The Galaxy Watch series has been pretty much the same since the launch of the Watch4 with WearOS. Yes, there is an anomaly called the Watch5 Pro – but today, we have something that I think succeeds the Watch5 Pro – and that is the Galaxy Watch Ultra.
There is a lot of discourse on the internet over this watch and we’re going to talk about them in today’s video alongside my findings, experience, and thoughts about the Watch Ultra.
So hit that like button and share this video with your friends as it helps us out a lot since we do not have any sponsors – and let’s talk about the biggest elephant in the room first – the design.
Samsung still retains a circular screen on the Watch Ultra but it now has a squircle body. Yes, squircle is a word – it is a square circle. This shape is reminiscent of the old Galaxy Gear Sport from 2017.
For whatever reason, out of the entire color palette, Samsung chose orange as the accent color for this Titanium Gray color for the Watch Ultra and use it in pretty much all of their marketing materials. If you haven’t already realized, using this design with this color and with this strap design instantly reminds people of the other Watch Ultra.
Even the new button at the side is now also in orange color – which I don’t know why Samsung did this. It could’ve been the blue color that Samsung used for the Galaxy Gear Sport in 2017. You know, make it the Samsung Blue color.
But then if we take a look at the Titanium Silver and Titanium White color variants of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, then these colors are actually much more distinct and personally speaking, the Titanium White is the nicest out of all the three color options.
The watch’s midframe is indeed made out of titanium as we can see from the different texture, but the top and bottom part of the watch is made out of other materials. Honestly, I think this watch design is much more comfortable than the previous generation because I can twist my wrist upwards and it still feels good and I don’t accidentally block the speaker.
To hear the speaker quality of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, watch the video at the top of this review.
And I can’t actually show you how tight the vibration is, so I can only describe it to you. The vibration is now clicks that I think is much better and also stronger than before. Since I use the watch as an alarm, the improved speaker and vibration truly help a lot.
When I was using this Galaxy Watch Ultra though, the first thing I realized is the super smooth performance. Samsung upgraded the chipset to the new Exynos W1000 and it has a penta-core configuration – one high-performance single-core and another low-powered quad-core. This is also Samsung’s first-ever chipset to be manufactured using the FOPLP process.
This results in a lag-free experience. I can do whatever I want on the watch and it just works very well. There are still some frame skips when I skip across the widgets quickly – but everything else like launching apps and whatnot is responsive. It’s a stark contrast from the previous generation Galaxy Watches.
The battery life on the Galaxy Watch Ultra is also great. It has a bigger battery of 590mAh and I can get more than 2 days of battery life from a single charge. To be precise, it’s about 56-ish hours. I still charge it every 2 days, but I will still have around like 30% battery left when I do so.
Of course, we need to talk about the charging speed. Yeah, this watch takes a super long time to charge. It uses the same charge as the Galaxy Watch5 and Watch6 series, but it takes about like 2-3 hours to charge from a low percentage.
And for whatever reason, this new Galaxy Watch Ultra cannot be charged via reverse wireless charging from their phones. It explicitly pops up a message saying it can’t be charged this way. No idea why, but this means we need to pack the charge with us if we’re traveling or in case we need an emergency charge.
We’ll have to talk about some of the nuanced changes that Samsung made to the watch, which affects the charger. The new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s included charger is slightly more convexed than the previous generation’s charger. They’re both still at 5V 2A input, though.
Oh – if you haven’t realized, there is a graduated bezel and these lines align with the hours of an analog clock – but if you’re like me and prefer a digital watchface, then these lines on the bezel is going to be unnecessary. In fact, I think they shouldn’t be there at all.
And I say that is because this bezel cannot be rotated. Yes, it looks like a bezel from the Galaxy Watch6 Classic that I was wearing, but it’s stationary. That orange button on the side that looks like a crown? It cannot be rotated either. We’re back to the days of using the edge of the screen as a software-based rotating bezel.
I personally don’t mind since I don’t really use the rotating bezel, but I know many people like having a rotating bezel on their smartwatch.
In terms of the software, it is using One UI 6.0 Watch and it remains largely the same as before. There are new widgets and watchfaces, and a few exclusive features for the Watch Ultra like night mode watchfaces but this is only for that analog watchface.
If you’re going to say “Samsung copied Apple because the night mode watch face is in red color”, then stop. It just makes sense to be red as it is the lowest energy of visible light. According to the Sleep Foundation, red light is the most suitable at night to accommodate our sleep. And i agree. Looking at this entirely red watch face in complete darkness doesn’t hurt my eyes compared to other colored watch faces.
But personally, up until now, I really like this watchface. It’s informative. Samsung decided to update this watchface with a new variant that now displays even more information and I immediately changed to this.
Combined with the new, brighter and more beautiful screen – it just feels so much better to use compared to the previous generation. It still has the same screen size and resolution as before, by the way.
Since the Galaxy Watch Ultra is using WearOS, we can also download whatever watchfaces we want.
Back to those buttons at the side of the watch. There is an additional orange button this time around, and it is also called the Action Button. It is indeed customizable directly on the watch itself or through the Samsung Wearables app on the phone – but there really isn’t much choice. Honestly, none of these actions are useful for me – so I decided to just make it a torch button.
Those other two buttons function just the same as other Galaxy Watches that we had before, so nothing special here.
Pinch gesture is now a part of the standard feature of the Galaxy Watch Ultra. It is rather useful in certain scenarios like picking up phone calls or dismissing alarms or timers. Now, before you say this feature is a copy of Apple’s pinch gestures, then let me tell you that it is not. Samsung had this feature many years ago, but it is hidden under the accessibility menu.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra does have a new slew of sensors beneath it, and it can more accurately measure health metrics such as heart rate, sleep quality, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and stress levels.
If you want to know how accurate the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s sensors are, then I highly recommend you watch the video from The Quantified Scientist and he did a lot of data to compare. I highly recommend you watch his video – link down in the description.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra also has a feature called advanced glycation end products or AGEs index as stated on the app. According to the app, it says the AGEs index can give me a sense of my metabolic health, which reflects my overall biological aging process. I have no idea what all of these means and mine is slightly on the high side.
If we look at the back of the watch again, we can see that the strap is now using this push-to-unlock mechanism. Yeah, all of our straps from the non-Ultra Galaxy Watches do not work with this watch because it’s using an entirely new mechanism. The width strap is also at 24mm, which is 4mm wider than before.
Of course, there are many other first-party straps that you can buy – but the 3rd party watch accessory makers already have many different types of straps for sale.
The included strap is actually quite decent. They call this the Marine Band and I think it is made out of silicone. It’s really thick, too. Those holes at the sides – I presume they’re meant for weight reduction, and the watch locks in place with these two holes. It’s very secure and I never once had the excess strap flopping around. They’re easily adjustable too, which I like.
According to Samsung’s website, even these metal bits are made out of titanium.
If you live in the US, then you can select what strap and what color you want bundled with your Galaxy Watch Ultra’s color of choice. I think that’s a good move.
One thing I should also point out is that the Galaxy Watch Ultra is only available in LTE variants, and there is no Bluetooth variant. However, I am using it with Bluetooth only since my postpaid plan with my telco doesn’t offer an eSIM.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra?
That is also part of the reason why the price of the Galaxy Watch Ultra is at an eyewatering USD $649.99 or RM3,399 but we’ll have links down in the description below for a much better deal.
So should you buy the Galaxy Watch Ultra? Well, this watch is indeed jam-packed with many other features like withstanding 55°C of heat, 10 atm of water pressure, or up to 9km in altitude. While I do think these features will only be utilized by a niche group of people, most people will still buy the Galaxy Watch Ultra because it is the latest and greatest smartwatch by Samsung and they like the way it looks and feels. I mean, I am one of those people but it’s because I need to review these products.
I saw the Galaxy Watch Ultra at first and didn’t like it, but it grew on me and I kinda prefer this over the Classic’s design. Nothing beats the clean, bezelless design of the Galaxy Watch7 though – partly because I don’t like rotating bezels on my watches.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
- Galaxy Watch Ultra
- Strap that I got
- Case for the Galaxy Watch Ultra
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