To test I had to take off my Apple Watch Ultra 2 (8/10, WIRED Recommended) because I was wearing a Galaxy Watch Ultra with just 2 days left until the preliminary 28-day training load analysis was complete. Training Load is a new feature in WatchOS 11 that uses cumulative calorie measurement data like heart rate, pace, effort, and age to measure whether your efforts are improving your fitness performance. It was frustrating to be so close and not finish. However, I’ve tried this feature before, so it wasn’t as frustrating as I thought it would be. Garmin has had a training load feature for years.
In the race to build the most feature-rich smartphone-enabled outdoor smartwatch, Apple is clearly winning. The Apple Watch Ultra’s design is visually striking; the software is better, with more sports like diving, improved algorithms like training load, and a better UI. It’s also hilarious how closely the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s design mimics Apple’s, with a safety orange band that looks just like Apple’s Ocean Band ($99) and a quick button on the side that can be assigned functions like Apple’s action button. There’s also a gesture-based feature that’s very similar to double tap, called (still hilarious) double pinch.
That said, Samsung has the resources to quickly catch up, and I didn’t find any major flaws, so if you’re a happy Android user and want the experience of wearing an Apple Watch Ultra, this is a decent start — and it’s only going to get better.
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The Galaxy Watch Ultra is very beautiful. Although it doesn’t have as many eye-catching features as the Apple Watch Ultra, its design is reminiscent of the look of premium Garmin and Coros watches. It’s a 47mm smartwatch, so it’s a bit smaller than the Watch Ultra’s 49mm case, but… feel It’s larger because it’s a square rather than a rectangle.
It has a titanium case with a sapphire glass dial, is water resistant to 10 ATM (enough to withstand 100 meters of water pressure) and IP68, and can withstand altitudes of up to 9,000 meters and temperatures of up to 131 degrees. While I didn’t get a chance to summit a Colorado 14er during my testing, the watch worked fine (it didn’t) when I was foolish enough to go out on my bike to run some errands in sweltering heat and temperatures well over 100 degrees.
Photo: Adrian So
My biggest gripe with these smartwatches-turned-extreme fitness trackers is battery life. The Watch Ultra lasted just over two days, which is great for a smartwatch but still a lot less than your average weekend camping trip will require. Every other day, it took me three hours to charge the watch from 10-15 percent. With power-saving mode on, the watch can last up to three to five days. I like being able to tinker with the settings to determine what to turn off and what to leave on to extend battery life.
Samsung says the watch has new and improved bioactive sensors that improve the accuracy of the heart rate sensor and other new health metrics, which is remarkably consistent with what I’m tracking with my Oura ring: For example, when Oura said my heart rate was 69, the real-time reading on the Galaxy Watch Ultra was 70.
Another new feature is the AGE Index. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra can measure advanced glycation end products (AGEs). (Diagnoptics is the company developing this tool, which measures this via a light source that excites certain fluorescent or molecular moieties on the skin.) The AGE Index is important because it can help predict your risk of diabetes and stroke. Currently, most people do this with a more invasive blood test called A1C.
