168 Hour Review Of The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra - Test, Setup & Unboxing
the Galaxy watch Ultra is finally here and it's making a play for the best smartwatch of 2024 and 2025 with this new design new features and new wallet busting price point but is it really all that this is 168 hours with a new Galaxy watch Ultra did anyone else think the Galaxy watch Ultra was giving Apple Vibes when I was unboxing the Galaxy watch 7 Ultra I couldn't help but notice a suspiciously Apple like experience it was very well packaged don't get me wrong and I have to say it was a pleasure to unbox compar to the previous Galaxy watch models anyway I opened up the box and I'm instantly excited the design was dreamy and not just the look but the feel of the watch Ultra felt genuinely premium weighty high-end especially compared to the highly regarded watch 5 Pro at least in my opinion but then upon inspection why is it Square don't get me wrong it looks cool but also it looks a little bit Apple don't you think now I've worked on myself a bit recently and I've tried to drop the Android Fanboy attitude to the whole Apple versus Google War that's going on seriously though I have genuinely come to appreciate many things about the Apple ecosystem but I'd like both Apple and Samsung to stay in their Lanes a little bit and create unique products for themselves aside from that it's actually probably the best design of any Smartwatch I've seen to be honest it's genuinely unique it's exciting and we have the return of the rotating bezel oh that's just cruel isn't it I mean you would think for the obvious cries for its return over the Internet they might have added it in this year especially to what is an ultra Smartwatch anyway I've wiped away my tears and I want to highlight a few really good things about the watch Ultra design first of all three buttons instead of the usual two completely makes sense and aside from the obvious practical benefits it does a lot for the design and overall look too in my opinion the orange on titanium just looks so beautiful and I think you could do some really nice builds with this with some third- party watch straps in cases when they start to release I will actually link a few down below if you're interested and that actually brings me on nicely to the watch strap system I never thought I'd be so hyped for something so insignificant and small Samsung have done a serious job on improving this strap system all all by themselves it's so much easier to use than other generations and they definitely haven't copied anyone at all so I got the ultra set up in less than a minute and it feels great interestingly though I'm not sure if I'm a massive fan of the actual strap itself definitely practical though if you're using it for sports all the time I'll give it that but I thought I might like a more luxury premium look with this watch so I'll definitely be doing some shopping and spending some time setting it up to my preferences now there is one huge point I haven't mentioned yet and that is well it it's huge it comes in at 47 mm which is pretty big when you compare it to the watch 5 Pro for example again which came in at 45 mm 2 mm does make a big difference that that's what I tell myself anyway anyway there are obviously clear differences between the design of the Galaxy watch 7 and Galaxy watch Ultra not much between the Galaxy watch Ultra and the Apple watch Ultra but we we don't talk about that the watch 7 to be honest just looks like the watch 6 and five and a little bit like the watch 4 which is pretty much why I chose the ultra over the standard watch 7 model other reason is I always go for the biggest best shiniest thing I possibly can anyone else like that anyway some other differences we actually get different materials used on the watch 7 and The Watch Ultra we get Titanium with the watch Ultra and aluminum with the watch 7 this could contribute not just to Lux but to some practical aspects of the watch as well for example the 10 ATM waterproofing we get with the watch Ultra compared to the 5 ATM waterproofing on the watch 7 so if you are a serious swimmer maybe the ultra is a better pick and I'll lead on some more comparisons between to shortly so do stay tuned for that fry want to briefly address the elephant in a room and quickly compare it to its unsuspected twin brother the Apple Watch 2 ultra as well compared to the Apple watch Ultra 2 the Galaxy watch Ultra holds its own with a Sleek titanium design in my opinion a larger higher resolution display and impressive Health tracking features like body composition analysis and sleep apnea detection whilst the Apple watch Ultra might have a slightly more polished software experience at a larger app ecosystem the Galaxy watch Ultra offers a compelling alternative for Android users especially those embedded already in the Samsung ecosystem but to be honest the choice ultimately comes down to what kind of phone do you own do you own an iPhone or an Android phone which does bring up an interesting question does the watch 7 Ultra work with iPhone the answer is no since Samsung moved away from tyen you need the Google Play features to operate the watch so I wouldn't even bother if you do own an iPhone another question you might have though is does the watch Ultra work with any Android phone or do you need a Samsung phone the answer is thankfully yes you just need need any Android phone with Android 88.0 or higher and 1.5 GB of available Ram in the meantime let's jump back into setting up the watch it was completely painfree and really easy to do if you're not too tech savvy it should be a smooth experience for you and if memory serves they've actually cut the tutorial down a little bit for the show me around option which I really respect although there is a tutorial I am grateful for the Speedy Ru there are a few things that it didn't include so here are my quick tips to get a great setup from the start with the Galaxy watch Ultra step one gestures and shortcuts first I'd recommend setting up gestures and your buttons quick tip is probably best to do this through the wear app on your phone it will just be quicker and easier to see that way anyway gestures is a new or at least vastly improved feature over the last generation of Galaxy watches you have a couple of different gestures to toggle on here and one that you can map to whatever you want you have the double pinch the shape to dismiss and the knock the knock being the one that you can map to whatever you'd like I will say that after a week with the Galaxy watch Ultra there have been a few accidental toles of the knock gesture when boxing the cat no I'm kidding but it does toggle by itself quite often so it is something to look out for so I would be mindful of what apps you actually map to this gesture as well that being said an obvious one to map to this gesture might be Samsung or Google pay so you can access them quickly on the go when you're at the cafe next we have the shake to dismiss this what it says on the tin really then the double pinch is also used to answer calls take photos control your music and a few other bits using this gesture with a camera control app might be a really good example of where this could come in handy moving on we have have the home button this one can be mapped exactly how you like it I have double press mapped to the calculator app at the moment and then the press and hold for my Google Assistant which I found very useful especially when driving you then have your quick button which is in the middle one I've also mapped this one to start a new running experience so I don't have to scroll through the exercises to set it up you can change this to toggle either on a single press or double press and then there is the option to enable siren as well which is like an SOS feature pressing and holding for 5 seconds will turn this on so do careful with using them finally you have the back button which is down at the bottom this one Can't Be Ma but you do get the option to go to the previous screen or show recent apps you can map it how you like step two Samsung Health settings next I'd recommend heading to the Samsung health section and you've got various settings to toggle but I definitely spend some time setting up the most common exercises under the autod detect section and for the ladies you can toggle the predict period option here as well this will use your skin temperature monitoring to predict when you're about to come on it's a really handy feature you can also enable skin temperature monitoring sleep as well under this tab as well as blood oxygen and store detection which is definitely worth having to get a better understanding of your sleep and get your overall Samsung Health metrics to give you a better idea of your health step three your medical information to help Channel your inner hypochondria Let's Get Serious for a second here just for a second I promise fill out your medical information you never know when a rogue squirrel might attack and having your allergies listed could be the difference between a minor rash or a hospital visit plus you can set up emergency contacts here it's like having a digital guardian angel minus the wings and heart step four most importantly in my opinion find a cool watch face now there has been a Google policy update which is why currently some apps and watch faces are not working with the Galaxy watch 7 and watch Ultra but don't worry in time more and more will become available and you can check out my other watch face videos from the past see if you want some inspiration but I have to say I actually particularly like the default watch face with a new night mode enabled I think it looks really easy to read and it's light on battery consumption to change your watch face simply press and hold on the screen click the add watch face button or select customize to edit the watch face you've currently got on so design and setup on the watch Ultra have been covered but what about the watch Ultra features we now have battery level monitoring and no this is not the battery for your Smartwatch it's for you and don't worry we will be talking about the actual battery later on in the video so basically it will use all the data you give it to determine how much energy you're going to have for the day so for example it will use your sleep activity tracking stress and more to give you a score so the more data you feed it the more accurate it will be so I definitely recommend doing a bit of sleep tracking as I think this is the most essential metric for it to give you a score we also have the addition of multisport tracking personally not something I can see myself using much of at all but if you are a serious athlete this will allow you to track multiple workouts simultaneously so for example if you're doing an Iron Man competition this would allow you to track cycling running and swimming without having to switch over manually also on the ultra you can now race yourself you can use your old times and essentially start being competitive to try and beat those times a little like with the Apple watch coincidentally in all seriousness though a couple of years ago today I was quite fat so I'm actually not sure if this feature was available on the previous versions so do let me know in the comment section if you could do this on the last Galaxy watch now some further changes include a complete redesign of the bioactive sensor this is what drives the heart rate sensor electrical heart rate signal and bio impedance sensor for measuring body composition this has significantly improved the accuracy and efficiency of the watch Ultra but add a small cost the watch Ultra will now no longer be able to make use of the reverse charging feature of newer Samsung phones and you also have to use the included magnetic pck to charge it rather than a Qi charging pad I'm not particularly upset by this as it's a very small price to pay for better metric but you let me know what you think of this down in the comments section furthermore on this point the Galaxy watch Ultra Now features a new ages Index this provides insights into your metabolic Health this is made possible by the redesigned bioactive sensor which utilizes more LED colors than previous model to measure this index automatically whilst you sleep I have to say though I am struggling with this one as there not actually much information on the Samsung Health app about what this is actually doing for me it does say it's still in Samsung Labs mode so hopefully with a couple of updates in the near future we'll get a bit more of an idea of what that is doing for us and it'll be a little bit more streamlined the Galaxy watch 7 and Galaxy watch Ultra have broken new ground in the Smartwatch industry by becoming the first FDA authorized devices to detect sleep apnea by activating the feature in the Samsung health monitor app and wearing the watch for two nights you can gain valuable insights into your sleep health during this time the watch tracks decreases in blood oxygen levels and analyzes the data to identify signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea and this will listen out for you snoring as well there's a lot to go through in terms of health tracking and sensors so I'm sure I'll do a more dedicated video on some of this stuff in the future but for now the long and short of it is both the watch 7 and watch Ultra have much improved accuracy and speed compared to previous models with the bioactive sensor this brings us nicely on to the next question what differences are there between the Galaxy watch 7 and Galaxy watch Ultra and let's just remind ourselves of the price points here Galaxy watch Ultra comes in at around $649 which is the price you pay for a moderately good smartphone these days and the watch 7 comes in at $299 now what could possibly warrant paying double the price of a watch 7 for Galaxy watch Ultra you might be disappointed so you might be expecting a super long list of things the ultra can do that the watch 7 can't but you might be disappointed in fact let's go over the list of the things that are exactly the same first of all we get a touch bezel dual frequency GPS using L1 and L5 bands gestra controls like the double pinch like we spoke about earlier the bioactive sensor is new on both the watches you also have sleep apnea detection the zenos w1000 processor on both watches again and 32 GB of internal storage so how is the ultra any different to the watch 7 well the Galaxy watch 7 is rated at 5 ATM as we said earlier whilst the ultra is rated at 10 ATM for waterproofing 10 ATM meaning it hand with stand pressures up to 50 m interestingly though Samsung say it's not suitable for diving moving on the ultra has LTE on board as standard and then the Galaxy watch 7 comes in two sizes a 40 mm or 44 mm aluminum case whil the ultra comes in with one huge 47 mm size in a titanium case you'll also get a significantly larger battery on the ultra coming in at 590 mAh battery whilst the watch 7 comes with 425 Mah or 300 if you go for the smaller 40 mm option which brings us nicely onto some of the most controversial topics for the Galaxy watch which is the battery life so as the title suggests I've been wearing the watch Ultra for 168 hours or more now go ahead and have it go at me for not just saying a week with the course the exception of charging time so all my personal observations of the battery life from heavy usage with the Galaxy watch Ultra so in a word the battery life is good I think for such a small device we can't expect too much from it and that has always been my prevailing opinion on the Galaxy watch battery life our smartphones will make it for a day in some cases half a day so why should we expect more from a much smaller device that in reality is constantly tracking various Health metrics throughout the day and doing a lot more for us than our smartphones I've been wearing this nonstop for sleep tracking and then General day-to-day use and then adding the odd 5K run in there as well maybe two to three times a week charging seems to be a little faster with the ultra in comparison to previous models so what I've been doing is when I know I'm going to be set at my Des well I'll pop it on charge often not charging it to 100% And then crack on with my day with the watch Ultra on my wrist so basically 30 minutes to an hour a day of charging when I can has kept my watch Ultra alive this whole time I think there was one day where it put itself into watch only mode in the evening but still it didn't completely die so realistically is it going to sort you out if you do end up going say hiking for a couple of days away from civilization and electricity no I wouldn't even quote what Samsung say it can do because that's not really the reality for a lot of people the fact is you could make it stretch using certain settings like the power saving mode for example which will limit heart rate and GPS sensors a little bit and push you to that 2 to 2 and 1 half day Mark and then of course with watch only mode you'll get much much more than that but to be honest at that point you might as well be wearing a kids watch cuz all it's going to do is tell the time in terms of actual metrics there's not much information offered in the settings tab but when fully charged to 100% my settings tab is telling me that I'm going to get one day and 9 hours of charge which I actually think is pretty spot-on remember I'm not taking this off at night time and it is tracking my sleep skin temperature heart rate etc etc and it's still ready for the next day if I were to turn on power saving mode which turns things like Wi-Fi wakeup gesture always on display off it will bring it to that 2 Days and 7 hours which isn't bad at all so aside from sleep what else can the watch Ultra track so we do have the return of body composition this will track your water muscle and fat percentages in conjunction with the data you inputs like your weight and height this will also help Samsung Health give you a better better suggestion and more accurate results on how many calories you're burning during a workout for example so a really important one to do when you do get your watch for the first time we also have the return of the blood pressure and ECG or EKG I believe it's called in the US this has had a noticeable Improvement now only need to have one finger placed on it and you don't have to open your phone anymore so it's so much easier and quicker to do on the Fly I've actually lined up an interview with a doctor from Oxford in a couple of weeks time so I'm hoping that they're going to be able to go into a little bit more detail about all important bits the watch Ultra can do for us so definitely make sure you subscribed and got the notification bells on for that next we also have the menr tracker which has been on the Galaxy watch for a while now but it has had a bit of a visual overhaul you can now add it as a tile if you want to and once you click on it it will ask you to input the dates for your last period in Samsung Health on your phone followed by how long your cycle usually is and then after you've done all this it will give you a detailed breakdown of predicted ovulation predicted fertility window and predicted Next Period it can also make use of the new skin temperature reading to help you better predict your periods as well this feature obviously has benefits for couples trying for kids too so it could be a great way to help with that next we also have hard full detection so if you are in your wiser years or have bought this watch for someone who's potentially vulnerable I definitely recommend putting on this feature feel free to rewind this clip a couple of times to learn how to do that now working fulltime and trying to YouTube is difficult to say the least and if I'm perfectly honest I do not get that much free time so I haven't really had the opport Unity to test out all of the exercise features but I have tested the running out extensively as that's what I'm working on at the moment and boy am I impressed the level of detail it goes into is really impressive and short anecdote for you my partner who is a keen marathon runner has been saying for a while now that I'm extremely heavy footed and interestingly if we do look at the metrics that the Galaxy watch Ultra gave me it confirmed that while it's already surprised by the amount of information available I thought it was even more impressive that he gave me exercise suggestions on how to improve my form can't say it's worked yet but I'm still working on it next Up Performance the new zenos w1000 keeps the watch ultra running it really smoothly in my opinion ABS load quickly swiping between screens is Snappy and I haven't experienced any lag or slowdown even during intensive workouts the watch keeps up without a hitch which is exactly what we want in comparison to other models like the watch 5 Pro I'd say it's definitely the most fluid smooth experience I've ever had on a smartwatch I did say the watch 5 Pro was smooth but after a year or two it has started to slow slow down significantly likely due to all the watch face episodes I've done to be fair but it would be interesting to see if the watch 7 Ultra slows down in the same way considering it does have a little bit of extra storage and memory a key driver in how a watch performs is down to its software the watch 7 Ultra runs were OS 5 and Samsung's one UI 6 and I'm absolutely loving it I've noticed a few handy tiles most noticeably the battery tile which shows not only watch battery but phone and earbuds too if you have them all connected and then there's the weather tole this is all also been improved and had a visual overhaul much like most of the tiles here actually we also have new tiles for your ages index which I'm still getting my head round to be honest and then of course your multisport workout mode other than that everything seems very familiar with only subtle changes to things like the settings and the app draw but most noticeably it's a performance that's had the Improvement whether this is down to a better optimized Os or physical attributes like the processor I'm not sure but we'll definitely revisit this in a couple of months now was I have no doubt for most of you this feature might be a little bit of a gimmick but the Galaxy watch Ultra actually comes with a microphone and speaker installed so you can of course make and receive calls directly from the watch and if you did install a SIM card you don't even need to have your phone nearby with you now before we do a mic test the speakers I just wanted to say that they actually seem like they've improved they're obviously not audio file quality for obvious reasons but they certainly aren't half bad and they seem a lot less tinny compared to the previous versions and the microphone the microphone isn't half bad I can't imagine you'll be using this for long conversations but in a tight spot it will do the job so the big question should you buy a watch Ultra now before I answer that I want something from you without reading anybody else's opinions write down just based off this review and your initial Impressions what you think of the watch Ultra before hearing me out so should you buy it in a word yes I said it before I'm a sucker for new shiny things but the Galaxy watch Ultra design has really got me here I love it despite usually preferring a more luxury design I think it just looks so good on your wrist on on top of this I do believe that Samsung have given us the most versatile watch of any generation of Galaxy watches there something for everyone here and I have more confidence in the watch Ultra that it will last a longer time without getting slow I like that they offer LTE as standard rather than having to choose between different versions and paying more money out I also love that the new Apple watch strap design sorry Galaxy watch strap design is so much better than previous versions and much easier to set up and adjust I can't follow the overall functionality of the watch and it is still unique in some aspects I think Samsung could have done a better job of being a little bit different and unique or at least trying to be a little bit more subtle when pinching ideas for example the rotating bezel was a much loved feature of previous Galaxy watches and something patented by Samsung if I was making a watch for Samsung I'd definitely build on this kind of innovation so with that out of the way I would definitely buy a watch Ultra and for the first time in a couple of years of doing reviews I would actually recommend upgrading to a watch Ultra I know it's super expensive but there's just something about it to me that just feels like it's got almost everything in it I will Circle back to this in around a month or so but really important topic first watch faces now obviously we have this policy update from Google at the moment which is stopping people from installing things but definitely click in the left or right corner now to have a look at some of the watch faces you can potentially install in the coming weeks now though I've been Alex this has been te easy thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one
2024-08-04 18:08
