8 Days with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: A Comprehensive Review
Featuring a sturdy design, enhanced battery life, and advanced features, it directly competes with the Apple Watch Ultra.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra
Samsung enters the fray with its new premium smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Crafted with a titanium casing and sapphire glass screen, this watch is built for outdoor adventures. It is fully dust and water-resistant up to 10 ATM, making it suitable for swimming. The watch features aerospace-grade titanium and comes in elegant colors such as titanium white (stunning), titanium gray, and titanium silver.
However, unlike its rivals, “The Galaxy Watch Ultra cannot be used for diving”, a limitation that may impact its competitiveness.
Illustration Image. 01 Galaxy Watch Ultra
Impressive Technological Features
The Galaxy Watch Ultra is rich in features: Samsung’s BioActive sensor can measure heart rate, blood oxygen level, electrocardiogram, and body temperature. Additional features include menstrual cycle tracking and blood pressure monitoring (requires a Samsung mobile). The ECG and sleep apnea detection require the Samsung Health Monitor app, unfortunately not available on iOS, which limits the overall experience for non-Samsung users and can be frustrating.
User experience in health monitoring excels with features like:
Energy Score: A daily energy rating with personalized fitness improvement tips.Advanced Sleep Indicators: Detailed analysis of your sleep cycles with suggestions for improvement.AGE Index (Advanced Glycation End Products): A novel metric assessing your metabolic health and biological aging.
For sports enthusiasts, it includes sensors like an accelerometer, compass, and barometer, plus fall detection that can automatically place an emergency call.
An Adventure in Innovation
In many ways, the Galaxy Watch Ultra resembles the Apple Watch Ultra, from design to technical specifications. Samsung aims to bridge the gap with its competitor by introducing a new gesture control feature, allowing users to snooze alarms or trigger their smartphone’s camera by simply tapping the watch screen.
Final Analysis
Samsung maintains its iconic design with a 3,000 nit ultra-bright AMOLED screen, encased in a durable “squircle” shape. With a standard battery life of 48 hours and up to 100 hours in power-saving mode, it outlasts many current smartwatches.
For those ingrained in the Samsung ecosystem, it’s an excellent smartwatch with benefits like extended battery life and advanced health tracking tools. However, for others, or extreme sports enthusiasts seeking specialized features, alternatives like the Apple Watch Ultra or Garmin models might be better suited.
During our tests with a Pixel Fold, downloading multiple Samsung Galaxy apps was necessary to fully utilize the watch’s features, which proved cumbersome.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra was initially offered at about 659 euros, slightly less than the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Despite its high cost, the wealth of features and quality design make it appealing, especially at its year-end price of 499 euros.