Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: We ran with both to see which is best

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are two smartwatches with the same ambition – to be on your wrist when you’re going on long hikes or planning to tackle a triathlon.

Both Samsung and Apple say their Ultra watches are built for serious athletes and come packed with sports watch features like the latest GPS technology, and dedicated sports modes to match up with the best smartwatch you can get on your wrist right now.

If you like the idea of going Ultra, but don’t know the differences between the two, we’ve lived with both to give you the lowdown.

Design

These are smartwatches that will dominate on your wrist. Both offer square-ish looks with the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s case a touch wider than Apple’s. Samsung opts for a round display as opposed to the square one on the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

If you want the slimmest watch, then it’s the Samsung you want. The weights of the Ultras sit around 60g, so the heft is similar and they both use titanium in the case to keep things light but that look remains high grade. The Apple Watch has the bigger 49mm case compared to the 47mm one on the Galaxy Watch with both offering sapphire crystal to protect screens from scratches.

In terms of durability, both have been military tested to MIL-STD 810H standard so they can cope with operating at high altitudes, low temperatures and shock and vibration. You’re getting smartwatches that are water resistant up to 100 metres, though Apple offers a design that’s suitable for recreational scuba diving, which is something the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra lacks.

The screens are two of the best you’ll find on a smartwatch. They’re big, bright, sharp and offer accurate colours with good visibility in bright outdoor light. They also both give you the option to keep the screen on at all times or use responsive raise to wake gestures to keep them running longer between charges.

In terms of buttons, Samsung’s are all down one side of the case with three in total including a crown that acts as the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s quick button to offer speedy access to features like workout tracking, the built-in torch or locking the watch when using it in water. 

Apple uses three buttons as well, though spreads those around the case with a crown that unlike Samsung’s does twist to let you scroll through watch screens. It also keeps its Action button separated from other buttons and like Samsung’s Quick button, can be assigned to work with Apple’s onboard outdoor and sports tracking features.

In addition to that it can be assigned to work with a host of third-party apps, which isn’t the same for Samsung’s Quick button.

There are definitely some similarities in terms of the removable watch straps you have available for both smartwatches.

Apple has official straps designed for outdoor activities like hikes and one dedicated for swimming and diving. It’s a similar story for Samsung, which clearly has been inspired by Apple to offer similar-style straps.

Health and Fitness

Apple and Samsung’s Ultra aim to offer you the best that the companies have to offer in health and fitness tracking. If you want something to track your heart, they can do it. Want something to help you navigate your way home? They can do that too.

In terms of standout health tracking features, both offer ECG sensors to monitor heart rate more accurately than the optical sensors they both also include. Samsung additionally offers blood pressure tracking (once calibrated with a blood pressure monitor) and blood oxygen tracking, which you won’t find on an Apple Watch. It can also track body composition like a smart scale and while there are third party accessories that will allow you to do that on an Apple Watch Ultra 2, it’s not something Apple offers natively. Ultimately, if you want more health tracking, then it’s Samsung that will give you that.

It’s mainly about the sports tracking and outdoor features here, which are likely to be the main reasons you’re going to pick these up. On that front, they match in some areas in terms of features, though the performance of those features hasn’t been quite the same.

You’re getting new dual-band GPS modes on both watches, which is the latest GPS technology aimed at improving accuracy when tracking near tall buildings or heavily wooded areas. 

When we tested the feature at a 10k race in the centre of London, where GPS performance is hampered by the number of tall buildings, the Watch Ultra 2 was much closer to tracking that 10k distance than the Samsung by quite a distance.

We also found that GPS support to be more reliable for the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for other activities like open water swimming, which while not impeccable, did fare better than Samsung in the water.

If you’re looking to these watches for mapping and navigation features, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ultimately offers more on that front. It offers free topographic maps mainly with hiking in mind, though there are plenty of apps that can offer that experience for other sports like running. 

The Galaxy Watch Ultra doesn’t offer mapping, but does offer navigation features like tracking you back to your start and uploading routes via the GPX file format. The navigation experience works well and you have support for apps like Komoot to offer additional support if needed. These mapping and navigation features are a little more integrated with Apple’s Action button than they are with Samsung’s Quick button, which makes the experience a bit more polished overall. Both do offer emergency-style siren modes that can emit a loud noise to raise the alarm if you get into problems on a solo adventure.

Apple also has the upper hand if you’re looking for something to use for recreational scuba diving. There are both native apps and third party apps to elevate that diving experience as well, with that support not found on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Smartwatch Features

For starters, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 only works with iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will only work with Android phones. 

With the Galaxy Watch Ultra, you’re also going to get access to certain features when paired with a Samsung smartphone. So that includes its double pinch gestures and ECG and blood pressure tracking, which requires Samsung’s Health Monitor app to use.

As smartwatches, they are two of the best on that front in terms of the level of features and the execution of notification support, the intuitiveness of the watch software and giving you the best of what smartwatches have to offer.

Samsung relies on Google’s Wear OS 5.0, which isn’t the most radical update to the operating system, but does mean you have access to Android apps like Google Maps, Google Assistant and crucially, the Google Play Store. Apple’s Ultra runs on the latest version of watchOS and similarly offers access to a bustling Apple App Store, great music playback and offline support and similarly is a software that’s easy to get to grips with.

From a performance side of things, both run nice and smooth, though if you want more storage to play with, Apple offers 64GB compared to the 32GB storage on the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Both require having a few apps running on your paired smartphone to get the best out of them. There’s not a lot in it between Apple’s main Watch app and Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app, though Apple’s Fitness app feels a touch slicker than Samsung’s Health one. That being said, Apple’s Health app does still feel a little on the busy side.

Battery Life

When it comes to battery life, Samsung and Apple are touting similar numbers and offering modes to push things further when you’re using them for multi-day events that might put more demands on battery performance. 

Apple states up to 36 hours in normal use and up to 72 hours in a low power mode. In contrast, Samsung says its Ultra should last up to 80 hours with the always-on screen mode turned off and 60 hours with it turned on. It also claims it can last for up to 100 hours in a general power saving mode and up to 48 hours in exercise-focused power saving mode. 

We’ve found in general use the Galaxy Watch can stretch to two days, whereas the Apple Watch Ultra 2 more comfortably gets through two days. It’s also offering more battery in respective power saving modes when you’re using workout tracking features.

Price

These two Ultras are more expensive than their non-Ultra counterparts, so you’re going to be paying the kind of money typically associated with outdoor sports watches from Garmin, Polar and Suunto.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is the cheaper of the two, coming in at $649.99£599, while the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is priced at $799/£799.  Both watches only come in one size option with both offering Bluetooth and LTE connectivity as standard.

Verdict

Putting aside that these are smartwatches that are restricted to the devices they’ll work with and looking at them being smartwatches made for the outdoors and anyone looking for sports watch-like performance, there’s only one winner right now and that’s the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

There’s not too much in it on the design front, with Apple perhaps making better use of its physical buttons. Wear OS 5 runs well on Samsung’s Ultra and gives Android users a rich array of smartwatch features like Apple does but with more health monitoring than Apple’s Ultra.

Where things start to separate is performance and the features Apple and Samsung shout about on the sports and outdoors front. Apple’s support simply works better right now. If you like the idea of an Android-friendly smartwatch that offers some good outdoor and sports tracking, the Galaxy Watch Ultra can offer that. If you want the best pure smartwatch with outdoor and sports tracking, it’s Apple’s Ultra you want.