Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra has been unofficially confirmed thanks to leaked certifications, and while we don’t know for certain if Samsung is going to launch this device at all, let alone at its next Unpacked event, it’s highly suspected, and it got me thinking about what features I want to see from Samsung with this watch.
Now without Samsung officially revealing the watch, it’s tough to say exactly what if any features the Galaxy Watch Ultra might be lacking. After all, we can’t know what it will or won’t be capable of doing without any confirmed details from Samsung. With that being said, there are at least a few things I know that I personally hope the Galaxy Watch Ultra can deliver to the user experience.
These are of course my own opinions and based on the use of past Galaxy Watch smartwatches. Not to mention numerous smartwatches from other brands, not all of them Wear OS. So, with all of that out of the way, here are the features I’m hoping the Galaxy Watch Ultra will offer. No matter how far-fetched they are.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra needs to keep the rotating bezel
Part of me thinks this is a little less likely, and I’ll tell you why. The Galaxy Watch Ultra is supposed to be Samsung’s answer to the Apple Watch Ultra. If not by design alone, by the description from the rumors that this is supposed to be another rugged-style watch. Similar to the way the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro was Samsung’s outdoor adventurer model. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Watch 5 was for basically anyone else. And that’s likely what we’ll see from the Galaxy Watch 7.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra appears to be a step up from this. Potentially boasting an even more rugged build and tailored more to outdoorsy activities. Based on these factors, it is entirely possible that Samsung wouldn’t use the rotating bezel here. It’s one more thing that could break on a watch that is supposed to be more protected against breaking.
That doesn’t mean the Galaxy Watch Ultra won’t have a rotating bezel though. And I certainly hope it does have one because there is no better way to navigate the Wear OS user interface (or any smartwatch interface for that matter) than the rotating bezel Samsung introduced with its Galaxy Watch lineup.
Rumors have already suggested that the rotating bezel isn’t going away. And judging from the leaked images, the bezel does look raised enough to wear it might rotate. Obviously, I’m not 100% sure that this is the case. However, you can’t ignore the possibility. Or perhaps, just maybe, this is just me getting my hopes up only to be disappointed if it isn’t there.
More refined gesture controls would be nice
This is almost certainly a pipe dream. Nevertheless, it doesn’t diminish my hope that Samsung might have seen Apple’s implementation of gesture controls and decided to come up with its own iteration of it. I’m talking of course, about Apple’s Double Tap feature that can be found on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. This simple gesture has you tap your thumb and index finger together to perform certain functions. This includes pausing and playing music, answering or ending an incoming call, and scrolling through the Apple Watch’s Smart Stack widgets.
And now with Apple opening up the Double Tap feature to developers with WatchOS 11, who knows what else it will be able to do in time. Once developers have had time to play with it. Samsung adding something like this to the Galaxy Watch Ultra is almost certainly a very big stretch. As it would need to come up with a gesture that would act similarly without being a direct copy of Double Tap.
Wrist Gestures and Universal gestures
Now, Wear OS can already use wrist gestures for a few things. You can use it for scrolling through notifications, for one. As well as for opening the apps menu, opening the settings menu, and a few other things. Watches like the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic also have something called Universal Gestures. This does implement the use of tapping your fingers together to perform actions. But it was designed with the intention of being an accessibility feature. And in practice, it’s not as fluid or seamless as Apple’s Double Tap.
It would be nice to see Samsung refine the Universal Gestures to work more seamlessly. Both on the Galaxy Watch Ultra and the Galaxy Watch 7. At the very least, Samsung could make it so you need to perform fewer taps to initiate a single action.
Battery life that lasts for at least a week
And I’m not talking about a feature that essentially disables all connectivity functions so you’re left with a simple watch. While this sort of functionality is nice in a pinch, it removes everything that’s great about smartwatches. There are some smartwatches out there that can last for upwards of a week or more without disabling all these features. Sure, some of them cost more. Such as the Garminx Fenix series. However, there is a rumor that Samsung might be pricing the Galaxy Watch Ultra pretty high. Somewhere around the $700 mark.
If that ends up being true, I think it’s fair to wish for a battery that would keep the watch going for at least 7 days. This is probably another thing that we won’t be getting with the Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s still running on Wear OS. And Wear OS doesn’t have the best track record for battery life. Even if it has gotten considerably better these past few years.
To Samsung’s credit, I was able to use the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro for upwards of 4 days on a single charge. That’s better than any other Wear OS smartwatch that I’ve used before or since. If Samsung could just stretch that by a few more days, the Galaxy Watch Ultra would already be miles ahead of most competition.
