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REVIEW: New Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra Takes On The Apple Watch

The new Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra is big and bold, and a wicked motivator if you are trying to improve your health track your fitness or generally knowing that your body is ticking along as it should, especially after a big run, hike or in my case an ocean swim.

At $1,299 this device is up there with the Apple watch and Garmin’s offering in the smart watch market.

Out of the box and after seeing it at the Samsung launch event, I was half expecting it be heavier than previous smart watches I had reviewed, but after my fist day wearing this watch which happened to be on a flight to Europe I found that it was lighter than I expected, it also looked pretty cool on my wrist especially as I was able to customise the watch face.

The only problem was the big bright orange watch band, which is a shocker when it comes to functionality, however I will come back to that later and Samsung’s move to proprietary watch straps.

The device has a titanium case with a sapphire glass face and the first thing I found out is that this device is pretty good in the water.

I ocean swim around 500 metres every few days on an ocean beach, and this device was excellent when it came to measuring distance swam, and my vitals and for those looking to deep dive it can handle pressure up to 100 metres.

For those who prefer going in the opposite direction the device can still work at elevations of 9,000 metres and temperatures of 55 degrees centigrade which may be needed if the global warming sceptics are right.

What I really liked about the new Samsung watch was that it is basically square and sat comfortable on the wrist, despite it having a 47-mm face and fairly thick casing, but despite the casing the device looks stylish especially if used with a watch strap other that the orange one that comes with it.

After a while you suddenly realise that you have a lot of power and functionality on your wrist as well as technology we use to have to go to a hospital or medical institution to access to 10 years ago.

The new Samsung Ultra watch 7 is packed with a multitude of serious apps and because of this I was conscience of battery life.

Basically, I got three clear days and around 48 hours when using the sports measurement and walk tracking app especially as I was walking over 15 kilometres a day covering the IFA trade show in Berlin.

I was also using the device for notifications, messages and key news streams.

And because I was pounding the pavements and railway stations in Berlin in 34 degrees most days, I was also keeping track of my stress levels, heart rate and my sleep patterns.

In Berlin I had the opportunity to measure the performance of the device against a medical grade heart measuring and blood pressure system and the Samsung Ultra watch was up there when it came to the accurate reporting of results.

You can also jump straight into your favourite endurance sports like triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and more with the new multi-sports Tile, that are activated via the orange quick action button on the side of the watch.

You can develop your own ultimate challenge tile.

As for battery life, I found that it took less than three hours to charge the watch back up from being close to flat, the only problem is that it appears that the device that has dual frequency GPS and BioActivity sensors built in does not allow you to charge the device like an Apple Watch on a third party wireless charging dock.

If you want to you can change the settings to figure out how to extend the battery life.

As for the BioActive sensor, this increases the accuracy of the heart rate sensor which I did notice when switching between previous Samsung watches.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra can also measure your advanced glycation end products (AGEs).

The Galaxy Watch Ultra also has dual-band GPS which basically delivers better GPS information as well as information on your vitals when exercising.

The body fat composition measurements which I found out are very accurate, as a result I am now looking to lose weight thou I do suggest that you try this first thing in the morning, and not after you have eaten.

For those who are concerned about their sleep patterns Samsung has built in a capability to pretty accurately measure and interpret your sleep patterns.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra autodetected several patterns whether you are walking cycling or running and when it does it is able to provide comparison data or metrics for you to compare how you are performing. This information is available via the wear app on your smartphone running the Samsung Wear app.

The metrics pretty basic compared with what you get with Garmin or an Apple Watch.

The thing I hated most about the new Samsung watch was the bright orange strap. Firstly, Samsung has removed the ability to buy a third party strap by introducing magnetic attach straps despite real watches all allowing for various different brands of watch straps to be fitted.

Alternate watch band to the problematic orage rubber watch band.

As for the watch band itself, it’s clunky hard to get on and off because the loop that is supposed to hold the end of the watch strap keeps sliding up to the watching making it extremly difficult to get off without putting in a lot of push pull effort.

The move to magnetic watches is solely designed so that users have to buy a Samsung premium priced watch band.

Conclusion:
pricey, yes.

But what you are getting is cutting edge technology packed into a device that looks good has a powerful and expensive processor built in and apps that deliver intelligence and information across a multitude of lifestyle activities from health measurement to active sports and the deliver of notifications and news to a very good screen on your wrist.

While the device is packed with apps especially health measurement apps that are very accurate, I would personally like to see better reporting back on the Samsung smartphone similar to what you get with the Suunto smartphone.

While the device is competing head on with the Apple Watch I would recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra because of its quality and the accuracy of its apps.

8.5/10
This was marked down because of the lack of good reporting and the problems with the watch strap.



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