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jz0309

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 25, 2018
11,205
29,518
SoCal
My thoughts, interested to hear others:
Basically same design, thinner - good
New SiP 10 - good
No new health sensors - bad/disapponted
Jet black - love
Polished Ti - like it but also think SS is a watch classic and disappointed to see it go
Sleep apnea - great, uses accelerometer and also coming to S9/ultra2
Hypertension - disappointed that it’s not there

Ultra - love the black, but, it’s an Ultra2 (two) and doesn’t even have the S10 chip - major letdown

And for both, no mention of blood oxygen - very disappointed

Edit: title typos fixed
 
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the future

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2002
3,625
5,907
They didn't upgrade the processor for the "new" Ultra 2...to even stay in step with the Series 10? WTF? Is this 100% confirmed? I wasn't able to watch the presentation.

There is no new Ultra. It is exactly the same as before, only now available in black also. But the only really new feature the S10 got was depth and water temperature … which the Ultra already had. And sleep apnea detection, which Ultra and S9 also get.
 

dallison13

macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2014
176
146
There is literally nothing on the watch that is slow right now. I guess if the new chip could enable better battery life or AI features then I would care. What additional sensors do we even want right now? I can't think of many.

Software updates is where they really need to focus on. Ultra is. loads behind competitors in the Fitness game.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,615
5,530
I wonder if there will be a mid-year Ultra 3 announcement? Seems unlikely... But then so does keep it on S9 SIP.
 
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batman75

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2010
728
176
My thoughts, interested to hear others:
Basically same design, thinner - good
New SiP 10 - good
No new health sensors - bad/disapponted
Jet black - love
Polished Ti - like it but also think SS is a watch classic and disappointed to see it go
Sleep apnea - great, uses accelerometer and also coming to S9/ultra2
Hypertension - disappointed that it’s not there

Ultra - love the black, but, it’s an Ultra2 (two) and doesn’t even have the S10 chip - major letdown

And for both, no mention of blood oxygen - very disappointed

I am also disappointed. I would even get the Ultra 2 in black if it had the same functionality as my current Ultra 2. But my current Ultra 2 does have BloodOx and and Ultra 2 in Black does not.

Why would I downgrade for a nice color? They need to sort out this blood ox thing. Tons of companies have blood ox on wearables.
 

batman75

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2010
728
176
There is literally nothing on the watch that is slow right now. I guess if the new chip could enable better battery life or AI features then I would care. What additional sensors do we even want right now? I can't think of many.

Software updates is where they really need to focus on. Ultra is. loads behind competitors in the Fitness game.
We want a working sensor for Blood Ox which the one from last year had. I would love something around blood pressure too.
 
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GaryLittlefield

macrumors newbie
Sep 9, 2024
2
0
Augusta, GA
How do they say that the new Watch 10 is even bigger than the Ultra but all of the Watch 10 sizes max out at 46mm vs Ultra at 49mm? Guessing the site isn't fully updated. Weird.
 

jz0309

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 25, 2018
11,205
29,518
SoCal
There is literally nothing on the watch that is slow right now. I guess if the new chip could enable better battery life or AI features then I would care. What additional sensors do we even want right now? I can't think of many.

Software updates is where they really need to focus on. Ultra is. loads behind competitors in the Fitness game.
it's not speed, improved battery life would have been nice (eg my Ultra 1 was at ~ 25-30% whereas my Ultra 2 is at ~40-45% battery with same usage/charging pattern).
As for sensors: blood oxygen, hypertension, blood glucose come to mind
 

Monkswhiskers

macrumors 6502a
Feb 6, 2018
852
683
All in all a rather lacklustre updater for the landmark series 10. My only disappointment is sleep apnoea won’t work on my og ultra (hmm, software hampered?).
 
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jz0309

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 25, 2018
11,205
29,518
SoCal
All that means a better update next year. I can wait. I was hoping for Ultra 3 but, I saved money.
I sure hope you're right for next year, the fact that they left the internals unchanged though makes me wonder ... and yes, I saved $$$ too ;)
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2022
713
631
Yeah I know the answer is marketing, hype, more $$ for Apple, but it really is bizarre to wonder why this “update” is even part of their event? For example they claim “thinner” but looking at the specs it’s so negligible, especially with same “up to 18 hour” battery life, larger bezel than my Series 7, etc. Eh. I was looking forward to upgrading since my battery life is 83% and a hassle to keep from dying w/o charing more than 1x a day. But they don’t offer much reason for it this year. Disappointing.
 
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Bazooka-joe

macrumors 603
Mar 12, 2012
5,331
3,736
Swindon, England
They didn't upgrade the processor for the "new" Ultra 2...to even stay in step with the Series 10? WTF? Is this 100% confirmed? I wasn't able to watch the presentation.
I don’t think there’s much of a difference between the S9 and S10 processors. With the ultra 2 there are still significant advantages over the series 10 such as better battery life and the series 10 is only 2000 nits brightness compared to the Ultra 2 which is 3000 nits
 
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M33-1

macrumors 6502
Jun 15, 2010
395
292
I was going to order the Ultra 2 in Black until I saw that it still had the S9 SIP (CPU) vs. the Apple Watch Series 10 having the S10 SIP. I'll wait another year.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,615
5,530
Yeah I know the answer is marketing, hype, more $$ for Apple, but it really is bizarre to wonder why this “update” is even part of their event? For example they claim “thinner” but looking at the specs it’s so negligible, especially with same “up to 18 hour” battery life, larger bezel than my Series 7, etc. Eh. I was looking forward to upgrading since my battery life is 83% and a hassle to keep from dying w/o charing more than 1x a day. But they don’t offer much reason for it this year. Disappointing.

Because it's an updated watch? They changed the internals and externals.

You don't have to upgrade though. I'm not. We have that power.
 

boak

macrumors 68000
Jun 26, 2021
1,596
2,745
No SE either. Maybe they'll launch it together with the iPhone SE.
 

Rick America

macrumors member
Sep 1, 2007
63
24
Can anyone tell what the on-watch music storage limit is? Coming from Apple Watch 6, I was hoping for some meaningful improvement.
 

DSTOFEL

macrumors 65816
Feb 11, 2011
1,049
804
So glad I opted for the Ultra 2 on one of the recent deals in the past month….totally happy with it. I’m not crazy about any of the new trail or Alpine loop band colors and would not have been interested in the jet black Ultra 2. Pretty lackluster Ultra update IMHO.

Very confusing update.
  • So, we got a new AW series 10 with a new S10 SIP and larger sizes.
  • We did not get a new AW Ultra 3. Instead, the same AW Ultra 2 with the same S9 SIP but a new Jet black color.
I wonder if the S9 and S10 SIP use essentially the same chip (E.g., like the S6, S7 and S8…where there was no performance improvement…essentially the same chip).
 
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Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,695
32,105
I’m coming from a Series 6 with poor battery life so I was going to upgrade no matter what. I can see why some might be underwhelmed if they were expecting a major redesign or something. The fact they didn’t spend much time on battery life is concerning.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,615
5,530
I’m coming from a Series 6 with poor battery life so I was going to upgrade no matter what. I can see why some might be underwhelmed if they were expecting a major redesign or something. The fact they didn’t spend much time on battery life is concerning.

The battery life is the same "18 hours", but it's thinner.
 

onenorth

macrumors 6502a
Sep 15, 2021
606
795
Reintroducing Ultra 2 as if it were a new product was a new low for Apple.
Yeah that was sneaky but really what did we expect them to say, "this is a carryover?" They did the same thing with AirPods Pro 2 but that was a little more like "hey the ones you already own are going to get new features, so we good?"
 
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lotzosushi

macrumors 6502
Jan 10, 2007
443
434
From the Apple site, I’m currently using an Ultra 1 but can’t decide if I want to get the black Ultra 2 or “upgrade” to the Titanium Series 10 😂 the only thing that’s good about the Ultra right now is the extra battery life…

IMG_3562.jpeg
 
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