Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Review – Bigger, Tougher, Action Ready RM3,399 Smartwatch Tested

Over the years, Samsung has dabbled in creating more premium variants of their Galaxy Watch line-up. This time around, they’ve dialled everything to eleven with the new Galaxy Watch Ultra that is their toughest, poshest looking watch yet with a distinctive design that sets it apart from its other siblings in the Galaxy Watch7 series that were launched at the same time at Galaxy Unpacked 2024.

We recently had the opportunity to field test the Galaxy Watch Ultra, easily their most premium watch in Malaysia which also comes with a generous Adventure Pack with every purchase. You can check out our unboxing and first impressions in our feature here as well as what came in the Adventure Pack. After using it for the past couple of weeks, here’s our Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review where we share if it is worth its impressive price tag. 

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review – Hardware

Our Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review unit utilises vastly more premium materials in its manufacture with the liberal use of titanium and ceramic to create a distinctive, squarish looking watch case that wraps around a rounded 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display sheathed in watch-grade and scratch resistant Sapphire glass. 

The design also features a customisable Quick Button flanked by the usual two buttons found on Galaxy Watch models which can be assigned to a selected number of tasks like starting or stopping exercises or activating the display to act as a torch. 

Unfortunately, the Quick Button is only mappable to selected features such as starting and stopping exercise or multisport tracking, starting or stopping exercise programmes, turning the stopwatch on or off, activating the flashlight, triggering the water lock or turning the siren on. 

This Galaxy Watch Ultra’s tough titanium case isn’t just for show and protects the watch against dust and water ingress along with a good deal of nicks and scratches. To wit, the case itself has a 10 ATM (100 metres) rating for deep water immersion for up to 10 minutes, has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating and also packs a MIL-STD-810H rating for drop resistance and usage in extremes of temperature.

Aesthetics aside, the watch benefits from an improved and more accurate Enhanced Bioactive Sensor on the underside of the watch for measuring biometrics though the trade-off is that the Galaxy Watch Ultra now lacks wireless charging, a shortcoming also shared with the Watch7 series as well.

In terms of hardware, our Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample has the new five-core Exynos W1000 processor built on a 3nm process running under the hood as the Watch 7 series with 2GB RAM and 32GB of on-board storage with Samsung’s One UI Watch 6 interface overlaying the Wear OS 5 firmware. This means that you can access third-party wearOS applications to further augment your experience including essentials like Spotify and Strava.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra also has LTE connectivity too with eSIM support, allowing it to function independently away from a paired smartphone and is thus far the only available version globally unlike the Watch 7 series which have LTE-enabled and Bluetooth only variants.

Where the Galaxy Watch Ultra stands above its Watch7 peers is that it has better battery life with the larger case enabling it to pack a 590mAh battery that is rated for up to 100 hours of use if you kick in Power Saving mode. Another major improvement in hardware is that the Galaxy Watch Ultra also has improved GPS tracking with a dual-frequency GPS system that enables better accuracy even in dense urban areas though the Galaxy Watch 7 also has this improved hardware too.

Biometrics tracking features seen in the prior Galaxy Watch6 get enhanced accuracy and sensitivity in the Galaxy Watch Ultra, with blood oxygen, heart rate monitoring, skin temperature, electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure and body composition analysis available for tracking user health metrics.

Users are also able to track a host of exercises from staples like walking, running and biking to hiking and more. A new addition this time around is Multisport tracking for triathlon athletes who run and swim to better track fitness targets.  

On top of the existing advanced glycation end products (AGE) index that tracks metabolic health along with a slew of other somewhat esoteric biometrics is the inclusion of the new AI-powered Energy Score rating which shows your overall health by tracking sleep quality, skin temperature and respiratory rate while asleep along with your activities from the day before to give an overall score for your energy level for the day.

One thing to note though is that Energy Score requires you to have a Samsung phone with Galaxy AI support which means something launched within the last couple of years. You also require a Samsung account and the Samsung Health app installed on your phone. 

Another notable feature in the Galaxy Watch Ultra is the addition of double pinch gestures where you hold your thumb and index finger together twice for selected functions such as taking or cancelling a call, taking photos or cancelling alarms though this is only possible if used with a Galaxy series smartphone of recent vintage running One UI 6.1.1 or higher. 

It would have been nice to allow this feature to work on non-Samsung phones and to have additional functionality beyond selected features but it’s a welcome advantage for those invested in Samsung’s ecosystem. While handy, it also needs to be enabled as it is disabled by default by going into Settings> Buttons and gestures > Double Pinch.

Another interesting feature is the addition of an emergency Siren mode that can emits an ear-splitting noise that can be heard from up to 180 M away in case you need help in a jiffy along with the existing fall detection mode that sends out an alert if the user, especially elderly people get a bad fall. Here’s how the hardware for our Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample stacks up on paper:

Specifications
Price RM3,399
Display 1.5-inch Super AMOLED, 480 x 480 pixels, 327 ppi
Processor Exynos W1000 1.6GHz
OS Wear OS
Memory 2GB RAM/ 32GB storage
Battery 590mAh w/ 10W wireless charging / 100 hours in Power Saving (quoted)
Size/Weight 47.4 x 47.4 x 12.1mm / 60.5g

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Review – Performance

Getting our Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample up and running was a simple task and it paired flawlessly with a Galaxy Z Fold6 in seconds. There’s quite a few steps to go through as well as legal disclaimers to plough through to get ECG and Blood Pressure tracking up and running but that’s to be expected seeing the critical nature of these biometrics trackers.

Once everything was up and running, the Galaxy Watch Ultra proved to be a delight to wear, with the comfortable strap ensuring pleasant all-day usage. The proprietary lugs for the straps mean that you’re limited in what aesthetic choices you have between the orange strap bundled with the Adventure Pack (while stocks last) or the colour-matched strap you get with our Titanium White Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample getting a white strap. 

Navigating the menus is a straightforward task with swipes from the top, bottom and sides of the display getting you access to most parts of the menu interface while touching the edges of the rounded AMOLED display lets you quickly rotate through the various menus. If you’ve used the prior Galaxy Watch6 or Watch5, you’ll take like a duck to water with the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s user interface.

The new double pinch gestures take a bit of getting used to as you have to perform the double pinch gesture in a rapid fashion but it is nonetheless a useful feature to have though the features that accept it are somewhat limited for now – it worked best as a shutter release for the Fold6’s camera.

The addition of an Energy Score proved to be a nifty new addition that leverages Galaxy AI to give a bird’s eye view of overall energy levels based on the prior day’s sleep quality and activities so that you know when you’re well rested and ready to tackle the day and a more intensive workout or workload.

The AGE Index feature that measures your overall biological ageing process via a number of different factors including sleep, diet and lifestyle isn’t something directly actionable like upping your step count. It  also relies on fairly esoteric biometrics that likely need a medically qualified person to make sense of. This limits its practical utility to laypersons, relegating it to more of a vanity measurement.

When tested with the usuals including walking and running, my Galaxy Watch Ultra review unit managed to track that and a whole host of other metrics including calories burned, heart rate and the like. Fitness buffs will appreciate the whole array of health and fitness metrics available to better track workouts especially triathletes and ourdoors runners looking to better track their routes. Results are comparable to previous fitness and health data tested on the Watch 6 and it accomplished all the necessary features asked of a fitness smartwatch.

Of note was the enhanced brightness of the display, quoted to be up to 3,000 nits peak brightness.The display of my Galaxy Watch Ultra review unit was vibrant and responsive, offering excellent clarity in daylight conditions. At night, the display was able to offer up a low-light red and black watch face for better clarity which proved to be helpful to retain my night vision. For now, this alternate low light display feature is only available on selected pre-installed watch faces.

Even with the larger integrated battery, our Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample did not manage beyond two days of usage even with normal use taking notifications with the always on display disabled without leveraging its more demanding fitness or workout based features. 

With data off and paired to our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, the watch tracked all our usual biometrics through the day including our sleep quality or lack thereof, managing to last just slightly north of 48 hours of usage. If you’re relying on GPS tracking, fitness and workout tracking and its other more demanding fitness and activity tracking settings, you’re likely looking at less endurance in the field.

From a more practical standpoint, our Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample performed in a sterling fashion with a bright and responsive display while offering the usual array of incoming notifications that arrived  in a timely fashion and the phone’s sleep and activity tracking does offer quite a few novel insights, even tracking my bouts of insomnia and erratic sleep patterns. The two-day battery life isn’t particularly stellar but it’s still among the best on hand for Samsung’s current crop of smartwatches for 2024.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra?

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is their toughest, largest and most visually striking smartwatch for 2024 with a silky smooth user experience, a vast array of fitness and activity tracking capabilities including a host of new features including their new Energy tracking score along with more accurate GPS tracking

The Ultra’s design emphasises outdoors use and its bevy of outdoors optimised fitness tracking capabilities, especially its improved GPS tracking and enhanced durability means that it is better suited to outdoorsmen and ardent fitness enthusiasts rather than urbanites.

 

Unfortunately, it trades off reverse wireless charging and comes at a daunting price tag but if you need the best smartwatch that Samsung has to offer in 2024 or prize durability, endurance and style, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is it.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review sample courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.samsung.com/my/watches/galaxy-watch/galaxy-watch-ultra-titanium-gray-lte-sm-l705fdaaxme/buy/