Galaxy Watch 3 (41mm, GPS, Bluetooth)

Both is always better. Different use cases scenarios for sure. I still rock my GW3 silver tizen at times and thi k its the most sleek GW so far and ultra thin. Looks killer with a leather band as well. Good luck

My leg day HR today. Matches almost exactly to my oura ring. This metric never excited me either way as it's always pretty consistent as long as I am wearing it properly. Similar readings from all my Galaxy watches going back 5 years. I would need to wear a medical HR monitor to really know if there was any difference.

Yea I used to jog years ago and workout with one of those. I think it was a Polar...anyways, at my age now, I am more interested in HRV , sleep metrics, and ease of use and I love the Galaxy watches and kinda have become somewhat of a collector. I swim 4 days a week and find they work excellent there. I enjoy seeing the advances in tech each generation and since my entire ecosystem is Samsung, I stay true to this brand because of compatability. BP is also VERY accurate but in the US it needs to be side loaded because FDA has never cleared it even though it's been working in most other countries for 5 years. While these wearables aren't perfect, they do keep improving and it really depends what is most important to you as far as features. It seems in your case that HR is at the top of the list which I totally get.

I still use my Watch 3 with Samsung Health actually! Thankfully I haven't had any glaring issues, maybe just the GPS route tracking but I've never really used that feature to begin with. I mainly use it for running.

I have mine for a month now. Previously I owned Galaxy watch 3 and couple of Huawei’s (Ultimate, GT 3 pro and GT 5 Pro) as mentioned above it is not health oriented as Huawei like lack of ecg. But monitors your fitness courses much better and gives much more accurate insights from Huawei. Also I love to reply my whatsapp messages via voice dictation, works like a charm. And also battery is great, I am working out 5 times a week 2 of them with gps on and still have 14 days of battery life. On update side, I am not sure if these smartwathces needs a lot updates like phones because their software is much more closed enviroment. And yes build quality and feel on the wrist is very good. I bought a stainless stell strap and use this watch with suit.

Watches arent designed to be upgraded every year - there's very little difference from the model 5 years ago to the latest one. If you're going from FE to Ultra then yeah, but you'll notice a bigger difference going from say a watch 7 FE to a watch 7 ultra than you will going from a watch 5 FE to a watch 7 FE (if it exists, but you get my gist) Samsung used to have a "comparison" page where you could compare one model to another. See if that's still there, and see if there's anything you REALLY care about that justifies the cost. The main difference with watch generations is "how long is it supported" , but again, unlike phones, that rarely means you'll get new features. If your watch works, then keep it. You'll likely be dissapointed with the improvements compared to the cost difference. I went from a Gear Watch 3 classic to a watch4 classic and felt like there was zero difference, then from a watch4 to a watch7 ultra and the only difference I notice is the screen size. Its a watch. I dont spend hours looking at it. I dont run high-load apps on it. Its a watch. If I had made either of those upgrades at retail cost I woukd be gutted and feel ripped off. Headphones , however, can be noticeably different. Depending on your appreciation of music, what you listen to, how you listen to it, etc. If you havent got a tuned-ear, only listen to highly-processed pop or country, and use Spotify- then buds pro are probably also not worth the upgrade. But still more worth it than a minor watch upgrade.

Most Galaxy watches need to be charged daily and the sleep monitoring system is annoying. The health app needs to stay opened to monitor sleeping patterns for the night. On the plus side, the watch now does blood pressure (and it's approved by the FDA). Fitbit was great until they started the monthly fees for their ecosystem. I really wasn't upset when I lost mine doing yardwork and I replaced it with a Galaxy 6. I am 71 and I love mine. I wasn't thrilled about the need to change it so often tho. It's over 2 years old, and now, sadly, it doesn't last a minute over 24 hours. I get alarmed when it turns itself off (and I'm just relieved when I can turn it back on after half an hour on the charger). I recently started keeping an extra charger in my car just in case. Yesterday, I found a place that will replace my battery. It seems like a lot of money, nearly half the original cost, but buying the 8 would cost a lot more now. I don't think that the slight improvement between the 6 and 8 technology is worth the upgrade yet. I plan to wait until they have batteries that last longer than a day. (I still have my ancient Galaxy 3 because I love the rotating bezel).