Specs, features, pricing, and availability

After months of rumors, Samsung took the wraps off its latest crop of devices today at its Galaxy Unpacked event in Paris. It’s a big year for Samsung wearables: along with the Galaxy Watch 7 and the brand-new Galaxy Ring, Samsung has announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra, its latest premium smartwatch. With loads of features geared toward outdoor athletes and a sky-high retail price, there’s a lot to get your head around in the Watch Ultra. Here’s what you need to know.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: Design and display

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has a unique look among Samsung wearables, featuring a large, square case made out of titanium. It’s available in three colors: Titanium Gray (with a gray band), Titanium White (with a white band), and Titanium Silver (with an orange band). While it’s unique as far as Samsung watches go, it’s easy to draw comparisons between the Galaxy Watch Ultra and the similarly named, similarly bulky, similarly premium Apple Watch Ultra — which also comes in a gray-and-orange colorway. The Galaxy Watch Ultra does feature a circular 1.5″ AMOLED display, though, despite its square body.

The watch’s considerable size and weight are in service of fitting in a relatively large 590 mAh battery that should afford the Watch Ultra considerably longer battery life than even the 44 mm Galaxy Watch 7. The form factor also affords the Galaxy Watch Ultra space for three physical buttons, up from two on previous Galaxy Watch devices. The new Quick Button, located where watches typically have crowns, provides quick access to activity tracking by default. Despite looking like a rotating crown that you might expect to control scrolling on the watch, though, turning the button doesn’t do anything.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: Fitness and health tracking

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is intended for the same extreme athletes as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Pro 5 or the Apple Watch Ultra. It’s 10 ATM water resistant, meaning it should survive swimming in deep water, and Samsung says it’s made to function from 500 meters below sea level to 9,000 meters above (for reference, Mount Everest is about 8,850 meters tall). There’s a new widget to easily track the multiple phases of a triathlon, plus support for measuring “maximum cycling power” with Functional Threshold Power metrics. The default function of the round Quick Button on the watch’s side is to open the watch’s activity tracking menu.

While the Watch Ultra does have features meant for triathletes and mountain climbers, it also tracks all the basics we’ve come to expect: sleep, steps, body temperature, and body composition. This data is recorded in the Samsung Health app, which is available on all Android phones via the Play Store.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: Hardware specifications

Samsung packed some impressive hardware into the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Inside, there’s a new Exynos W1000 chipset paired with two gigabytes of RAM, a combination that should see the watch chew through wearable tasks without breaking a sweat. The Watch Ultra’s 590 mAh battery should provide up to 60 hours of “typical usage,” while Samsung says its built-in power saving mode can keep the watch going for up to 100 hours by limiting processing speeds and restricting features like raise-to-wake.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: Price and availability

Samsung’s fanciest watch comes at a very fancy cost. The Galaxy Watch Ultra starts at $650, with an optional LTE upgrade available for an upcharge. It’s available for preorder today, with general availability starting July 24. You’ll be able to get one direct from Samsung, or from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra: A new high-end option

While it is considerably less expensive than the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch Ultra is pushing the boundaries of what a mainstream Wear OS device can cost at a starting price of $650. With the same 1.5″ AMOLED display as the 44 mm Watch 7, the Ultra probably won’t be worth the price for the majority of users — this isn’t a wearable for someone who just wants app notifications and step tracking. But for anyone who does climb mountains or run ultramarathons, the Watch Ultra is shaping up to be a compelling Wear OS option.