Apple Watch Ultra Review: Worth It Or Nah?

So Saturday morning I woke up with the Apple Watch

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charged and with a battery of 100. I went to practice. I had frisbee practice in New York. Many people don't realize how many calories you burned during a three-hour practice, but you finished, drove home, and then carried on with the rest of the day. I ended up sleeping that day with about 69 battery, then slept with the

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on to track sleep, and then woke up Sunday morning with 60 and drove to New York City again. I had another practice, this one a little hotter, the sun bakes a little longer, three more hours and 2000 calories later, that's over, I drove home and spent the rest of my day on and off, I slept with the clock put to monitor sleep, I woke up on Monday. in the morning I drove to the studio now it's monday morning at 11am. in the studio and I currently have 20 lift batteries, it's pretty good, it's two days and two nights and up to the third day, which is a lot better than I've been able to get out of any other Apple Watch period, but let's back up a second to Knowing that something like this was coming, we knew there was going to be an improved, rugged Apple Watch in some ways and I think a lot of people assumed it would be called the Apple Watch. pro, but instead we have this and it's called Apple Watch Ultra.

The thing is, actually, it would have been totally reasonable and probably perfect if they also called it the Watch Pro and that's just because of the way Apple treats the The word pro nowadays, like

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s, uses the name pro in the higher-end versions of almost all of their products iphone pro macbook pro airpods pro ipad pro pro display and each of these expensive devices has a feature set that a smaller fraction of the population can actually take advantage of and use now, whether Whether that makes you a pro or a hardcore user or an enthusiast or an aspiring pro, like what a pro airpods user is anyway, that's a debate for another day, but it's the same with this Apple Watch

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that I have.

I've been using it for about a week now and in my opinion there's a core group of people for whom the Apple Watch really covers all their needs and that's like the majority of the population, but then there's an additional group a little bit more bigger than that for which the standard

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which is now series 8 covers all its possible uses so you know add the screen always on the different sizes etc it is already a really versatile smartwatch but there are still people from the outskirts for whom the regular Apple Watch still wasn't enough and Apple naturally still wants those people, so this is an 800 watch that has some extra premium features and specs that are surprising and definitely overkill for most people like those in the middle of my illustration, but it appeals to the more extreme users, the adventurers who do serious hiking, diving, running marathons or triathlons, so they actually added three main things to this watch over the normal one, which are ruggedness features and battery, and everything goes together.

Well, it's pretty obvious that they just reinforced it, so it's now much larger, 49 millimeters diagonally, but it now has the shapes and materials of a watch that should be much harder to break. It is a titanium case with a ceramic back. It has much more. Larger buttons that don't have as much travel as I expected, but are easier to press with gloves. There's the larger crown and then the crown guard on the side. It has a very distinctive look here and then the screen on top here is a flat sapphire crystal rather than the normal curve over the edges with this slightly raised lip around the screen so it's protected from impacts in the corners for me it's pretty big like this is a pretty big watch, I will say it's not as heavy as it looks pretty good, but it stands out visually for a couple of reasons: one, this is the only color, so this is the exposed titanium, It looks very silver.

I would like it to come in black because black is as slimming as black can be. The watch looks smaller with a black band but that would certainly require black paint which would probably scratch off and then the silver would show through and then it would look pretty gnarly after a while so I get it, maybe they could anodize it. Don't know. I know, but yeah, a big silver watch on a slim wrist looks big, but also two like this look like this is a big watch for me, someone who pretty much only wears smartwatches, right? and smartwatches are a bit strangely shaped sometimes, like a computer on the wrist.

The wrist type looks like just a block, but in the world of watches in general, the Apple Watch Ultra isn't really even close to the largest watch you will see, as some people are very used to much larger watches on their wrists, and especially those people. in the suburbs that I was talking about before, they are quite used to using some of these huge garmins or suuntos or even specialized equipment for specific activities, like dive computers, which will make the Apple Watch Ultra look compact, so everything like this watch is huge. It depends a lot on the context, but the thing is that a lot of these watches here are larger than the Apple Watch, but they're shaped like a watch, they're circular on the front and then they have this conical shape around the wrist at the top and bottom. , so They don't seem like they stick out that much even though they do, where the Apple Watch just doesn't taper at all, it's like a block, so yeah, the computer on the wrist, I don't know, I don't really HE.

Note the aesthetics, like I said I just wish it came in black, that would have been nice. I wonder if the colorware will be able to paint these things anyway, that's the build quality, but the other two things that make the ultra ultra are the battery and capacity. The battery is pretty simple, it's a much larger watch and has room for more battery inside, but we'll get to that in a second, but the capabilities only come in the form of additional features, so the additional microphone and speakers They provide better audio quality. windy environments the dual frequency gps for a more accurate and reliable gps and more difficult environments such as forests or in cities between skyscrapers the wr-100 water resistance rating for immersion up to one hundred meters the new maximum brightness of 2000 nits for this display, meaning it's the most visible outdoors I've seen on an OLED smartwatch, plus it's a good flashlight if you need it and most importantly the new extra button so that bright international orange button is called the button action and can be assigned right now to anyone.

Of these eight things, I currently have mine to open the new workout selector, I select the workout type and then I press the action button again to start and then once you are in an activity, again there is a layer of customization of What this action button can do, maybe mark segments or laps within a track workout or mark when you switch from bike to run in a triathlon, all kinds of things like that. I really like having it. I felt like I accidentally pushed it too hard. just because of the way I gripped the watch and adjusted the crown, but I also got used to it pretty quickly.

I think the most notable thing this Apple Watch has over other Apple Watches will be the battery life, so this, as I said in the starting two full days and two full nights with plenty of room to spare, that's easily better than about the double what I was able to get from my Apple Watch series 7. The thing is, while it's a huge improvement for an Apple Watch, it's still nowhere near the other high-end watches, many of which are expected to spend weeks , months and even years without even thinking about charging this one here, this Casio watch, it's a Casio, casio pro trek uh, that has solar charging, it's never been charged, it's practically infinite battery life, it doesn't even come with a charger In this world of watches, a two-day battery life is not that impressive, but that brings me to the last question with this ultra: how are you going to use this watch? like you're one of these people on the outside who doesn't wear an Apple Watch, Apple was trying to find a reason why you didn't wear it and add the features or capabilities to make you actually want to wear it now because of course they want to bring you into the ecosystem, so some of these people here are frequent divers and have been using dedicated dive computers ranging from giant watches to tablets on your wrist to track depth and directions and a bunch of other underwater safety metrics now The Apple Watch Ultra has added that the WR-100 is water resistant up to 100 meters.

There's a new diving app to track some pretty basic things like depth and give you times for safety stops on your way back for recreational diving. So, but Apple also partnered with a third-party company for this Oceanic Plus app coming later this year that seems to do basically everything that professional dive computers do, including air integration, the only thing it doesn't do. Extreme technical divers may want to monitor tank pressure and depth monitoring beyond 40 meters. Now some of these people here are really adventurous hikers off the beaten path. Casuals find popular hikes on Google. I mean, these people go and carve. your own path for miles and miles in the middle of nowhere, sometimes for days at a time, so the ultra watch now has a ton of navigation related features, there are dual frequency GPS for more accurate localized GPS even in locations challenging, but then the new compass app is pretty awesome, it lets you set unlimited waypoints so you can return to them at any time and you can track your exact route with a backtrack feature in case visibility is difficult or you need May the watch guide you back to where you came from.

There's also a super loud 86 decibel siren that can be played from the new speaker system if you find yourself completely lost with no one around and yes, it's actually impressively loud and you can hear it from probably a quarter of a mile away and there's a new clock counselor. Default face that puts everything at your fingertips, including a live compass that's super smooth. I think a lot of people just leave this face on all the time even if they don't need it, but some of the other people up here are ultra endurance athletes and of course the name speaks for itself.

Honestly, the Apple Watch just didn't last long enough for these people's Iron Man races, ultramarathons, and Spartan races, which is why the new Ultras watches got dual frequency. GPS which is huge and the action button is good too but the significantly improved battery life is huge for these now, it won't last a week or a year like some of the stopwatches or the simpler ones do but now it costs approximately double the battery. life of the standard Apple Watch and is finally up to the task of some of the most extreme endurance athletes with GPS, and even if it's not, Apple has mentioned that there will be this battery optimization settings feature later this year and that is not low consumption. mode that already existed on the watch, but it is an additional setting within the workouts to ping the GPS and heart rate less frequently, so in a normal workout for me, which is a disc sports workout for a ultimate practice, it's basically just that it measures heart rate constantly like any other.

In a few seconds, which is very useful, you can see how quickly you recover. You can see when you're in certain heart rate zones over the course of a practice, but if you're running like a hundred miles or something ridiculous, you don't need multiples. It pings every minute, you just need a broader idea of ​​how it's going, so it's a useful feature for these people and when you turn it on, it should essentially triple the lifespan of the Apple Watch. Apple says up to 60 hours. I still do not have it. Because it doesn't exist, I can't tell you exactly how well it works, but it's a useful feature.

They even have a trio of 99 new bands for this watch for these activities, so there's a tracking band that looks a little sick. Alpine Loop and Ocean Band as a

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er, I want to like it, I want to try all these activities and, well, I guess I have to run an ultramarathon now and I like diving, but I can't remember the last time I was within 10 meters. underwater let alone 40. So I can't prove all of these things, but I actually communicated and heard directly from these people on my podcast, the waveform podcast. I'll link the episode specifically under the like button so you can listen to it, but We had likediver to an ultra runner and a mountain climber, so we asked them about the risk of the computers they currently use and whether or not they think this Apple Watch ultra is good enough to replace them and through those conversations, one by one, each one reached the end.

Basically with the same conclusion, which is that yes, it seems that they did everything they were looking for in an Apple Watch. I'll link it below so you can hear exactly what they said and then there's me just so you know. I'm a tech

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er and an excellent frisbee player so it turns out that the regular Apple Watch is enough for me, like I said a normal workout or any type of workout we do is usually just a bunch of heart rate readings, there's no lots of GPS. pings or elevation tracking or something so it's not very demanding but still on the ultra you would get the benefits of the battery only draining at 20 during a practice instead of 40 and then the more accurate GPS readings and the brightest screen.

It's nice to have them for other activities, maybe an occasional bike ride or a walk or things like that, and they might be better for you too. It's one of those things where I think overall, if you have to wonder, I probably don't need it, but it really reminds me of the Rog Phone. That thing is completely over the top for almost every human on the planet with all its crazy gaming features and absurdly high-end specs, but then all those gaming features happen too. make it better for media and regular use and it's basically the same here, like this, technically speaking, it's the best Apple Watch they've ever made, it has the longest battery life, the brightest screen, the best microphones and speakers , and it's all in this. accurate tracking package, but I mean, if your wrists are big enough, then yes, you can do it daily too.

It falls into this unique category where it replaces some of these extremes, like dive computers or GPS watches that you would normally take off when you're done with your workout, eh, but it's an Apple Watch through and through. At the end of the day, you can use this every day. I just don't know if you'll enjoy dressing it up as much as you would a regular. Apple Watch is a curious fact. I wore the Apple Watch series seven at midnight with my tuxedo at the Met Gala and it didn't seem crazy to me anyway. Get a nice watch strap, like the leather one, at shopdownitemphd.com. everything works great, but yeah, this one just because it sticks out is huge all the time, you can't hide it as much, might have a little more trouble with that, but hey, if you know what you're getting into.

The rog phone is a pretty good phone and if you know what you're getting into the apple watch ultra is a pretty good apple watch so that was it thanks for watching guys next one peace.