One of my favorite smartwatches I used this year is the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. When it was first announced, there was worry that the wearable would be an uninspired Apple Watch Ultra clone. However, I think it’s one of the year’s most original smartwatches, offering a striking design and a robust list of features.
As much as I like wearing the Galaxy Watch Ultra, it’s proven to be a tricky recommendation. With a retail price of $650, the Galaxy Watch Ultra is a bit too expensive to be a wholehearted recommendation for everyone. However, that changes with Black Friday.
You can now buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra for as little as $434 (depending on which color you choose). That’s a very respectable discount, and it makes the Watch Ultra a far easier recommendation than it was at launch. Although it’s not the most affordable smartwatch you can get during Black Friday 2024, I think it’s one of the best.
A large part of this is due to the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s design. Initially, I thought I’d hate the square body combined with the circle display on top of it. However, I’ve come around to love it. I think it’s one of the most-unique-looking smartwatches released this year. It’s big, opinionated, and makes a real statement on your wrist. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of the reasons I enjoy wearing the smartwatch so much.
And despite it being so big, I actually found the Galaxy Watch Ultra to be very comfortable. It’s a heavy watch, no doubt about that, but I adjusted to it much faster than I expected. The included watch band is comfy and very adjustable, the new Quick button is a nice touch, and the IP68 rating means you don’t need to worry about dust or water being a nuisance.
What about the display, performance, and battery life? They’re all great. The 1.5-inch AMOLED panel is sharp, colorful, and incredibly bright — reaching up to 3,000 nits of maximum brightness. The Galaxy Watch Ultra is also fast and responsive, and I found the battery life to last about two days before needing a recharge. I wish it charged faster (you’ll need over 90 minutes to go from about 10% to 100%), but that’s one of my biggest complaints.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra’s health/fitness suite is excellent. In addition to all-day activity and sleep tracking, Samsung’s Energy Score feature helps show you how ready (or not) your body is for the day ahead. There’s also sleep apnea detection, loads of exercise modes, very accurate GPS performance, blood-oxygen monitoring, and more. It’s one of the most complete health watches on the market today.
Is there any reason you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy Watch Ultra? It only works with Android phones, so if you have an iPhone, you’ll need to sit this one out. It’s also worth mentioning that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is also on sale for Black Friday, bringing its price down to as little as $203.
The Galaxy Watch 7 offers almost all of the same features as the Galaxy Watch Ultra, just with a different design and lesser durability. It’s arguably the better value, but the Galaxy Watch Ultra is still the watch I prefer wearing. Its design and character speak to me in a way the Galaxy Watch 7 doesn’t, and for a gadget as personal as a smartwatch, I think that matters a lot. If you agree, be sure to take advantage of this Galaxy Watch Ultra deal before it’s gone.
