Samsung is one of the OGs in terms of Android smartwatches. The company released its first wearable in 2013, and the Galaxy Gear line and the Galaxy Watch hit the scene in 2018. Samsung’s wearables have taken various forms over the years, from rectangular and round faces to a screen that curved around your wrist. Even the OS has changed many times. However, Samsung smartwatches have been consistently solid throughout all of this.
Unfortunately, Samsung has become complacent recently, so much so that the company has apologized for this. While the devices are still impressive, Samsung has taken too many pages from Apple’s playbook. The latest example is the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, a blatant attempt to follow the path set by the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
At $650, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is very expensive, even if it is less than Apple’s offering. At double the cost of the standard Galaxy Watch 7, Samsung isn’t providing anything close to double the benefit.
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Too much surface
Not enough substance
I picked up the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra when it was announced, and I enjoy the device. Thanks to some great initial trade-in deals from Samsung, I was able to pick it up for around $100.
I don’t regret picking the Ultra over the Watch 7 as I can be a bit rough on my gadgets, but the added durability of the titanium case and sapphire glass offers are worth it for me. Perhaps Samsung plans on continuously running deals on the wearable to help offset the sticker shock for many buyers, but at even $500, I think it’s still too much for what you’re getting — or aren’t getting.
We’ve already compared the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, so I won’t go into all the differences here. However, I will highlight a few things that stand out to me as disappointments in how Samsung approached the premium smartwatch.
Firstly, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is largely a 44-mm Watch 7 with a different wrapper. Granted, it is a very nice titanium wrapper that makes room for a larger 425mAh battery, compared to 590 mAh. The display size and resolution are the same among the wearables, although the Ultra does get brighter with a max level of 3000 nits versus 2000 nits on the Watch 7. Ready to plop down an extra $300 for the Ultra yet?
OK, but the larger battery in the Ultra lasts way longer than the battery in the standard watch, right? If you consider another 12 to 18 hours way longer, yeah. I have consistently been able to eke out a day and a half with my Watch Ultra, which is nice, but nothing overly special. The OnePlus Watch 2 matches, and sometimes bests, that mark and the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro nets me an easy three to four days between recharges.
Since the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra share the same internal components and screen, the larger battery is going to brute force longevity, but the brighter screen can offset that difference if you spend a lot of time in direct sunlight.
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Perhaps the strangest thing about the Galaxy Watch Ultra is that it isn’t rated for water sports; it has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, with 10ATM waterproofing, meaning it should withstand pressures of up to 100 meters deep, making it great for swimming, snorkeling, diving, and more. However, Samsung doesn’t recommend taking the Galaxy Watch Ultra diving.
Meanwhile, I can take the $280 Amazfit T-Rex 3 diving to 45 meters, and, of course, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is also dive-ready.
At this point, if you pick up the Galaxy Watch Ultra, you’re getting a more durable watch, a brighter display, and a little more battery life for about $300 more than the standard model. Samsung will probably make it up in software, right?
Winning with software
Not really
Sadly, Samsung didn’t give us much in the software department to help justify the price either. You do get a third button on the Galaxy Watch UItra, the orange Quick button, that you can customize to launch different functions, like the flashlight, stopwatch, or water-locking. But don’t expect to set it to launch any app you want.
From a fitness tracking perspective, it’s more of the same as the Ultra and the Watch 7. For that $300 Ultra price bump, you get improved multi-activity support for doing things like triathlons, marathons, and the like. If you’re a cyclist, you’ll get Functioning Threshold Power estimates. That’s it. Those are the only markedly different software features between the two.
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It’s good, maybe even great
But not at the UItra price
To be very clear, I do like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra when I look at it purely as a smartwatch. It’s fast, durable, has up-to-date software, and I like its look. But in its current state, it’s nowhere near worth the full asking price. Samsung went too far in thinking it could pass off a repackaged Galaxy Watch 7 as something worthy of the ultra moniker.
I don’t know if an OTA can solve my complaints about the watch, but if a Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is in the works, there needs to be a reason.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
A highly durable Wear OS smartwatch with solid battery life and excellent performance. The screen looks great in any environment, even in direct sunlight. But at $650, is durability and a brighter screen worth it?
