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My Apple Watch Ultra Experience (So Far)
- Thread starter papbot
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With all these compulsory returns of AWU in order to get a different band, I expect Apple will be selling plenty of refurb AWUs, because they cannot sell them as new.
The ultra And included band are one sku. Tip: if you return the ultra for another one and have the box, most specialist don’t care if you return the charge cable.
I wouldn’t call them compulsory, at least in my case, I know lots of people return phones and watches for petty reasons and all. But I got the wrong band size, this isn’t a cheap product either, after taxes I spent almost a grand on this watch. If you order a pair of pants from Sears and get the wrong size they will return them no questions asked. Shouldn’t be any different for a watch band.
I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to buy a refurbished Ultra from Apple. I’m not 100% positive, but I’m pretty sure that they’ve never sold refurbished editions or Hermes. I believe they think that cheapens the line, and this is in line with all goods positioned as luxuries.
Can anyone provide advice on what map app to use for offline maps that can be displayed on the Ultra for wilderness hiking? I can't find any info on what people are using or vendors are selling for wilderness maps (presumably running on your iPhone in your pocket or backpack and displaying on your AWU). Thanks!
Compulsory in the sense that you have to return the watch in order to return the band
GaiaGPS. You need to pay for the good stuff. Subscription only (I got 5 years for ~$120). Highly recommended
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I use WorkOutDoors too, and it is a great app for what it does best: tracking and workouts. But it is not in the same league as GaiaGPS for navigation especially in wilderness areas, which has about 50+ maps and overlays like wildfires and snow. Depends if you just need a "lite" map app, or a full-featured navigation and planning app.
I often have GaiaGPS running on my phone and WorkOutDoors running on my Watch. I also use Garmin BaseCamp for Garmin devices. WorkOutDoors is pretty demanding on battery though, unlikely to be able to do a multi-day hike on even the Ultra.
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Thought I would share my own overwhelmingly positive thoughts after a week of Ultra ownership. I switched from a Series 5 which is the only Apple Watch I have owned. If the Ultra had not happened along I would have quite happily continued with my 5 as there has been little in the way of hardware features or chassis design to tempt an upgrade since its release for me. As an aside I think Apple will eventually change to more of an iPad length product release cycle on their watches, so incremental are the changes year on year.
So the positives of the Ultra so far. I really like its industrial design in a way I never really have with the standard watch which I found functional but not especially attractive. The Ultra is a really nice think to look at on your wrist as a piece of jewellery. As seems to be the case with most people, I was surprised the 49mm screen did not look like an iPad Mini strapped to your wrist. Similar pleasant surprise with the weight too - I always thought that I could quite happily sport a heavier watch than my aluminium 44mm one anyway, and this fits the bill without going too far down that road. With the new straps I am more aware of the whole thing feeling that bit bulkier rather than heavier, but not bulky in a bad way at all. I can quite happily sleep with it on as I did my Series 5.
The brightness of the screen is an undoubted win for all parties and like most people the battery life has transformed the experience - I am typically using 40% charge each calendar day with moderate usage, so 2.5 days between charges if I want to run it down fully.
I'm very pleased with the two straps I've acquired. I have the starlight Alpine band which is less white than I was expecting and so that little bit more restrained than the orange. I picked a darker Ocean band, the blue one, and that's a great match cosmetically for the watch too. Both are perfectly comfortable with the ocean one probably more so. I'm less interested in the Trail bands just because they look a bit like the one that came with my Series 5, and so just that bit less distinct than Alpine and Ocean.
Negatives? Well a few minor ones. I like the reduced weight of the titanium but don't really feel that it looks any more special or high quality than my old aluminium watch. I appreciate there are Ultra specific features like the siren and the depth app, but I bought the thing knowing that I'm never really going to take advantage of the serious outdoor stuff like these, so I wish there were a few more Ultra-only features in the latest Watch OS that were useful to me. Oh and a special mention for how slow and awkward it is to sync music to the watch, just as it always was with my Series 5.
There's one other overriding positive about my Ultra experience which really has only an esoteric experience with the hardware itself. In the 3 years I had my Series 5 I did very little of the running I thought it would be useful for - my own lack of motivation. So perhaps as a subconscious response to what is an expensive purchase that I am never going to use to its maximum potential, it has at least inspired me to get out running a couple of times already this week, this after managing just a single run all year before now.
If I can keep in this habit then the Ultra will represent good value for that alone. In the meantime I'm interested to see how this particular line develops going forward.
So the positives of the Ultra so far. I really like its industrial design in a way I never really have with the standard watch which I found functional but not especially attractive. The Ultra is a really nice think to look at on your wrist as a piece of jewellery. As seems to be the case with most people, I was surprised the 49mm screen did not look like an iPad Mini strapped to your wrist. Similar pleasant surprise with the weight too - I always thought that I could quite happily sport a heavier watch than my aluminium 44mm one anyway, and this fits the bill without going too far down that road. With the new straps I am more aware of the whole thing feeling that bit bulkier rather than heavier, but not bulky in a bad way at all. I can quite happily sleep with it on as I did my Series 5.
The brightness of the screen is an undoubted win for all parties and like most people the battery life has transformed the experience - I am typically using 40% charge each calendar day with moderate usage, so 2.5 days between charges if I want to run it down fully.
I'm very pleased with the two straps I've acquired. I have the starlight Alpine band which is less white than I was expecting and so that little bit more restrained than the orange. I picked a darker Ocean band, the blue one, and that's a great match cosmetically for the watch too. Both are perfectly comfortable with the ocean one probably more so. I'm less interested in the Trail bands just because they look a bit like the one that came with my Series 5, and so just that bit less distinct than Alpine and Ocean.
Negatives? Well a few minor ones. I like the reduced weight of the titanium but don't really feel that it looks any more special or high quality than my old aluminium watch. I appreciate there are Ultra specific features like the siren and the depth app, but I bought the thing knowing that I'm never really going to take advantage of the serious outdoor stuff like these, so I wish there were a few more Ultra-only features in the latest Watch OS that were useful to me. Oh and a special mention for how slow and awkward it is to sync music to the watch, just as it always was with my Series 5.
There's one other overriding positive about my Ultra experience which really has only an esoteric experience with the hardware itself. In the 3 years I had my Series 5 I did very little of the running I thought it would be useful for - my own lack of motivation. So perhaps as a subconscious response to what is an expensive purchase that I am never going to use to its maximum potential, it has at least inspired me to get out running a couple of times already this week, this after managing just a single run all year before now.
If I can keep in this habit then the Ultra will represent good value for that alone. In the meantime I'm interested to see how this particular line develops going forward.