Samsung crushes Apple with the big-battery, extra-bright, and super-powerful new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

Samsung's second-gen rugged smartwatch is a monumental engineering achievement, improving on the original Galaxy Watch Ultra in many significant ways.

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Official Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 promotional image
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is ready to take on any and all possible adventures and challenges. | Image by Samsung
While Samsung did technically unveil a 2025 follow-up to the 2024-released Galaxy Watch Ultra, that changed almost nothing about the first-gen rugged timepiece, which might explain (at least in part) why the company has slipped in the global smartwatch vendor ranks over the last year or so.

But now the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s true sequel is finally here, and it changes (almost) everything, not only catching up to the hugely popular and very well-reviewed Apple Watch Ultra 3 in a lot of key departments but setting multiple new gold standards for the wearable industry as a whole.
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These are the breathtaking Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 specs


  • 1.52-inch Super AMOLED Always-On display with 498 x 498 pixel resolution and up to 5,000 nits of brightness;
  • Penta-core Snapdragon Wear Elite processor;
  • 2GB RAM;
  • 64GB internal storage;
  • 800mAh battery with high-frequency fast charging support;
  • Wear OS 7;
  • Dual-frequency GPS;
  • Bluetooth 6.0;
  • Wi-Fi 2.4GHz+5GHz;
  • 4G LTE;
  • NFC;
  • 10ATM+ water resistance;
  • IP69K certification;
  • MIL-STD-810H durability;
  • EN13319 certification;
  • Sapphire Crystal screen protection;
  • 47.4 x 47.1 x 10.7mm dimensions;
  • 61.5 grams weight;
  • Titanium Silver and Titanium Gray color options.

The key selling points are crystal clear


While durability was the main focus of Samsung’s marketing efforts for the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, the second edition is primarily advertised as a professional health monitoring tool for high-performance athletes and adrenaline seekers.

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In other words, Samsung is explicitly targeting Garmin’s core audience this time around with a dedicated Trail Run feature designed to maximize your performance and minimize your risk of injury during your most grueling physical challenges, as well as a Nutrition Alert tool that's likely to come in handy if you tend to neglect your needs when pushing your body to its limit, and perhaps most importantly, an “exclusive” new Diving app.

This last tool is only coming “later this year”, but it obviously means the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is “dive-ready”, thus matching Apple’s latest rugged timepiece and the likes of the Garmin Fenix 8 in yet another crucial area of expertise.

What is the most impressive thing about the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2?
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Like the cheaper, overall humbler, and less robust Galaxy Watch 9, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also comes with the ability to detect possible signs of sleep apnea and a bunch of other heart irregularities, although from this particular standpoint, there doesn’t seem to be anything new added to the original Galaxy Watch Ultra’s capabilities.

Where does the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 truly shine?


Because it's obviously not enough for Samsung to just match its key rivals in a few major departments, the company's hardcore fans will be delighted to hear that the second-gen Galaxy Watch Ultra comes with the world's brightest screen, eclipsing the Apple Watch Ultra 3’s otherwise impressive 3000 nits-capable display.

Perhaps even more impressively, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 packs a 35 percent larger battery than its predecessor that also expands on the capacity of the Apple Watch Ultra 3’s cell by around 33 percent. Oddly enough, Samsung isn't making any bold battery life claims to go with that remarkable 800mAh cell size (at least not yet), but I'm obviously optimistic you’ll be able to squeeze at least two or three days of continuous use between (fast) charges.



The Snapdragon Wear Elite processor inside this bad boy makes me even more hopeful on both the battery life and raw power fronts, as Qualcomm promised extreme 3nm-based energy efficiency and massive performance improvements over previous Snapdragon Wear chips a few months ago.

For its part, Samsung claims that the Elite new chip establishes a “new benchmark in power, speed and highly accurate GPS tracking for the Ultra line”, so at worst, you're clearly looking at notable enhancements in all those departments over the Exynos W1000 inside the original Galaxy Watch Ultra.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 also looks undeniably great


If you’re wondering how much bulkier Samsung’s latest rugged smartwatch needs to be compared to its forerunner to accommodate that significantly larger battery, the answer is amazingly… not bulkier at all.


Believe it or not, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is only a gram heavier than the Galaxy Watch Ultra 1 (which is basically nothing), as well as 1.4mm… thinner. That’s a pretty crazy engineering feat on Samsung’s part, and it doesn’t appear to have been pulled off at the expense of build quality or long-term durability either, as the “shock-resistant” titanium construction is essentially unchanged.
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The same goes for the silver and gray paint jobs, although it is a little disappointing to see the white and blue options removed from the color palette of Samsung’s objectively good-looking and ultra-robust new Apple Watch Ultra alternative.

Pricing and availability


Together with the Galaxy Watch 9, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is going up for pre-order today ahead of an actual August 7 release. Like most new devices in 2026, the upgraded rugged timepiece is costlier than its predecessor... but still cheaper than the Apple Watch Ultra 3.


While the Galaxy Watch Ultra saw daylight at a recommended US price of $649.99 in both its 2024 and 2025 incarnations, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 costs $699.99 stateside in a single 47mm variant with built-in 4G LTE support (but, sadly, no 5G or satellite connectivity).
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