Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: A Rugged and Premium Smartwatch for Android Users

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Review: Premium Rugged Sports watch

Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch Ultra, the company's first Ultra series premium rugged sports watch, at the Galaxy Unpacked event in July. It has a large 47mm dial, rugged design with military-grade durability, 10ATM water resistance and a huge battery. Is this the best premium sports watch? Let us dive into the review to find out. The Galaxy Watch Ultra has a circular dial. It weighs 60.5 grams, since it has a large casing and a huge battery. It has a Titanium Grade 4 frame that looks and feels premium, and the matte finish doesn't attract fingerprints. The smartwatch has 10ATM + IP68 water resistance, so you can even wear when swimming, and it also has MIL-STD-810G certification, making it durable. On the back, there are heart rate sensors with glowing green LED lights when you are using it to measure heart rate, and the SpO2 sensor has glowing red lights when you start measuring. The Galaxy Watch Ultra has a sensor with 13 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) -- nine more than its predecessor. There is Made in India branding on the back. Since it has wireless charging, you don't see any contact points. The smartwatch has Samsung BioActive Sensor (Optical Bio-signal Sensor + Electrical Heart Signal + Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis), Temperature Sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, and Light Sensor. It uses Bluetooth 5.3 to connect to Android devices, and doesn't work with iOS. There is LTE, 2.4+5GHz, NFC, GPS (L1+L5) /Glonass/Beidou/Galileo. Coming to the strap, it is made of skin-friendly material that is designed for water swimming, and its titanium buckle is light and durable. There is a wide ripple design for easy water drainage and quick sweat drying. It uses a Dynamic Lug System, so it can be easily attached and swapped to suit different outdoor activities. There are Green, White and Orange colour options in addition to the Dark Gray. Samsung also sells a Trail Band separately in Orange, Dark Gray and White Sand colours that has a lightweight fabric and triangle latch and hook for a comfortable fit. This offers a sleek look and a snug fit, especially during intense activities. In addition to the Home and Back buttons that are usually present in all the Galaxy Watch models, there is a new Quick button, a customizable button designed for exercise, outdoor activities, and precise input. It also allows easy access 86-decibel Emergency Siren that can be heard up to 180 meters away by holding the button for five seconds. You can set the Quick button to perform various actions by configuring the options. You find the microphones near the button, and the speaker is present on the other side. Furthermore, you can take calls directly from the watch when you connect it to the smartphone over Bluetooth. Since this has LTE, it also works as a standalone device to make and receive calls. The watch is powered by an Exynos W1000 boasts a 5-core CPU with a Cortex-A78 core reaching 1.6GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.5GHz. Samsung claims it delivers 2.7x faster app launches, 3.4x faster single-core performance, and 3.7x faster multi-core performance compared to the predecessor. This also offers a 30% improvement in power efficiency. There are no lags during the use of the smartwatch. Coming to the display, the Galaxy Watch Ultra has a large 1.5-inch (480×480 pixels) Super AMOLED colour touch screen display. You can set it to turn on when you lift your hand, and the screen turns off in a few seconds to save power. It doesn't attract fingerprints, but when the screen is off, it is reflective. The company says that it has Sapphire Crystal protection. I didn't notice any scratches during my use. The touch screen is smooth to use, has good viewing angles, and the outdoor visibility is good as well. You can adjust the brightness from Settings → Display → Brightness or directly swipe down to access the brightness settings. You can adjust it from level 1 till level 6, but the ambient light sensor is helpful in settings up the brightness according to the condition. The Galaxy Watch Ultra doesn't feature a physical bezel, so you can't rotate it. However, with the digital bezel, you need to lightly press and drag your finger clockwise or counterclockwise using the bezel on the edge of the screen to move through a list. There is also an easy notification shade option when you swipe from the top. This has Mode, Power Saving, Settings, Power Saving, Always on Display, Sound / Vibration, Flashlight, Brightness toggle, DND, Volume, Wi-Fi, Water lock mode that lets you shake the watch to remove any water from the pressure sensor that is present on the back, Airplane mode, Bluetooth headset connection, Find my phone, GPS, NFC and Network toggle. The Galaxy Watch Ultra runs Wear OS Powered by Samsung (Wear OS 5). This brings performance improvements, battery life optimizations, enabling up to 20% less power consumption during activities like outdoor running. There are New Flavors for watch faces that lets you pick between different colors and complications for each watch face. Other features include Screenshot detection and updates to Health Services. You can customize these using the Galaxy Wearable that needs to be downloaded from Google Play. The app also lets you customize watch faces. There are few built-in watch faces and several downloadable watch faces, and you can also get more watch faces using third-party apps from Google Play. The app also allows you to manage app screen, tiles, quick panel, notification, customize action button, home button and back button, including gestures. You can also install apps directly from Google Play in the Galaxy Watch. There is offline music playback support for both Spotify, YouTube Music and more to make use of 32GB internal storage. The Samsung Health app needs to be downloaded to get more details about your activities, fitness, food and sleep tracking. The Watch Ultra has several sports modes, including a new Multi-Sports mode that can be launched from Multi-Sports tiles that allow you to customize workout combinations and measure the results of different workouts, including duathlons and triathlons. Steps tracking is accurate compared to data from a phone. GPS tracking takes only a few seconds to lock for outdoor workouts and is accurate. GPS tracking doesn't cut out if there are some intrusions like trees or bridges. For running, it shows a lot of data such as pace, elevation, heart rate, Vo2 Max, advanced running metrics, and lots more. You can press the action button to pause a workout in the middle, and resume it or stop it. You can also compare these with recent runs. Samsung still doesn't show running power that is available even in OnePlus Watch 2 and 2R, other than Garmin, Suunto, Polar and other high-end smartwatches. Considering the premium price, Samsung should have offered this feature. There is a new Functional Threshold Power (FTP) for cycling, accurately measures maximum cycling power in just 4 minutes with AI-powered FTP metrics. The Energy Score feature uses Galaxy AI that analyzes key indicators of your overall condition and gives you a daily score based on your sleep, heart rate and workout. There are fitness coaching videos in the app. Together feature lets you track daily step count of your friends. You can share the workout data as an image, and there is Strava support and Technogram sync, which can be enabled from Settings and Selecting Services. There is also Health Connect sync. For the Body composition feature, you need to place middle and ring finger on the home and back buttons and keep still during measurement. This takes a few seconds to measure, and you need to enter the weight manually. Just like the digital weighing scales, this has sensors in the home and back buttons to send electrical signals into the body and receive it back to get back details such as body fat, skeletal muscle, body water, BMI and BMR. You can't say this is 100% accurate, since there are slight changes between the data from this and the Mi Body Composition Scale. For the first time, Galaxy Watch Ultra allows you to conveniently track advanced glycation end products (AGEs) right from your wrist with an AGEs Index. Strongly influenced by diet and lifestyle, AGEs reflect your overall biological aging process and provide an indication of metabolic health, says the company Sleep tracking is accurate and there is also data for different stages such as REM, Light and Deep with a chart. It also shows when the blood oxygen went below 90%, skin temperature during sleep and respiratory rate. It also says the watch can detect Snoring when you place the phone near your face during sleep, but it didn't work for me even when using the Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphone. Overall, the watch has the good fitness tracking and the best sleep tracking. Sleep Apnea feature is available in some countries, but it is not available in India yet. The smartwatch uses LED lights and photo-diodes to illuminate the blood vessel for a while and monitors the heart rate via the change of green light absorbed. It stores the data with date and time. There is also resting heart rate data. Compared to pulse oximeter, this is almost accurate. It can also measure blood oxygen and stress 24 x 7. You can also receive real-time readings and alerts for abnormally high or low heart rates with Heart Rate monitoring, detect irregular heart rhythms suggestive of atrial fibrillation (AFib) with IHRN (Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification), and get a deeper understanding of your heart health with Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring. However, for BP tracking, you need an upper-arm, cuff-based blood pressure monitor for calibration, and you need to do it once every 28 days for accurate results. The Galaxy Watch Ultra has a huge 590mAh battery, and the company promises 80 hours or close to 4 days of battery life with typical use and AOD off, and 60 hours with AOD on. It can last for 100 hours even with work out tracking in Power saving mode, says the company. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now. I get more than 2 days of battery life, which is almost 60 hours. I have not enabled notifications, but I have enabled call notifications, GPS for outdoor runs of 30 minutes a day, and 24 x 7 heart rate, SpO2, stress tracking and use it for sleep tracking as well. Battery life might vary depending on frequent use of the display with increased brightness, use of GPS, heart rate monitor during workouts, Spo2 monitoring during sleep and all the notifications turned on. The smartwatch uses WPC-based wireless charging that requires you to use the bundled charger, and doesn't work with third-party wireless charging pads or non-Samsung smartphones that feature reverse wireless charging. With a 25W charger it took about 2 and half hours to charge the watch fully from 0% which is too much, even though the time shown when charging the watch is less. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra ticks all the boxes for a rugged sports watch. The rugged design with a titanium body is good, the AMOLED screen is brilliant, a powerful processor and 32GB of storage and a lot of sensors offer a lot of data. Even though the battery life is better compared to the other Wear OS watches, the charging is super slow. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is priced at Rs. 59,999, and is available from Samsung.com, and other online retailers such as Amazon.in as well as offline stores. It gets cheaper during sale, and there are bank offers on top of it.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Is A Premium But Rugged Fitness Companion For The Android Folks

Samsung's Galaxy Watch Ultra looks to show its own way in the rugged space When Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra, the obvious comparisons were going to be with a company that is named after a fruit. But generally we have been told that a product's worth and value is only known once you get to use it. And that's what we have been doing with the Galaxy Watch Ultra over the past few weeks to find out if the Ultra Watch with a price tag of Rs 59,999, has the bells and whistles to be a rugged smartwatch for a lot of people. It was hardly surprising to see Samsung opt for a rugged look on the Galaxy Watch Ultra and the feature set compliments its purpose. You have military-grade protection, underwater capability is also possible wearing the Ultra and it can withstand extreme temperatures. Now, we couldn't try out most of the aspects, but diving into the pool with the Watch Ultra on didn't give us the jitters. The metal casing is another important part of the durable package on the Ultra, however, you then feel the 60 grams weight of the body which might not be ideal for every one, especially while you are sleeping. The circular-ish square profile has its own style but we would have liked to see the rotating bezels make an appearance on the Ultra as well. You have three buttons on the right side to activate different modes, the app store and more. The Watch Ultra does its best to give you the best of both worlds. Once again, Samsung relies on the Super AMOLED panel to showcase its colours and high contrast. Add the higher peak brightness into the equation and you get a display that can work in most conditions, and switch to the jazzy night mode when the light dims. The sapphire display is a looker and the gloss is undeniable when you wear it on the wrist. We didn't have any issues using the Watch Ultra outdoors and the screen has the right dimensions to service you with notifications from the phone as well as let you type on it, if ever you feel the need to do it. Samsung has a wide range of watch faces that you can download additionally and save it on the device. Being rugged is never going to be enough for the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Samsung has made sure that none of requisites on a wearable are missing. Be it health features, you get, Be it rugged features, you have it, and be it fitness tools, it's there. Having said that, if you want to access the full gamut of its features, especially the Galaxy AI element, you need to use it with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Without it, the Watch Ultra is no slouch but you start to feel the limitations with other Android phones. Some of the smarter and more complex health tools are locked and we are hoping that Samsung eventually allows more brands to support it. Even then, the smartwatch does well and lets you access the crucial fitness/health tools packed onto your wrist. And yes, Samsung has made a Watch Ultra that only works with Android. The company showed how two can play the walled garden game. The other main issue or friction we felt was the need to download three apps to use one smartwatch. Setting up the Watch Ultra is easy but surely Samsung can integrate all the features and pack them into one app? Moving beyond that, the Watch Ultra supports WearOS out of the box, which means you have the choice of Android apps that can be installed from the Play Store. Now, coming to the main aspect of any review, how does the Watch Ultra perform, react and run when you put it through the grind. When you get the trio of apps paired up with the wearable, you see the worth of having the deeper integration in play. The wearable app lets you control the logistics and aesthetics of the watch, while the Samsung Health app is the main hub where all the data monitoring and tracking happens. The sleep tracking gives you tons of data that can help you determine the quality of the sleep, the rating give you a better reading of the improvements needed and some more. Similarly, the active fitness data offered by auto-tracking does well to track your movements, which works effectively even in the sports modes. The WearOS has matured in the last few years and Samsung is clearly benefiting from its good terms with Google which gives it early access to some of the features. We're keen to see how Samsung plans to bring AI to its wearable lineup and how it behaves on this form factor. And finally, the battery life. The Watch Ultra from Samsung is claimed to run for 48 hours but those figures include the power-saving mode enabled. So, during our tests we got it to last a little over 30 hours after which you needed to plug the charger onto the back of the smartwatch. We would definitely like the 590mAh battery to deliver longer life and hopefully a few updates can help in making that happen. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has the premium looks, features and durability which gives you assurance in many ways and even with its price tag, we can see fitness enthusiasts and adventure freaks opting for this one and be happy.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (Quick Look) - Built for the Harshest Environments

This smartwatch is is made for those looking to embrace the extraordinary, by featuring 10 ATM water resistance, dual-GPS system, and a personal coach assistant. "Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look. Samsung finally launched a new type of product, well they launched the Galaxy Ring, which is of course an entirely new product and an entirely new category, but they also supplemented their smartwatch category with an ultra variant." "But this ultra watch became very controversial the second it came out and even before it came out because, and I'm sure you can see this already, even though the actual watch face, the panel itself is circular, it sits inside a square watch body and because of that and the orange accents and the trail style bands that came with it and some of the interface elements and even some of the naming schemes that is inside the OS, this drew a lot of comparisons to Apple's Apple Watch Ultra." "Just to remind you, this is the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, they choose the same name. I would say that they've been going back and forth on the name Ultra and Samsung probably used it beforehand in the S series Ultra phones and even there's a tablet as well so I'll give them that." "But there is some very clear comparisons, particularly these orange accents and button placements and stuff that created an unlucky comparison to Apple's products when these came out. But I would still say that if you really like what Samsung brings to the table, particularly once they moved over to this wear OS flavor of Tizen essentially, then there's a lot of stuff to like here." "And it is cheaper than an Apple Watch Ultra, I believe it's like 700 euros, very expensive for a smartwatch. But then again, it's also a very functional piece of kit that is meant for people that are very much active and on the go and require their consumer electronics to be hardy and sturdy in a different way." "So this is a 47mm watch case, you can get it in grey, white or this silver, this is the grey one I think, but there are some chrome accents here. It's obviously rugged, meaning that it's both Bluetooth and 4G for tracking. You get these trail bands, it's a different band system." "I know, it's so stupid. If you have regular 22 or 24mm lugs for your old Samsung Galaxy watches, you can't use them on the Ultra, you have to buy specific Ultra bands now. But apart from that, this is 10 atmosphere water resistance, it's IP68 dust and water resistant, it supports functionality in between minus 20 degrees and plus 55 degrees and can go, the altimeter can go to a plus of 9,000 meters and has dual GPS functionality in that particular regard." "It's also equipped with fall detection, return home functions, a big siren and an emergency SOS. It even has satellite uplink and it has around 100 hours of battery life depending on where what kind of modes that you use to save power to get there." "And obviously it's still a very capable smartwatch, meaning that you get access to the same software, you get access to a really bright display, which rivals Apple Watch Ultra in all aspects basically, both brightness and refresh rate and all of those stuff. You have a 3 nanometer process inside with some AI enhancements, but mainly you get access to the Google Play Store because this is essentially Wear OS." "So all of the functionality, if you don't like it, can be supplemented by just downloading the apps that you want straight from the app store. But it is basically the ruggedness that makes this the Ultra. And that is the same kind of way that Apple has marketed their Apple Watch Ultra." "The point is that the way that customers receive Apple products in general is not always the intended one from Apple. In their marketing, they show runners and cyclers and climbers and people are basically just conquering the North Pole or whatever." "And what people end up doing is that they wear it as a status symbol because they want to show that they have money to spare on an Apple Watch Ultra. This will probably be the same, but I will still say that Samsung has done an admirable job of making sure that this is as functional and as versatile and as rugged as they can make it."