Features

Get 1% better everyday with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra

Train. Grind. Recover. Repeat.

Published

October 8, 2024

MJ Jucutan

I’ve always believed in the art of continuous improvement. Small, consistent gains—just one percent better each day—can lead to significant changes.

I didn’t build strength by forcing myself to lift weights double my size. Instead, it was the consistent effort to move every day, no matter how small or light the activity, that made the difference.

For me, each day is an opportunity to redefine your limits. It’s about discovering new movements, finding techniques that work for your body, and embracing routines that keep you motivated to continue.

Fitness is a deeply personal journey, something that belongs entirely to you. Like a smartwatch tailored to your needs, your fitness journey is uniquely yours.

Once you’ve taken ownership of your journey, the next step is to elevate it—with a device that supports you as you push your boundaries and surpass your best.

That’s where the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra comes in. It’s not just a performance smartwatch; it’s your companion in the pursuit of strength, power, and endurance.

Time to bring your game

I began my training journey five years ago, inspired by my love for a multi-sport athlete. Starting with bodyweight exercises in the privacy of my own room, I avoided the gym due to insecurities about my thin, frail body.

I struggled with basic lifts because I lacked a solid foundation of strength. The journey was challenging, so I enlisted the help of Coach Genaro Sabile, who also serves as the S&C Coach for the UP Men’s and Women’s Football Teams.

Under his guidance, I gained the knowledge, proper form, techniques, and strength needed to participate in the sports I’ve come to love over the years—Boxing, Muay Thai, Road and Trail Running, Obstacle Course Racing, and Fencing.

Now that I’m active in the multi-sport scene, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has become the perfect tool, helping me elevate my game and push beyond what I once thought possible.

With over 100 workout modes, the watch tracks my sports and other fitness activities with precision. I love the multi-sport tile, where I can choose my three preferred exercises.

While I don’t do triathlons, I know how physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially demanding they can be. If you’re just starting out, the Galaxy Watch Ultra can act as your personal coach, guiding you through those challenging initial stages.

Recovery goes a long way

On days when my muscles are sore and fatigue sets in, it’s tempting to slow down. But this watch is more than just a tracker—it’s a reminder that true progress comes when you embrace the grind.

The new Energy Score feature has become my go-to guide for knowing whether my body is ready for another workout.

After wearing the watch for 24 hours, it calculates a score based on my daily activity, weekly sleep patterns, average sleeping heart rate, and heart rate variability. It even takes into account my age and gender, making the assessment uniquely tailored to me.

Galaxy AI processes all this data and delivers a comprehensive report right in the Samsung Health app. Along with the Energy Score, I also rely on detailed insights like Sleep Stages and Sleep Scores to gauge how prepared I am for the day ahead.

These reports have become essential tools in understanding my body’s readiness and ensuring I’m on track to meet my goals.

I’ve learned firsthand that sleep quality has a profound impact on my performance, which is why I rely on Galaxy AI to analyze my data and provide insights for improvement.

It’s easy to overlook, but sleep truly is the number one factor in helping me reach my best. When I prioritize recovery and take it seriously, I see the difference it makes in how I feel and perform each day.

On the path to improvement

From pull-ups and push-ups to weighted squats and deadlifts, every rep matters. The Galaxy Watch Ultra tracks each movement, pushing me to perfect my form, lift heavier, and move with purpose.

It’s designed to start counting reps only when you’re in the correct position, though you can manually input counts if needed. The watch also auto-detects workouts like walking and running, so I never miss a session—even if I forget to start tracking because I’m too eager to get moving. It helps me stay focused on getting stronger.

Strength isn’t just about lifting weights, contrary to popular belief. It’s about mastering your body. The Galaxy Watch Ultra adapts to your routine, ensuring that you’re always on the path to improvement.

It provides real-time performance feedback, comparing your current session with previous ones. With Race Mode, it tracks key metrics like pace, speed, distance, and heart rate, letting you see how you stack up against past performances on the same route or activity.

This helps me understand if I’m improving or if I need to adjust my approach. However, it’s important to remember that goals can evolve. Strength isn’t solely about beating your best; sometimes, injuries or setbacks mean progress takes time.

The watch helps me adapt, learn from challenges, and come back stronger, armed with lessons from my journey.

Over time, the integration with Samsung Health gives me a comprehensive view of my fitness level, allowing me to monitor my progress and adjust my training plans as needed.

The test of strength and endurance

It’s easy to stay within your comfort zone, sticking to what you’re good at. But with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, I’m always pushing myself to seek new challenges and ways to build muscle, stamina, and resilience.

Often, pushing past your limits is a mental battle. The advanced BioActive Sensor in the Galaxy Watch Ultra enhances heart rate monitoring accuracy, which is incredibly useful during intense workouts.

Even when I think I can’t push any further, the watch keeps reminding me that I can do better. Sometimes, our biggest obstacle is our own mindset.

I used to have conversations with coaches who saw me as someone hesitant to fully unleash my potential. I’d often slip into fight-or-flight mode, clinging to my comfort zone.

But with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, I’ve been able to break through those barriers.

Even when the barbell feels too heavy or the pull-up bar seems unreachable, I know the smartwatch is tracking every effort and struggle. It’s not just about the numbers; it’s evidence of my progress, rep by rep.

Just as the smartwatch is built with Grade 4 Titanium to withstand extreme conditions, it inspires me to handle the rigorous tests of my own strength and endurance.

A symbol of commitment

This journey isn’t just about gaining muscle—it’s about mastering control and building a foundation that supports me in every aspect of life.

Whether I’m navigating everyday tasks or diving into the sports I love, each session with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra helps me refine my strength and resilience.

From lifting weights to perfecting new moves, the watch is there every step of the way, pushing me to surpass my previous performances.

Training isn’t just for competitions; it’s a lifelong commitment to becoming the strongest, most powerful version of myself. With the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra by my side, I’m confident that no matter the challenge, I’ll rise to meet it.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra retails for PhP 40,990. It is available in Samsung’s official stores nationwide.

This feature is a collaboration between GadgetMatch and Samsung Philippines.

Related Topics:Samsung Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra

Features

Can the REDMI Note 15 Pro+ 5G Survive?

REDMI Titan Durability Challenge!

Published

January 17, 2026

GadgetMatch and Michael Josh Villanueva

As someone who travels and is outdoors a lot, THE Michael Josh will be the first to admit that he is NOT gentle with his phones.

They live in his pockets, bags, hands. They get dropped, they get wet, and they get dusty.

So when REDMI asked him to test something they call “REDMI Titan Durability,” he figured the only fair way to do it was to put the REDMI Note 15 Pro+ 5G to the ultimate durability test.

Reviews

POCO M8 Pro review: Goin’ loco over this POCO

POCO starts 2026 with some bang

Published

January 15, 2026

Vincenz

Looking back at my first few months with GadgetMatch back in 2018 nostalgically evoked my Pocophone F1 core memory. It was touted as THE “flagship killer for less.”

Pre-pandemic, that “Pocophone” simply became “POCO” and became an “independent” kiddo who moved out of its parent’s house.

Almost eight years after that very first iteration, I’ve finally had my first (and long overdue) POCO-perience with the latest POCO M8 Pro.

Design: Repurposed with a purpose

While I have not held a POCO phone until very recently, I am still aware of the brand’s offerings over the years.

Seeing the POCO M8 Pro for the first time instantly reminded me of last year’s Redmi Note 14 Pro series. That’s not me saying POCO blatantly ripped the aesthetics as the POCO X7 also had the same design language.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

Like a full circle moment, the aforementioned phones were launched back a year ago.

In all honesty, it still confuses me which direction Xiaomi is heading, especially with the non-stop rebadging of existing POCO and REDMI phones — just with scrambled internals and CMF (color, materials, finish).

Having said that, I still consider the M8 Pro a level up from the last M7 Pro. The former’s design felt like it was not given much importance.

The centered camera island with a squircle cutout seemed like a signature design element of Xiaomi’s newer midrange line moving forward.

I also love how the phone felt in my hands. Even with that plastic back, it felt grippy enough when held.

You have to be wary of fingerprint smudges though — especially if you rock the black colorway. Luckily, the green shade I have still looks clean despite those unwanted smears.

And, if you’re brave enough to clean it in running water, the POCO M8 Pro boasts not just one, not two, but quadruple IP ratings: IP66, IP68, IP69, and even IP69K. These used to be exclusive only among 2025 flagships.

Now Playing: IDOL I

Much like my fanaticism to anything tech, the same can be said with Korean Pop Stars. More known as “K-Pop Idols”, I have been a huge geek of K-Pop for 16 long years (and still counting).

Interestingly, after finishing a series that just ended in Netflix, IDOL I swiftly came by. Even if I am the type of viewer who values the drama’s synopsis more than the cast involved, this K-Drama instantly hit two birds in one.

For one, its starred by a true iconic idol herself: Choi Sooyoung — or one of the nine members of SNSD / Girls’ Generation a.k.a the ultimate 2nd generation K-Pop girl group I’ve been stanning since my youth.

Although Maeng Se-na here is a heartless and “selfish” lawyer, she is the opposite for being a huge (yet silent) fan of “Gold Boys” with Do Ra-ik as his “Ult” (or Ultimate Bias).

In a wild turn of events, the idol became a “murderer” overnight — blaming him for the sudden death of his co-member after waking up from their drinking session.

But, no matter how the general public looks at him as the prime suspect, finding faults against Ra-ik is difficult. That’s pointing out the fact that he was just sleeping in his bed while his former bandmate slash loyal friend got stabbed without clear answers.

I can pretty much say the same thing with the 6.83-inch screen of the POCO M8 Pro: I cannot see any fault at all.

For one, it’s an AMOLED display that made me enjoy binging the first four episodes non-stop. But, being able to display 68.7 billion Colors and 12-bit color depth aside from the usual HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support? That’s likely unusual for a phone in such price point.

And, with a 1.5K display resolution plus a pixel density of 447 ppi, it’s as crisp as it could get. Watching it outdoors is neither a problem with its mighty 3200 nits peak brightness.

While my eyes aren’t very sensitive to light and flicker, its 3840Hz PWM dimming and TÜV Rheinland Flicker-Free and Low Blue Light certifications are still worth mentioning — especially if you stay up all night binge-watching hours worth of titles like yours truly.

On Queue: Apink’s RE:LOVE + Chuu’s XO, My Cyberlove

Pumping up the volume by 60%, it’s expected that the POCO M8 Pro possesses a louder than ever sound output. However, my audio assessment doesn’t end just there.

Just like POCO starting the year with a bang, the K-Pop scene in January 2026 has already exploded with real hit bangers.

First and foremost, Apink finally gathered again to released their 11th Mini Album (their previous Mini Album dates back to 2020). As per usual, I used Apple Music to take full advantage of that Lossless format.

Their title track “Love Me More” not only brought a lot of the group’s nostalgic intro and dance break instrumental during their early days in the industry, it also reminded me of the pre-millennium K-Pop era back in the early 90s.

Pair that with b-sides such as “Sunshine” that sounded pure and soulful, this latest mini album will truly make Pink Pandas’ hearts flutter.

In addition, Chuu (LOONA) finally releases her 1st Full Album titled “XO, My Cyberlove.” It is a complete opposite of her first ever solo song “Heart Attack” almost a decade ago which highlighted her cutesy, innocent charms.

The comeback track of the same title is as quirky and whimsical as it gets. Not only does it highlight Chuu’s light yet ethereal vocals, but it shows her newer, more mature side.

Furthermore, lyrics that evoke unexpected budding love in this digital era where everyone enjoys making connections through the cyber world.

With POCO M8 Pro’s speakers, I fully enjoyed playing the entirety of her freshly-baked album while I was writing this piece. Teeny Tiny Heart and Love Potion are currently my fave b-sides from this release.

Such music fulfillment was possible with the Dolby Atmos stereo speaker setup and Hi-Res Audio support of the M8 Pro. Not only its proudly loud, the audio produced is full and immaculate with clear line between its highs, mids, and lows.

Performance: Adequate for most

On paper, the POCO M8 Pro runs Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 SoC based on a 4nm process. As confusing as it seems, this is different from the more powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 4.

That being told, game settings will vary depending on how demanding one is.

For instance, CoDM (Call of Duty: Mobile) runs in Very High and Max settings upon first set-up.

Meanwhile, Racing Master (based on NVIDIA’s PhysX engine) can run Ultra settings at 60fps.

However, it throttles during the first two ranked races.

Fortunately, the game detects if it gets sluggish — suggesting lowering down the settings altogether.

Lastly, playing Zenless Zone Zero is doable but, at the lowest graphics by default.

You wouldn’t dare to go past it as Combat Mode will literally feel like combatting the phone itself due to how heavy the game is.

The only “remedy” for these hardware limitations? It’s none other than the Game Turbo mode that boosts graphics performance and input through Xiaomi’s software advancements. And it sort of helped make the gameplay smoother, but not fully.

For the rest of apps that are not graphics-intensive, the M8 Pro can breeze through various apps without hiccups, do split-screens, or multitasking along floating windows with ease.

I can truthfully say that the only thing dragging the POCO M8 Pro down is the software as a whole.

After experiencing the beauty of vivo’s OriginOS 6 and HONOR’s MagicOS 10, Xiaomi’s HyperOS still feels like an after-thought. While it can keep up with the modern-day Android features, its stability and optimizations simply don’t make the cut.

Besides, its built-in AI tools, device ecosystem, as well as cross-compatibility functionality aren’t as polished as what you get on other Chinese brands. Let alone, a rip-off from everyone’s fruit rival without much feature improvements.

Seriously, Xiaomi?

Worst thing? Maybe the ad slash bloatware infestation found not just on the lock screen. Even transferring personal files through Xiaomi’s native File Manager app plays an unskippable ad.

Battery: Eat it up! Eat it, eat it up! 🍝🎶

At 8.31mm, the POCO M8 Pro is as slender as it can get. How they were able to fit a 6500mAh battery inside its chassis is a true feat of engineering.

For the record, this is the first POCO M-series smartphone to have such a ginormous battery. It joins the same league as the POCO F8 Ultra, F7, and the X7 Pro (in India).

For added context, the M7 Pro, as well as the X7 with a similar form factor, only had a 5110mAh battery. But, numbers are just part of the story.

In day-to-day scenarios with light to moderate usage, the POCO M8 Pro can last you a full day — even more when you hit the bed with around 30% to spare.

As one would expect though, the biggest hogging can be felt when playing games.

During my gameplay stress test, downloading resources in Racing Master for about 30 minutes already consumed 5% charge (92% down to 87%). An hour of racing ate up 11 percent — from 87% down to 76%.

Letting it rest on my desk for 18 hours, the phone depleted to 51%.

At around 9 in the evening, I then started playing HoYoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero for exactly an hour. Battery charge went down further to 36%. Then, a 1.5-hour game in CoDM resulted to a 28% battery percentage. And, as of writing, the POCO M8 Pro still had a 3 percent charge left in its massive tank.

That said, the POCO M8 Pro comes with Xiaomi’s 100W wired HyperCharge speeds — adapter still bundled in the box.

By default, the battery charging speed is set in regular with the prompt / option to enable boosting.

In my GadgetMatch Charge Test results, it can be seen that the difference isn’t too far off.

	*Boosted HyperCharge*	*Regular HyperCharge*	*PPS Charging* (UGREEN 100W Nexode)
*START TIME* *From 0%*	1:11AM	3:10PM	4:06PM
3 minutes	10%	8%	1%
5 minutes	17%	11%	4%
*10 minutes*	25%	18%	13%
15 minutes	40%	23%	21%
20 minutes	46%	32%	28%
*30 minutes*	70%	50%	46%
45 minutes	88%	71%	67%
*1 hour*	99%	91%	84%
1 hour 15 minutes	–	99%	96%
*END TIME* *100%*	2:14AM 1 hour 3 minutes	4:27PM 1 hour 17 minutes	5:30PM 1 hour 24 minutes

PPS Charging is also possible. Although the device only showed “Quick Charge” while being filled up, it’s safe to say that it performs as fast as Xiaomi’s regular HyperCharge with a super close margin of only seven minutes.

Cameras: Surprisingly Satisfying

Prospective buyers of the M8 Pro wouldn’t have a hard time dealing with its conventional camera configuration: a 50MP f/1.6 main (wide) camera based on Light Fusion 800’s 1/1.55-inch sensor. That’s paired with a less outstanding 8MP f/2.2 UWA (ultra-wide angle) camera.

For the most part, the main camera does its job very well considering this type of device.

With the satisfactory 1x image sensor, 2x zoom is also possible, thanks to in-sensor cropping.

I honestly used the 2x mode more than I thought — especially when capturing my cats and food I devour.

You can go beyond the bounds. But, with obvious hardware limitations, the camera processing can only do so much.

Once that natural light disappears, it will be tricky to take low-light shots as this has NO dedicated Night Mode feature. No luck if you are using them indoors with artificial light around.

Instead, regular Photo Mode automatically detects a low-light subject and toggles Night Mode processing by itself.

While most results are satisfying, it’s also a testament that its cameras are far from being flawless.

Good thing, the flash exists for a funkier look in subjects that suit it — food specifically.

Portraits weren’t missed. Although it only relies on some software-based processing, it still gets the job done of separating the subject away from the background — humans and pets alike.

Personally, the aperture function was a bit of a nuisance.

For context, these shots were set to a low “f/1.8 aperture.” But, the M8 Pro rendered DoF (Depth of Field) that isn’t as shallow as what it’s supposed to show.

My frustration continues as the setting defaults back to f/4.5 after quitting and re-opening the camera app. That’s not even the standard lens opening when taking portrait photos.

And while we’re already here, selfies taken with its front-facing shooter.

Is the POCO M8 Pro your GadgetMatch?

While this isn’t the “flagship killer” most expect from a POCO phone, it’s hard not to go loco over how well-rounded yet wallet-friendly this POCO phone is — especially in the year 2026 where inflation is still unstoppable alongside the almost instantaneous and ridiculous RAM price hike.

ICYMI, the POCO M8 Pro has a starting price of GBP 299 / SG$ 389 / RM 1199 / PhP 16,999 (around US$ 279) for the 8+256GB configuration.

Meanwhile, the 12+512GB variant that I handle is priced at GBP 349 / SG$ 449 / RM 1499 / PhP 19,999 (approx. US$ 359).

Its closest rival is none other than the HONOR X9d. Coincidental or not, it was launched just a day after the unveiling of the M8 Pro.

Frankly, the only thing you’ll let go from HONOR’s sweet treat are its monstrous 8300mAh battery and more polished OS. This POCO-ffering blows it out of the water with a greater chipset, faster wired charging, bigger and better display, capable cameras, durability never forgotten.

Although it wasn’t totally highlighted, the POCO M8 Pro is undoubtedly a rebadged REDMI Note 15 Pro+ — Xiaomi’s midranger that heavily markets its “Titan Durability” capabilities.

The POCO M8 Pro has them all: from its sturdy aluminum frame, four IP ratings, even the fully-shielded front glass care of Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The biggest disparity? REDMI has a 200MP main camera over POCO’s 50MP shooter.

Despite some inconsistencies, the POCO M8 Pro is still an all-around midranger that will satisfy most users who want to purchase a shiny new smartphone without burning holes in your pockets.

It is a Swipe Right, Super Swipe, and a worthy recipient of the GadgetMatch Seal of Approval.