Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra hands-on: ultra déjà vu

Last month, Samsung announced a cheaper, entry-level Galaxy Watch FE. And today, it announced a refreshed $299.99 Galaxy Watch 7 and the all-new $649.99 Galaxy Watch Ultra. It doesn’t instrumentality a genius to spot that Samsung’s taking a leafage from Apple’s smartwatch playbook — and obscurity is that much evident than with the caller Ultra.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro arsenic the premium smartwatch successful Samsung’s lineup. Like that watch, this 1 caters to the outdoor athlete. But whereas the Pro had its ain chiseled vibe, the Ultra isn’t precisely hiding wherever it got its inspiration from.

I’m not exaggerating oregon being a hater, either. It’s successful the name! Apple Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch Ultra. Everything astir this ticker is reminiscent of Apple’s. Samsung says this is its astir durable ticker yet, with 10ATM of h2o resistance, an IP68 rating, a titanium case, and a sapphire crystal lens. There’s a caller orangish Quick Button that launches shortcuts to the workout app, flashlight, h2o lock, and a fewer different options. (There is simply a batch of orangish styling.) It’s got a caller lug strategy for attaching straps that looks an atrocious batch similar Apple’s, too.

Speaking of caller straps, determination are present options that cater to runners, hikers, and swimmers. The surface is brighter, going up to 3,000 nits. It’s got dual-frequency GPS, you tin instrumentality it diving, and there’s a caller multisport enactment profile. There’s a Night Mode for your watchface that turns everything reddish truthful it’s easier to work astatine night. There are caller power-saving modes that get you up to 100 hours of artillery wide and up to 48 hours of exercise. There’s a caller Functional Threshold Power metric for cyclists. Runners get a caller Race diagnostic that lets you comparison existent and past performance. Did I notation there’s an 85dB exigency siren, too? (I heard it — it does get rather loud.)

That’s not needfully a atrocious thing! There hasn’t truly been a 1-to-1 equivalent for the Apple Watch Ultra successful the Android space. Garmins are great, but they’re lacking successful the astute features and third-party app department. Samsung is conscionable filling a niche. Also, it’s $150 cheaper. Can’t reason with that.

It’s besides not wholly just to telephone this an Apple Watch Ultra knockoff. Samsung does bring its ain flavor. The 47mm titanium lawsuit is simply a squircle shape. Next to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the squircle signifier was chonkier overall. I had mixed feelings arsenic to the benignant — I miss the rotating bezel! Yet it does look chiseled and is wearable adjacent connected my smaller wrist. Furthermore, portion there’s nary carnal rotating bezel, Samsung did see its signature integer interaction bezel. That’s a bully thing, arsenic portion the Quick Button looks and rotates similar a integer crown, it doesn’t really scroll. That threw maine for a loop, but I ideate it’s simply thing to get utilized to.

As for the Galaxy Watch 7... well, it’s here. I’m lone fractional kidding. Design-wise, nothing’s changed too immoderate caller strap colors. The sizes are the same, arsenic are the artillery sizes and price. But speech from signifier origin and durability, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra stock astir of the aforesaid interior hardware and bundle updates, too.

For instance, they some get the upgrade to Wear OS 5 and One UI 6 Watch. Both athletics a caller 3nm Exynos W1000 spot with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. They some person LTE, accelerated charging, and dual-frequency GPS. On apical of the accustomed sensors, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra besides person an upgraded Samsung BioActive Sensor for improved bosom rate, EKG, and assemblage creation analysis. The gist is the new BioActive Sensor adds much LEDs and much colors of LEDS — blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet, to beryllium specific. That mostly adds a caller experimental Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index metric, which Samsung says takes a look astatine your “diet and lifestyle” to bespeak your wide biologic aging process. (Aside from confirming that this does not notation to humor glucose, that’s astir arsenic wide arsenic Samsung got.)

As with the Galaxy Ring, some watches besides get Galaxy AI-powered features similar Energy Score and Wellness Tips. The erstwhile is akin to readiness metrics recovered connected different wellness trackers, portion the second offers personalized insights based connected your wellness tracking data.

The biggest happening is, this year, Samsung announced the 2 watches person FDA De Novo clearance for slumber apnea detection. That’s a large deal, arsenic this is an industrywide first. Basically, it uses your slumber tracking information to show slumber disruptions indicative of mean to terrible slumber apnea. Just due to the fact that this diagnostic is FDA-cleared doesn’t mean it’s intended arsenic a diagnostic tool. It conscionable means the FDA has classified it arsenic a low-to-moderate hazard instrumentality that doesn’t person a precedent and is harmless for its intended use. Rather, you’re meant to instrumentality that accusation and consult your healthcare provider.

At the extremity of my hands-on, neither the Galaxy Watch 7 nor the Ultra blew maine away. In each case, I hadn’t truly seen thing truly new. But, that’s besides my reviewer privilege speaking. Of people I privation the Galaxy Watch Ultra felt a spot much unsocial — astatine slightest successful presumption of plan — but it’s similar I said: determination wasn’t truly an Apple Watch Ultra equivalent for Android. Now determination is. So agelong arsenic Samsung’s Ultra holds up successful testing, that’s yet a bully thing.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra are disposable for preorder starting contiguous and volition beryllium mostly disposable from July 24th.