Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Review: The Best WearOS Has To Offer, Spared No Expense

Over the past couple of years, the Android (with Google's WearOS wearable-centric operating system) smartwatch market has hit its stride. With devices like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and the Google Pixel Watch 2 leading the charge, the Android wearables market is finally close to parity with the Apple Watch.

Samsung has been one of the premier Android smartwatch brands for some time now and there has been a real buzz surrounding the Galaxy Watch Ultra and the Galaxy Watch 7. With the Ultra set to replace the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, is Samsung finally ready to take on the Apple Watch Ultra? Samsung believes the answer to that is a resounding yes and has sent over a Galaxy Watch Ultra for this review.

Does ramping up from the features included with the Galaxy Watch 7 make sense? Is it worth the extra cash? Or could you get everything you need (including the new superstar feature, dual-band GPS) with the lesser of the two current-generation devices?

Let's get the obvious out of the way, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra features a design that is strikingly similar to the Apple Watch Ultra thanks to its squared-off design and orange band. While it's tough to argue that Samsung's recent design isn't in place to compete directly with Apple's most expensive watch, it's still a beautiful device with a premium feel.

At 47.4 x 47.4 x 12.1mm and weighing 60.5g, the Watch Ultra is a large and heavy smartwatch. As someone with larger wrists, I find this smartwatch to be nearly perfect in size, although I find it to be a tad too thick. Those with small wrists will likely find the Galaxy Watch Ultra far too large for them.

The right side features three programmable buttons. The top and bottom buttons respond to single, long, and double presses to activate different functions. The orange middle button is the quick button and by default is used to bring up the exercise menu. In case of emergencies, pressing the quick button for five seconds activates an 85db siren.

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While the quick button looks like it rotates allowing you to scroll through the menus, it doesn't. This means you need to interact with the display to scroll around. Samsung did include a software rotating bezel, but it pales in comparison to the physical rotating bezel of its previous devices.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is made from premium materials, resulting in a very durable build. You get sapphire crystal on the front, ceramic and sapphire crystal on the back, and a grade 4 titanium frame. It has an IP68 rating and is 10 ATM certified, giving it 100m water resistance for up to 10 minutes. It's also MIL-STD 810H certified, making this one of the most durable watches on the market.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra may only be available in a single 47mm size, but that doesn't mean it's short on options. It's available in three colorways: Titanium Gray, Titanium White, and Titanium Silver.

You also get three different band types to choose from and a few colors for each band type. The "Marine" band is a durable silicone band, the "Trail" band is made of a breathable fabric, and the "Peakform" band is your standard rubber band. The Marine band is available in orange, dark gray, white, and green. The Trail band comes in orange, dark gray, and white sand while the Peakform band is available in orange and white sand.

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All the bands attach to the Watch Ultra securely and have a quick-release button for easy replacement. One thing to note is the bands used on the Watch Ultra are a proprietary design, meaning you won't be able to buy any random generic band for it, but that doesn't mean you can only find bands specifically made for the Watch Ultra from Samsung. There are already a variety of bands from third-party manufacturers — though we'll reserve judgement for them until we can review the lot.

The "Marine" band that came with my review unit makes a bold statement. It's a durable, but thick band that features a double clasp to keep it securely in place. At first, the band (with the watch) was a bit cumbersome on my wrist, but I got used to it during the review process. 

The Watch Ultra features a large and beautiful 1.5-inch Super AMOLED display. With a resolution of 480 x 480 and a pixel density of 327 ppi, everything on the display looks crisp. It also has a maximum brightness of 3000 nits, making it easy to see in the brightest of conditions.

With a penta-core Exynos W1000 processor, the Galaxy Watch Ultra flies. The slowness that plagued the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6 series is a thing of the past. It's every bit as fast as the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 processor used in devices like the OnePlus Watch 2. This Exynos processor, coupled with 2GB of RAM, means everything you do on this watch is near instant. It doesn't matter if you are navigating the various menus or opening an app, the response from the watch is quick and has zero lag.

While I was pleasantly surprised by the Galaxy Watch's performance, battery life didn't quite live up to my expectations. With Samsung touting battery life of up to 100 hours in power-saving mode, I was cautiously optimistic about its real-world performance. With a combination of GPS, fitness, and sleep tracking, as well as checking notifications and various apps throughout the day, the Galaxy Watch Ultra lasts about two full days and one night.

I had the always-on-display enabled, the screen was set to auto-brightness, and Wi-Fi was also enabled, so there is room to get more out of this battery. Based on my usage, I settled into charging the watch before bed on the second night, so I didn't have to worry about it dying overnight. While it's a slight improvement over the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, I expected more out of the 590mAh battery and new processor.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra features a wide array of fitness options and a couple of improvements compared to its predecessors. Samsung has enhanced the BioActive Sensor for this generation, resulting in improved health tracking. This sensor has an accelerometer, gyro, heart rate tracking, a barometer, an altimeter, a compass, a SpO2 sensor, and a temperature sensor, giving it a wide array of tracking capabilities. 

The Galaxy Watch Ultra can test for sleep apnea, and snoring, as well as perform an Electrocardiogram (ECG) to check for atrial fibrillation and irregular heart rhythms. The Galaxy Watch Ultra can even monitor your blood pressure, although it sadly isn't available in the United States.

I don't have a chest strap to compare this watch to, but when wearing both the Watch Ultra and the Polar Ignite 3, the two watches reported the same heart rate information when working out which makes it accurate enough for my needs.

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Tracking sleep is never an exact science, but the Galaxy Watch Ultra was able to consistently nail both my exact bedtime and when I woke up. Samsung then takes your sleep data, as well as your previous day's activity level and heart rate information, and uses it to give you an energy score that serves as the amount of energy you should expect for the day. It's nice to have but falls behind competing recovery metrics like Garmin's Body Battery. While Garmin's system updates throughout the day — and will tell me if I need to rest the rest of the day after I've taken a 5-mile run — Samsung's system only gives a single score each day.

Samsung also added the ability to monitor Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). This is something that develops naturally in the body and builds up over time. According to Samsung, "AGEs reflect your overall biological aging process and provide an indication of metabolic health." I'm not entirely sure what to do with this data. Regardless, if you happen to be in search of a smartwatch that tracks Advanced Glycation End Products, this is currently the only smartwatch that claims to be able to do it here in the Summer of 2024.

GPS tracking is another major area of improvement this year. Samsung finally did away with the single-band GPS of its previous models and went with a dual-band system (L1 (the eldest GPS signal out there, and the most useful at the moment) and L5 (the newest of the new)). A dual-band frequency doesn't automatically improve GPS tracking — antenna design is just as important — but having the ability to use both L1 and L5 seems to have given this watch a significant accuracy boost over its predecessors.

I routinely run the same 3.19-mile route which has me running near buildings, under trees, and in open areas. One area consistently proves difficult for just about every smartwatch and fitness tracker that I have tested over the years. It involves running underneath two metal underpasses and a solid concrete wall directly to one side of me. To make matters worse, I run this area both leaving and coming back to my home.

This area usually causes the GPS to go haywire, showing me running in all sorts of random patterns. The Galaxy Watch Ultra isn't perfect in this particular area, but it has exhibited the least amount of issues that I have seen. Zooming into the map, you can see a quick blip, but the GPS recovers pretty quickly.

It also nailed the 3.19-mile distance, making the GPS tracking on this watch one of the best available.

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In addition to run tracking, the Galaxy Watch Ultra now supports multisport tracking, which makes this watch suitable for triathletes. You get over 100 different exercises to choose from including walking, hiking, track runs, biking, and swimming.

Running on Wear OS 5 and One UI Watch 6, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra software experience will be familiar to anyone who has used a recent Galaxy Watch device. There are plenty of watch faces to choose from, and a ton of applications in the Play Store. In addition to the watch face, you can set your quick access tiles however you see fit.

Being a Samsung device, you get your usual suite of Samsung-made applications. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen reveals, Samsung Health, messenger, internet browser, and good old Bixby. Luckily, Samsung doesn't force you to use any of their apps, so I quickly replaced Samsung's messenger app with Google's and Samsung's keyboard with GBoard (by Google).

While I knew I could replace Bixby with Google Assistant as my default assistant, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could also set Google Assistant as the default for the long press of the top button.

I prefer to use Samsung Health due to its integration and the overall layout, but you can opt for Google Fit if you prefer it. You also have access to a variety of other apps like MyFitnessPal and Spotify and with 32GB of onboard storage, you have plenty of space to download whatever you want.

Samsung has been an industry leader when updating its devices and that continues here. Samsung is promising at least four years of Wear OS and security updates for the Galaxy Watch Ultra.

It has never been a better time to be a fan of Android (WearOS) smartwatches. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra — and the similarly performing Galaxy Watch 7 — are the most feature-complete WearOS watches currently available.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra offers fantastic fitness tracking, much-improved GPS tracking, phenomenal performance, and a beautiful display. The addition of multisport tracking and its water resistance make this watch particularly great for those competing in triathlons.

It's not perfect, however, and it leaves room for improvement. The battery life could be better, it has limited recovery metrics, and the AGEs index is a bit confusing. Even with those shortcomings, the Galaxy Watch Ultra offers a truly premium experience.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra comes in one size, three color options, and can be fitted with a bunch of different bands. The Galaxy Watch Ultra comes equipped with 4G/LTE capabilities (though you'll need to pay monthly for this connectivity with your carrier of choice) and you'll be able to purchase the device for approximately $650, making it one of the most expensive WearOS watches on the market. You can buy it directly from Samsung, or retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy.