The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is a generally great successor, adding important features like trail running and rep counts, along with unique new features like diving. Gemini and gesture support mean you can use it hands-free more often, and performance and multitasking are top-notch thanks to the Snapdragon Wear Elite processor. The ultra-bright display and excellent app ecosystem make daily use smooth, while the new trail run workout mode with turn-by-turn navigation and All Trails integration is superb.

However, Samsung arbitrarily restricts too many features for folks who don't use the company's phones, something that makes zero sense for an Android watch. Battery life is weirdly poor at just 2-day battery life and charging speed is brutally slow. Features like food logging and blood pressure monitoring still feel half-baked and underwhelming. Run pacing isn't accurate, and auto-downloading for apps like YouTube Music isn't enabled by default, causing connectivity issues during workouts.

While the hardware design with circle-within-a-squircle looks great and buttons work better than a crown during exercise, the overall experience is marred by Samsung's ecosystem lock-in. Nicholas Sutrich from Android Central notes that many of the best features are arbitrarily locked to Android owners who happen to use Samsung phones, making it difficult to fully recommend unless you're already in the Galaxy ecosystem.