What you need to know
- Nearly four years old and all but forgotten, the Galaxy Watch 4 series just got a surprise shot of life thanks to the One UI 8 Watch update.
- After some mixed signals, Samsung confirmed that the Watch 4 lineup is getting the One UI 8 Watch based on Wear OS 6.
- This is the final major update for the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic, which launched with Wear OS 3 and One UI Watch 3.
Despite being nearly four years old and living in the long shadow of newer Galaxy Watch models, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are suddenly back in the spotlight, all thanks to a surprise revival: the One UI 8 Watch update.
Samsung has told SamMobile that the Galaxy Watch 4 series is officially getting the One UI 8 Watch update, which runs on Wear OS 6. If you’ve got a good memory, this isn’t totally out of the blue: back in 2022, Samsung promised up to four years of One UI Watch and Wear OS updates for the Watch 4 lineup.
However, when Samsung dropped the One UI 8 Watch beta, it kind of looked like the Galaxy Watch 4 was being quietly pushed aside. A footnote in the beta release mentioned it was only for the Galaxy Watch 5 or newer, leaving many of us scratching our heads.
Beta confusion cleared up
Just when most of us had written off the Watch 4 as yesterday’s news, Samsung obviously had other plans. After some confusion and plenty of speculation online, the company has now officially confirmed that the Galaxy Watch 4 lineup is getting the same fresh coat of software paint that's rolling out to the newer Galaxy Watches.
This marks the last major update for these four-year-old watches, which originally rolled out with Wear OS 3 and One UI Watch 3 out of the box.
One UI 8 Watch packs in a bunch of upgrades you’d think were just for the newer model, like better health tracking, deeper sleep data, and Galaxy AI tricks that Samsung won’t stop talking about.
The Galaxy Watch 4 series is powered by the 4nm Exynos W920 with just two Cortex-A55 cores, so it’s anyone’s guess how well One UI 8 Watch will actually run on it. It's highly probable that some of the fancier, newer features destined for the Galaxy Watch 8 series might not make it to the older hardware.
Still, it’s a nice move for anyone sticking with their Galaxy Watch 4. Instead of being left behind, the watch is getting a refresh and a few upgrades to keep things feeling new again.
