The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is more watch than most of us need

Ever since it launched in 2024, the Galaxy Watch Ultra has been Samsung’s go-everywhere, do-everything rugged smartwatch. The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 very much goes the same distance, diving down to 40 meters, built to take on dust and water jets, accompanying you on a hike and some well-deserved sleep thereafter, and if you fancy it, letting you chat with Gemini on your wrist. Or for the less adventurous, track your vitals, buzz you when you get a notification, and look darn good on your wrist. And hopefully not demand a charge every night.

Out of the box, the Ultra 2 looks rather like its predecessor, and that’s not a bad thing. The chunky yet premium titanium case, circular display and squared-off cushion shape give it considerably more personality than the usual round smartwatch. But there’s no denying it’s still a big watch, with the 47mm case and 61.5g weight making their presence felt on your wrist, particularly if you’re coming from a regular Galaxy or Apple Watch. Crucially, it’s thinned down 12 per cent to 10.7mm (despite a bump in battery capacity), which makes an outsized difference in everyday wear and if you intend to wear it overnight. Build is still as high quality as ever, with the sapphire crystal on the front, a ceramic back panel and a grade 4 titanium frame. One oddity: despite the markings on the bezel, it still doesn’t rotate, and you’re left to swipe around the interface.

Speaking of which, that 1.52-inch Super AMOLED display is sharp and colourful, but the real party trick is the 5000 nit peak brightness – what sounds downright overkill for a lazy afternoon indoors suddenly feels a lot more useful if you step out into the brutal mid-afternoon sun. You’re no longer squinting to check the time or your notifications, and for runners, hikers or cyclists who spend a lot of time outdoors, this is a true quality of life upgrade. Elsewhere, Samsung has moved away from its Exynos platform to Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear Elite, which, when paired with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on the Ultra 2, keeps everything smooth, from scrolling through notifications to jumping between fitness tracking and apps. One wouldn’t expect anything less from a flagship wearable, but it’s nice to see Wear OS 7 and Samsung’s One UI 9 Watch absolutely fly on your wrist. With dual-frequency GPS, LTE, NFC and Wi-Fi, it comes equally equipped in the connectivity department, plus there's Gemini, which you can now summon with Samsung's Raise to Talk gesture. An AI assistant on your wrist sounds gimmicky until you soon find out just how helpful and convenient it is to ask your watch something while your hands are otherwise occupied.

But if you’re putting down this much cash on a wearable, it has to get health tracking spot on, and the Watch Ultra does well here, tracking your heart rate, blood oxygen, skin temperature, ECG, sleep tracking, body composition, sleep-apnoea detection, Energy Score, Vitals and more. Instead of merely dumping numbers on you, Samsung is increasingly trying to interpret all those numbers rather than simply dumping them on you. Vitals, for instance, establishes your personal baseline and flags unusual changes across several health measurements, and feeds into your Daily Cardio Load, which then recommends how much cardio you should attempt each day based on your recent activity and recovery.

Despite its slimmed down dimensions, the Ultra 2’s 800mAh battery is a whole 35% larger than before, which lets moderate users go into three-day territory with the Ultra 2, even with sleep tracking. This is not a device you need to charge every day, which is just as well – each charge takes a full hour and 45 minutes for a full charge (you do get 40% in 30 minutes, though).

At ₹64,999, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is firmly in premium watch territory, but you’re getting your money’s worth with the build quality, exceptional display, battery endurance and all the fitness hardware that most likely can’t even use! Highly recommended for the runner, cyclist or the genuinely outdoorsy types, or those who aspire to get the best ultra-level Wear OS smartwatches to pair with your Samsung smartphone.

Rating: 8/10

Price: ₹64,999

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