A 5-mile California trail test found Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 delivered useful climb tracking, audible turn-by-turn guidance and three hydration reminders during an 80-degree run.
The new trail mode’s biggest weakness was setup: the watch failed to surface nearby routes on its own, forcing the tester to load a preexisting GPX file from a phone.
Samsung’s 5,000-nit display stayed readable in harsh sun, and speaker-based navigation worked well without headphones, helping keep the runner on course at forks and off-route moments.
Battery life remained the main tradeoff: GPS, LTE, max brightness and climb tracking drained nearly 30% over the run despite Samsung raising capacity to 800 mAh from 590 mAh.
The test concluded the Ultra 2 is still short of Garmin-style endurance watches, but its trail features make it a stronger sports smartwatch if Samsung improves route finding.