When I first saw the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, I was fascinated, not only by its bold use of the orange details but how different it is from previous Galaxy Watch designs.
My impression when playing with it during the launch event in Auckland was that I had a high-quality aviation-style watch in my hands. I felt the combination of the colours, the circular face inside the square body, the crown and buttons, even the default dial design – with a live compass around the numbers, worked really well together for a great first impression.
This was so true for me that I kept going back to the default dial design after trying quite a few different watch faces.
At 47mm the watch looks a bit larger than usual, with a 1.5” super AMOLED display. Thanks to its new titanium body it’s super resistant and light, at only 60g,
Pairing with my Samsung phone was quick and a few minutes after opening the box it was ready to use.
Powered by a penta-core Exynos processor at max 1.6 GHz and running Wear OS, the watch was responsive and fun to use.
There are plenty of apps to install, all accessible through the Google Play store. These are accessible through widgets you access by sliding your finger on the screen, or through a menu with all the ap icons in a long list can scroll up and down. A built-in GPS also allows you to use it for directions
Thanks to built-in NFC you can also load your credit cards to Wallet and use your watch to pay at wireless terminals where Paywave is available. For this to work you are asked to create a PIN so that your cards are protected. You load your cards through your phone and once you have them you can just pay with a flick of your wrist, and no longer need to carry either your physical cards or phone.
The watch has quite a few new health sensors, giving you more information than ever. This means you can collect more data than before too. It starts with the step counter, but also includes spO2, ECG, blood pressure, body composition, skin temperature at sleep, stress levels and a new AGEs index, a metabolic health indicator based on your diet and lifestyle.
I know some of these worked because I monitored with different devices for comparison (and in the case of blood pressure you need to calibrate it by measuring the first few times while wearing a cuff sphygmomanometer.
All this data is synchronised to your phone, where you can see this in detail, with recommendations for improvements. The only thing I didn’t quite like was that there were two health apps, creating a bit of confusion – one with all the data collected, and a second for ECG and blood pressure collection.
A nice feature is the Night Mode, which will dim the display and switch colours to a dark read, allowing you to preserve your night vision, in case of any adventures in the dark, or just sky watching at night.
Another interesting feature is the new safety siren. Pushing the new Quick Button for five seconds will start a very loud (86-decibel) siren that can be heard up to 180m away.
Loaded with wireless galore you can have it connected to your phone via Bluetooth, connect to Wi-Fi (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are supported) for all your app data needs and even use eSIM to connect to mobile networks with support for 3G and 4G for mobile data.
It can be used outdoors in pretty much any conditions – from –20c to 55c but most interestingly from 10 ATM underwater to 9,000 m high.
Battery life has improved too, with better power management including two power saving modes: the standard one with up to 100 hours battery life, and a sport-only mode for up to 48 hours usage. In any case, using it in normal mode, a couple of times I was caught with it running out of power because I simply forgot to charge it.
Despite my worries about the battery life, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is clearly a step above other devices in the same category. A nice classic design, combined with so much useful stuff in such a small device, would make this smart watch a nice to have in your collection.
