Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 & Watch 9 Hands-on Better In Every Way

I'm here in central London at Samsung's exclusive new event where we're going hands-on with the new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and the Galaxy Watch 9. Let's go and check them out. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is the biggest star out of Samsung's two new wearables and there's a lot going on under the hood. It may look fundamentally the same as Samsung's older Galaxy Watch Ultra from 2024 with the two side buttons and single orange quick button and the circular watch face mounted on the titanium squircle cushion. However, it's actually 12% thinner as you can see here with them both side-by-side while the band is 20% lighter than the bands of the old Watch Ultra. Whereas the Watch Ultra Mark 1 was a hefty beast indeed, Samsung's slimmed it down quite a lot despite the upgrades being fitted in there. This will certainly help with lockdown during vigorous exercise whereas I found the original Watch Ultra so bulbous that it moved around a little. Those hardware upgrades are largely the result of a more powerful battery, now 800 milliamps ensuring true two-day battery life and a new Snapdragon Wear Elite faster chipset. The screen is brighter than ever up to 5000 nits offering clarity and visibility in any outdoor condition according to Samsung with 1.52 inch display. New features include trail running which you can see here on the back end of Samsung's new foldable, hydration tracking which allows you to see exactly how much water you've lost and how much you need to take on to mitigate any damage it might do. You can also upload GPX maps onto the Watch for turn-by-turn directions while you run. You can see the map at the end of the workout here and watch as I play with graphs showcasing heart rate, elevation and pace at different points of the run. Where the elevation goes up you can see heart rate go up and pace go down accordingly. A very clever toggle tool, I wish Garmin had an overlay tool like this instead of separate graphs. More new features include vascular load which can calculate the strain on your heart. More include a daily cardio load metric, a fitness index comparing your stats with other Galaxy Watch users and the new vitals feature which takes measurements of five metrics while you sleep and determines if any are out of sorts. It's also set to be a diver's best friend meeting EN11 diving standards certifications and will become a dive computer with the launch of the partnership with diving company Merez later this year along with its corresponding app. For anyone familiar with wearables it's easy to make comparisons here with the Apple Watch Ultra 3 especially the upcoming dive features. However which one is better? Which one's more accurate? To find out I tested both watches side by side against the industry standard Polar H10 heart rate monitor to check where both wearables stand in the accuracy stakes. Here's how I got on. So I've just been out on my usual 30-minute testing route road testing the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 against the Apple Watch Ultra 3 on the other hand and the Polar H10 heart rate monitor here for an accurate analysis of its heart rate accuracy. At the start of the run I saw some drift. Samsung watch was reading 135 bpm in comparison to the others 155, 160 but it tightened up towards the end. Looking forward to diving into the stats once I'm back in the office and seeing how accurate it was. Back in the office and you can see by the screen recordings here that there's a fair bit of difference in average heart rate between the Samsung watch and the Polar heart rate monitor over 20 bpm whereas the Apple Watch is much closer. However this is due to the first half of the run in which the Samsung experienced significant drift but after 15 minutes or so the remainder of the run closely matched the data from the electrical Polar H10 monitor which you can tell because the maximum heart rate reading from Samsung is much closer to Polar's one. This is a known phenomenon when it comes to LED based heart rate devices but it's good to know that it tightens up and is accurate to the HRM after that initial calibration period of 10 or 15 minutes of exercise. Of course we can't forget the smaller wearable in the series, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9. I actually preferred the Watch 8 to the original Ultra due to its slimmer, lighter form factor and sleeker look. Very little has changed here in the design space. We're getting 40mm and a larger 44mm model in both LTE and Wi-Fi only enabled editions and the same Snapdragon Wear Elite as the high-performing Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. As opposed to the Ultra 2's titanium, the Watch 9's body is covered with armour aluminium but it still feels premium to the touch and wears well, just like the Watch 8 did. This flat discable watch is great for fitness features as you get great lock down to the wrist and it's got the new daily cardio load, vascular load, fitness index and hydration stuff, just like the more premium Watch Ultra. It comes with 3 straps as you can see here, the translucent Misty Strap, comfortable Fabric Strap and Silicon Sport Strap. The Misty Strap was a bit too much like a child's jelly toy for my liking but I definitely sleep in the Fabric Strap. The Watch Ultra 2 also gets a choice of 3 straps with Trail, Marine and the premium Peakfall. I haven't had much time with the Watch 9 but it looks like more of the same as the Watch 8, which I adored, with updated AI features and quality of life upgrades. I liked the Watch Ultra 2 as I think it looks better, is more comfortable, performs well and better for day-to-day wear than its predecessor and it's packed with features for athletes. It's the best Samsung watch from a tech and specs perspective, hands down, and if you like Samsung watches you'll love this. However, I can't see true Trail and Tri enthusiasts choosing it over a Garmin. We'll be getting the Watch Ultra 2, how about the Watch 9? Let us know in the comments below and we'll see you next time.