The Galaxy Watch Ultra is Samsung’s most rugged watch yet, but in my first three days wearing it, I’ve been more impressed by the features that aren’t that related to extreme sports. It brings some fun things like gesture controls and potentially life-saving health tools like sleep apnea detection to the world of Android smartwatches.
It’s not all roses, though. There are plenty of things I’m not too happy about on the Ultra, like Samsung removing the option for reverse wireless charging from a Galaxy phone. That’s because the new bioactive sensor protrudes more than on older watches, so it can’t sit flush against the back of a phone. And the new AGEs index (advanced glycation end products), which can give you a sense of metabolic health, is just confusing.
But the $650 Galaxy Watch Ultra has plenty of improvements on older Galaxy Watches, which I’m hoping will make up for these in the long run. Here are my three favorite things so far about the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Stay tuned for my full review.
Watch this: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra: First 48 Hours 05:16
Sleep apnea detection
The Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7 are the first Samsung watches to get FDA authorized sleep apnea detection. It tracks how many relative decreases in blood oxygen you have during sleep over a two-night period. It then analyzes this data to see if it indicates moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.
This is what the notification looks like from the Samsung Health Monitor app. Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET
Note that this is a feature only available to Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7 owners who also have a Galaxy phone. You’ll need the Samsung Health Monitor app (which also powers the ECG readings) and that’s only available to download from the Galaxy Store. Sleep apnea detection is also coming to earlier, compatible devices like the Galaxy Watch 5 and 6 later this year.
After wearing the watch to bed for two nights, I got an alert on my phone within a few hours of waking up on the second morning. The Galaxy Watch Ultra didn’t detect signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, which was a relief to see. But I did a sleep study earlier in the year at Stanford University as part of a bigger story around sleep and tech which didn’t show sleep apnea, so I would have been surprised if the watch gave me a positive result.
The Quick button is great, but the gestures are even better
Samsung watches had Universal Gestures in WearOS 4 last year. This lets you use pinch actions to scroll through menus, or make a fist to select an option.
But the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7 go one step further and make gestures easier to find within the Settings > Buttons and gestures menu in WearOS 5. I’m loving the knock knock gesture, which as the name implies, lets you make a knocking motion with your fist to launch an app. I’ve set mine to activate the flashlight, which saves me from swiping down from the clock face and tapping the screen.
Just like the Double Tap gesture on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, the Galaxy Watch Ultra supports double pinch, where you tap your thumb and index finger together twice. You can take a photo from your phone, dismiss an alert, play or pause music, or answer and hang up a phone call. You’ll need to turn it on in Settings > Buttons and gestures > Double pinch as it’s not on by default.
The quick button is also more helpful than I was expecting. By default it’s set to launch the workout menu, but you can go into the settings and change it to launch the stopwatch, flashlight or activate the water lock instead. During a workout, it’s been helpful to either quickly press it again to pause, or long press to bring up the finish workout page.
You can also customize the actions on the other buttons, like earlier Galaxy Watches. Yes, I immediately changed the top button from the Bixby default to the power off menu.
The quick button James Martin/CNET
Energy score is off to a good start
Samsung made a big deal of its new Galaxy AI features like the interpreter tool on phones like the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 at the July Galaxy Unpacked event, but there’s also some AI tools for the Galaxy Watch. These include the energy score, which takes into account your activity, sleep and heart rate data, plus wellness tips.
I haven’t been using the Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Ring for long enough to generate many wellness tips yet. But I’ve enjoyed seeing my energy score in the morning, which appears both on the watch itself and in the Samsung Health app. This gives me an idea if my body is ready to take on a more intense workout, or if I should take it easy.
After trying out the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s functional threshold power test for cycling on Saturday and pushing myself to my maximum, I woke up on Sunday morning to a score of 69 and the app telling me that rest is my friend. No, seriously. It actually said,
I’ve Worn the Galaxy Watch Ultra for 72 Hours. Here’s What I Like Most
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