The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is effectively Samsung’s answer to the Apple Watch Ultra, though as it’s only compatible with Android phones, it’s more likely one that’s going toe-to-toe with watches like the new Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED and the older Epix Pro.
This is Samsung’s first proper stab at an outdoor smartwatch and is offering features like a rugged design, dual-frequency GPS, the ability to import routes and use navigation features and offer plenty of running modes and analysis too.
Testers Kieran and Mike have been putting the Galaxy Watch Ultra through its paces to find out if Samsung has come up with a great smartwatch for runners
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Intro
01:00 – Price and key features
02:29 – What we liked
09:53 – What we didn’t like
16:43 – Verdict and comparisons
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Hey this is Mich the r testers and in This video we're going to be talking About the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Effectively Samsung's answer to the Apple watch Ultra now like Apple's Ultra Samsung's equivalent is only designed to Work with one smartphone platform so This is for Android users only so what That means is ultimately it's going up Against other of Android friendly Outdoor kind of running Centric watches Like the PO grit X2 Pro the Garmin Phoenix8 AMOLED and the older Garmin Epics and epics Pro as well now myself And Kieran have both been testing this Watch and before we get into what we Liked and disliked about our time with The Galaxy watch Ultra we'll take you Through those key details about the Pricing and the key features and then Get into our verdict and let you know Whether the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Makes for a good running experience and Is one that you actually could save a Little bit of money against the Competition and get the Galaxy watch Ultra to cover your runs and your Smartwatch time [Music] So here's the key details you need to Know about the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra on the design front it comes in One size giving you a 47 mm case made From titanium and a sapphire crystal
Screen there's home and back buttons and What Samsung calls its quick button Which works a bit like Apple's action Button and gives you a shortcut to Workout tracking and onboard features Like the torch front and center is a 1.5 In 480x 480 resolution super am Touchscreen and you have your pick of Four strap options which can be clipped Away to swap in new ones terms of the Key running features it runs on Google's WS 5.0 to give you access to thirdparty Running apps there's dual frequency GPS To boost outd toour run tracking Accuracy and the ability to import roots And use a trapback navigation mode you Do not however get access to real time Topo maps you can set up interval Workouts follow structured running ones And there's now also an added track run Mode Samsung also includes its Risk-based Advanced running metrics Which you can view in real time during Runs in terms of battery life Samsung Says you should get roughly 3 days in Smartwatch mode or 2 and a half days With the screen set to always on GPS Battery life should be up to 48 hours With a dedicated exercise tracking power Saving mode to push things further at The expense of GPS and heart rate Accuracy [Music] So starting with the things I liked
About my time with Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra and I think the design first and Foremost it's a really nice looking Watch it's a big outdoorsy star watch I Think all the kind of materials and the Things you'd want to see from watch like That being you know tough and durable I Think you know Samsung ultimately Delivers that you got a nice strap there And you've got strap options as well too If you don't you know you know got a bit Like apple ultimately there's kind of a Trail one there's a more swimming Friendly one so there are options there You've got that kind of big there you've Got the physical buttons I you know Prefer more physical buttons the quick Button um I quite like built into the Crown I think that's quite nice and Obviously a riff off Apple's kind of Action Button more kind of integrated into uh That kind of design ultimately and then You get that kind of big bright screen You know this is a really big Samsung Smartwatch and that screen is great and It' be very easy to see uh and you know Samsung make good Smartwatch displays And ultimately you're getting a really Good one here on the Galaxy watch Ultras I think from a design point of view I Think there's a lot to here with the Galaxy watch Ultra other thing I've really liked I
Think has been quite good has been the Ability to import roots and also kind of Um the navigation support here you know Not groundbreaking But ultimately the Kind of features you want to see in a Watch like this and you know I've used It when I was out in shamony and I had It out to test and when I've been back Home back in the UK and you know it's Worked as you know advertised it's been Easy to follow the maps um Alo the Navigation and you know directions and I Think from that point of view that's Something you want I think the Integration of that feature works pretty Well here I think crucially the other Thing for me is you know the native Sports tracking is pretty good I still Think there's room for improvement I Think generally it's solid crucially Though it you know having it run on weos Having access to the Google Play Store Means access to third party apps and Those that there are big thir part there Are big third party apps in the Google Play store which wasn't the case Previously on the Samsung SmartWatches In its previous ecosystem and it means You get to things like stra and Kut and It kind of seeks a little bit more Parity with the Apple watch Ultra which Does have that kind of big support in Terms of those third party apps and this Is kind of bringing it to Samsung and
That could prob be a bit like it did on The Apple watch really kind of fill some Of those gaps of where you know it Doesn't offer some of those features Where maybe I'll get into in my kind of Things I didn't absolutely love about my Time I think yeah that's really Important having that kind of wear us Presence there crucially having that Google Play Store there and I think That's really going to help to make the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra going forward Feel like a better suited watch for kind Of runs and for kind of General tracking As well now it's been a long time since I strapped on a Samsung Smartwatch as a Longtime iPhone owner I'm tend to be Plugged into Apple's universe but when Someone mentions Ultra my ears prick up And though the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra isn't really going directly up Against the Apple watch Ultra 2 I was Very keen to see how these two Adventure Ready SmartWatches compare and if There's something that I'm really Missing over here in the cult of iOS That makes me want to leap over to Droid And Samsung also worth noting that for My takes on the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra I'm really looking at this from a Running perspective would you want to Strap this on as your main running Partner over and above a Garin a coros AOL and of course the Apple watch Ultra
2 rather than thinking about it as a Sort of pure play Smartwatch now before I get into my specific likes and Dislikes with the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra I wanted to share some initial General thoughts on the design first up I think this is a well-built solid kind Of No Nonsense watches a heft to it that Feels robust if a bit bulky not in love With the circle in a square kind of Frame the squirkle that people are Calling it that mashup design which adds To the chunkiness I'm also not a huge Fan of the very thick chunky silicon Strap that it shipped with the one that I tested it's not very flexible or Particularly comfortable and it adds Even more to that kind of whole chunky Monkey feeling it makes the Apple watch Ultra feel minimal and even the Garment In duro2 sort of sits more compact on The wrist now onto the likes then well The first thing screen brightness has Been pumped up to 3 000 nits that's now A match for the Apple watch Ultra 2 at Its brightest and for my aging eyeballs I found it was pretty much on par with The Apple watch Ultra 2 during my runs With both on I've got the same kind of Visibility the Samsung Galaxy watch is Bright sharp with good Punchy colors and Easy to read in pretty much El Conditions even the brightest of the Midday sun in Midsummer Italy now in my
Testing I've done dozens of runs with This galaxy watch Ultra up against the Apple watch Ultra 2 and the Garmin and Dururo all using their dual frequency Highest accuracy GPS modes and on the Whole the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Performance has been impressively on par Here's a couple of examples that I can Take you through first up a little PL From High Park to West London not a Particularly complicated route this one Lots of straight running and open Skies So in this instance we have the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra in blue we've got the Apple watch Ultra 2 in purple and we've Got the Garmin in Euro 2 in brown it's Worth bringing in mind that gin uro 2 Here was strapped not to my ey arm so it Can affect the performance of how you See the lines that's I think why you'll See it a little bit Wayward but overall As you look through nice open Skies Running along hide Park here and you can See that the Apple watch Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra pretty Closely matched it sticky be to the pars Fairly nicely here a little bit as you Get into a slightly more builtup area of Notting Hill gate you can see here the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra does run a Little bit wide it's not quite so Straight line as you'll get from the Apple watch Ultra 2 but it's nothing Particularly crazy again here it's got
Me on the wrong side of the street but It is largely following the line that I've run and you know none of these are Are immune from having problems if you Scroll through all of these you'll see The Apple watch Ultra does struggle in Places as well and we get down here to Kind of round but it has me going a Little bit wide here the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra away from the path you can See the Apple watch Ultra has stuck me Again far more closely to the route I Actually took so it's not perfect but Overall what you're getting here is Largely within the margin for error on Distance and there's nothing hugely Problematic and I would say the Performance isn't that far off what You'll get from some of the other Leading watches I've also done the same Test putting the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Optical heart rate up against the Apple watch Ultra 2 heart rate and a Polar h10 chest trp generally speaking I Found the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra to Be pretty reliable not perfect and Better at steady state runs rather than Intervals but it performed generally Well up against the chest strap so here We have the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra In blue we have the Apple watch Ultra 2 In purple and we have the h10 paired to The Garin and Juro in brown I think what You can see here is actually the Samsung
Galaxy watch Ultra it's pretty good from The off it kind of sticks to the chest Trp really nicely uh the Apple watch Ultra actually struggles a bit early on Raising kind of high in this kind of First sort of 5 10 minutes whereas the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra is kind of Matching very very closely until we get A bit further into the run there are Some moments where it kind of Peaks a Bit High it takes a little bit longer to Come down so there's a little bit of a Delay and there's a little bit of a you Know a surge there a bit of a Lurch to a Higher Peak than you'll get from the h10 It happens again a bit later on but Overall apart from these kind of the odd Sort of spikes here generally speaking It is quite a close match for the h10 And yeah Fairly reliable [Music] Performance on to those things I wasn't So sure about then and the first one is Battery life now loads of r viewers have Praised the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra which I have to be Honest it has me a bit baffled because This is probably the biggest gripe I Have with this watch in my tests all the Tests I've done over a month six weeks The battery life was not only bothering Short even for a smartwatch but it's Incredibly unpredictable now I know Where OS devices and iOS watches for
That matter die faster because they tend To do more there you know there's lots More going on and I am coming at this From a sports watch battery life Perspective to a certain extent but even Up against the Apple watch Ultra ult ra 2 I found the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Staying power was frustratingly limited It's kind of a game of two halves with It when I wasn't running or using the GPS for training that's when it was Really poor while during the runs the Burn rate actually wasn't too far off The Apple watch Ultra 2 but it was still Hungrier than my Apple watch Ultra 2 on Almost all of my test runs on average a 1 hour run burned anywhere between 5 and 12% which is pretty good really overall Most of it was at the lower end of that Compared to the Apple watch Ultra which Burned between 5 and n % for the same Runs for one 2hour run the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra bur 133% to Apple's 11% so that's pretty solid however where The Galaxy watch Ultra seems to go a bit Haywire in my experience is in the General battery drain that sort of Day-to-day usage in between the runs it Runs out fast the most I Eed out of the G Galaxy watch Ultra without any Training was 3 days but that was not Often and there were plenty of times it Struggled to even last a full 24 hours And that's not really with me using it
Very heavily as at all the burn rate Overnight while I I was a sleep range From 27% to 51% the applewatch ultra 2 Burn was largely less than 10% overnight To exacerbate the problem I find the Galaxy watch Ultra charg is really Noticeably slower than the Apple watch Ultra 2o sometimes I had these on the Charge at the same time and it was it Was much slower now if you watch the Channel regularly you'll know I'm a lazy Charger I'm used to an Enduro 2 from Garmin that needs reducing about once a Month and a good reliable battery life Is something I really looked for sadly I Found the Galaxy watch Ultra had my Battery anxiety hiked up to the max if You're like me this could be a deal Breaker one caveat loads of other Reviewers haven't found that experience That I've had so I don't know next up The Samsung has added dual frequency GPS Which generally speaking is a thumbs up But it's a shame I found that there's no Option to tweak the settings everything Is always just dual frequency you got One way to track so when it actually Comes to running an ultra with this Watch the only way you can e out more Battery life is to switch off other Stuff I would like to have more kind of Granular options like you get with Garmin now it was also a bit of a shock To learn that you can't pair an external
Chest strap or heart rate monitor the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra now for Casual Runners who want a smartwatch the Cases for running rather than a serious Sport watch they might not be bothered By that the heart rate performance from The optical kind of does enough in terms Of it overall accuracy for that kind of Usage but if you really care about the Most accurate data I think that is a bit Of a shortcoming I always like to pair In a chest trp when I want that kind of Sweet sweet spot on data something I use A lot Without Really realizing it on the Apple watch Ultra 2 is the digital Crown Uh the crown control which let you kind Of scroll through I only really noticed How much I use that to scroll when I Realize that the Galaxy watch Ultra Doesn't have one this kind of faux Crown Button you've got here doesn't work to Let you scroll through stuff and Everything here is a swipe on the Touchcreen now even though the Galaxy Watch Ultra touchscreen is nicely Responsive when there's no moisture Involved when I'm properly sweating or You know it drips falling off or it gets Wet or I've got you know sweaty fingers It's struggles and that's where a Physical control to move through the Screens I think really comes into play Tired sweaty fiddling after a long run Isn't the one I mean the Apple watch
Ultra is a bit guilty of that as well But you have the option to LEAP to that Crown so into the things I didn't Absolutely love about my time with the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra and I'll Start with a pretty big one and that is The kind of GPS performance and accuracy Now this is the first Samsung smartwatch To include dual frequency GPS so this is A technology that we've started to see Filter into plenty of other sports watch And smart watches and this is aiming to Kind of boost the accuracy of GPS when You are kind of near tall buildings or Whether you are in kind of deeply Forested kind of wooded areas ultimately Where the signal can struggle to kind of Lock on and give you that good accuracy Now there's been good examples of it and There's be bad examples of it I would Say now I would say the experience of The GPS on the Samsung Galaxy watch Al It's probably the best I've experienced On a Samsung Smartwatch But ultimately When I have pushed it and when it's been You know when I've kind of tested it in Kind of more ultimately conditions where I'd expected to really perform it hasn't Quite worked out for me so when I did Kind of 10k race in central London and You know I tested against another kind Of you know a reliable GPS um kind of Dual band GPS watch ultimately it fell Quite short in terms of that distance
Tracking pacing was off as well too so Ultimately when I have kind of pushed it And really put it in the environments Well scenarios where it should really Deliver it hasn't really kind of done That for me the other thing I want to Talk about here is the lack of kind of Full mapping support you get on the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra now granted That could be a criticism leveled at the First Apple watch Ultra but on its side It did have those kind of third party Apps that did give you that kind of Experience if you wanted kind of mapping For your runs and you don't have that Here with the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra Natively which is a bit disappointing I Think for me given that most other Watches do have that you do have some Kind of uh kind of navigation and uh Support here and you do have the ability To import Roots as I mentioned But Ultimately you know I think you know it Feels like a bit missed opportunity and Hopefully maybe that will come further Down the line if Samsung kind of issue An update and do offer that kind of Mapping support so that for me was a bit Of a disappointing thing to discover I Think the other thing for me is just Kind of the general battery life Performance now on paper is not very Long anyway it's a few days and It Ultimately struggle to kind of hit those
Kind of numbers in general use for me I Think dayto day whether I was using the Race to wake or having it in that kind Of always on display mode I think in Terms of GPS battery performance it Isn't kind of totally fantastic pretty Much what I expect from a kind of like General Smart Watch experience with you Know with a watch when you're tracking Using GPS and yeah it just felt a little Bit short and you do have those kind of Power saving modes but I don't think It's really pushing things further Enough for me to say that this is enough You know coupled with you know Experience I've had data day with a Battery life that you know it's it does Enough on in that kind of department now Again as I said Apple watch Ultra Doesn't offer you you know weeks and Weeks of about your life like something Like the Phoenix well but ultimately I Think it pushes close to the numbers That It quotes much better than the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra where I feel Like it's been very consistent whether It's been as I said day-to-day use but Also in terms of you know using the GPS Tracking as [Music] Well okay verdict time and let's break This down a bit first there's broad Agreement that this is the best we OSS Running watch today or Fitness watch
Today so that's a thumbs up and there Are some really nice touches the robust Durable build with that titanium chassi Scratch proof screen it's got solid GPS And heart rate is pretty good as well And a good quality bright crisp Responsive touch screen plus a wide Selection of apps and tools that make it Come to life the appes action button is Also pretty good and the Fairly Competitive price tag sort of finishes That off for that reason the Galaxy Watch Ultra arguably also fills a void For Android users who want a more Adventure ready smarter Garmin Alternative but if you're considering Switching from a forerunner epic Phoenix Or uro those kind of things to this for Its running credentials I don't think That's a smart move this isn't a Replacement for those watches and their Capabilities there are simply too many Gaps offline mapping for a start not to Mention a limited battery life that I Think most will find a little bit Irritating now I was interested to see If this watch would be good enough as Well to make me consider switching sides From Apple to Samsung or to Android it's It's not really though there's a lot of Similarities to the Apple watch Ultra 2 Here I don't think the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is as well delivered on Design features General usage or that
Staying power battery life if I was Already a Samsung or Android User would I rush out and buy it well only if I Wanted a smartwatch first and foremost That has also some running and fitness Skills if you're looking for a running Watch I don't think this offers enough To match the dedicated run watches out There and I would recommend getting one Of those if you're really hellbent on Sort of more serious training and Running so my Verdi on the Samsung Galaxy watch Ultra whether it is a good Option for Android users that want kind Of running watch and a smart watch Allinone and has some kind of outdoor Features as well too I think it's not Quite there yet for me I think in terms Of being an option or the best option For Android users I don't think it is Just yet I think there's a you know There's a core kind of good experience Here I think the design is good you know There's elements I like I think there Are some positives here in terms of the Experience of the software some of the Navigation and you know kind of support That you're getting here and some of the PS I've seen in the general tracking but Ultimately I think things like the Battery life I think in terms of that Support in terms of the GPS performance You know things that I would expect to Be ticked off hasn't quite been there
For me just yet on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra when I look at the Alternatives you know I would be looking At going for a kind of garmi epics gen 2o which with the Phoenix 8 AMOLED here Now you can probably pick up for a Little less it's it's still going to be Expensive and obviously the Galaxy watch Ultra is very much a more affordable Kind of smart watch and kind of outdoor And running watch compared to things That you're going to get from garming With an AMOLED at that top end and also Things like the what you're getting from Polar and obviously you know I talked About the Apple watch Ultra too but Ultim I think this is really about those Kind of Android alternatives and I think Ultimately I would still probably going For a cheaper Gan epics Gen 2 or a gin Epics Pro you can get that for a little Bit cheaper than it probably uh was at Launch now that the Phoenix 8 is here And I think you'll get a better R around Experience in terms of that you know Tracking accuracy battery life you know You're still going to get a good Smartwatch experience as well too think There as well so I think Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra hasn't quite nailed it for Me just yet from a running perspective And also kind of growing into this kind Of outdoor Smartwatch uh it's got all The key ingredients on terms of that
Kind of Smartwatch experience but the Battery life needs to get better more Reliable the GPS performance and you Know General run tracking needs to be a Lot nicer and a lot more reliable as Well too and just giving you those Features that you'd expect to see at a Watch it's kind of you know competing With ultimately so for me not the Perfect kind of smartwatch running watch Uh at that kind of top end for me just Yet hopefully Samsung will be able to Issue some software updates to kind of Improve that experience but ultimately As things stand it's not the one I'd be Going for if I was an Android user [Music]
