Ordered two Ultra's, one for myself and one for my son. Two friends also ordered Ultra's
None of us do the "rugged/extreme" activities associated with its purpose, but are all active in multiple ways, and I will be adding hiking to my activities in the Spring.
But really wanted it for the larger and much brighter display - son plays a lot of golf, so I think the same two features would be useful for golf gps GUI's (ie the Tag Heuer app)
Well perhaps I’ll upgrade. Still rocking the original series 0 watch (2nd one, battery swelled and apple replaced it) . The ultra with all the bells and whistles looks like a decent buy.
The chart is wrong for the Ultra. It is only available in Titanium, and the chart indicates Stainless Steel and Titanium. They were probably copying and pasting the columns and forgot to delete Stainless Steel from the Ultra.
Can the temperature sensor detect an oncoming illness? Say a fever? Otherwise the temperature sensor gets a hard pass from me.
Apple only mentions the temperature sensor as a "women's health" feature. No signs of it being available for anything else, anywhere. I'm surprised they seem to have included a sensor that's useless for 50% of users.
Pretty short sighted view. You can be pretty certain that there will be additional uses for the two sensors.
Once the sensor is there it can be activated for other features as they become available (approved/cleared).
That is not how to check your body temperature, so the temp sensor is only designed for menstrual cycle tracking. It is likely only designed to detect skin temperature, not body temperature. Not sure what else you think it will, or could be used for.
I like to let the first version (fill in a device made) shake out the birthing bugs. I delayed getting the watch until V3 and have done annual updates ever year since., I delayed ordering the new Studio Displays and Mac Studio for many months for the same reason. Thus the kinks in the displays had been resolved before my units were built and updates were easy to accomplish.
I still have my self-winding pilots watches in the drawer and they are even larger and heavier than the "Ultra".
1. The Ultra is only available in titanium, not in steel.
2. All watches from the AW4 onward support the low power mode with watchOS 9, therefore battery life should be on par with series 7.
Having said that, right after the introduction of the series 8 I got a series 7 in mint condition with the titanium housing and the link band. Main reason that the series 8 offers nothing that made me jump from my current series 4. Super happy.
I also ordered the Ultra which is supposed to arrive only in two weeks. Very curious how it will compare to the 7 and which one I will keep.
Andrew: Can you settle the question of whether the "active" screen area of the Ultra is any larger than the S7/8 45mm? I know the Apple specs quote the display as being larger: 410x502 pixels vs 396 x 484. But to my eye--and I own both the Ultra and an S7 45mm--the active screen area looks the same, meaning that watch faces, emails and texts display at the same size on both watches. What IS different is that the Ultra screen has larger bezels, which I think Apple is counting in its overall pixel size. But I could be wrong--it's worth noting that even if the active screen sizes are exactly as stated by Apple, the Ultra's screen is only 3.5% larger in length and width, and I'm not sure my eyes could detect a difference that small.
Well, I was within the "bring it back" window for my S8 iWatch. I walked out with the Ultra. Paid the difference. Feels like one of my old self-winding pilot watches of yesteryear and about the same size....
Andrew: Can you settle the question of whether the "active" screen area of the Ultra is any larger than the S7/8 45mm? I know the Apple specs quote the display as being larger: 410x502 pixels vs 396 x 484. But to my eye--and I own both the Ultra and an S7 45mm--the active screen area looks the same, meaning that watch faces, emails and texts display at the same size on both watches. What IS different is that the Ultra screen has larger bezels, which I think Apple is counting in its overall pixel size. But I could be wrong--it's worth noting that even if the active screen sizes are exactly as stated by Apple, the Ultra's screen is only 3.5% larger in length and width, and I'm not sure my eyes could detect a difference that small.
The active screen area is larger by a tiny bit. However, that doesn’t mean apps will take advantage of the larger space. I think only the brand new watch faces take advantage of the larger space. Basically, the case is much bigger, and the display is a little bigger. It also feels extremely thick. It will take me a while to get used to it.
Oh, I forgot. Some people complain that they are hitting the Action button very frequently by accident. This can be corrected by turning the watch upside down so that the Digital Crown is on the bottom left and the Action button is on the right. This is assuming that you wear the watch on your left wrist. But if you wear it upside down, then you need to change the settings to Right Hand use. Otherwise, the display would be upside down.
This might be a little late to expect an answer but does anyone know the name of the watch face towards the top of the article? It looks like a Metropolitan face except the numbers look slightly off. The California faces look even more off. I have gone through every face in the gallery and I can’t find an exact match.
This might be a little late to expect an answer but does anyone know the name of the watch face towards the top of the article? It looks like a Metropolitan face except the numbers look slightly off. The California faces look even more off. I have gone through every face in the gallery and I can’t find an exact match.
Are you talking about the Apple Watch Ultra, the right of the two watches at the top of the page? That white watch face is the WayFinder watch face found only on the Ultra. This is covered in the video.
When "comparing" screen sizes between the 7 / 8 and the Ultra, Andrew really should have had the same watch face on both Watches. The would have been more helpful to those having trouble seeing a size difference. This would reduce rank speculation and conspiracy theories. Of course it wouldn't eliminated them.
Disappointed. Im trying to find a reason to upgrade my apple watch series 6 to the series 8 but being that the temperature sensor is not designed with me in mind, I'm thinking I may wait for the series 9. Or 10. The series 7 didn't come close and the 8 is sketchy at best, at least for me. There's always next year
"Sketchy at best"? WTF does that even mean. I don't know that even Apple expects Watch users to upgrade every year. So the 8 might appeal to a lot of wearers that have been using a Watch older than the last gen or two.
So being very happy with my 7, I'm not disappointed that the 8 doesn't have a feature or two that I can't live without. It's about the same with my phone. I upgrade about three to four years minimum, unless there's something awesome in the newest model. It does happen that I buy a Watch or phone one year and the next Gen product screams BUY ME NOW!. But it's rare.
Unfortunately, while the 8 doesn't tempt me at all, the Ultra does. I hate it when that happens.
I think there is some clever marketing and clever creativity going on with the display. Is the actual display any bigger than the series 8? I suspect not, its not edge to edge on the ultra. Whilst, the 49mm size is now a decent size, more masculine looking for sports, I don't think size wise the display is any bigger. it is brighter for sure but that is a software tweak. Hopefully, I am wrong because the series 7, whilst bigger display, could still be bigger. Having said that, just ordered the ultra. Looks terrific. I imagine a few more iterations and the screen will get bigger within the same frame. For now though, excited to be upgrading from the series 7.
Don’t quit your day job, hardware analysis ain’t it.
A few more needless uses of the word “whilst” would have pushed that post into professionalism.
It’s not. Price is relative and it was about the same as I spent on my stainless steel models. I wasn’t planning on getting an AWU but ended up liking the way it looked and felt. The titanium is extremely light and the screen is so bright. It’s a solid hit.
Tell me you've never bought a real Swiss-made premium analog watch in your life, without telling me you've never bought a real Swiss-made premium analog watch in your life.
Comments
None of us do the "rugged/extreme" activities associated with its purpose, but are all active in multiple ways, and I will be adding hiking to my activities in the Spring.
But really wanted it for the larger and much brighter display - son plays a lot of golf, so I think the same two features would be useful for golf gps GUI's (ie the Tag Heuer app)
I still have my self-winding pilots watches in the drawer and they are even larger and heavier than the "Ultra".
Maybe next year I will try an Ultra.
1. The Ultra is only available in titanium, not in steel.
https://www.apple.com/watch/compare/
When "comparing" screen sizes between the 7 / 8 and the Ultra, Andrew really should have had the same watch face on both Watches. The would have been more helpful to those having trouble seeing a size difference. This would reduce rank speculation and conspiracy theories. Of course it wouldn't eliminated them.
So being very happy with my 7, I'm not disappointed that the 8 doesn't have a feature or two that I can't live without. It's about the same with my phone. I upgrade about three to four years minimum, unless there's something awesome in the newest model. It does happen that I buy a Watch or phone one year and the next Gen product screams BUY ME NOW!. But it's rare.
Unfortunately, while the 8 doesn't tempt me at all, the Ultra does. I hate it when that happens.