The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra2 is not just a smartwatch, it’s designed for the most active among us. This thing will track your marathon I assume, let alone your deep sea dive and remote hike.

That’s the kind of thing these companies mean when they say “Ultra”.

However, your reviewer here could not be described as anything close to ultra. In fact, I’m the opposite. I’m less than the average guy, doing less than the average person, but I do love a watch.

Probably the most attractive thing for me about the Samsung Galaxy Watch 2 is its size. This is a chunky watch. Ultra watches from various companies are the biggest of the range, and Samsung is no different. However, this year’s Ultra from Samsung is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and for me, that’s a big win.

One of my criticisms of the previous Ultra was that it just didn’t feel overwhelmingly comfortable. I never could really put my finger on exactly what it was, but it was something to do with the way it interacted with my wrist during movement, and it just didn’t feel perfectly comfortable.

All that is forgiven with the Walsh Ultra 2. This thing just feels great on the wrist, not because of its size, I don’t think. I think it’s because of the new band. This thin, very flexible rubber band has so many levels of adjustment that when you feel like you’re about to get to the hole that is the fit for you, you can probably go one more and get a tighter, snugger fit without feeling like it’s trying to strangle your wrist.

Battery Life

Now, when I talk about battery life, it should be noted that, for the true ultra wearer (someone who is going to be doing GPS tracking of long runs or walks in nature), you’re not going to get the battery life that I got. My baseline for this watch was if I wore this as my watch, a watch that I like the look of, a watch that I want the notifications from, a watch that I want to use to track my sleep. What sort of battery life could I expect.

It’s one of my main criticisms of smart watches: if they can’t last more than a day, how am I meant to wear them for sleep.

Here’s the thing: the battery life is exceptional. I would say safely three nights and two days of normal use is well within the range of the battery of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.

Of course, if you do a lot of activities or workouts within that, you’ll probably see less. Maybe it’s a two-day, two-night watch. Regardless, what I think is the right move is potentially charging this during your downtime, whether it’s when you’re showering or whether it’s when you’re fixed to your desk for a reasonable duration and you know that you can spend that time charging.

I was fascinated, though, that the fast charge wasn’t quite as fast as I thought it might be. I plugged it in and saw the fast charge notification appear on the screen and thought, “Well, this is going to be good,” but it was still estimating over an hour to get that fast charge. That seems a little strange given it’s such a small battery, but I guess packed into that tiny little package of a watch, there’s a lot of safety and thought that goes into designing the charge mechanism. Of course, it is wirelessly charging.

Sleep Monitoring

I’m not sure a watch is the best method of monitoring your sleep. Personally, I’d prefer to be using a mattress monitor or a smart ring. Of course, Samsung has a smart ring for that very purpose, among other features that it has. For the purpose of this review, I went all in and I used the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 to monitor my sleep.

I didn’t find it uncomfortable at all in bed. I’ve never worn a watch to bed. It doesn’t feel like a comfortable thing to do. Also, most smartwatches need to be charged at night because it’s the only time you’re not using them. That’s still a challenge for this watch because, with an hour or so of charge time, that’s not exactly a charge-in-the-shower kind of moment. I think if you take those moments during your day to charge and you’re keen on sleep monitoring, then you’ll prioritize those charging opportunities.

What I can say is the data that I see in the Samsung Health app for my sleep is excellent. Not my actual sleep score, which is poor in most cases, but I did have one good night’s sleep, according to Samsung. It shows actual sleep time, deep sleep, REM sleep, and awake time, as well as sleep latency. As is frustrating to my wife, my sleep latency is very short. I am head down and asleep very quickly. The sleep stages graph is familiar for anyone who’s done any sort of sleep tracking, and it’s very handy to see how you slept and what your recollection of your sleep was.

Of course, a watch of this caliber with this many sensors is doing a whole lot more: blood oxygen monitoring, skin temperature monitoring, heart rate monitoring, even respiratory rate. It’s a lot of information for you, most of which you don’t really need to see, which is why they bundle up a sleep score for you.

Then there’s snoring. You can monitor your snoring.

It’s important to note it’s not actually a watch doing the snoring detection. It’s your phone charging on the bedside, listening for those moments. If your phone’s not charging, it’s not monitoring your snoring.

By the way, if you’re having an argument with your wife about snoring, don’t turn this feature on. It will be very, very humbling.

That Screen

How many times have you read a review of a TV, a tablet, a phone, and you’ve seen brightness measured in nits? What does that even mean? Well, what matters is that it’s a measurement and you can compare different things. This Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is rated at 5,000 nits of brightness, up from 3,000 on the previous generation. In fact, the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 has 3,000 nits of brightness, so this thing is something special.

Samsung say it’s the brightest screen on any smartwatch in the world, and I’ve got to believe that.

What’s most fascinating to me is that it’s not actually just how bright the screen is. It’s how smart the screen is at using its brightness. I walked the streets of London this week, bright sunny skies, and was blown away by the screen. Interestingly, later on I was in a shaded area under tall buildings and didn’t feel like the screen was as bright as it was earlier. Some sort of ambient light sensor at work, no doubt, because as I walked into the sun and looked at the watch, the brightness was again at its peak.

I don’t think I can understate how impressive the screen brightness is. I guess when you’re used to looking at a normal analog watch and the screen or the dial is as bright as the day around you, you expect the same from a smartwatch, but we haven’t gotten that from any product. This watch has a stunning screen, probably its most impressive feature. Certainly the most impressive one I’ll ever use, given my lack of enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Overall thoughts

At $1,299, this is not cheap. It’s not a cheap watch, but anyone that criticises the prices of a smart watch like this doesn’t understand watches. This is an affordable watch in the general market. For what it has, the features it offers, it’s excellent value and, of course, on par with other similarly-focused watches out there. Some of the biggest brands in the world are targeting this segment: the people who are active, the people that are training, the people that are running, the people that are diving. It’s a critical market.

A watch for many, particularly men, is about the only option they have of choosing a fashion statement or having a style choice outside of their general bland wardrobe. While the watch I’m wearing is the hero-colored green, I think some of the bright colors that Samsung offers in the Watch Ultra 2 are very impressive options for people. Of course, the band is interchangeable, so very easy to choose and mix it up as you need.

I’m a big fan of this watch. Of course, it’s made for Samsung phones and for Samsung phone owners. That’s its target market. I do wish one day we could get to a place where it didn’t matter what ecosystem you used, and the products just all work together.

Owners of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra first generation will be absolutely desperate to get their hands on this watch. It’s thinner, it’s lighter, it’s got a vastly improved screen and outstanding battery life. It’s a winner from Samsung.