Forget the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9: The Watch 8 is just as good and $114 off right now

(Image credit: Future) Grab your 30-day free Amazon Prime trial to buy this deal! (Image credit: Amazon)As well as access to these exclusive Prime Big Deal Days savings, you can get free Prime shipping, access to Prime Video streaming, Prime Music, Amazon Luna gaming, unlimited cloud photo storage and a whole lot more.Sign up for Amazon PrimeThe Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is out now, but my wearables expert colleague Dan didn't think it was necessarily worth upgrading for, and smart shoppers can actually grab its predecessor, the Galaxy Watch 8, for $114 off during Prime Day sales.The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is very similar to the Galaxy Watch 8, with a few extra features that ultimately may or may not come to older models via future firmware. Yes, the 9 does have a faster processor, but battery life (versus capacity) remains at 30 hours for the smaller model and 40 hours for the larger one, and the 9 costs more.Let's look at why this is a deal worth shopping for, and I've popped the deal below so you can shop it right now.Reasons to buy the 8 (Image credit: Tom's Guide)My colleague Dan rated the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 as 4 out of 5 stars and says he is a "big fan" of the watch, particularly the Classic model, "which sports a bidirectional clicky bezel for navigation and an additional customizable button compared to the standard Galaxy Watch 8 models." There's no Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 Classic.The Watch 8 includes a built-in Gemini AI assistant, the same battery life as the 9, plus sleep insights and useful wellness and fitness tracking. Health tracking is Samsung’s comfort zone, built around the Samsung Health app. The Watch 8 has a few headline features across activity, sleep, and nutrition, plus FDA-authorized sleep apnea detection, energy scores, BIA body composition analysis, temperature-based cycle tracking, metabolic health indexing, and more.The Galaxy Watch 8 tracks a wide range of workouts and activity types. The device can automatically detect common exercise types, so you don’t need to remember to start a workout tracking session; runners also get access to a personalized run coach.Reasons to skip the 8I spent a month exercising with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9, and I personally didn't find it very user-friendly during workouts where I had to navigate settings on my watch.The Watch 9 does have useful new wellness and fitness metrics and a redesigned health app that better tracks trend data. My colleague Dan also noted a softer, more comfortable strap, plus a raise-to-talk gesture that launches Gemini AI Assistant.Overall, he didn't necessarily think the upgrade was worth it for everyone. The design, display, and battery life all remain unchanged, but the Galaxy Watch 9 supports a handful of useful new features, a slightly faster processor, and a comfier strap.Some of those features include a new Vitals tab for better visibility of metrics and long-term trend data; a new Heart Health score from 1-100; and an FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection feature. When it comes to sleep tracking, not much has changed from the Galaxy Watch 8.So, if you don't want to pay $379 for the 40mm or $409 for the 44mm models, this could be your chance to grab one of the best Samsung Galaxy smartwatches during sales.Shop more dealsSee all deals in the Prime Day saleAll headphones on sale at Amazon Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Sam Hopes is a level 3 qualified trainer, a level 2 Reiki practitioner and fitness editor at Tom's Guide. She is also currently undertaking her Yoga For Athletes training course. Sam has written for various fitness brands and websites over the years and has experience across brands at Future, such as Live Science, Fit&Well, Coach, and T3. Having coached at fitness studios like F45 and Virgin Active and taken on both 1:1 and group, Sam now primarily teaches outdoor bootcamps, bodyweight, and kettlebells. She also coaches mobility and flexibility classes several times a week. Sam has completed two mixed doubles Hyrox competitions in London and the Netherlands and finished her first doubles attempt in 1:11.