Samsung’s rugged new Ultra Watch on the test bench

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra features a catchy design. It’s the first smartwatch from the Korean consumer electronics juggernaut aimed at giving the wearer a truly ruggedised timepiece that can do it all.

There’s no denying it, the Apple Watch Ultra has been a bit of a hit and clearly, its success hasn’t gone unnoticed at Samsung, which has effectively crafted an Android alternative to Apple’s rugged smartwatch.

This is especially apparent in its design. It sports an action button, a very similar vivid (and eye-catching) orange silicone watch band and a chunky square aesthetic that is all very similar to Apple’s big hit.  Similarities aside, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is a good-looking wrist accessory in its own right, and as you’d expect from Samsung, its build quality is top-notch.

Fitting it to my wrist, it was (at first) hard to forget I was wearing it as it weighs in at a not-inconsiderable 60g. Its case is also a substantial 47mm piece of Titanium, which means anyone with smaller wrists might find it a tad cumbersome. I noticed that it often caught on my shirt sleeve cuffs and on the edge of things as I moved about, but its MIL-STD 810H chassis and sapphire glass display means it’s built to last. It may not be a shrinking violet, but its design did make it comfortable. While I didn’t take it deep sea diving, Samsung says it’s IP68 rated down to 10ATM. In short, this is the watch Jacques-Yves Cousteau would have worn if he had been an Android fanboy back in the day.

As you’d expect from Samsung, the Galaxy Ultra’s 1.5-inch Super AMOLED screen was easy to read – even under some of that far too-rare Wellington sunshine, thanks to a peak brightness of 2000 nits. The only issue I found with the sizeable screen is the same one I’ve had with Galaxy watches since the rotating bezel was done away with: Navigation requires swipes and taps, all of which make its screen a bit of a fingerprint magnet. While you could argue that the customisable Quick button goes some way towards solving this, the addition of a rotating bezel – a previous feature that was unique to Samsung’s wristwear – would have really helped.

Its “squircle” design initially had me wondering why it didn’t just go for a square screen, but I found the round display on its square case grew on me. Ultra runs Android Wear 5 overlaid with Samsung’s One UI skin, which is a good combo that adds a much-needed layer of intuitiveness to Google’s Wear OS. Thanks to adding a more energy-efficient 3nm CPU, everything ran smoothly and was lag-free in use.

Samsung has also sprinkled some AI fairy dust into the mix with the Ultra, supplying personalised wellness and an Energy Score to tell sporty types how much they have in the tank before starting on a work out. Then there’s industrial strength Sleep Tracking, complete with snoring tracking and blood oxygenation level monitoring. It turns out that while I might not be a deep sea diver, a mountain climber, a high-speed sprinter or a track cyclist, I am world champion material when it comes to snoring. Here’s hoping it gets made into an Olympic event! Humour at my expense aside, there’s an improbable number of fitness training capabilities built into the Galaxy Ultra.

For those who forget to take their phone with them, the Galaxy Ultra can also be had in an LTE flavour. Thanks to Google Wallet, it can also handle contactless payments. These nifty features mean that you can go on the run without taking your phone or wallet, and still stop for a quick smoothie and/or call a mate.

The one thing that holds the Galaxy Watch Ultra back from winning the Sexiest Android Smartwatch crown is that the Samsung Health Monitor app (where you’ll find ECG and blood pressure monitoring, both of which are fairly major features) is only available to Samsung smartphone users. That said, its heart rate monitoring was excellent. During the review period, I experienced several extremely stressful moments, which the Galaxy Ultra captured perfectly.

Dual-frequency GNSS/GPS also allowed the Galaxy Ultra to deliver accurate navigation, even in high-rise city environments where GPS signals are reflected and bounced off buildings, creating a navigation nightmare.

Its redesigned BioActive sensor and Samsung Health app have the potential to make the Galaxy Ultra a solid health tracker, even if AGE monitoring (advanced glycation end products) which are used to predict conditions such as diabetes and strokes seemed a little less intuitive than they could be.

Under its hood sits a 590mAh battery. I’d hoped that this and the newly minted Android Wear OS plus 3nm CPU would combine to see the Ultra deliver a sizeable improvement on battery life. Samsung claims up to 100 hours can be had while using the Ultra’s Power Saving mode, but for regular real-world use with the always-on display enabled, you’ll get just shy of two nights’ use. While that’s a definite step up from earlier Galaxy watches, I’m refusing to get excited until I see week-long battery life. Compounding this, I found that battery life can vary widely depending on what you’re doing. Trying out its training capabilities and GPS-hammered battery life. That you’ll eventually have to charge it every second night also puts a hole in its otherwise excellent sleep-tracking capabilities.

So, the verdict? The Galaxy Ultra isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darned good. A plethora of training options and health tracking capabilities combine with a super rugged and quirky design to deliver a smartwatch that isn’t half bad, considering it’s Samsung’s first attempt at an ultra-durable watch for sporty types. If Samsung can address its variable energy consumption and fine-tune the phone-based fitness app, adding ECG and blood pressure tracking capabilities for non-Samsung smartphone owners, they’ll have a serious contender on their hands.

https://www.samsung.com/nz/watches/galaxy-watch/galaxy-watch-ultra-titanium-gray-lte-sm-l705fdaaxnz/