If you’re in the market for a superpowered smartwatch, you’ll likely have your eye on either the Apple Watch Ultra 2 or Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Both are excellent smartwatches boasting bolder designs than their cheaper, mid-range sibling – the Apple Watch Series 9 and Galaxy Watch 7 – and share plenty of similarities on the spec sheet and in daily use.
But despite some obvious similarities in their look and target audience – not to mention the branding – there are still many differences to be aware of when choosing between them.
We’ve tested both of these Ultra editions in serious depth for our dedicated reviews (check them out in the links below), and we’ll use this comparison guide to help you discover which is best for your needs.
A word on phone compatibility
At the risk of this getting buried in our comparison below, we’re sticking this notice up at the top: your smartphone will play a huge factor in which of these watches is best for you.
Why? Because the Galaxy Watch Ultra will only work with Android phones, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will only work with iPhone.
These watches may have similarities and differences, but this is the biggest thing to understand before pulling the trigger on either.
As an aside, it’s also a big reason why these two smartwatches aren’t actually in direct competition with one another; not many folks will change phone ecosystems for a watch, and even fewer will have a hand in both.
Price and versions
Unlike other smartwatches from these two brands, you don’t have to worry about picking between two different case sizes or adding LTE (this comes as standard) – and the effect this has on the overall price.
Instead, you’re dealing with a simple equation: the $649/£599 Galaxy Watch Ultra and its 47mm case or the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra 2 and its $799/£799 tag.
Design, display, and comfort
Samsung’s attempt to mimic the overall feel and features of the Apple Watch Ultra line is well documented, but they do still feel like watches with unique styles when side by side.
Both are superbly functional in all-day wear, workouts, and sleep tracking (unless you really don’t like wearing a big-ish watch to bed) from our experience, and they both add a crucial bit of splash to smartwatch lines that are otherwise pretty drab. They’re big and bolshy, but, providing your wrist is average-to-large in size, neither ever feels too cumbersome.
Instead of the look on the wrist, we’ve found the key difference is in the navigation.
We prefer the button layout on Apple’s Ultra, which sees the mappable Action button on the left-hand side of the case, a fully functional digital crown, and a side button to return home and open the control center.
By contrast, Samsung’s Ultra sees you constantly touching the screen to get about. It has the same amount of buttons as the Apple Watch Ultra, though misses out on the company’s trademark physical rotating bezel (you can still use the edge of the screen, but this creates tons of smudges) and any kind of function from the ‘Quick Button’, which is shaped like a digital crown.
Generally, though, as we say, these are very similar – and that extends to the display. Apple’s is a touch bigger, on account of the bigger overall case size, but the clarity and peak brightness (3,000 nits) are the best you’ll find on any smartwatch.
We think Apple just edges this area due to the cleaner navigation, but Samsung indeed has its advantages – there are more case colors to pick from and it is slightly more amenable to smaller wrists.
Smart features, tracking, and OS
Trying to sum up the entire software experience of these two watches is tricky, given they’re the two most feature-packed on the market. And just like with any head-to-head clash involving two industry giants, there are tiny advantages in both directions.
From our testing, however, we would say Apple and the Ultra 2 still lead the competition in this area. The Galaxy Watch Ultra performed admirably in our tracking tests, with the dual-frequency GNSS and heart rate data matching the Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) – the gold standard alongside the Apple Watch Ultra 2 – and sleep tracking delivered accurately and in great detail.
However, its health tracking doesn’t quite meet the same standard of accuracy and useability as those other areas. Body composition analysis is inconsistent, we weren’t convinced about SpO2 data or the AGEs Index, and features like ECG, blood pressure monitoring, and sleep apnea detection are exclusive to Samsung phone users.
Apple’s Ultra 2, on the other hand, matches up very well with devices like the Oura Ring Gen 3 and Whoop 4.0 to prove very reliable in health tracking (even if not quite as comprehensive as the Galaxy Watch Ultra in terms of features). It’s also about to get more powerful with a new Vitals app landing in watchOS 11.
The upcoming Apple software update should also boost features like Double Tap (which Samsung has reimagined as ‘Double Pinch’ for the Ultra), which will be available for third parties to incorporate into apps, as well as add training load insights, turn-by-turn instructions for hikers using the native mapping, and even more safety features.
Samsung’s smartwatch doesn’t really compete in any of those areas, and, generally speaking, we’ve found the software experience of watchOS to have less confusing niggles and pain points as Samsung’s Wear OS 5 skin, One UI 6 Watch.
We should also say that neither is a great fit for stress tracking or wellness – they do track it, but it’s certainly not at the core of the experience. You can always look to the best Apple Watch apps or top Wear OS apps for help, mind.
Battery life and charging
Apple and Samsung are pretty unhelpful with providing battery life estimations, with both presenting a round figure based on quite specific usage and scenarios.
However, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will give you slightly better battery performance in similar conditions, from our testing. A typical charge cycle involving outdoor tracking, blood oxygen monitoring and the always-on display (AOD) enabled will see it comfortably last until a third day of use before needing to be recharged.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra isn’t too far behind, and will still last around 48 hours in most cases – if not longer, if you don’t hammer the GPS or features like LTE and music streaming. However, it’s much harder to predict than Apple’s Ultra 2; an activity, for example, will sap 15% one day and 3% the next day even in roughly identical conditions.
It’s an issue Samsung is seemingly aware of with the Galaxy Watch 7 – and is seemingly working on a software fix – so we expect this to be ironed out over the coming weeks and months.
Even still, though, it’s also behind Apple’s watch in charging times. While it takes the Galaxy Watch Ultra close to two hours to go from flat to full, we find the Apple Watch Ultra 2 capable of doing so in around 90 minutes.
Verdict: Which is best?
Based on our extensive experience with both of these smartwatches, we believe the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is clearly the better smartwatch when put head to head.
However, that’s not to say it’s the best fit for every user. As mentioned above, each device’s phone compatibility restrictions ensure Android users are effectively forced to pick the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and vice versa for iPhone owners.
If you are an Android user who doesn’t want to change ecosystems – and particularly if that Android happens to be a Samsung – then the Galaxy Watch Ultra is the best smartwatch.
For iPhone users or those choosing directly between these watches, though, you can feel confident the Ultra 2 is the all-around better watch.
