30 July 2026
|
8:10:45
Samsung introduced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 on July 22, 2026, at its Galaxy Unpacked event in London, alongside the standard Galaxy Watch 9 and its new foldable phone lineup. As Samsung's second-generation Ultra smartwatch, it builds directly on the original Galaxy Watch Ultra's rugged, outdoor-focused foundation while addressing one of its most notable gaps: proper dive certification. Here's a complete breakdown of what the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 offers and who it's actually built for.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 largely retains the design language of the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, housed in a squircle-shaped titanium case with a circular bezel featuring hour markings. What's changed is refinement: Samsung has made the case roughly 12% thinner while simultaneously fitting a significantly larger battery inside, a genuine engineering improvement rather than a cosmetic tweak. Color options have also been simplified this generation, narrowing down to Titanium Silver and Titanium Gray, compared to the four color choices offered on the original Ultra.
At the center of the Watch Ultra 2 is a 1.52-inch circular Super AMOLED display capable of up to 5,000 nits of peak brightness, protected by Sapphire Crystal glass for scratch resistance. This brightness level is specifically aimed at outdoor use, keeping the screen fully readable during sunny hikes, midday trail runs, or any activity where glare would otherwise wash out a dimmer display. It's one of the brightest displays available on any smartwatch today, standard or premium.
Like the standard Galaxy Watch 9, the Ultra 2 runs on Samsung's new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, marking a shift away from the Exynos W1000 chipset used in the original Ultra. Because both watches now share this same core silicon, the Ultra 2's performance advantage over the standard Watch 9 comes down to other factors, battery capacity, display brightness, and durability, rather than raw processing power. This chipset also enables smoother everyday performance and supports AI features like Gemini's Raise to Talk, letting users start a hands-free AI conversation just by lifting their wrist.
Battery capacity grows substantially with the Ultra 2, jumping to 800mAh from the original Ultra's 590mAh, roughly a 35% increase, all while fitting inside a thinner case. Samsung positions this as delivering strong multi-day endurance for users who rely heavily on GPS tracking, LTE connectivity, or extended outdoor activities. For adventure and endurance athletes who found the original Ultra's battery life limiting during long expeditions, this upgrade addresses a real, practical concern rather than simply padding a spec sheet.
The most significant new feature on the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is proper diving support. The original Galaxy Watch Ultra carried 10ATM water resistance but Samsung explicitly did not recommend it for diving or high-pressure water activities. The Ultra 2 changes that entirely, adding EN13319 dive instrument certification, rated to 40 meters, along with IP69K protection.
Out of the box, the watch can automatically record real-time depth, dive time, and water temperature once the feature is enabled. A fuller diving package is planned to arrive later in 2026 through a dedicated Ultra2 Diving app developed with Mares, one of the world's largest diving equipment manufacturers. This app will add ascent and descent speed tracking, No-Decompression Limit guidance, real-time nitrogen absorption monitoring, safety stop information, and adjustable gradient factors, though it will require a separate Mares subscription. Samsung has confirmed these Mares-developed dive functions will remain exclusive to the Ultra 2 among Wear OS watches for two years.
Beyond diving, the Watch Ultra 2 introduces a new Trail Run mode that tracks elevation, climbing progress, and terrain effects to help runners pace themselves more intelligently across varied ground. This pairs with a new Nutrition Alert feature, which builds on Samsung's existing Sweat Loss tracking by estimating fluid loss relative to body weight and advising when and how much to drink during supported activities, a genuinely useful tool for long hikes or endurance training in hot conditions.
The Ultra 2 carries forward Samsung's broader health tracking suite, including Heart Health Score, Vitals, and Fitness Index, which delivers guided training programs tailored to the user. Advanced tracking extends to metrics like AGEs, Antioxidant Index, and Blood Pressure Trend, giving the Ultra 2 a health monitoring depth that goes well beyond basic step and heart rate tracking. One notable gap that remains unaddressed is glucose monitoring, which Samsung has not introduced with this generation.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 was announced on July 22, 2026, with pre-orders opening the same day. General availability began on August 7, 2026. In the US, Samsung priced the Watch Ultra 2 at $699, matching the original Ultra's launch price exactly rather than increasing it. In Europe, it costs €749, and pricing in other regions largely mirrors what the first-generation Galaxy Watch Ultra launched at. With the Ultra 2 now official, retailers have also begun discounting the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, which is worth considering for budget-conscious buyers who don't need dive certification or the larger battery.
Choosing between these two comes down to how demanding your use case is. Since both watches now share the same Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, the Ultra 2's premium is no longer about performance. Instead, it's justified by its 800mAh battery for multi-day endurance, its 5,000-nit display for extreme outdoor brightness, its EN13319 dive certification, and its more rugged titanium build. If you don't need to dive, don't require multi-day battery life without charging, and don't need the brightest possible screen, the standard Galaxy Watch 9, starting at $349, is a genuinely competitive alternative this year in a way it wasn't in previous generations.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is best suited for adventure athletes, hikers, trail runners, and recreational divers who will actually use its rugged durability, extended battery life, and dive certification. For casual users who mainly want reliable health tracking and everyday smartwatch functionality, the Watch Ultra 2 is likely more capability, and more cost, than necessary. It remains bulky and priced at a premium, so the value proposition depends heavily on whether you genuinely need the extra durability and outdoor-specific features it offers over Samsung's standard lineup.
Comments
There are no comments for this Article.