Apple Watch Series 11 vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch 8: I've tested both, and here's the winner

Nina Raemont/ZDNET

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Apple unveiled its Watch Series 11 during this week's iPhone event, alongside 2 different smartwatch models. The Series 11 gets Sleep Scores (crowd roars), a longer artillery life, and each of Apple's WatchOS 26 software, which is expected to beryllium released to the nationalist soon.

Also: I tried the Apple Watch Series 11, Watch Ultra 3, and SE - what the keynote didn't archer you

But however does it comparison to its closest Android rival, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8? I'm comparing 2 smartwatch icons and their specs. So, who wins? Keep speechmaking to find out. 

Specifications

You should bargain the Apple Watch Series 11 if...

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1. You privation to show your humor pressure

Are you buying a smartwatch for its wellness features? Apple announced astatine its September iPhone lawsuit that the Apple Watch Series 11 offers hypertension detection and volition person FDA clearance by the extremity of the month. It can't execute humor unit readings, but it does show your humor vessels' absorption to heartbeats during sleep. It monitors your humor unit for 30 days utilizing the watch's optical bosom sensor to present an mean standing that is either wrong scope oregon supra the threshold. 

If the 30-day standing is supra the threshold, Apple advises users to instrumentality the information collected to a doc for aesculapian review. Neither Samsung nor Google has developed this diagnostic into their caller lineup of smartwatches, and it addresses a large wellness information that is often underdiagnosed. 

2. You privation a little illustration AI approach

Apple infuses AI into respective aspects of its smartwatch -- but you wouldn't truly announcement if you weren't paying attention. Thanks to an precocious prediction algorithm, you'll get much applicable Smart Stack suggestions that instrumentality your humanities determination and ticker enactment into account. If Apple Watch registers users signaling a pilates workout each clip they sojourn a studio, the Smart Stack volition much regularly suggest initiating a Pilates workout connected the Workout app. 

Thanks to AI, the smartwatch's notification pings go self-aware: The instrumentality registers the sound measurement of your situation to present pings that aren't blaring successful quiescent spaces oregon excessively quiescent successful noisy ones. Smart Replies get smarter with its on-device connection model, which provides "precise" and "relevant" responses to conversations.

Also: Should you upgrade to Apple Watch Series 11? Here's however it compares to older models

AI powers those features -- and galore much -- but Apple isn't funny successful calling attraction to it. That's a importantly antithetic attack from Samsung and its Galaxy Watch 8, which drips with AI. More connected that later.

This low-key AI attack could beryllium a occurrence oregon Apple's Achilles bottommost successful the agelong run. If and erstwhile AI's hype rhythm dies down, Apple volition proceed making applicable features powered by precocious technology, arsenic per usual. It volition beryllium respected for not taking the hype bait and centering its merchandise astir a diagnostic that came and went. But if high-power AI features are the mode of the future, Apple could beryllium falling down successful the AI rat race. 

3. You're an iPhone user, obviously

If you person an iPhone, Android smartwatches similar the Galaxy Watch 8 aren't compatible with your smartphone. So, obviously, you'll privation to drawback the Apple Watch to support everything wrong the aforesaid ecosystem. 

You should bargain the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 if...

Nina Raemont/ZDNET

1. You privation longer artillery life

Samsung takes the artillery capableness barroom with its Watch 8, which offers 30 hours of artillery beingness with Always-On Display enabled and 40 hours with it disabled. Apple's Series 11 gets a artillery upgrade, to beryllium certain. But it upgrades to 24 hours with AOD enabled and 36 hours successful battery-saving mode. 

2. AI workout assistants

Both Apple and Samsung rolled retired AI workout assistants during their summertime merchandise launches. Apple unveiled Workout Buddy, an in-ear adjunct that provides stats, encouragement, and humanities information during your workout, and is disposable connected 8 antithetic workout modes, including Outdoor and Indoor Run, Outdoor and Indoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, HIIT, and Functional and Traditional Strength Training. Samsung's Running Coach is much circumstantial to, you guessed it, running, but provides much actionable feedback for radical grooming for their archetypal oregon adjacent race.

Also: Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: I compared both, and here's the winner

Users instrumentality a moving test, and Samsung grades them retired of 10. Then it provides a elaborate grooming program to assistance them beforehand to the adjacent grooming level. Using betterment and workout data, Samsung tailors its enactment recommendations to the user. This feels much personalized than Workout Buddy, and I anticipation Apple takes notes from Samsung erstwhile processing its adjacent health-oriented smartwatch features. 

3. You tin payment much from Gemini

The payment of being an Android ticker is that it's powered by Google's Gemini. That means you tin telephone upon the AI adjunct to look up restaurants successful your area, telephone and marque a preservation for two, and inquire astir dietary restrictions -- each with the assistance of a wrist. The Galaxy Watch tin grip aggregate commands with shorter compute times. Apple's AI is much simplistic and a small little advanced. 

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