Apple Watch Ultra

I have been using Apple Watch since series 0. I believe I switched from Garmin fenix 3. I feel like at that time Fenix had a lot of issues, I remember there were some about the maps, maybe they did not even had them at that time. And I was really into hiking. So thought that Apple Watch could be a better watch. Workouts were nice, listening music from the watch was a good addition. I have not tried new fenix watches. And I would assume they are the same good as Apple Watches as well. But I do like my Apple Watch Ultra (2 or 3, whatever was released this year)

I have seen absolutely nothing of the sort. My experience is that other than a larger screen and an extra button, the Ultra is just like the normal Apple watch which preceded it: reliable to an almost boring degree. To the point where I want to include some sort of caveat or flaw in my reply, lest I be accused of the dreaded fanboyism. Problem with that is that I don't have one. I can't think of a single bug or glitch in the 18 months I've had it. I guess I have one kvetch: there was a major OS version bump during which they disabled swiping between faces. They added it back as an option, which I promptly turned on, and that was that.

Apple Watch owner , always been indestructible, especially the ultra

I really want to like this watch. Price is certainly right, and it does all of the things I'd want out of a Garmin or Apple Watch Ultra. But what problem does this solve for me? In the Apple Watch use case, a replaceable battery would be nice. But in contrast to Garmin, I've never replaced a Garmin because the battery wouldn't hold charge anymore. I've never broken a screen (if one has a habit of that, Garmin and Apple make watches with raised bezels). I just hold on to the Garmin for six or seven years, by which time it's so beat to hell that it's time for a new watch anyway. But I'm wondering if the subtle message isn't aimed at Apple and not Garmin. USB-C charging would be awesome, instead of Garmin's proprietary plug and a cable that's made from spider silk. I'd prefer, though, wireless charging like Apple. Never once have I pulled an Apple Watch off a charger and said, "WTF? Why didn't it charge?" Garmin, OTOH... I'm no triathlete, but the "no swimming" kinda puts a damper on my enthusiasm as well. I wish them well, I love the idea even if I probably won't buy one.

I wouldn't judge it so harshly. The Garmin side is indeed a wide gaping hole in the story, and I consider them actually well worth bothering with - but a lot of the considerations are interesting and resonate with me. The condemnation of google, how they betrayed the trust of consumers and partners, their fleeting, unstable attention, the damage it caused to companies and to trust in the product, is spot on. I would have maybe added a mention of the extremely cheap watches (like an Amazfit I got for 49 EUR before I received an AW Ultra as a gift - but Xiaomi/Redmi, Huawei, even Samsung have stuff in that range) as they fit the described "What a Smartwatch Actually Does" use case perfectly at an amazing bargain price. If I really don't need much beyond telling time, showing notifications and maybe counting my steps, anything above 30EUR is going to be a really hard sell. We can add 20 EUR extra budget for a decent tracking of sports and fitness functionality. And the point is that, despite not admitting it even to themselves, really few people actually truly need something beyond these core functions which have stayed the same for a decade. As others observed in the past, the target user of an Apple Watch is someone who imagines themselves active and needing all the fancy stuff, but in reality doesn't. I really do like my Ultra, and actually use the payment and scuba diving (as a backup) which go beyond the bare basics and set it aside from most competitors, whether cheap or…

I had this exact problem with my Apple Watch. My family got me an Ultra as a gift, and I really didn't think I was going to use it (I didn't even want it), but it ended up being a total gamechanger, and now the Ultra is my favorite gadget and a huge motivator to get into better shape.

The Ultra battery lasts a couple or three days. The pulse, EKG, and blood oxygen are first rate. Get a Titanium band (why doesn't Apple sell this?) and use a square design screen and it's a dress watch: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091H8D561

I’m content to charge every day, but I need the thing to be guaranteed to last the length of a slow mountain 50 miler. Remember the intro of the original Ultra, with Scott Jurek? You know Jurek, won Western States 100 (et al.) a few times? Yeah, well, us mortals sometimes need 12 hours to finish a 50 mile race with lots of elevation or desert heat (or both), and my experience says that I’m not guaranteed to get 12 hours of GPS activity tracking out of the thing without turning down GPS/HR frequency. I love my Ultra, but for big running I had to go back to Garmin. I can leave the house with it half charged and still get a good 12 hours of running out of it before it dies. OTOH, I’ve also had a Garmin 945TLE, with a cell radio in it. Fire up that cell radio, and goodbye battery life. I’ll be curious to see how that new Fenix does in the real world with its LTE radio blazing away.

The ultra only needs to be charged for like 45 mins every couple days. It’s nice for the “find my phone” button and for getting alerts when my phone is in my pocket.

This is a bit silly. I was gifted an Ultra, and as a climber/skiier/trail runner, it serves my purposes extremely well. The maps using WorkOutdoors are far superior to what I've seen from Garmin devices (although I haven't tried) and I can always get all-day battery and charge within 30-40 min before bed. Yes, I wish the battery lasted longer but it's a tradeoff I'd always take for a more responsive and usable interface. One gripe is that the functionality with gloves is a little annoying since you can get false positive screen taps from sleeves/cuffs. A second is that the main button is pressed when doing a pushup or in some situations while climbing, which triggers the emergency alarm mode by default (but is configurable to turn off). Most adventures are not many days long without sleeping (for me) and this watch works pretty well.

I picked the Apple Watch Ultra mainly for the extended battery life. I charge it 15 minutes or so every other day. One of the more useful features I've discovered is it will give you a low battery warning if it detects that you need to charge before bed to maintain overnight power rather than just a fixed percent based warning. That's made it very easy to keep it topped up for tracking my abysmal sleep.

Apple watch is a 'dumb' phone. I upgraded to watch ultra for this purpose. Just leave the iphone at home or in the car (bonus: one less item to carry). I use browser to check twitter occasionally, but it helps break the habit of keeping phone around all the time. Do miss the camera though..

Be curious what bugs you are referring to. I've had an Ultra since it launched and it's been no different to any other Apple Watch.

Complete nonsense. I love my Apple Watch. I can leave my house, make payments be fully contactable, access useful information about weather, stonks, work pager messages etc. while weaving a heavy clunky device at home and no distractions like social media. It’s also a fitness tracker and saved people I know who have heart conditions lives. I have the ultra abs the battery life is wonderful too. Like, a device that can literally save your life is shit ?

Well, I've been an iPhone user since the OG iPhone until 2017 when I've switched to the first gen Pixel. I stopped liking the iOS look & feel when the home button got removed. At that time, the only thing to keep me on the iPhone was iMessage - not that I didn't want to be a green bubble, it just the SMS experience sucks in general, RCS wasn't a thing you could use at that time. However, once I've met my future ex-wife, that stopped being an issue because we used fb messenger to talk. Fast-forward to summer 2023, I'm in a process of divorce, watching Apple event. Get possessed by Steve Jobs, pause presentation, order new iPhone and Apple Watch Ultra for self-pickup, finish watching the presentation, drive to pick up my new phone and watch. Quick migration and up and running. Android (Pixel) Pros: - back button, the thing I knew I will miss a lot - all pixel exclusive features like call screening - I prefer stock android control center - sideloading (i've made my own reddit client for android tv and used it for loooong time) - kotlin > objc (irrelevant since swift) - fingerprint scanner on the back of a phone was a genius decision Android (Pixel) Cons: - google inconsistent web interfaces - apps have much lower quality - Google wants you to use Chrome Cast, so you can connect your phone to a monitor - Most non-stock android makes me want to vomit, specially Samsung - Google didn't know how to position Pixel (is it a flagship? is it a mid-level? is it a low-end? wtf was pixel 5…

I miss the Zeo. The app would still work locally long after they shut the backend down, until there just was no more aftermarket / eBay supply of their unique silver coated contact padded headbands that actually did the brainwave monitoring. I do find the Apple Watch Ultra seems to be close to at least being in the ballpark in terms of stage and duration accuracy as its output is comparable to what I last got with Zeo, albeit 10 years ago.

In the last six months I have purchased: 16 inch M1 Max ~4k Apple Watch Ultra ~800 Air pods pro 2 ~250 13 inch M1 16 GB ~2000 = 7000 dollars. A huge spend and I don't regret one single purchase. Each subsequent product interfaces extremely well with the ecosystem. I no longer carry my phone with me 80% of the time. I bring my watch and usually have a laptop if needed.

My partner bought the Apple Watch Ultra last year when she smashed her phone and we didn't get around to repairing it for a few days - after a few days she realised she was happier, but still needed to be contactable via call/SMS. Since then she's never gone back. Her old phone lives permanently plugged in under my desk, and every so often we need to unlock it and do _something_ (which is difficult). It's about 90% an independent device though, and she's happier than I've ever seen her. We looked initially at getting her a pocket sized camera (e.g Sony RX100) and setting up some form of remote screen viewing/touch to the phone (which seems like a hard problem to solve!), but honestly neither ended up necessary. Once I have the option professionally, I plan to follow suit, or ditch my phone completely ideally.

All Apple Watches have flashlights. The flashlight on the Ultra is as strong as the iPad IIRC