Samsung’s first Ultra Galaxy smartwatch is official and it’s a beast

Samsung's first Ultra-branded smartwatch became official at Unpacked 2024 moments ago, and boy, there is indeed a lot to unpack. This new Galaxy Watch Ultra comes with all the bells and whistles of the Galaxy Watch 7, including the latest BioActive Sensor. But, in addition, it boasts exclusive fitness and design features, better water resistance, Titanium elements, and a few other extra goodies.Summarize in one-click with Galaxy AI

Starting with the new BioActive Sensor, Samsung improved it by doubling the performance of each photodiode. This upgrade allowed the company to fit additional and more varied LEDs into the sensor, including blue, yellow, violet, and ultraviolet LEDs.

Through a combination of improved, more varied, and more cleverly arranged diodes, the new BioActive Sensor can track better and across a broader array of health metrics.

According to Samsung, the new sensor can track sleep quality, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and stress levels with higher precision. Even the accuracy of heart rate measurements during intensive workouts is now 30% higher.

As for new capabilities, the upgraded BioActive Sensor employed by the Galaxy Watch Ultra (and Watch 7) enables things like the Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index, which Samsung says is an indicator of metabolic health and biological aging influenced by dietary habits and lifestyle.

Samsung's new smartwatch can track over 100 workouts, boasts a new Race mode that lets you compare current and past performance, and introduces new advanced AI algorithms for sleep analysis. It also features the De Novo FDA-Authorized Sleep Apnea tool and atrial fibrillation notifications.

Aside from boasting top-tier health and fitness tracking, the Galaxy Watch Ultra ships with the latest Wear OS 5 update, which introduces novel features like Double Pinch Gesture controls and Suggested Replies powered by Galaxy AI.

Better location tracking and water resistance

If you've ever disliked the sometimes-varying location accuracy of previous Samsung smartwatches, you might be happy to learn that the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7 are the first to employ a dual-frequency GPS system (L1 + L5).

In theory, at least, this should result in more accurate location tracking, which makes sense, given that Samsung now has a Race Mode that requires more precise location to work. Race Mode only works if users stay on the recorded path with a 10% or lower deviation.

In a more practical sense, Samsung's first Ultra smartwatch differs from the rest of the pack through its improved durability. Samsung says it built the Ultra watch to help users push limits and go further than ever.

It boasts 10ATM water resistance instead of 5ATM. It has an IP68 rating and was designed to operate in a wider range of altitudes, from 500 meters below the sea to 9,000 meters above sea level. The Ultra smartwatch can withstand temperatures ranging from -20 to 55 degrees Celsius.

As far as the choice of building materials goes, the Galaxy Watch Ultra employs Grade 4 Titanium for some of its exterior bits and pieces, such as the back cover area of the metal frame. Samsung says that the “remaining parts of the frame” are made from a mix of Grade 2 Titanium and plastic.

Unique to the Galaxy Watch Ultra, there's a new Quick Button in addition to the existing two navigation buttons. This Quick Button allows users to initiate and control workouts or assign other functions. The button can also activate an Emergency Siren feature, which can emit a sound of up to 85 decibels.

Improved performance and other specifications

In terms of raw hardware specifications, once again, the Galaxy Watch Ultra does not disappoint. It sports a 1.5-inch 480 x 480 Super AMOLED display covered by Sapphire Crystal protection. And more importantly, this new panel can go as bright as 3,000 nits, which makes it very readable even in bright environments.

We continue the story after our Galaxy Watch Ultra hands-on video…

Another new great and promising thing about the Galaxy Watch Ultra is the new Exynos W1000 5-core 3nm chip. It has a 3x faster CPU and Samsung says it is 30% more power efficient than the previous chip.

This gained power-efficiency works hand-in-hand with a large 590mAh battery to deliver up to 100 hours of usage in Power Saving mode and 48 hours in Exercise Power Saving, according to Samsung.

Other specs and upgrades include 2GB of RAM, 32GB of local storage, Bluetooth 5.3, LTE, Wi-Fi 2.4+5GHz, and NFC connectivity.

If you're interested in this new Ultra smartwatch from Samsung, can now pre-order yours online. It will officially go on sale on July 24. All these extra features and tons of improvements, however, come with a price. The Galaxy Watch Ultra starts at $649. Hit the pre-order button below for more details.