Technologies

Samsung Brought Back My Favorite Feature for Its Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic

The company’s latest smartwatches look sharp, but the first-of-their-kind health tools could be what makes them most compelling.

While competitors release predictable updates to their smartwatches, Samsung isn’t afraid to surprise us (for better or worse) with design and feature changes each year. And with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic in particular, announced at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, my favorite feature has made a welcome reappearance: the physical rotating bezel, a touch of romantic elegance that made me fall in love with Galaxy Watches in the first place. The Galaxy Watch 8 also has a new look and thinner frame, while the Galaxy Watch Ultra keeps the same functional, squared-off frame as before with a new Titanium blue color that will appeal to people who want a more rugged timepiece.

But it’s not just aesthetics that have changed in this year’s revisions. The company is also stepping things up when it comes to health tools, including several features I’ve never seen on a smartwatch, like noninvasive skin analysis and AI-powered coaching for sleep and running. The Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic also have a smarter voice assistant and are the first smartwatches with Google’s Gemini AI baked right inside, ready to handle complex tasks.

Pricing and availability

The Galaxy Watch 8 starts at $350 for the 40mm model and $380 for the 44mm one. The LTE versions are $50 more: $400 for the 40mm model and $430 for the 44mm watch.

The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, with its rotating bezel and physical crown, comes in a single 46mm size and costs $500, or $550 for the LTE model.

The Titanium Blue version of the Galaxy Watch Ultra is $650, the same price as the original 2024 model. This version gets the same internal upgrades as the Watch 8 lineup, including a 64GB storage bump.

All models are available for preorder now with shipping starting July 25. If you reserve early from Samsung you can get $50 in Samsung credit; your wireless carrier may also have deals on the watches and Samsung’s just-announced phones.

Health and fitness features

Samsung continues to expand the Galaxy Watch’s role as a health and wellness tool, building on existing features like ECG, SpO₂ (shorthand for peripheral capillary oxygen saturation), sleep tracking and its AGEs Index, which reflects your metabolic aging process. The headliner is a new Antioxidant Index, which measures carotene (one type of antioxidant) levels in your skin with a simple five-second press of your thumb on the sensor (no needle needed). Since antioxidants help clear toxins from the body, knowing your levels can offer actionable steps for improving your health. The watch will rate your levels on a scale from low to high and then offer generic recommendations on the Samsung Health app on how you can improve your levels if they’re on the lower side.

It’s important to note that this metric isn’t clinically verified and isn’t meant to replace a medical-grade test. It’s designed to offer a baseline reading that may help you make real-time lifestyle adjustments, but it won’t provide the detailed or precise results you’d get from a traditional blood test.

There’s also a new metric called Vascular Load, which measures strain on your heart during sleep. These readings are translated into a low-to-high scale to help you understand how behaviors (like sodium or alcohol intake) may be contributing to long-term heart disease risk.

Sleep tracking gets a serious upgrade, too. A new Bedtime Guidance tool uses a three-day analysis of your circadian rhythm and sleep pressure (aka sleep debt) to recommend an ideal bedtime window. It factors in heart rate, HRV, skin temperature, and even environmental cues like room temperature or brightness (if you’ve got connected SmartThings devices). The goal: Improve your sleep quality, recovery and energy throughout the day.

The coaching isn’t just for sleep; the new Galaxy Watches are also debuting a Running Coach feature. It starts with a 12-minute running assessment that scores your fitness from level 0 (beginner) to level 10 (marathon-ready). From there, it builds a personalized four-to-six-week training plan tailored to your distance or performance goals.

Similar to Apple’s new Workout Buddy, Samsung’s Running Coach offers real-time, contextual feedback while you’re running, like pointing out a major milestone. But unlike Apple’s version, Samsung’s tool goes a step further by actually adapting your future training plans based on your progress.

Design

The two new Galaxy Watches take a page out of the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s playbook ditching the traditional circular watch face for a «cushion» design that has a round screen set inside a «squircle» frame (square with rounded edges). As someone who thought the Ultra looked too big and masculine for my wrist, I’m still not totally sold on the design shift. But I’m a sucker for that rotating bezel on the Classic (the Ultra’s is static), so I can’t help but love the look, even if it doesn’t feel like it was made for me.

The Classic also adopts the customizable quick-action button of the Ultra that also doubles as a crown wedges between the two navigation buttons.

Despite my preference for the sleeker, edgeless circular design of past Galaxy Watches, there may be some benefits to the new design, including a slimmer form factor. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 8 is 11% slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. When trying it on, I was blown away by how light it felt on my wrist without the usual belly bump bulge of the body.

Pair that with a new band system, which reduces the gap between the watch and your wrist and you have a noticeably more comfortable fit. Thanks to the tighter sensor-to-skin contact, it’s also more accurate at capturing heart rate data. This is still subject to testing, but if it holds up, it may be a justified design trade-off.

The Galaxy Watch 8 comes in silver and graphite with an aluminum frame, while the Classic opts for a stainless steel finish in just silver. Size-wise, the regular Watch 8 comes in 40mm and 44mm options, while the Classic is only available in 46mm, which looks pretty large on my 6-inch (15cm) wrist and definitely leans more masculine. I can’t help but miss the days when Samsung offered more feminine options like rose gold or even just plain gold, though it’s been a while since those were part of the lineup.

Gemini on the watch

The new One UI 8 software brings a refreshed user experience that is easier to navigate. Notifications are separated by app and instant access to your six most-used apps. The Watches also takes a page from the Galaxy phone with a new «Now bar» at the bottom of the screen for quick access to active apps like timers or media controls.

But the most important software update is the addition of Gemini AI. The new Galaxy Watches are the first with Google’s AI assistant built-in, bringing more complex commands and contextual understanding to your wrist. You can ask it to check your most recent running pace, start a five-mile run and launch your workout playlist simultaneously, set a timer to boil pasta based on a recipe in your notes, adjust the font size on the watch, or have it draft a text letting a friend know you’re running late.

Since Gemini requires an internet connection to work, you’ll need to have your phone paired nearby or use an LTE version of the watch.

Battery and storage

Let’s set expectations: Just because the Galaxy Watch 8 looks like the Ultra doesn’t mean it matches the Ultra’s three-day battery life. But there’s still good news to share.

Samsung says the Watch 8 has an 8% larger battery than the Watch 7: 325 mAh vs. 300 mAh (for the 40mm), and 435 mAh vs. 425 mAh (for the 44mm). The Classic tops out at 445 mAh, which is still well below the Ultra’s 590 mAh battery. How much that translates into real-world use remains to be seen, but any boost is welcome, especially paired with the efficiency gains from the new Wear OS 6 update.

Storage also doubles across the board, with 64GB now standard (up from 32GB), including a new Titanium Blue version of the Ultra.

This is just a first look based on hands-on time. We’ll find out if these features live up to the hype when put to the test in our full review, coming soon.

Technologies

I Got Up Close and Personal With Boston Dynamics’ New Atlas Robot

Before Atlas takes its first steps into the world of work later this year, I found myself face-to-face with CES 2026’s most talked-about robot on the show floor.

When I say that I went hands-on with the new Boston Dynamics Atlas robot, I mean that I actually held hands with it. This humanoid robot, which CNET just awarded the Best Robot of CES Award, is one of the most advanced in the world, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with it.

This product version of the robot, which is set to be shipped to Hyundai factories imminently to start working, has been the talk of CES this year. The specific Atlas robot I encountered was a static model that wasn’t turned on or fully operational. Our interactions were, therefore, sadly one-sided. Still, I ran my hands over its soft-touch plastic shell and gently prodded at its finger joints, wondering how it would feel if they gripped me back.

People tend to have varying feelings about humanoid robots — understandable given that they are built to some degree in our image, while also usually being stronger than us, with «brains» that we don’t fully understand. Atlas definitely evokes contradictory emotions for me — even more so when I stood face-to-face with it.

I’m in awe of the engineering, a little fearful of its capabilities, hesitant about what it could mean for the future of humanity and charmed by its design and styling. The periwinkle blue iteration of Atlas that I met on the show floor at CES 2026 almost bears more resemblance to a Dyson product than it does the industrial robots that defined Boston Dynamics’ early days, when it was best known for its work with DARPA.

«There’s a lot of really specific things about this robot that probably look a little weird,» said Zachary Jackowski, Boston Dynamics VP and general manager of Atlas. He pointed to the legs, which he described as «like nothing anyone else was doing.»

Atlas’ thighs are narrow set and in line with the torso, while the calves are wider set, attached to their upper counterparts with a circular joint. This robot is, in fact, all subtle curves and soft lines. There are no harsh edges or stark angles.

During a year when CES has been flooded with humanoid robots, Atlas definitely does stand out due to its design. It appears both less classically human and less industrial than some of its peers, while also lacking the often intimidating, featureless faces they tend to exhibit. Instead, it has two low-set cameras resembling eyes placed where you’d usually expect a mouth to be. Its face is a perfect flat circle, defined by an LED halo that gives it a somewhat Pixar lamp effect.

I asked Jackowski why Boston Dynamics decided to skew so relatively unhuman with this version of its humanoid. «Well, it’s not a human,» he said. «It projects the wrong first impression about a robot to have it pretend to be something that it’s not.»

Particularly in the early days of humanoids, he added, robots won’t have anything like human-like intelligence. People should look at it and see it for what it is — a tool for performing tasks safely and efficiently.

In fact, most of the design decisions were made to keep Atlas as simple, scalable and safe as possible, Jackowski said. I remark that there’s some irony in thinking of a humanoid robot as simple, given the complexity of the technology and development process to bring Atlas to life.

The key to making it simple, Jackowski said, is having a strong enough grasp of the technology to «accomplish the complex thing of building a humanoid robot,» but then being able to take it apart and understand that you can use fewer computers and actuators in it while achieving the same results.

And it’s essential to Boston Dynamics that Atlas is perceived as simple. After all, it’s a general-purpose humanoid, which might eventually be sent far and wide to fulfil all manner of roles. Jackowski calls it the «ultimate generalist.»

Simplicity aside, there are aspects of Atlas that Jackowski believes set it apart from other humanoids at the show. «The repairability of this robot is crazy good,» he said. «The runtime is crazy good. The strength is unlike anything.»

From working in Hyundai’s manufacturing plants, Atlas’s job trajectory is to eventually graduate to many of the same industrial environments where Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot works, before moving to bussing tables in the service industry and eventually into the home. The robot will evolve between now and then, Jackowski said. However, this could be an early glimpse of the type of humanoid that will eventually be our housemate.

That’s some way away, though, which is probably for the best. As I gaze up at Atlas, which I’d guess is around the same height as my husband, my feeling is that, however impressive Atlas is, I’m still not ready for it to move in.

Technologies

This Star Wars Dartboard Has a Secret That Will Stop You From Using the Force to Win

This cool dartboard has cameras to track your score and keep you honest

Right in the middle of the high-tech show floor at CES 2026 sits a pub called the Bull and Barrel with some of the coolest dartboards I’ve seen. Target Darts was showcasing its collaboration with both Star Wars and Xbox. Darts may not be for everyone, but I love «shooting some arrows» in my basement with the family. I also love anything Star Wars themed, so these tick a lot of boxes.

The basic Star Wars set comes with a branded board and wall protector that resembles the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and costs $200. The board is of very high quality, with a tight-knit sisal fiber face, and the protector is thick enough to keep stray shots out of your drywall. The graphics are cool too, with nods to the original Falcon and even have the gold dice hanging above.

The big tech twist to this board, though, is the Omni light ring around the outside. It uses four cameras to track your dart’s position, then sends that info to an app that keeps score. The scoreboard is crisp and clear and uses the voice of legendary darts announcer John McDonald to narrate your game. It’s pretty great to hear his voice announce my terrible scores.

The Omni also allows you to connect with other players worldwide via shared scoreboards. I love the idea of my dad having a board at his house or playing a match with me at my house. It adds a feeling of community to home darts that you don’t normally get outside a pub or bar.

The Omni is a much more expensive proposition than the Star Wars set, coming in at $650, but if you’re serious about the game and a Star Wars fan, it looks to be a great investment.

Technologies

TikTok and FIFA Team Up for World Cup 2026 Coverage

A new team-up aims to make this summer’s tournament more accessible for fans.

If you hadn’t already planned on swiping on TikTok videos of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a new partnership between the social media platform and tournament organizer FIFA could motivate you to start stretching out your thumbs.

As the soccer tournament nears — it will take place from June 11 to July 19 and span 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the US — TikTok will become FIFA’s first «preferred platform.» According to a FIFA statement on Thursday, this entails TikTok providing more coverage of the World Cup, including original content and even livestreaming of some portions of matches.

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You can use the FIFA World Cup 2026 hub on TikTok to find content, match tickets and viewing information, as well as participation incentives such as custom stickers and filters.

In the US, World Cup games will air live across Fox and FS1. If you don’t have cable, you can get a live TV streaming service, such as YouTube TV, which includes those channels. Additionally, every match will stream live on Fox One and the Fox Sports app.

«FIFA’s goal is to share the exhilaration of the FIFA World Cup 2026 with as many fans as possible,» FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström said.