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This year, Samsung not only updated its Galaxy Watch line of smart/sports watches, but also expanded it with the flagship Galaxy Watch Ultra. In this review, I will tell you what the new watch is capable of and whether it justifies its “ultra” status.
Galaxy Watch Ultra specifications
Materials and color |
Titanium, sapphire crystal Titanium gray, titanium silver, titanium white |
Dimensions and weight | 47.4 x 47.1 x 12.1 mm, 60.5 grams |
Display | 1.5-inch 480×480 dot Super AMOLED touchscreen, Always On Display, 3000 nits peak brightness |
Processor | 5-core Exynos W1000 with a frequency of up to 1.6 GHz |
Memory | 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage |
Battery | 590 mA⋅h |
Charging | Wireless 10 W |
Operating system | Wear OS 5 with One UI Watch 6 interface |
Sensors | Samsung BioActive Sensor (optical heart rate + electrical heart signal + bioelectrical impedance analysis), temperature sensor, accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, light sensor, Hall sensor |
Connection | Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS L1+L5/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo, LTE support for eSIM |
Protection | 10ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810H |
Compatibility | Android version 8.0 or higher and more than 1.5 GB of RAM |
Recommended price | 28 999 UAH |
Package contents
The box with the watch contains only a strap in one size, documentation, and a magnetic charger with a USB-C connector.
Design and materials
The design of the watch is very different from all previous Galaxy Watch models. Samsung used a square shape with rounded corners, but kept the display round. This is actually a popular design among watchmakers that allows for a three-dimensional case that emphasizes the round dial. This shape is best perceived when you see it live on your wrist. Unfortunately, the photos don’t do it justice, so you shouldn’t draw conclusions about the watch’s design based on them alone. If you are considering buying this model, it is better to try it on your wrist.
In addition, the watch face plays a very important role in the perception of watch design, and Samsung has created a special selection of watch faces for the Galaxy Watch. They emphasize the design very well and adapt to the color of the watch, while being very informative and, in addition to the time, can show the weather, the number of steps, body condition, the next alarm, and much more. There are several fields on the dial that the user can fill in as they see fit.
In addition, the proprietary watch faces in the Galaxy Watch Ultra now support night mode, when screen colors switch to red, which has a shorter wavelength and is less harsh on the eyes in complete darkness.
Since the Galaxy Watch Ultra has the word Ultra in its name, users can expect the best set of materials Samsung has to offer right now. The screen of the watch is covered by a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, which is slightly recessed into a titanium frame that goes into a titanium panel that covers the top of the case.
The faces of the watch are made of a durable polymer material reinforced by titanium brackets of the new strap fastening mechanism. It’s not as versatile as the standard one with studs, but it feels stronger and more comfortable to use. Considering that there are several official straps for the Galaxy Watch Ultra and even more unofficial ones, I think it won’t be a problem to find a comfortable one.
The bundled Marine silicone strap is quite comfortable and well suited for various sports, including swimming, but for everyday wear, especially in summer, I would choose a nylon version, such as the branded Trail Band.
The bottom of the watch also has a titanium plate and a set of sensors covered with sapphire crystal. In general, the materials used in the Galaxy Watch Ultra are good, and the case, in addition to the standard IP68, has 10 ATM water protection, which allows you to dive with it to a depth of 100 meters.
The watch measures 47.4 x 47.1 x 12.1 mm and weighs 60.5 grams. This is a large but not too heavy model that is comfortable to wear both day and night. However, due to its single case size, it is not suitable for everyone, especially people with thin wrists.
To summarize, in terms of design and quality of materials, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is, in my opinion, the best thing Samsung has done so far in the sports watch category. Of course, not everyone will like this design, as well as the size of the model, but I think it will find its fans.
Display ta platform
The watch has a 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480×480 pixels and a peak brightness of 3000 nits, which allows you to see the image without any problems even in bright sunlight. The Galaxy Watch Ultra also has support for an always-on screen, which switches the watch to power-saving mode but does not turn off.
This model also uses a new platform with a 5-core 3-nanometer Exynos W1000 processor with up to 1.6 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal memory. This chip is much faster than Samsung’s previous designs and provides smooth animation of the watch interface and fast launch of programs. The latter generally work with lightning speed, which I have never seen on the Wear OS platform. That is, it takes literally a second to open Google Maps or Spotify. Previously, loading data in these applications could take a long time by the standards of modern fast platforms. Now we can say that Samsung has really managed to make a flagship processor for smartwatches.
Another important feature of the Galaxy Watch Ultra platform is that it supports eSIM by default, meaning that there is no division into Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+LTE versions, and you can add an electronic SIM card to the watch right away. Fortunately, Ukrainian operators support the use of eSIMs in the Galaxy Watch Ultra, so you can stay in touch when you take only the watch for a run.
Of course, this model also has Wi-Fi 4 wireless modules, Bluetooth 5.3 for connecting headphones, and NFC for contactless payment via Google Pay. The latter module seems to have become more powerful, because now the payment works at a slightly greater distance than it did, for example, on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic.
In the spirit of other top sports watches, the Galaxy Watch Ultra supports two GPS bands L1 and L5, which improves location accuracy, especially in dense urban areas. So during marathons in the city center, you can count on higher accuracy of route and distance data.
The sensor set in the Galaxy Watch Ultra includes a screen rotation sensor, barometer, bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor, electric heart sensor, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, infrared temperature sensor, light sensor, and optical heart rate sensor. It’s a pretty solid set for a modern sports watch, and I’ll tell you how well these sensors work in the next section.
For now, let’s get back to the interface, the logic of which has not changed in Wear OS 5 with One UI 6.0 Watch. From the main screen with a watch face, you can scroll to the right to see widgets, to the left to see notifications, from top to bottom to see the quick settings panel, and from bottom to top to open the main menu. When you get used to it, everything becomes logical, and it’s clear why this interface navigation hasn’t been changed for many years.
Just like the two side buttons remain in place: the lower one takes you back to the previous screen in the interface, and the upper one always switches to the watch face. By double-clicking the latter, you can assign the launch of a specific program or function, such as a flashlight. I have assigned it to launch Google Pay.
The familiar set of buttons in the Galaxy Watch Ultra has been expanded, with one more button called “Action” inserted between the two traditional watch buttons. It does exactly what it says, it launches a specific action that the user has chosen.
By default, it launches sports tracking in Samsung Health, which can be changed to launch a stopwatch, flashlight, water lock, and… that’s it. Except that you can turn it off. As for me, this set of functionality of the new key is somehow not enough, and I hope it will be expanded in the future. After all, the button itself is quite convenient and could be multifunctional, with a certain action assigned not only to one, but to two or even three presses. So far, such an additional option is only turning on the siren by long pressing the button.
The siren, by the way, sounds unexpectedly loud and piercing, the speaker in the watch is really good. Samsung claims that the siren can reach a sound volume of up to 86 dB, and I’m ready to believe it. While using the Galaxy Watch Ultra, first for a test, and then just for fun, I sometimes turned on music and podcasts from Spotify instead of background noise. I don’t know if this can be useful to anyone, but it’s a possibility. In addition, the speaker volume, which is higher than you would expect in a watch, makes it more comfortable to receive calls on it, but keep in mind that people around you will also hear you.
It’s worth noting that in addition to the touch screen and mechanical buttons on the side, Galaxy Watch Ultra has another option for controlling the interface. You can do this by gesturing with your index finger and thumb on the hand on which you are wearing the watch. But this does not work in the entire interface, but only for certain scenarios. For example, you can answer calls, snooze alarms, launch apps, control your music player, and take photos. When you activate this option, a gesture icon appears on the watch screen to tell you when you can use it. It works really well, but you need to get used to it, at first I accidentally received a call on the watch several times.
The watch uses the Bluetooth protocol to connect and synchronize with a smartphone, and the user will need Samsung’s Wearable app to use it. It allows you to customize the Galaxy Watch Ultra and update the software. As usual, the easiest way to connect the watch to Galaxy smartphones is to connect it to Galaxy smartphones for the first time, it’s almost automatic, all the necessary plug-ins are already in the One UI shell. In addition, the Samsung Health Monitor app for measuring ECG and blood pressure is available only in the Galaxy Store.
This does not mean that the Galaxy Watch Ultra will not work with other Android smartphones, but it is best compatible with Samsung Galaxy models.
Health, sleep and sports tracking
Apart from the fact that you can install apps and read notifications from your smartphone, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is primarily a sports watch with a fairly wide range of functionality for tracking health and physical activity. Traditionally for such models, it counts the number of steps, minutes of activity, and calories burned by default. This data is represented by a heart-shaped graphic consisting of three separate fields. Fill them with activity during the day and you get a heart. Very cute.
The watch measures your heart rate during use, the default setting is every 10 minutes, but you can switch to constant measurement, or vice versa, only manual measurement. Each of the settings will affect the battery life of the watch in different ways, so the standard option is the most balanced if you need to monitor your heart rate and remember to do it manually. The optical heart rate monitor in the Galaxy Watch Ultra is quite accurate, at least I didn’t see a big difference with the Garmin Fenix 7 and my heart rate in general under different loads.
One of the features of Samsung watches, starting with the Galaxy Watch4, is the BioActive Sensor, a bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor that allows you to measure body composition and determine metabolic rate. It’s not a medical-grade sensor, but it doesn’t need to be extremely accurate, as it simply illustrates whether the user is overweight, calculates body mass index, percentage of adipose tissue, and metabolism. All the same information can be obtained using a scale, but the watch is certainly more informative. The more often the bioelectrical impedance sensor takes measurements, the more accurate the results will be, so the watch recommends taking them at about the same time every day.
Galaxy Watch Ultra can also measure blood oxygen saturation, which is automatically measured at night and can be done manually at any time. In addition, based on the analysis of metabolic data, the watch tries to determine “Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs)” – an indicator that determines the degree of aging and the risk of developing degenerative diseases. Its accuracy is questionable because there is no way to compare it with anything. Most likely, the quality of the measurement will also improve over time, but don’t worry too much about this indicator. If you suspect a health problem, it’s best to consult a doctor.
Like all modern smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch Ultra can track your sleep quality by determining its time and phases. In addition, the sensors measure the level of oxygen in the blood, body temperature, and monitor respiratory rate. The latter indicator is important for detecting sleep apnea, a temporary cessation of respiratory movements that is difficult to diagnose because a person may not feel it in a dream. The watch should help detect this disease.
Another interesting feature related to sleep monitoring is snoring detection. For it to work, however, the Galaxy Watch Ultra alone will not be enough; you need to put a smartphone next to your sleeping area to monitor snoring with its microphones.
All health and sports data is synchronized with the Samsung Health app, which also offers additional features such as workout and meditation programs. In addition, you can create your own workout by adding the necessary exercises and rest time between them. This is quite convenient if you work out at the gym, so you can create workouts for different days.
Galaxy Watch Ultra has improved multi-sport tracking, making it easier to switch between swimming, cycling, and running during a triathlon. Otherwise, the watch offers a set of sports already familiar from previous models. Not all of them have detailed metrics, mostly just the time of the exercise and the number of calories burned. However, for the most popular ones, such as running, cycling, and swimming, the indicators are quite detailed, which allows you to better understand your progress. In addition, Wear OS allows you to install third-party sports tracking apps, such as the popular Strava.
In general, the watch offers quite a lot of possibilities for tracking health and sports, but I was a little lacking in useful analytics from all the data it collects. For example, a detailed morning report that would calculate the necessary load for the day, which exercises to prefer, show the weather forecast and scheduled events and meetings from the calendar. I hope Samsung will pay attention to this and add it later.
Battery life
The watch has a 590 mAh battery, but it’s hard to write about its autonomy as a constant value, because a lot depends on usage. For example, if you activate the always-active screen and don’t go in for sports, but simply monitor your health indicators, the Galaxy Watch Ultra consumes about 30% of its charge per day, which means it will last for 3-3.5 hours. If I play sports with GPS, active heart rate and other indicators, then with almost 2 hours of basketball and 30-40 minutes of running, I got almost 50%, which means that the watch could work in this mode for about 2 days.
Activating the power saving mode, which turns off the always active screen, background system functions, and some sensors, allows you to increase the battery life to 48 hours with GPS active. Thanks to this, you can run ultra-marathon distances in the watch. If you turn off almost everything except the time display, the battery life will increase to 100 hours. But it’s unlikely that anyone will use the Galaxy Watch Ultra in this way.
Charging in the watch is not super fast, up to 10 watts, but it allows you to charge the battery from 0 to 100% in almost 2 hours.
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