The Apple Watch Ultra was unveiled to much fanfare in 2022, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 built on this successful formula in 2023. Despite skipping a year in 2024, the UItra 2 remains the best smartwatch on the market by a healthy margin.
However, rumor has it that Apple plans to finally unveil the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2025, alongside a new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3.
I’ve spent 10 years using and writing about the Apple Watch, but a recent spell with Samsung’s excellent Galaxy Watch Ultra has seen me cast a jealous eye over a couple of features Samsung has packed into one of the best Android smartwatches we’ve seen in years. I still think the Apple Watch Ultra 2 beats the Galaxy overall, but that doesn’t mean Apple can’t learn a thing or two from Samsung’s inaugural adventure offering.
Here are the five things I think Apple should steal from the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra.
1. Band attachment mechanism
While I might have been a bit baffled by the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s hefty form factor and its lack of a digital crown, one surprising and delightful feature is Samsung’s brilliant band attachment.
For as long as the Apple Watch has existed, I have found the band mechanism to be just a little too finicky and delicate. I find the button too difficult to press and the sliding is never as smooth as it should be, even on the best Apple Watch bands.
By contrast, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s band attachment is much easier to use. The button itself is larger and has a more satisfying mechanical range of motion that makes it much easier to press. That button releases a clasp that frees the band, popping it out perpendicular to the chassis with a satisfying click.
Given Apple’s usual attention to detail in these departments, I was very surprised to see Samsung had developed such an obvious edge over the Apple Watch Ultra with its vastly superior band attachment.
2. Body composition
While the Galaxy Watch UItra boasts many of the same expected health monitoring features as the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it also harbors a secret weapon in the form of body composition analysis through Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA).
BIA sends microcurrents through your body to detect the amount of muscle, fat, and water you carry. It’s not perfect, but in our review we found the Galaxy Watch Ultra to land within spitting distance of the best smart scales on the market, making it an ideal on-the-go tool to keep track of an important part of your overall health, body composition, and hydration.
3. Battery life
While the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the best Apple Watch for battery life by some margin, it can’t hold a candle to the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s 100-hour battery life rating. That might not be the same as the best Garmin watches out there, but it’s a good 28 hours or so more than you can expect from the Apple Watch Ultra.
There’s a caveat hear though: the Galaxy Watch Ultra is beefier on the wrist, and there’s likely some extra battery life owing to the extra heft. So if less battery life is key to the Apple Watch’s lower profile, then I’m happy for Cupertino to skip this one.
4. Energy Score
Samsung’s Energy Score is a feature fairly ubiquitous among the best Android smartwatches and even most Fitbit models. It uses AI to calculate your energy levels from 0-100 based on sleep, activity, heart rate, and heart rate variability. It’s a cool way to see how up for tackling the day your body is and can help you determine levels of training, how much rest you need, and more.
Apple has never really had a feature like this, although the watchOS 11 Training Load feature, along with the Vitals app, come close. There might well be philosophical or design reasons for shying away from an arbitrary numerical score when it comes to wellness or readiness, but I think this is another feature the Apple Watch generally could benefit from, not just the rugged Ultra 3.
5. Price
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is $150 more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, and the latter is routinely discounted by more than a third, making it considerably cheaper than the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
In my humble opinion, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is $150 better than the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, so the price gulf is justified. However, $799 is a lot for a smartwatch and a commitment almost as costly as the best iPhones it needs to be paired with. Samsung is drastically undercutting Apple in this space.
Of course, the watches are not cross-compatible, so there’s no competition per se, but Samsung’s drastically cheaper price point and routine generous discounts must have more than a few Apple Watch Ultra customers casting a jealous eye over the fence.
When will the Apple Watch Ultra 3 be revealed?
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is tipped for a release alongside the iPhone 17 at the September iPhone event in 2025. Whether Apple has drawn any inspiration from the rival Samsung Galaxy Watch is anyone’s guess, but rest assured that we’ll almost certainly be getting a new model later this year.
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stephen.warwick@futurenet.com (Stephen Warwick)
