New Apple Watch Ultra 2 User Observations After 24 hours

[3Rock]

Coming from a 2-year-old Series 7, the Ultra's battery life is shockingly great. That said, I didn't mind charging my Series 7 every day, and I never was in a situation where the Series 7 ran out of charge. But still, Ultra battery is fantastic. Very happy.

The bigger screen compared to my Series 7, for me, isn't as much of a benefit as I expected it would be. A couple times I've worn both watches on the same wrist, opened the same app on both, and the Ultra's bigger screen doesn't seem very much larger. This surprised me, because when I moved from Series 6 to Series 7, the larger screen of the 7 made a bigger impact on the quality of my experience.

In side-by-side comparisons with my Series 7, I see absolutely zero speed difference with the Ultra 2. The speed of opening apps, scrolling, or doing many various tasks is virtually identical on the Ultra 2 as the Series 7. Now, I know that the new, more powerful chip in the Series 9 and Ultra 2 has other advantages, like the snap to open feature coming in watchOS 10.1 and on-board Siri operation without an internet connection. But in terms of running most apps, thee's no apparent speed difference, to me.

In bright sunlight, my Series 7 is readable, as is the screen on the Garmin Edge bike computer/GPS I take on my longer rides. But the Ultra's display is much better than both. It is perfect. The readability is outstanding, just as if you were indoors. Of course, the Ultra is designed for outdoor activities, so this exactly what you should expect, and I'm happy that Apple delivered.

The extra weight and bulk of the Ultra compared to the non-Ultra Watches is sometimes a nonissue for me, and other times it's noticeable. For me, sleeping with the Ultra on my wrist is absolutely no problem, no issue.

Lastly, about cellular.

I don't have a compelling need to active cellular, but if it were really just $10/month here in the U.S., I would activate it and live with it for a couple months to learn how I can take advantage of it.

But my carrier, Verizon, charges not only $10/month, but an extra $5.22/month for various taxes and surcharges, and a $35 activation fee. I told Verizon I'd pay them $10/month plus 5.25% tax, which is the sales tax rate in my area. I told them they could either get $120 per year of my money, or they could get $0 of my money, whichever they prefer.

I also told them if they insisted on charging the $35 activation fee and the extra $5.22 in surcharges, I'd start looking for another carrier that would offer me a better deal on the two phones on my account plus a new Apple Watch. The customer service rep I was talking with said something to the effect of, go ahead, we don't care.

That's infuriating, but not surprising. There simply is not much choice in the cellular service market, thanks to mergers and acquisitions. It would be harder for any one cellular company to get away with charging customers ridiculous fees if consumers had more choices, more options.

Rant over.

Overall, the Ultra 2 is impressive. It's overkill for my needs, but I get more than enough benefit & value from it to justify the cost. I'm sure the value I get from it will increase as I explore and learn more about it.

Shockingly great? Isn’t that an overstatement? An extra day or maybe a day and a half more, that is not shockingly great. shockingly great would be a 7 or 10 day battery life. 🤪

 

[transmaster]

As electronics are farther miniaturised I can imagine an iPhone you wear in your wrist like a wristwatch or a bracelet with its display build into its spectacles. In science fiction they have such devices but with a 3D display projected into the air above your forearm.

 

[PegasusTenma]

Shockingly great? Isn’t that an overstatement? An extra day or maybe a day and a half more, that is not shockingly great. shockingly great would be a 7 or 10 day battery life. 🤪

They did start with the preamble ”coming from a series 7”.

 

[Minarets]

I’ve had the Apple Watch Ultra 2 now for seven days and at first definitely was concerned about poor battery life but it has gotten better probably because I’m not as obsessed with playing with the watch. I will say I definitely like the idea of night mode being turned on manually by scrolling the crown. It cuts off way too easy either with a long sleeve shirt, covering the light sensor or even in semi low light situations. Would really prefer to turn it on rather than it come on as easy as it does now. I can’t really read it in low light situations. I can see the time I can’t make out any of the complications.

 

[Minarets]

Not sure if it’s because I put the Workout on low power mode or not but my battery life has been great since i did that. Saw that on a YouTube and no clue why it would make that big of difference.

 

[akidokraja]

Absolutely loving my new Ultra 2. My last watch didn't have cellular. The worrier in me decided to add the cellular service, though it's not clear I really need it.

Price wise, AT&T is pulling the same nonsense on me as Verizon is pulling on you. $10/month plus $4+ in taxes and fees. At least my employer discount got the $35 activation fee waived.

I've been looking at Visible. It's owned by Verizon. I can get their basic unlimited data for $25/month, all taxes and fees included. They charge $5/month for a watch, no taxes or fees. And currently, they're doing a promo with the $5/month fee waived for a year.

So what's stopping me? Fear of the unknown. I've been using AT&T since the iPhone 3G, when they were the only carrier. I've never had any trouble of any sort with their service - it's been years since I've talked to AT&T CS. Part of me says it's time to stop being ripped off, and part of me says "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Thoughts?

That is exactly how I feel with ATT. Visible is so cheap and I had it as second sim for short time. One problem is tethering speed. On $25 plan it is slow. I am thinking adding kids phones and AW to visible and see.

 

[mpetrides]

I have oura ring, sleeeping with any watch is stupid.

I have Ultra 2 from yesterday, I came from AW7 which I almost did not use. Ultra are better but I just have mindset that it is still the same AW and I do not see added value.
What I like is that alll my previous AW 45 mm starts to be small for me and I was looking for more “manly look”. Everytime when someone had Ultra, it caught my sight. But when I have it, it is just Apple Watch like others.
So I am thinking to return it. But today I sold AW7 for good price so I would have to be without AW and maybe start wearing my mechanical Omega watch.

Speak for yourself re: sleeping with a watch. I have an AW 8 that I use during the day and an AW 6 that I wear at night while the AW 8 charges. I really like getting the sleep data and, in addition, having the reassurance that if I have an emergency day or night, I can call 911 from my watch. Haven't had occasion to use that feature but it's nice to know it exists.

 

[tomacwhite]

I just got mine last night and it’s very comfy and the screen is stunning. I am upgrading from a Series 2, so it’s an impressive jump with lots of new features!!

About to hit the gym so will see how it performs. I love the orange band, I’ll never go diving but the style suits my tastes and it’s comfy.

One question: Does the Ultra 2 not have the FindMy chip like the iPhone and AirPods Pro 2 where it shows you very detailed and accurate location. I was kinda expecting it to.

 

[xraydoc]

One question: Does the Ultra 2 not have the FindMy chip like the iPhone and AirPods Pro 2 where it shows you very detailed and accurate location. I was kinda expecting it to.

I believe it does have an ultrawideband chip in it.

 

[bobcomer]

Shockingly great? Isn’t that an overstatement? An extra day or maybe a day and a half more, that is not shockingly great. shockingly great would be a 7 or 10 day battery life. 🤪

I went from 1 day to 4, that's pretty shockingly great to me, though a week would be better!

 

[tomacwhite]

Battery seems excellent so far. Going swimming with it today was cool, when it popped up the water depth and temperature reading - I had no idea it could do that. And the sound levels too - I am intrigued what that does when I am on my motorcycle as it’s pretty loud!

 

[Sir Ruben]

Just replaced my SS series 6 with an Ultra 2 yesterday and I really like it. Since getting the series 6 I have bought 3 luxury watches so I didn’t need an SS Apple Watch anymore.

Buying a rugged Ultra 2 made more sense for those times when I wouldn’t be wearing my ‘best’ watches somewhere nice.

Anyway, I like it and will definitely keep it. I found a genuine orange alpine loop and black and orange trail loop both for half price which I’m really pleased about. Prefer them to the new colours. Overall pretty happy and will keep until the standard Apple Watch redesign.

 

[tomacwhite]

The battery life seems.. very good! I’ve been using it for Fitness activities and playing around with the faces a lot, and it’s at 56% and came off charge about 9am yesterday, with just a brief period to update to 10.1.

I wore it in bed and thought I was being all clever setting up a low info all red night display, then the Sleep Focus turned it off anyway 😅

Speaking of which, I’ve set the Fitness focus to turn on when I arrive at my Gym, which is perfect. Turns the iPhone and Apple Watch to preferred screens/faces, REALLY like that!

I’ve got a Work focus which has the local time plus the two other time zones I need to think about for meetings etc, and has the stock in the middle on a chart. Pretty trick!

Watch is very comfortable to wear despite being quite chunky, but it’s not GShock chunky.

I might keep my Series 2 in service for when I am doing something that might knock the watch like bike maintenance etc, I’d be scared of scratching it even though I am sure the Ultra 2 is pretty durable. Can you even run two Apple Watches from one phone?