Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra2 Arrives Slimmer, Brighter, and Ready for Longer Days Outside

Samsung revealed the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 today at its Galaxy Unpacked event in London, and the watch delivers meaningful upgrades in the places that matter most for people who wear one hard. It keeps the familiar 47mm titanium squircle shape while becoming 12 percent thinner, packing a much larger battery, and jumping to a display bright enough to stay readable under direct sun. Preorders open immediately, with general availability set for August 7.

Samsung managed to reduce the thickness to 10.7mm while maintaining the weight at 61.5 grams, despite the fact that the battery size has more than doubled. The titanium body remains rock tough and shockproof, but the watch’s new trim profile allows it to nearly glide onto your wrist, due to a band redesign. They now have an air-pocket construction, which not only makes them 26% lighter but also helps them shed perspiration and water far more efficiently. The colors have gone a little more simple, more specifically Titanium Silver and Titanium Grey.

The display on the 1.52-inch Super AMOLED LCD has been increased to a staggering 5,000 nits, which appears to be the brightest of any smartwatch. The resolution has increased to 498 by 498 pixels, and it is housed inside a sapphire crystal cover. When you’re out trekking and the sun is shining, the screen still appears beautiful without requiring you to bother with the settings. Because of the increased brightness headroom, the always-on mode runs well.


The battery has been increased to a respectable 800 mAh, marking a 35% increase over the previous Ultra’s 590 mAh cell. Samsung claims that if the always-on display is turned on, the watch can last up to 60 hours. Continuous GPS should last roughly 20 hours, while GPX route tracking can last up to 16 hours in power-saving mode. Wireless charging only takes roughly 30 minutes to charge the watch to about 40%, and the increased battery capacity, along with the speedier new processor, means the Ultra should now be able to endure through multi-day travels without requiring daily topping ups.


Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, which is built on a 3nm technology, has replaced the previous Exynos processor. This new penta-core configuration provides smoother app performance, faster GPS locking, and more powerful on-device AI processing. Dual-frequency L1+L5 GPS also improves the watch’s ability to track your whereabouts on hikes and in dense woodland. Storage remains 64 GB with 2 GB of RAM, and the watch runs Wear OS 7 with Samsung’s One UI 9 Watch software.


All of these new features have been rated as pretty solidly built, and the case earns itself a very healthy IP69K protection against dust and high-pressure water jets, a whopping 10 ATM water resistance for depths up to 100 meters, plus the usual MIL-STD-810H military testing, and just to make the point, the watch is also EN13319 certified as a dive watch. There is an auto mode for divers that starts recording your depth, elapsed time, and water temperature as soon as you enter the water. Later this year, Mares will release a new diving app that will provide ascension and descent speeds as well as safe dive limitations, but it appears that it will only be available on the Ultra2 for the first two years.


New workout modes focus on tools that individuals utilize in real-world outdoor conditions. Trail Run mode displays live elevation data, climbing progress, and terrain impact, allowing you to modify your pace while on the move. There’s also a Nutrition Alert function that calculates how much fluid you’ve lost from perspiration and your body weight and reminds you to replenish throughout longer workouts; the best part is that they operate with all of the existing 100-plus Samsung Health exercise modes.


The BioActive sensor array enhances health tracking by monitoring your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, body composition, ECG, and skin temperature, providing you with a rather comprehensive view of your vital indicators. The sleep apnea risk detection has already received FDA approval, and with just two nights of data, it has you covered. Vitals monitoring is an important function because it monitors the baseline as you sleep and alerts you when things begin to go wrong. Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load, Fitness Index, AGEs Index, and antioxidant readings all contribute to a very comprehensive daily snapshot of how you’re doing, plus fall detection and Emergency SOS are still available. The safety siren has a fair 86 decibel rating and a range of approximately 180 meters.


The price has risen somewhat, with the LTE variant being priced at $699 in the United States, which is a bit higher than before. Preorders began today, and on August 7th, shipments will land both at homes and in stores. You have a choice of three specialty band styles with plenty of color variations.