After skipping the Pro last year, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Watch Ultra at the Unpacked Event in Paris, making it the most rugged member of its latest Galaxy Watch series. It reminds me of Triple H, a WWE legend also known as the ‘Cerebral Assassin’. The Watch Ultra is a behemoth of a smartwatch – it is big, brawny, and has the brains to go with it too. I’ve been using it for the past week and have formed some solid impressions, though I haven’t yet unlocked its full potential. Here’s what I feel about it so far.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: What’s New
Design and Straps
The Galaxy Watch Ultra is noticeably different from previous generations. It’s physically much larger, thanks to its squarish shape. It also has a new cushion case that attaches with the ‘dynamic lug’ mechanism, limiting strap options to eight.
| Strap type | Texture and use case | Colours |
| Marine | Rubber-like material that is resistant to water, salt, and chlorine. Ideal for water activities and aquatic environments. | Orange, Dark Gray, White, Green |
| Trail | Combines elements of both the Marine and Peakform straps, offering a balance of durability and comfort. | Dark Gray, White Sand |
| Peakform | Lightweight, breathable fabric that is comfortable to wear even during long hikes or climbs. Designed for outdoor adventures and hiking. | Dark Gray, White Sand |
I like flashy colours, so I quickly adjusted to the orange Marine strap. It’s comfortable, secure, and offers ample adjustment. For a less in-your-face look, I’d recommend Dark Gray in any strap type. The strap is large, making average-sized wrists appear lanky.
This chunky watch is equally durable as well. It comes with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, along with MIL-STD-810H certification for functioning under extreme temperatures, shock and pressures.
Bezels and Quick Access Button
Samsung has removed the touch-sensitive bezels, requiring swiping along the display edge to navigate tiles. I personally preferred the physical bezel of older Galaxy Watches, especially for precise interactions with clammy or shaky hands.
The Watch Ultra’s new Quick Button is similar to Apple’s Watch Ultra Action button. Pressing it takes you directly to the workout menu, which I found particularly useful for my early-morning workouts. I wish it could rotate to compensate for the lack of a physical bezel, but maybe next time. Also, if you wear your watch on your left hand, be cautious during push-ups or shoulder presses, as you might accidentally press the button and pause your workout.
Processor and BioActive Sensor
The Watch Ultra features a more powerful processor and improved BioActive sensors. It’s the first watch with a 3nm processor, the Exynos W1000, offering slightly better battery life and noticeable speed improvements.
The new BioActive sensor is smaller and uses multicoloured LEDs for accurate blood-related data, like heart rate and SpO2. Its placement is optimised for data gathering.
FTP, AGEs and sleep apnoea
To keep things interesting, Samsung has introduced a bunch of new health features that are seemingly super-duper niche. Yep, niche enough to demand a ‘duper’ from me. These include the ability to measure functional threshold power (FTP), advanced glycation end products (AGEs) index, sleep apnoea and energy score. Let’s go through these one by one:
- FTP: If you take cycling rather seriously, this metric helps you estimate the maximum power output you can sustain for an hour. This usually takes hours to calculate the old-fashioned way, but by connecting a power meter to the Watch Ultra, you can do this within a few minutes.
- AGEs index: This index is used to find out whether you’re at risk of diabetes or stroke. It usually works out via a blood test (which specifically looks at haemoglobin A1c, mostly referred to as HbA1c), so Samsung’s pitch here is that they have made it non-invasive. At the time of writing, this feature was marked under the Samsung Labs section, so it’s still a work in progress. My index has been high so far, and I have been asked to eat better – so increasing my intake of vitamin C-rich food and what not. I’m intrigued to know whether something changes after I improve my eating habits, so stay tuned for the full review.
- Sleep apnoea tracking: Do you feel tired even after sleeping more than eight hours daily? Well, there’s a chance you may have sleep apnoea or a disorder that causes you to stop breathing while asleep. The Watch Ultra helps you know whether you’re at risk or not by looking at your breathing patterns and your blood-related data. You need to wear this for at least 10 days while sleeping at least four hours of sleep to get reliable data. Oh, and it only works with Samsung phones. I’m yet to try this out as well.
Oh, and the price is new, too, starting at Rs 59,999. That’s a 15 grand hike over the last time Samsung went pro with its watches.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: Initial thoughts
After spending a week with the Watch Ultra, I can’t help but appreciate how smartwatches are slowly starting to get into the grey area of diagnostics and medical devices. We can’t call the Watch Ultra a medical device, but it is capable of giving you an indication of what can go wrong. Not too long ago, tracking sleep apnoea or AGEs index would cause pain or be extremely inconvenient. Now, it’s neatly tucked inside a glass and metal puck braced on your wrist.
I look forward to seeing how these new (and old) features of the Galaxy Watch Ultra perform over a longer duration. So, stay tuned for my full review.
