Anyone getting an Apple Watch Ultra?

turfthrower · 22-09-2022 12:56pm #1

I ordered an Ultra when they were unveiled but due to the Apple online shop debacle - the site didn't become operational for about 10 minutes after it was due to open - I missed the launch day slots. So I'm supposed to be getting mine on Monday 26th.

(However, they've taken the payment and I just got a 'shipped' notification so I suppose it might still turn up tomorrow?)

I'm not an ultra marathon runner or anything like that, but I had the cash and love the look of the Ultra. I'm looking forward to really solid battery life and being able to use the watch with less concessions to tech limitations. I sold my series 7 to subsidise this one and I never really used that for sleep tracking because it was too much hassle to make sure the battery was charged enough for other uses like workouts and notifications for the working day etc.

Hoping to be able to charge this, put it on and wear it through the night etc, and get two full days out of it. That would be an improvement.

Also, I feel the Watch as a product is now mature. It's kinda 'done' to me and I expect to hang on to this one for three or four years - hence it makes sense to upgrade to the titanium and sapphire crystal finish. I can't easily imagine what they could add to a series 9 or 10 that would make me want to upgrade again. With this increased battery life the Ultra basically does everything I need a watch to do now.

Thoughts?

Gonzovision · 22-09-2022 2:04pm

I'd actually love to make the jump as pretty much everything else I have is in the Apple eco system, but in terms of ultra-running and features it's still miles off the top end Garmin or Coros devices. They will undoubtedly get there, but for me personally it'll be another few years at least.

turfthrower · 22-09-2022 2:31pm

I think that's fair enough. I don't know those worlds, so I'll take your word for it.

One interesting thing though is that the actual market size of those people looking for marathon, dive and hike watches has to be tiny compared to the number of units Apple will shift. I think those features are really there for their halo effect, to basically dress up a nicer, higher spec tier of watch.

Will be interesting to see how it does.

Marty Bird · 22-09-2022 3:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650611#Comment_119650611

I couldn’t agree more, I’d have to see how it holds up in some races before I’d consider it plus the price is more than the top Garmin’s.

awec · 22-09-2022 7:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650807#Comment_119650807

The number of people who genuinely need this watch over the standard version is tiny.

The number of people who will buy it is much greater, mostly for status reasons. Apple are possibly the best company at the world at doing this, create a product and market it so well that customers will convince themselves they need it.

dmcg90 · 23-09-2022 8:28am

Queuing at Select South King St (only one here 🙃) so I’ll let ye know if there is stock!

turfthrower · 23-09-2022 9:13am

Mine is out for delivery, which is nice. Wasn't meant to turn up until Monday but it looks like it'll arrive this morning.

digiman · 23-09-2022 9:53am

Let us know what you think, I'm on a watch 5 and was planning to upgrade to the 8. I do triathlons and marathons and have a Garmin for these, the ultra watch doesn't take any external sensors yet such as power meters and that so I will probably hold of on the ultra for another couple of years and might just get the 8 for a day to day watch.

turfthrower · 23-09-2022 9:53am

And it arrived. I like it. It's big but not stupidly big. I think this is about as big as you'd want to go in a watch, or at least as big as I'd like to go.

It also looks like it should be heavy but it's not. I presume the titanium case allows the metal to be thinner and hence allow for more space inside for batteries etc. I got the one with the orange alpine strap, and actually it feels a bit cheap to me. It's got a titanium clasp, which is cool, but the actual material feels a bit nylon-y and insubstantial.

Anyway, there you go.

dmcg90 · 23-09-2022 10:01am

Nothing in stock in Select (CompuB) Dublin. Was one of two people queuing and they didn't get anything in last night or this morning. Said they'll be getting some in soon so I put my money down and they'll give me a ring.

Seems to not be on Argos either

dmcg90 · 23-09-2022 3:07pm

Picked mine up at lunch. As expected, zero stock of the trail loop but the alpine one will do for now. Shocked how light it is (and how bright the screen is). Looks much nicer on the wrist than I thought.

turfthrower · 27-09-2022 9:06am

Shocked at how good the battery is on the ultra.

Mine arrived partially charged and I just put it on and started wearing it. All good, it lasted a long time but because it wasn't full when I put it on, I didn't really pay attention. However I've just now, finished one full battery cycle from 100 per cent to empty.

Apple rates it for 36 hours of normal use. I charged my unit to full on Saturday evening, and put it on as I went to bed. So it went from 11pm on Saturday to 9:07am on Tuesday - That’s 58 hours and it's still on 2 per cent. Just about to put it on the charger.

I used it normally for me, a couple of workouts, notifications etc. Didn't play any music or podcasts etc so probably it's actually very light usage by Apple's standards. Even so, that's mental to me. My last watch would have needed charging at least twice and maybe even three times if I had wanted to sleep track etc.

Be interesting to see what the 'low power mode' specially for the Ultra does when it arrives in software later this year. They're saying up to 60 hours, but I've virtually got that now.

turfthrower · 27-09-2022 9:54am

And actually, the two percent of battery I mentioned in the last post lasted until 9:50am. So that means the full cycle was 58 hours and 50 minutes. It's on the charger now.

Marty Bird · 27-09-2022 1:29pm

Any long activities logged within that time run or bike ?

turfthrower · 27-09-2022 1:39pm

No, two hour long workouts - me going for two walks. That's it. So it's a low use case result.

Istor · 28-09-2022 1:23pm

Does anyone who has got one yet know if there is the ability to set up an LTE connection on them? All of the Apple marketing on the .ie store removes the mention of LTE, while the presentation mentioned they were LTE only.

I have a series 4 where the screen has cracked a bit and the battery is starting to not last a full 24hrs anymore. I am looking at an ultra for an upgrade for this one and I'd like to keep it for probably 4/5 years. I'm hoping Apple dropping physical sim in the US might be the kick that networks here to make esim more common and we will be able to get watch plans on networks soon. I don't want to jump in now if the watch I buy today will be locked out of LTE in the future.

Blazer · 02-10-2022 9:07pm

none of the carriers have lte or e-sim set up for watches....I think Comreg was going to force them to support it by mid 2023 but its Comreg....as useless as tits on a bull.

I've been crying out for a cellular version since these launched back in 2014/15 ..it a pain having to bring your phone to the gym especially the sizes they're getting to now.

digiman · 11-10-2022 7:55am

Any more reviews of this after a week of use?

neeein · 25-10-2022 2:21pm

anyone knows if the Watch comes without the antennas for cellular connection, as a different model than the rest of Europe, or is just not being promoted as cellular because there are no carriers supporting it?

if someone with an Ultra could check I would really appreciate it :)

Oafley Jones · 25-10-2022 8:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791347#Comment_119791347

It's cellular only.

turfthrower · 27-10-2022 10:18am

So I've had the Ultra for a month and thought I'd post a few thoughts. I’m a casual user, not someone this device was particularly aimed at. I had the money and I like tech so I bought it, as I’m sure a lot of other people did.

So I’m basically just a consumer with notions. From that point of view, as a device it’s really excellent. Apple has underpromised and overdelivered here. In particular the battery is an absolute beast. In fact, as someone who has previously worn apple watches, the battery is the big feature here for me.

I’m not a deep sea diver, ultra marathon runner etc, so all those features are merely nice to have. But the battery is the day to day difference maker over previous watches. I charge this now, I’d say, roughly every three to four days.

That actually took some getting used to, as I was in the habit of charging my series 7 every night. It was rarely ever actually empty, and usually had about 40 to 45 per cent battery left. I didn’t use sleep tracking because it was too much of a hassle to make sure it had enough charge etc last thing at night and to then charge it again in the morning.

However the Ultra just goes and goes. A difference with it as well is that when you notice the battery is getting low, say at 6 or 7 per cent, you still have LOADS of time to remember to charge it. With my previous Apple Watches, when it got to that point, you were about an hour away from a dead watch.

With an Ultra, you’re half a day away. So you rarely feel any urgency about it. It’s like the opposite of ‘range anxiety’ with an electric car. So if battery is a thing for you, this is an absolute unit.

However, is it worth the big price, particularly in Ireland where’ it’s €1,000? I’m not sure. It’s a big premium to pay unless you think you’re going to get the other outer adventure uses out of it.

Yes it’s titanium and looks nice, but the design hasn’t grown on me and I wonder how long it’ll last for. The Series 8 and previous designs were genuinely classic and will age really well. This one, hmmm. I suppose time will tell. Design is subjective.

On the other hand, the software experience is now extremely mature and highly iterated, so it works really well.

Anyway, there you go.

eeloe · 27-10-2022 10:41am

I'm the same as yourself, i don't do any extreme outdoor sports, but still like to have the next big thing, so i bought the watch.

Got a good deal on it on Adverts, brand new for a good 17-18% under retail, that's the only way i justified it to myself.

The battery life is incredible, the screen is super bright and no issues seeing it in any light which is a big bonus, the only thing i wasn't crazy about was the strap, so i ended up coughing up 100euro for one of the ocean bands, and it's much better.

turfthrower · 05-11-2022 11:35am

So for anyone interested, I switched my Ultra to low power mode earlier this week and decided to see how long the battery would work. I took it off the charger at 100 per cent at 2:45pm on Tuesday, and it died this morning at more or less 10:30am. 91 and three quarter hours later.

I wore it 24 hours a day, other than to take a shower or two, but otherwise because I was sick this week, it didn't do any workouts or anything. So this is probably as good as it gets. Pretty impressive though.

Xidu · 05-11-2022 11:43am

Had 3 Apple watches, since lockdown I stopped wearing it. So still lying mar home somewhere. Won’t bother buy a new one for a while.

mun1 · 11-11-2022 12:46pm

Bought one yesterday . More impressed with it than i thought i would be coming from an Apple Watch 4. Looks very well on the wrist and the display is very very good.

Homer · 12-11-2022 5:03pm

Anybody know if there is any limitation on picking one up in the US and using it here?

12-11-2022 5:14pm

Looks great, but a lot of money. I'm interested if I can get long battery life out of it (3 days+) without recharge. Santy please.

turfthrower · 14-11-2022 10:10am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119865864#Comment_119865864

I don't see why there would be. The version being sold here is the cellular model, even though there's no carrier that will enable an esim for it.

Apple clearly decided not to make two versions of the Ultra - one with cellular and one without - so I'd guess, and it is just a guess, that it's the same watch in the box wherever it's sold in the world.

ballycallan · 25-11-2022 8:36pm

Hi everyone, just wondering has anyone tried to set up the cellular with Vodafone esim ?

Vodafone provide an esim , but say it is not for watches. I have been able to set up a vodafone esim with samsung watch classic cellular version , so just wondering if something similar will be possible with the apple watch ultra?

Thanks.