The new bezel makes for smooth and fluid movements when swiping along the inner periphery to reach any of the tiles rapidly. Otherwise, navigation remains as usual: swipe down for a quick menu, swipe up for apps, swipe left-to-right for notifications, and swipe right-to-left for tiles. This is a WearOS watch, meaning that it uses Google’s operating system for watches and has a good app ecosystem from the Google Play Store. The watch supports all standard functions that smartwatches have become known for - and more.

There are three buttons on the side, the middle one being the quick button that brings up workout modes, though it can be assigned for other actions as well. The top button brings you back to the home watch face from any screen. The lower button is essentially the back button and takes you back one step at a time in whichever app or screen you were using. A long press of the lower button is configured to the Samsung wallet. A long press of the middle button (quick button) for 5 seconds also brings up a siren, which is high-pitched and loud at 80+ dB, and audible up to 180 metres away to announce an emergency. The watch also supports a series of gestures. Double-pinch, shake, etc. There are even tutorials on the watch to make sure you get these right.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra works on Samsung’s Exynos W1000 (3 nm) with 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. It’s very fast and fluid. It’s also very accurate with all that it measures. Set side by side with other watches, like the Apple Watch, there’s barely a difference in various readings as well as essentials like GPS.

An ‘Ultra’ watch is expected to be configured for users who are sporty, athletic, or at least those who take care not to lead a sedentary life and who take activity seriously. It’s also for those who want to better their performance at various sports. The watch supports several workout types and even has a multi-sport mode to be used when an activity is completed, and one moves on to the next. This is automatically tracked. The workouts tried out and tracked included, treadmill, walking, bike indoor, circuit training and weight machines. All were tracked accurately. You can also make your own routine, and add both targets and breaks. Earlier versions of the timer on Galaxy watches did not support seconds - only hours and minutes, but now it supports seconds as well. Timers also support presets so you can craft a workout right down to the second.

Health is one of the main focus areas of the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and it comes packed with health options. All the standard ones are there, of course: ECG, blood oxygen, stress, cycle tracking. Also added now are blood pressure, though you are asked to calibrate it with an actual blood pressure monitor initially. After that, it’s quite accurate. Detection for sleep apnea has also been added. Samsung has also introduced an Energy Score, similar to what is available on Garmin watches and this gives you an overall score for body readiness and fitness. There is also a new AGEs score, which is currently an experimental feature and more than a bit confusing as users don’t know how to interpret it.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra

Galaxy Watch Ultra: Big, bold and accurate