So, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is their most ambitious smartwatch yet… From unexpected features that actually surprised everyone to a few frustrating design choices, especially two things that you won’t believe they left out that made this ALMOST perfect!

 

Unboxing

Starting with the unboxing, firstly, the box comes in black, with the visuals of the watch in front, with the specs at the side of the box, where the variant that I bought was the Titanium White.

Opening the box cover, reveals another white-colored box, which contains just the watch face or the head, the quick start guide, and the USB C charging puck.

Then, the White color Marine watch band is also included. And yes, it does look familiar. And putting it on is super easy since there are two holes and two pins to hold onto the watch strap.

Now, I have also decided to get the Trail Watch band in Orange, but during this review, I only used this white color marine watch band all the way.

 

Design & Build

Alright, let’s dive into the Samsung Galaxy Ultra because, honestly, it looks like no other Samsung smartwatch we’ve seen before. And yeah, I know what you’re thinking – everyone’s comparing this to the Apple Watch Ultra, right? But hold up, I’m here to tell you that it does NOT look the same. Ignore the color difference and Instead of just telling you, I’m going to show you how it looks side by side. 

Now that we’ve got that elephant out of the room let’s get back to talking about this watch, shall we?

The Galaxy Watch Ultra feels super solid and durable, thanks to its new Grade 4 Titanium frame. At around 60.5 grams, it’s got that sturdy feel.

Sure, some people have mentioned that it feels a bit heavy, but honestly, I didn’t think so at all. I’ve been wearing it to sleep and slept like a baby – no issues whatsoever! And we’ll talk more about those sleep-tracking features later.

However, if you’ve got smaller wrists, you might want to think about the size of the watch face before buying it. But if you’re like me, who always felt the Apple Watch Ultra could have been bigger, you’re going to love the size of this watch face.

Compared to previous Samsung smartwatches, this one has a more square-ish shape but still keeps that classic round face that Galaxy watches are known for.

I’ve got the Titanium White variant here, and let me tell you, it looks absolutely stunning. The silver matte titanium outer bezel paired with the white inner bezel and strap – what a design choice! Plus, the orange Quick Button totally gives me old-school Tommy Oliver Power Ranger communicator vibes. Rest in peace, my friend.

This watch has a 47mm face, just like the Galaxy Watch6 Classic, but it loses the physical rotating bezels. Instead, it uses a digital version, like on the Galaxy Watch7. And I have to say, this feels like a missed opportunity. The rotating bezels were one of my favorite features on the Watch6 Classic – I wish they’d kept that here!

The display is made from tough, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, just like the earlier models, so no worries about scratches or bumps from everyday use. This also makes it perfect for outdoor activities. So, for all you rugged adventurers, this watch has your back. Plus, it’s the toughest smartwatch Samsung has ever made, able to handle temperatures from -20°C to 55°C.

It also has an IP68 water resistance rating and can survive depths up to 10 ATM. And with the water lock feature, you can take it swimming – whether that’s in the pool or the ocean.

Now, I haven’t had a chance to test those extremes yet – Malaysia’s not exactly known for its snow, and I haven’t been near the ocean lately (plus, I can’t even swim, haha). So, for now, we’re just gonna have to trust Samsung on this one!

Samsung has also added a third button in the middle, called the Quick Button, which by default, accesses the My Exercises feature, but you can remap it to other functions too.

As for the buttons, the home and back buttons are color-coded red and white, but now the colors are right in the center of the buttons, not just around them.

They’ve also redesigned the straps. They don’t use the conventional lug system anymore but a new proprietary Dynamic Lug System. This means the straps aren’t interchangeable with previous-gen watches or regular watch straps, so keep that in mind.

But there’s more! Samsung also kept the same button-release system from the Galaxy Watch6 series for the straps, which I love because it makes changing them a simple click away.

And that’s not all – the Ultra and the Galaxy Watch7 now come with a brand new BioActive sensor, a 3-in-1 sensor that runs on a single chip, featuring an Optical Heart Rate sensor, Electrical Heart sensor, and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensing as well.

So, lots of changes and upgrades here!

 

Display

This 1.5-inch display is super crisp, all thanks to its fantastic Super AMOLED panel.

Now, even though it has slightly fewer pixels per inch than the Watch6 Classic (327 ppi vs 453 ppi), the Ultra’s display still performs way better, mainly because it can get insanely bright — up to 3,000 nits compared to the 2,000 nits on the Watch6 Classic, I had zero issues using this watch outdoors, even under intense sunlight. Everything stayed nice and clear.

And it also comes with a dedicated Night Mode, where the screen automatically switches to a red tint when it detects you’re outside at night or in a dark room.

This is great for your eyes in low-light environments. However, keep in mind it only turns the watch face red, so if you switch to another app, be ready for a sudden “flashbang” in your face!

Now, I haven’t seen any other smartwatch do this, but if only this Night Mode applied to all apps instead of just the watch face, it could probably save a bit more battery life, too right?

You can tweak this setting to Auto, Always On, or just turn it off entirely in the Samsung Wearable app under the customizable settings for Watch Faces. And yes, I’ll be diving into that a bit later too!

 

 

Navigation

If you’ve ever used a Samsung Galaxy Watch before, getting the hang of the Ultra will feel like second nature. But, it does come with some cool new features.

Navigating through the watch is pretty simple: swipe left to see your notifications, over there, if you swip to the top, it deletes the notifications.

Then at the home screen if you swipe right to check out your active tiles for apps or your vital signs, swipe up for all your installed apps, and swipe down to access the quick panel.

And if you are familiar with the Digital Rotating Bezels, that also navigates similarly, but if you not familiar with it or trying that for the first time, its basically sliding your fingers right at the edge of the screen to navigate, not exactly “on the bezels” so this does get something getting used to. Still think its not as good as a physical version, but yeah, you can do it digitally.

The Home and Back buttons are still here and work just like before. Press the Back button below to go back a step, or hit the Home button on top to jump straight to the watch face.

Now, there’s a new Quick Button in the middle, that gives you instant access to the My Exercises feature. From there, you can track different workouts, from walking to cycling and more.

And, as I mentioned earlier, you can set the Quick Button to open other functions too. Right now, your options are pretty limited to opening the Stopwatch, Torchlight, Water lock, or… well, doing nothing at all. Not sure why you’d want it to do nothing, but hey, the option is there!

Here’s where I think Samsung could’ve done a bit more. I’d love to see the button control other features, like maybe quickly accessing WhatsApp or the dialer. Fingers crossed, they’ll add that in a future update!

And if you’re thinking the Quick Button might be a rotating crown that you can use to scroll through menus, sorry to disappoint! That’s the second big missed opportunity here. What’s odd is that the button does actually rotate, but it doesn’t do anything. Weird, right? Just one of those things… sighs, sad.

 

 

Features

Samsung packed this watch with a bunch of safety features. For starters, there’s a hard fall detection feature that automatically dials 999 if the watch detects a serious fall. Plus, you can press the Home button five times to call emergency services.

And just a quick PSA: 999 is for emergencies in Malaysia, like calling an ambulance, so please don’t accidentally call them for no reason, okay?

One safety feature I didn’t expect to like as much as I do is the siren. Just press the Quick Action button for five seconds, and it’ll start blaring — and I mean, it’s LOUD. My team could hear it all the way from the floor below!

Samsung also threw in a bunch of new gesture controls this time around. There’s a Double Pinch feature you can use to answer calls or dismiss notifications, which is super handy and feels pretty natural once you get the hang of it.

There’s also a Knocking Gesture to open any app you’ve installed. I’ve set mine to open the camera controller, which lets me snap pictures directly from the watch using my phone. And no, you don’t have to actually knock on a table or wall — it’s just a gesture, so don’t worry about banging things around!

There’s also a Shake to Dismiss gesture where you just rotate your wrist twice to decline calls, alarms, or reminders.

 

Software

First up, the watch runs on the latest One UI 6.0 Watch, built on top of Wear OS 5.0. This means you’ve got the entire Google Play Store library right at your fingertips!

Because it has access to the Google Play Store, you can download all sorts of apps, from social chat apps like WhatsApp to productivity apps like Todoist, and so much more. And of course, you also get access to a wide variety of fitness apps beyond just the built-in Samsung Health Monitor app.

Plus, it opens up a whole world of customization options. Even the default watch faces are fantastic! The one I’m using, for example, has a total of eight complications. I’ve set mine up with the Date, my Energy Score, a shortcut to add a task on Todoist, my last Heart rate Reading, Battery, Daily Activity, Next Event, and Steps.

And you can set all of these complications, and even more, in the Wearable App.

Loading apps has never been this fast on a Samsung Galaxy Watch before! Thanks to the speedy Exynos W1000 chip and 2GB of RAM, everything feels quick and snappy—almost like using a smartphone. That’s how fast and nearly lag-free it is.

As for the health features, the new BioActive sensor performs way better than any of the previous models, giving you much more accurate readings.

I even tested it against the medical-grade heart rate monitor at my gym, and the results were pretty close—just one or two bpm off! Considering this watch is probably the closest thing you can get to a basic health check tool, that’s pretty impressive.

It also offers some fantastic stats, like the Energy Score, which tracks your exertion and sleep to help you know how well you can perform during the day. There’s even Heart Rate Variability (HRV) tracking, which is usually only found in more expensive health trackers like the Whoop band.

Samsung’s auto-workout detection, especially for walking, is the best I’ve seen—even better than Apple’s. It never seems to miss when I’m walking around the mall or walking over to the studio from my home. Super handy for those times I forget to turn the activity on!

Just a quick tip: the vibration for notifications is turned off by default, so make sure to turn it on. I also had to set the vibration intensity to “Long and Strong,” which felt just right!

Typing on the keyboard was nice and smooth, and with predictive text at the top, typing became even easier. And Galaxy AI’s Smart Reply feature is great when you’re responding to chat messages, which was really sweet!

And out of all the default tiles, I really love the one that shows the phone’s battery level. And if you’re wondering, I’ve been using this Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra with my Z Flip6 for the past two weeks.

 

Battery

When it comes to battery size, there’s been a nice bump to 590mAh from the 425mAh battery in the Watch6 Classic.

As for battery life, I got around 1 day and 9 hours of use before it switched over to power-saving mode at 15%. That was with the Always-On Display enabled, the screen brightness set at about 30%, and using it during my gym sessions.

Charging it with the included magnetic puck charger took about 2 hours. But here’s a heads-up: this watch can’t use reverse wireless charging with your phone anymore because of the redesigned sensor.

So, unfortunately, no more emergency charging your watch with your phone like you could with the previous Galaxy Watches.

 

Conclusion

So in conclusion, The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is definitely an exciting addition to the smartwatch lineup especially if you in the Samsung or Android ecosystem. The display is bright and stunning, the gesture controls are super intuitive, and the health sensors are more accurate than ever.

But, as mentioned, my few gripes is the fact that the design feels like it missed the mark in a couple of areas. Removing the rotating bezels after their big comeback with the Watch6 Classic, and not making the Quick Button a rotating crown—these are two things I hope Samsung reconsiders in the next version. That said, Samsung has put a solid effort into the Galaxy Watch Ultra. While it’s not quite a perfect smartwatch, it’s definitely getting close!