its product lineup. The reason: battery life. Its battery can go up to 80 hours of use, which is more than even the Galaxy Watch 6. Realistically, it can go a couple of days without the need to charge, which can be huge for some people.

More importantly, Samsung designed the Pro 5 to go on long outdoor exercise-tracking sessions. Thanks to its beefy battery cell, it’s far more capable of tracking a long, all-day hike in the hills than any of the other models.

Otherwise, it has all the same features as Samsung’s other watches, albeit based on a model with thicker bezels and a smaller display than the more recent Galaxy Watch 6 models.

While Samsung upgraded the performance and display in the Galaxy Watch 6 models, many of the fitness tracking capabilities are present in the previous model. The Galaxy Watch 5 has essentially all the hardware ingredients necessary to give you the same heart-rate sensing, SpO2, stress, sleep, activity, and even body composition measurements.

If you care about just getting the essential features and don’t care too much about the bigger display or more responsive processing, you can grab yourself a bargain with the Galaxy Watch 5.

It’s much cheaper than it was at launch and is still relatively easy to get hold of a year after launch. The only downside is that Best Buy lists this as being on clearance, so it may not be available everywhere for all that much longer.

The last ‘Classic’ before the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 variant was the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, delivering the staple ‘Classic’ features. That means the more traditional watch design, a leather strap, and the always excellent rotating bezel.

It’s a great-looking watch and one that’ll cost you about half of what the newest models cost. You still get plenty of fitness features too.

Although they’re not quite as advanced, consistent, or reliable as the new models, there’s enough here for you to get by with if all you want is basic movement, heart rate, sleep, and activity logs. The watch looks great and, with its age, goes on sale for surprisingly reasonable prices fairly frequently.

The bottom line: What’s the best smartwatch in the Samsung Galaxy line-up?

The best Samsung Galaxy watches are the newest ones, so those are the ones we recommend. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and Galaxy Watch 6 represent the best that Samsung has to offer in terms of updated software, new features, and general responsiveness and reliability. That’s all there really is to it.

However, older models have their charm. The Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic can be had for under $200 consistently when on sale, although the Galaxy Watch 5 may leave store shelves sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is the battery campion of Samsung’s lineup despite being a generation behind the latest watches. The choice is yours, but that’s how it shakes out.

How did we choose these Galaxy Watches?

Well, to be perfectly honest, the list above represents all the Galaxy Watches that you can buy today. It was just a matter of figuring out which ones work best for what kinds of shoppers. We have reviewed every smartwatch on the list, and each one is linked to each watch’s description above. It honestly wasn’t all that difficult to choose which ones were the best for which types of shoppers.

What’s the best Galaxy Watch for hiking, camping, and the outdoors?

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is probably your best bet there. It not only features a multi-day battery life, which isn’t easy to find in a smartwatch in 2024, but it also sports IP68 water and dust resistance, making it great for when you’re in an environment where those two things occur in great amounts. Of all the available Galaxy Watches, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro seems best suited for the outdoors.

With that said, all the Galaxy Watches listed above have an IP68 rating, so they’re all technically equal in terms of resistance to the elements. The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro simply has the best battery life among them. If you intend to bring a charger, it doesn’t matter which one you pick. They’ll all survive a dunk in the local lake or stream.