There is a serious lack of fat Apple Watch bands out there. My Ultra looks like it skipped leg day.
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Apple Watch Ultra With Nearly 10% Larger Display Rumored to Launch Next Year
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There is a serious lack of fat Apple Watch bands out there. My Ultra looks like it skipped leg day.
The device won't need to be any larger to accommodate a 10% larger display, the useless black bezels are that big.
Interesting. Are you large or small physically? I am a 200# male with XL hands (who could care less about bands variety), and although I used the earlier AW versions, the AW Ultra is a watch that suits me much, much better.
I wish the display was larger on my Apple Watch ultra said no one ever.
I have been saying this for decades. It is nuts that we mostly still build the same height countertops, tables, chairs, etc. that were built for my 5'4" grandfather (my siblings and I are all ~6').
I mean, yeah, screw us 5'something people. We obviously don't exist. Nevermind that if you're AFAB, everything is already designed against your physique...(from seatbelts to tables/desks to ... ah, nevermind)
Btw, the average height in the US is 5'4-5'9...
Height of Men and Women Around the World
Chart showing the average height of males and females in various world countries.
www.disabled-world.com
My guess is that concurrent with added display size would also come more available volume for battery. Plus tech has been bringing us improving efficiency every year. We would expect that to continue with a newer larger Ultra.
Reminds me of the pilot episode of Corporate... "The new Hampton Deville tablet. It's like an iPad, but eight times the size"
Chill. No one said Apple should remove the existing smaller size choices. And WTF does gender identity have to do with it? USA humans M/F/LGBTQ have all been getting physically larger for 100+ years. We should be building things accordingly. Just my $0.02.I mean, yeah, screw us 5'something people. We obviously don't exist. Nevermind that if you're AFAB, everything is already designed against your physique...(from seatbelts to tables/desks to ... ah, nevermind)
Btw, the average height in the US is 5'4-5'9...
Height of Men and Women Around the World
Chart showing the average height of males and females in various world countries.
More like iPod Nano for your wrist
(and yeah, I feel like we've come full circle there, from the "TV on a 1-inch screen" days)
Yes!!! Finally 53mm version. Yoohoooo
A new Apple Watch Ultra with a larger 2.1-inch display will be released in 2024, according to a report today from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, citing industry sources. This lines up with information shared last month by Jeff Pu, a tech analyst at Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities.
The current Apple Watch Ultra has around a 1.93-inch display, so the 2024 model would have nearly a 10% larger screen and would likely become the first Apple Watch with over a 50mm case size. The new Ultra is also expected to be the first Apple Watch to adopt microLED display technology, resulting in higher brightness, decreased power consumption, and improved contrast ratio compared to current models with OLED displays.
It's unclear if an Apple Watch Ultra update is planned for 2023.
Taiwanese research firm TrendForce today reported that microLED technology could allow for Apple to offer future products with "game-changing product innovations," ranging from foldable and rollable iPhone models to fully transparent AR glasses.
microLED display production costs are currently high, so Apple's transition to the technology will likely take many years to be completed.
In the meantime, Apple is still completing a transition to OLED displays across its product lineup. The first Apple device with an OLED display was the Apple Watch in 2015, while the iPhone started moving to OLED in 2017. Rumors suggest the first MacBook Air and iPad Pro models with OLED displays will be released in 2024.
Article Link: Apple Watch Ultra With Nearly 10% Larger Display Rumored to Launch Next Year
You doubted wrong. I am on the verge where tra is not super small like regular AW was but it could still be bigger. 53mm at least
The AW Ultra is my third AW, and it is not just bigger. It is a very different watch from the non-Ultra versions.
This is so true. I am sometimes feeling vertically challenged at 6’4”.
Most comments so far have focused on the Apple Watch. I think this is missing the significance of the article. The most important takeaway is that Apple may be coming close to realizing its long-held ambitions for microLED technology. The AW Ultra is probably among Apple's smallest, relatively low-volume displayed devices, and so is an ideal vehicle for Apple to begin implementing microLED (just as Apple first implemented OLED with the AW in 2015). The potential benefits of this tech are many. As Wikipedia notes:
The TrendForce article spells out the specific implications for Apple, and the broader industry:
In short, with its significant optical and power efficiency advantages, microLED may be what makes possible entirely new product categories that are fundamentally impossible today. Never mind a few more nits here or a couple mm there -- what's at stake are new paradigms. If today's reporting is accurate, that future begins to unfold next year. Pretty cool.
"Compared to widespread LCD technology, microLED displays offer better contrast, response times, and energy efficiency. MicroLED offers greatly reduced energy requirements when compared to conventional LCD displays while also offering pixel-level light control and a high contrast ratio. The inorganic nature of microLEDs gives them a longer lifetime advantage over OLEDs and allows them to display brighter images with minimal risk of screen burn-in. The sub-nanosecond response time of µLED has a huge advantage over other display technologies for 3D/AR/VR displays since these devices need more images, more pixels per image, more frames per second and fast response."
The TrendForce article spells out the specific implications for Apple, and the broader industry:
"In the development of AR headsets over the medium to long term, TrendForce believes building a headset with a completely transparent display will require an optical waveguide technology. However, incorporating optical waveguide will reduce the original brightness of a display by as much as 99%. Therefore, Micro LED with its huge brightness advantage can provide the sufficient leeway to compensate for this massive loss of brightness. If Apple wants to release an AR headset or a pair of AR glasses that features a completely transparent display in the future, then Micro LED is most likely its first choice for the display technology.
...
TrendForce believes a possible reason as to why Apple is slow to enter this segment [foldable OLED phones] is its focus on Micro LED. In addition to rigid backplanes that have glass and CMOS, Micro LED is also highly suitable for flexible backplanes made of PI or other kinds of materials with similar attributes. And by adopting Micro LED, Apple may be able to make iPhone displays foldable, rollable, and even “stretchable” in the future. Hence, Micro LED has the potential to be the key technology that Apple will use to realize game-changing product innovations and thereby get further ahead of other brands in the market competition."
In short, with its significant optical and power efficiency advantages, microLED may be what makes possible entirely new product categories that are fundamentally impossible today. Never mind a few more nits here or a couple mm there -- what's at stake are new paradigms. If today's reporting is accurate, that future begins to unfold next year. Pretty cool.
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That's what I was going to say. While I put the crown on my arm side, I still have it on my wrist. It works perfect for me.
45mm! My wrist is 7 inch (178mm). Since 2016 I always had the smaller version. After reading some forums and Reddit I realized 45 wouldn't be too large for me. I traded my three 41mm AWs for 45mm. I should have done it sooner.
Can you elaborate?
I know the technical differences, but are you referring to some game-changing usage or new purpose?
I've not been able to justify the cost over my AW7 which seems to do everything I need (always looking to see if I've overlooked something!)
Thanks for any enlightenment.
It would be nice if the case size remained unchanged and the bezels were deleted.
I have the AW7 as well and the only thing I could justify with the Ultra is the value. You get titanium, sapphire and cellular for $800. The titanium AW7 with cellular was more than that if I recall -- I think maybe $100 to $150 more. Plus the AWU has way better battery.
If the AWU came in a black finish and actually had a larger screen (rather than just a larger case size), then I might have picked one up for the screen + battery. But the bezels really turned me off -- especially after the AW7's big selling feature was having the display pushed out to the edges (they even made a watch face that highlighted that).
If the next generation AWU has no-bezel screen size increase I might pick that up. If it has a black finish option as well, then I will almost certainly buy it. Right now, my AW7 gets the job done just fine.
You do realize that the actually screen display area on the Ultra is imperceptibly larger than the Series 8? The Ultra just has way more bezel than Series 8. The case of the watch is much bigger, but the display is not much bigger at all.
Apple Watch Ultra Display:
410 by 502 pixels
1185 sq mm display area
Apple Watch Series 8 Display (45mm):
396 by 484 pixels
1143 sq mm display area
Difference in display area: 3.7%
The biggest advantage in the Ultra's screen is that it is brighter, but it is really the watch case that is bigger with much bigger bezels than the Series 8.