Samsung makes arguably the best smartwatches running on Google’s WearOS Platform, starting with the excellent Galaxy Watch 4 series 2021. The company has recently played a major role in the revival of WearOS.
Since then, the company has launched the Galaxy Watch 5 series and the Watch 6 series, building on this template of great WearOS smartwatches even further. However, they have only been iterative updates with no major changes.
However, if a recent report is true, Samsung plans a dramatic shakeup of the Galaxy Watch this year.
According to the report by Android Headlines, Samsung is finally planning to introduce a Galaxy Watch Ultra with the following model numbers:
- SM-L705U, for the US variant
- SM-L705N, for the Korean variant
- SM-L705F, for the global variant
Looking into information from an earlier leak of the Watch 7 series, it turns out that these new model numbers for the Galaxy Watch Ultra are the same as those of the Galaxy Watch 7 Pro. Hence, it is very likely that Samsung decided to rename the upcoming Watch 7 Pro as the new Galaxy Watch Ultra.
We do not have any more specifics for the Watch Ultra, except that it could feature a 578 mAh battery, new Galaxy AI features focused on health tracking, and a titanium build similar to the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. It is also expected to be powered by the brand-new Exynos W1000 chip.
The same leak also recalls the purported Galaxy Watch FE [or the Galaxy Watch 4 (2024); there is no concrete consensus on the final name yet], which is expected to share most of its feature set with the Galaxy Watch 4 from 2021.
It has been speculated that Samsung’s introduction of the Galaxy Watch FE and the newly renamed Galaxy Watch Ultra is an attempt to take the fight to the Apple Watch.
The Galaxy Watch FE is expected to compete with the Apple Watch SE, the Galaxy Watch 7 will compete with the Apple Watch Series 10, and the Galaxy Watch Ultra will compete with the Apple Watch Ultra.
This new lineup of Galaxy Watches is a bold move by Samsung, but only time will tell if it is successful enough to make a dent in Apple’s smartwatch market share, especially in markets like the USA.
