Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 month-long review: is it worth it?

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is big, it's tough, and it's ready to take you off-roading

This is the best Samsung watch money can buy. But it's also the most expensive, and here's the thing, you can get a lot of these features for less on other watches

So should you buy it? Let's get into it. If you're an athlete and you've ever considered a sport watch like Garmin's, this is not that watch

It just doesn't have the nuanced recovery metrics or specific sports data, and it definitely can't compete on battery life

but that's not really the point here. This is a hybrid watch for people dipping their toes into fitness and outdoors

who still want all the smart stuff. We're talking Android and Gemini on your wrist

that deep Samsung integration, and basically staying in the same ecosystem you're already living in

It gives you that four-wheel drive without going full Jeep. The biggest upgrade to this watch is battery life

In my testing, this big guy topped out at around two and a half days, but that's with the always-on display and the screen at its brightest

And it's the brightest I've ever tested on a smartwatch. You can dim it or switch to raise to wake, and you might even get double that

Just don't quote me on it, because I'm an always-on girly. There's just no other Samsung watch that's going to come close in terms of battery life

And if that's your priority, maybe those $700 would be worth a splurge

The other new hardware feature worth mentioning is the processor. Samsung upgraded this watch and the Galaxy Watch 9 from Exynos to Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Wear Elite series

In practice, I haven't noticed much of a difference. It's still super fast, but it's actually a big deal because it's doing a lot more in the background

It's running Android's latest Wear OS 7 with a new version of Gemini, which is supremely useful on the wrist

That one of my favorite features on this watch especially now that you can go completely hands with the wake word which I won say out loud It could go through your emails answer existential questions check the ferry schedule and even book you a visit to the spot

That paired with the gesture control on this watch means you can almost get away with not touching the screen at all. Almost

You have to look very closely to spot the differences between this watch and the first generation Ultra

However, there are a few worth mentioning. It's definitely slimmer and lighter, while the screen has gotten a little bit larger, which means just better optimization of space

And for a watch this size, any bit of weight loss is my gain, since I already have a hard time wearing it, especially in bed

My threshold for what I wear on my wrists is very low, and this one just doesn't meet it

The bands are also more comfortable and sit closer to your skin for better contact, which Samsung says improves accuracy, and I can attest

It's got the same three-button array with that menu, the select, and that programmable third button that you can set for quickly launching workouts or set it as a flashlight, which is extremely bright because the screen on this watch is next level, especially helpful when you're hitting the trails under intense sun, which I did

It's got a new trail running feature that lets you load maps of your routes for turn-by-turn navigation

gives you climb and elevation data live, and even reminds you to hydrate

Look, it's not perfect, but I really enjoyed this feature because I love trail running and I do a lot of it

If you don't, however, it's not reason enough to get this watch. It's just a plus

The biggest problem with this feature, and hopefully it's a temporary one, is that loading

trails on the watch is a pain In theory you should be able to search for any trail on your phone and just load it on your watch but right now it not working And Samsung says it coming with a

future software update. The workaround is having to load a GPX file on your phone, and if you don't

know what that is, or you don't have one preloaded, then it's an added step you don't want to deal

with. Once you do get one loaded, however, it does pay off because you can use that same turn-by-turn

navigation for other outdoor activities like hiking. The other cool outdoorsy feature that's going to be exclusive to the Ultra 2 is a depth sensor which is

yes good for swimming but more importantly for scuba diving. But it's

not available yet so I couldn't test it. As for health features there are many

Samsung updated the health app and it's a lot easier to navigate and find the

metrics you need. I like that the cycle tracking now shows temperature variations

right within the same interface. It's also got an ECG app, sleep apnea

detection, blood pressure if you calibrate it with a cuff, and even an antioxidant feature

which can track your veggie intake. Well, carotenoids to be exact, but that one's too

nerdy. This year's headliner, though, at least in my opinion, is a new feature called Fitness

Index, which assesses your fitness and gives you a full body scan using the same electrodes

it uses for the ECG on the side button. It's similar to what you'd get from a smart scale

with BMI and muscle mass. In theory, it then uses these numbers to give you a specialized

workout plan based on what you need to improve. However, in practice, I went right back to my

same workout routine. There's also a new cardio load metric that gauges the intensity of your

workout to help determine whether you're pushing yourself too hard or not hard enough

And a heart health hub that interprets all your data to grade your heart health

giving you a tangible goal to beat or improve upon However a lot of this data requires at least seven nights of sleep to unlock and the heart health hub requires a blood pressure cuff to unlock which I still haven done And while a lot of these sound very cool they just not

very practical and I don't end up using them on a day-to-day basis. What I do appreciate though is

that Samsung is not locking these core health metrics behind any kind of subscription the way

other companies do like Whoop or Aura. Worth noting however is that at the time of recording

this video, none of those new health features are FDA approved. Samsung says this watch is more accurate even though it has the same sensors because it sits

better on the wrist and because they've improved their algorithms. Now normally we'd have to take

Samsung's word for it but now we don't have to because I actually did the testing and it's true

I tested it against the Polar Chest Strap which is our gold standard for heart rate and it was

less than two beats apart on average. That's less than a two percent error rate. For context

last year's Galaxy Watch 8 had a 7% error rate. I found a similar story with steps and distance

tracking when I tested it on a track. Now that I've laid it all out there, is the $700 worth the

splurge? Well, if you want the best experience in a Galaxy Watch, that bigger screen, bigger battery

and more durable design, then this is not going to disappoint. It's a premium smartwatch, both in

terms of the hardware and the software, and it can pull double duty for your outdoor adventures

Just don't expect it to be a dedicated sports watch because you will be disappointed

But if it still doesn't fit your budget and you don't need a lot of those extra features, including that cellular connectivity, you might be better off getting the Galaxy Watch 9

or even some of the older generation Galaxy Watches. A lot of them still have the same great health features and one of my favorite features

which is Gemini on the wrist. Now, what do you think? Are you going to get the Galaxy Watch 9 or the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

Let me know in the comments section and thanks for watching