I wore the Galaxy Watch Ultra for 72 hours. Here’s what I liked best

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is Samsung’s most rugged watch yet, but in my first three days wearing it, I was more impressed with the features that aren’t related to extreme sports. It brings fun features like gesture controls and potentially lifesaving health tools like sleep apnea detection to the world of Android smartwatches.

But it’s not all rosy. There are a lot of things I’m not too keen on about the Ultra, like the fact that Samsung removed the reverse wireless charging option on a Galaxy phone. That’s because the new bioactive sensor sticks out more than on older watches, so it can’t sit flush against the back of a phone. And the new AGE (advanced glycation end products) index, which can give you an idea of ​​metabolic health, is just plain confusing.

But the $650 Galaxy Watch Ultra has a lot of improvements over past Galaxy Watches that I hope will make up for those shortcomings in the long run. Here are my three favorite features so far about the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Stay tuned for my full review.

Check this out: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra: the first 48 hours

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Sleep Apnea Detection

The Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7 are the first Samsung watches to feature FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection. It tracks the number of relative decreases in blood oxygen during your sleep over a two-night period. It then analyzes that data to see if it indicates moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.

Note that this feature is only available to Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7 owners who also own a Galaxy phone. You’ll need the Samsung Health Monitor app (which also takes ECG readings) and it’s only available for download from the Galaxy Store. Sleep apnea detection will also be coming to older compatible devices, like the Galaxy Watch 5 and 6, later this year.

After wearing the watch to bed for two nights, I got an alert on my phone a few hours after waking up the second morning. The Galaxy Watch Ultra didn’t detect any signs of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, which was a relief to see. But I did a sleep study earlier this year at Stanford University as part of a larger story about sleep and technology that didn’t show sleep apnea, so I would have been surprised if the watch had given me a positive result.

The quick button is great, but gestures are even better

Last year, Samsung watches offered universal gestures in WearOS 4. This lets you use pinch actions to scroll through menus or make a fist to select an option.

But the Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7 go even further and make gestures easier to find in the app. Settings > Buttons & gestures menu in WearOS 5. I love the knock-knock gesture, which, as the name suggests, lets you make a tapping motion with your fist to launch an app. I set mine to activate the flashlight, which saves me from having to swipe down from the clock face and tap the screen.

Just like the Double Tap gesture on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, the Galaxy Watch Ultra supports double pinching, where you tap twice with your thumb and index finger together. You can take a photo from your phone, dismiss an alert, play or pause music, or answer and end a phone call. You’ll need to enable it in Settings > Buttons & gestures > Double pinch because it is not enabled by default.

The quick button is also more useful than I expected. By default, it’s set to launch the workout menu, but you can go into settings and change it to launch the timer, flashlight, or enable water lock instead. During a workout, it’s useful to quickly press it again to pause, or long-press to bring up the workout end page.

You can also customize the actions on the other buttons, just like on previous Galaxy Watches. Yes, I immediately changed the top button from the default Bixby button to the power off menu.

The energy score is off to a good start

Samsung made a big deal about its Galaxy’s new AI features, like the Insight tool on phones like the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, at July’s Galaxy Unpacked event, but there are AI tools for the Galaxy Watch, too. These include Energy Score, which takes into account your activity, sleep, and heart rate data, as well as wellness tips.

I haven’t been using the Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Watch 7, and Galaxy Ring long enough to offer many wellness tips. But I do like seeing my energy score in the morning, which appears both on the watch itself and in the Samsung Health app. It lets me know if my body is ready for a more intense workout or if I need to take it easy.

After trying the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s functional threshold power test for cycling on Saturday and pushing myself to the limit, I woke up Sunday morning with a score of 69 and the app telling me that rest is my friend. No, seriously. It actually said, “Rest is your friend.”

Once I’ve worn the watch for a while, I’ll hopefully see if the wellness tips live up to Samsung’s expectations. Maybe they’ll be more general tips that I could put into practice myself.

I’m also taking a closer look at battery life, because like previous Galaxy Watches, the Galaxy Watch Ultra will need at least a few days and charge cycles to optimize and calibrate the battery. Check back soon for the full review.