Apple only does major updates yearly so it isn't a surprise. Sport Watch fitness reviewers have been invited to WWDC so its likely WatchOS 10 will have interesting updates for Ultra...
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What are you most wishing for with the next OS update?
- Thread starter The Cockney Rebel
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I really agree with you on many of them!
1: for the Trail maps, I would love just running maps for routes before starting so I don't get lost in new areas.
4: Yes please - maybe not all new, but new enough to feel different
5: And please A LOT of new. The Ultra got 1 face unique to the bigger display - ONE!
6: And please include recovery!
7: Yes please!
8: I use AutoSleep on the watch and it tracks all naps etc. as well - great app!
Allow notifications on my iPhone to remain as they would if I wasn't wearing the watch. I work with my hands so I don't always feel haptics or hear watch sounds, so I want to receive notifications on my phone as I normally would even when I'm wearing the watch.
I know I can turn off wrist detection, but that then disables several other features which I want to keep on.
It should be a simple setting to insert.
I know I can turn off wrist detection, but that then disables several other features which I want to keep on.
It should be a simple setting to insert.
5. the problem is the Ultra isn't really a bigger display vs. the 45 mm... its actually nearly identical in size... Apple promotes the overall size of the GLASS but the bezels are so huge on the Ultra the actual display area is nearly identical. this won't be fixed until the first design revision in fall 2025 brings with it a micro-LED display and gets rid of the black bezels. lots of examples to demonstrate this here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-the-ultra-display-much-bigger-than-45-mm.2357410/
Not much, but it’s bigger. And it’s a different design than the others with the flat glass so to me many of the old style displays that look good on the S7/8 with curved edge display doesn’t look great here - but the new dedicated does
On paper this is true, in real life, on the wrist, the perceived difference is actually quite noticeable. This is the case, I guess, because a) the display is (slightly) bigger and b) the display is completely flat, meaning the complete display content is visible glare-free at once. Don‘t be fooled by the pixel count alone, either. The Ultra pixels are (slightly) larger as well, besides having (slightly) more of them.
P.S. Also please don‘t exaggerate. The bezels on the Ultra are not „huge“; they are slightly bigger than on the S7/8, but smaller than on the S4/5/6.
Which ones? IMO most faces have meanwhile been optimized for the Ultra screen. For me the only remaining exception is Contour (which was especially created to emphasize the curves of the S7/8).
I have owned the 42mm, 44mm, and 45mm watch. I now wear an Ultra. while the ultra watch looks the biggest (the WATCH) of the 4 styles the actual display is not really bigger and in some situations appears SMALLER. its all because of the massive black bezels. none of the watch faces have been optimized for the Ultra screen in reality because the Ultra screen is essentially the same size as the 45mm screen in terms of actual display area. the screen only "looks" bigger because of the black bezels surrounding the display which is essentially the same size as the 45mm screen. please see this link to see overlays of the 45mm screen on top of the Ultra to see what I mean... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/is-the-ultra-display-much-bigger-than-45-mm.2357410/
now why do some look better on the 41/45mm vs. the ultra? because since the bezels are so much smaller on the 41/45 any watch face with a background color (like the new Modular) or a photograph watch face etc. seem to fill the front face completely while on the Ultra the black bezels make it look like a picture in a frame.
here is the ultra face and 45mm face display area overlayed. the red is ultra... blue is 45.
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but the full edge to edge watch faces look nicer on the wrist because of the lack of bezels on the 45...
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NONE have been modified for the Ultra and several meant for the wrap around Series 8 look worse without a doubt. (I LOVE MY ULTRA... but the screen is NOT bigger and doesn't make the watch faces look better than on my Series 7 45mm).
Ok… what percentage larger is the Ultra vs the 45mm series 8 screen? Hint: it’s less than 2% larger in actual display area. what Watchfaces available on the Series 8 have been modified in anyway for the Ultra? Name ONE. Hint: the number rhymes with "hero".
Yeah Contour looks amazing on S7/8 and okay on the Ultra but the round elegant ones like the Metropolitan and actually just the Explorer, GMT etc. looks bad. One thing is the bigger bezels and I’m okay with that but many of them are not even out in the edge of the display compared to California or the new one
What is that 2% number? Number of pixels or active screen area in mm squared? Because that's not the same.
"Modified" as in "different design/layout"? None. "Modified" as in "enlarged to use all available screen area"? Almost all of them.
Metropolitan I agree (and is disappointing), but is IMO the only one that doesn't go to the edge of the display. GMT does go to the edge and all other "round face with corner complications" ones I tried, too (I didn't try all, of course).
Might need to give them another go then, but the look of the Meridian square-style faces seem to suit the Ultra better
You‘re certainly right that the roundness of the regular Series Watches complements the round-style faces better. That being said, I got used to them on the Ultra, too. I’m using Simple (with corner complications) quite often, actually.
per Apple the S8 45mm has 1143 sq mm in active screen area (not number of pixels, the actual lit display area).
per Apple the Ultra has 1164 sq mm in active screen area.
the difference is about a 1.9% increase in size vs. the "smaller" 45mm screen.
now if you count the entire GLASS AREA, including the bezels... the Ultra is 27% larger than the 45mm which is why everyone thinks it is "bigger" but if you count the actual area of the lit up screen... it is just 1.9% larger. this also goes to show just how big the bezels really are on the Ultra, they are huge... bigger I think than the bezels on the very first Apple Watch -> Series 3.
PS: All this gets fixed with the rumored increase in size of the "screen" from 1.9 inches to 2.1 inches in 2025 for the Ultra. That represents getting rid of most of the entire black bezel so I expect a 49mm-ish sized Ultra "version 4" in 2025 with Micro-Led and a larger screen because of getting rid of bezels.
Ultra, per Apple, has 1185, actually. So that‘s 3,7%.
Here it‘s where you are just super wrong, and you really have to let it go. The bezels of the Ultra are smaller than those of the S4-6, and way smaller than those of the S0-3.
(SE bezels are the same as S4-6)
in my defense Apple *CHANGED* their website from 1164 to 1185 sq mm for the Ultra sometime AFTER the launch of the watch... I guess even they were embarrassed by the small difference and measured more carefully and found a bit more lol... here is the Apple website AT LAUNCH and what it showed...
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also my final comment on this... I *love* my Ultra. It's by far the best Apple Watch I have ever, ever owned. I love the flat front that gives it a fresh new look, the much improved battery life, and the new sport and outdoor centric features. WHAT HAS ALWAYS bothered me however is people commenting on how much "bigger" the screen is on the Ultra and how it should be able to fit so much more than the regular Apple Watch if only Apple would take advantage of it... the real truth is it is somewhere between 1.9 and 3.7% physically larger than the 45mm display and contains about 7% more total pixels. To me the size of the Ultra screen is a WEAKNESS of the device since the large front face could in theory house a MUCH larger display if they could reduce the bezels, and it seems based on rumors the next "generational update" of the Ultra in 2025 will do just that. In the meanwhile I do expect version updates of the Ultra in 2023 and 2024 to match the internals of the Series watches from the same year and that might mean further battery life improvements etc. along with adding perhaps a 2nd darker Ti color.
On this we do agree. 😊
Well no-one likes bezels, but I‘m not so sure about this theory. I believe that the bezels of the Ultra are probably about the same as those of the S7/8, but the latter models hide some of that bezel underneath the curved metal enclosure. With the completely straight-edged lip around the Ultra screen, there is nowhere to hide for the bezel.
I‘m with you hoping the 2025 (?) re-design of the Ultra via microLED will also shrink the bezels. 🤞
Bezel size aside, I found the flat screen of the Ultra easier to read than the curved screen on the S7/8. Also, the Ultra screen is brighter. Overall, it's a much better screen than the S7/8. I don't understand this hangup over bezel size. If the usable screen size was actually smaller than S7/8, then yeah, I would understand an outcry, but it's a slightly bigger usable screen that's MUCH easier to see.
I want more faces, I want more freedom on which complications go on those faces, and I want to set different sounds for different types of alerts (text vs. mail vs. apps).
That isn't asking much!
That isn't asking much!
One thing I hope they fix is the black screen you get during a workout. I have the display set to "always on", but when Im in the middle of a workout all I get is the digital clock at the top. I have to tap the screen to see my time/distance/heart rate stats. Why not have them on the screen all the time?
I only do the "time to walk" workouts, but I imagine it's a pain having to tap the screen during a run.
I only do the "time to walk" workouts, but I imagine it's a pain having to tap the screen during a run.
There's something wrong here, because that's not how it's supposed to work. It should show the stats without having to tap. Even without always on display, raising your wrist should show the workout stats. That's how it has worked since the original watch.