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Apple Watch Ultra vs. Ultra 2 Buyer's Guide: 12 Differences Compared

alexandr said:
I'm sure you're 100% right, but AW isn't just a fitness watch — it's a smart watch.
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That's the frustrating part - they're in the space of fitness watches but relying on the "hey its really a smartwatch", all the while offering incremental upgrades at a price point where they don't compete with fitness trackers, so then why does it cost as much as one?
It's hard pressed to compete with Garmin Venu 3 as a fitness tracker, which I think is like $450, but obviously destroys it as a smart watch.
 
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alexandr said:
It is a marketing twist. No reason to upgrade, but you don't want to be that fool who has 60% less transistors, DO YOU?
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Actually, it's only 37.5 % less transistors (AWU2 => AWU1). Sorry, couldn't transist resist 😇

Agree with the bottom line though, incremental upgrade coming from AWU1 🙂
 
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thefredelement said:
That's the frustrating part - they're in the space of fitness watches but relying on the "hey its really a smartwatch", all the while offering incremental upgrades at a price point where they don't compete with fitness trackers, so then why does it cost as much as one?
It's hard pressed to compete with Garmin Venu 3 as a fitness tracker, which I think is like $450, but obviously destroys it as a smart watch.
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I get that, but no one is forcing us to buy them, right? If the Garmin makes more sense for you — great! I am nowhere near being the kind of an athlete who would complain about the AW, although now that I think about it, my S6 is terrible at tracking swimming. But I'm not a pro — so I take it for what it is and call my wife from the ocean and say — hey come to the balcony and wave at meee :D
 
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It's rather strange most here believe Apple released Ultra 2 to snag users currently owning an Ultra 1.

When it's really a year-over-year update and about snagging people who currently own the regular Apple Watch (such as myself), or people who don't own any Apple Watch.
 
jonnysods said:
I have a 6 too, and I'm in the exact same boat. I was all primed for the Ultra 2, but now I think I'll just wait it out for another year. Battery is at 82%, I think I can make it last!
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Funny — I never checked my AW battery health — I'm also at 82%))

Yea, I was waiting for this update too, but this year's presentation was one of the worst I can remember. At least my phone is a 14PM, so that's def staying, but I was looking forward to upgrading my S6...
 
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Analog Kid said:
Siri on device is worth something to me. I don't imagine I'll upgrade, but I will look forward to when I do.
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Ditto! I was very surprised that I think Siri-on-device would actually be a good upgrade. I really rarely use Siri except the times I really do is when I'm driving and if I'm lost or need last minute directions, I'm using my Watch to route location and there are many times when it either can't or it takes a long time trying to get Siri to process.
 
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I ordered ultra 2 yesterday, upgrading from series 6. While not aesthetically different, I think the new chip is a more important upgrade, and I will definitely use the double tap. Also looking forward to swipe/type texting now, esp on the bigger screen. Took advantage of my brother's apple f&f discount and used apple card so ~20% off which also made it a no brainer. I don't think the watch needs to compete with Garmin, etc for long ultra runners, but to me, training for a marathon, the 6 is currently needing a recharge after 10+ mile runs to make it through the day. This morning I did a 10 mile run, listening to music, and it drained into the red (18%). Would have been dead by 2/3pm with normal work use. Longer runs have and will definitely kill it, and last thing I want is to worry about it dying on a long race day. The ultra will solve that for me, and is for sure a valid upgrade. Even if I didn't have the discount I'd still probably buy it for the new chip too, because they will likely continue to use and develop for this chip for several years to come. I could see the earlier ultra becoming less useful/obsolete faster.
 
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Mike Boreham said:
I have seen this said a few times, but this article says “With the S9 chip, there's a new Double Tap gesture (coming in October)”. Which implies it is not the same as currently available in accessibility.
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Yep. I think it will probably be a better, more responsive or more system wide version of what is currently is accessibility.

I decided to try out the accessibility feature and while I found it worked really well. My problem is that you either had to have raise to wake active, I dont, or you had to touch the screen or digital crown to wake it before accessibility gestures could be used which kind of defeats the point.

If this implementation works without having to activate the screen first then I would find it additionally useful above and beyond what accessibility can do.
 
alexandr said:
I know — out of all the tech reviewers I watched — only one person mentioned that this has already been available. Granted it doesn't work too well (at least for me), but nothing NEW here.
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I tested it and it seemed to work well but I have always on display turned on and raise to wake off.

This neuters the function and purpose since I have to wake to screen first by touching it or the digital crown.
 
PsykX said:
What the hell does "60% more transistors" mean ?
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Seriously? It means 60% more transistors than whatever was being compared to. What is so hard to understand?

The operational impact of so many more transistors and tens of thousands of engineering hours will likely be substantive. But it will take weeks of usage to get a feel for the changes.
 
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sniffies said:
The difference between the Accessibility Double-Tap and the new Double-Tap is that the new Double-Tap is smart, adaptive and context-aware. The Accessibility Double-Tap isn't.
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Adaptive and context-aware 😦 No thanks!!!!!!

This is what all those Terminator movies warned us about 🤣
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Seriously? It means 60% more transistors than whatever was being compared to. What is so hard to understand?

The operational impact of so many more transistors and tens of thousands of engineering hours will likely be substantive. But it will take weeks of usage to get a feel for the changes.
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Yet, we're supposed to be jumping out of our seats in excitement, yes?
 
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alexandr said:
Yes, except I still see no reason to. And I like the look and feel of the Ultra, but they didn't even add the thermometer function which I had specifically asked for several times!
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The ultra measures water temp so it must have a thermometer
 
This is my first Apple watch so I will be getting it but I was hoping at least they would have matched the 4 pro colors. That would have cool :)
 
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