Samsung may have just launched three new Galaxy Watches with pretty good pre-order offers, but I decided to buy the original Galaxy Watch Ultra instead. I know it has just half the storage of the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic and the Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025), but it makes perfect sense for my usage.
My Galaxy Watch 4 is now four years old, and it sometimes struggles to keep up with swipes and app updates. Moreover, I wasn’t particularly happy with the Galaxy Watch 4’s GPS accuracy, even though it improved with updates. So I needed to upgrade to a new Galaxy Watch. Also, it was my birthday, so my wife wanted to gift me something, and I told her I want a new smartwatch.
I was looking for three things from my new Galaxy Watch: faster performance, cellular connectivity, and more accurate GPS. I wanted cellular connectivity so that I can take important calls without carrying my Galaxy S23 Ultra during my walks and higher GPS accuracy for more accurate workout traking.
Since there wasn’t much of a performance difference between the Galaxy Watch 4’s Exynos W920 chip and the Galaxy Watch 6’s Exynos W930, I wanted to buy a model with the 3nm Exynos W1000.
So, I had four options to choose from:
- Galaxy Watch 7
- Galaxy Watch 8
- Galaxy Watch Ultra (2024)
- Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025)
While the Galaxy Watch 7 has all the features I wanted, after watching its reviews from hardcore workout enthusiasts, I noticed that its GPS accuracy performance isn’t as good as the Watch 8 and the Watch Ultra. So I eliminated it from my list.
Now, looking at the Galaxy Watch 8, it is priced at INR 39,999 (~$463) for 44mm LTE version. Even after an instant discount offer, it costs 33,999 (~$292). That makes it pricier than last year’s Galaxy Watch Ultra, which has a bigger screen, louder speaker, a bigger battery, and a more durable frame.
While the newer Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025 version) has double the storage (64GB), I didn’t need that much storage. My Galaxy Watch 4 with measly 16GB storage still has 6GB storage left after downloading workout playlists on Spotify for offline music playback, apps, and my favorite watch faces. So, the Galaxy Watch Ultra with 32GB storage is more than enough for my usage.
The 2024 version of the Galaxy Watch Ultra is priced at just INR 33,499 (~$387), and its effective price was INR 31,827 (~$368) with an applicable credit card. In comparison, the Galaxy Watch Ultra with 64GB storage is effectively priced at INR 53,999 (~$623) with an instant discount of INR 6,000 (~$70). So, it didn’t make sense to spend $236 more for additional storage space I didn’t need.
Since the Galaxy Watch Ultra has almost all the features of the Galaxy Watch 8, and it costs less, it made perfect sense for my needs. And it could be a saner choice for many, especially in India where the Galaxy Watch Ultra is steeply discounted right now.
My Galaxy Watch Ultra arrived on Friday, and I have been using it for two days. The first thing I did was install a screen protector. Then, after the initial setup, the One UI 8 Watch update was waiting for me. The biggest improvements over the Galaxy Watch 4 are its brighter display and much smoother performance.
I will use it for another week before explaining the whole switching experience and improvements over my four-year-old Galaxy Watch.
