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Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

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121–130 of 229 posts

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#121
post #21

Apple is missing the mark in this segment. Their competitors: Garmin, coros all offer weeks of battery life with tradeoffs people in this segment happily make. I get 20 days of battery life on my coros pace 2. Charging a apple watch every night or two would not be acceptable.

I don't think they missed the mark by shear amount of these I see on wrists everywhere i go.

Now you see the Apple Watch Series N wherever you go, which is ~$400, not the Ultra. It will be interesting to see how common the ultra is over the next few years. My guess is it won't be super common, as it's large, fairly unattractive (IMO), and much more expensive for features that don't even match the competition that much of this Garmin/Ultra/etc type of demographic cares about.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#122
post #2

As an avid ultrarunner, this is the first apple watch I'd ever consider. We aren't part of the apple ecosystem and I'm a bit resistant to join, so I am really excited to see the garmin or samsung equivalent to this

Would you really switch to an iPhone just to use this watch? This is the thing with Apple products, especially accessories - only usable with a deeper dive in the lock-in.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#123

One thing confusing me is that there doesn't seem to be a real map view. There is a view displaying waypoints and a line tracing your route, but no map background. Some context around your current position can be very helpful when navigating. Strange that they didn't include it. The watch already has such a bright high resolution display, they could provide a much better experience than the competitors.

In the wilderness, they'd want to be using Satellite (data heavy) because most areas don't have useful Vector mapping unless they pull in a huge new trail database.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#124
post #21

Apple is missing the mark in this segment. Their competitors: Garmin, coros all offer weeks of battery life with tradeoffs people in this segment happily make. I get 20 days of battery life on my coros pace 2. Charging a apple watch every night or two would not be acceptable.

There are third-party wireless chargers that can charge your phone, airpods and watch concurrently, but I agree, it seems silly having to deal with many small batteries on a daily basis.

The only long-lasting battery is the iPhone's, but it gained that capability years after it became common in comparable Android phones.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#125

What I am the most excited about is the dive computer feature! "along with recreational scuba diving to 40 meters with the new Oceanic+ app." I was looking at $1,000 Garmin watches and was really not excited at buying one.

Already preordered and am looking forward to using it for freediving. The UX on dive watches has long been a nightmare, they are expensive, and the replaceable batteries open them up to waterproofing issues. Most computers also treat freediving/spearfishing as an afterthought so I'll probably create my own software for it. Maybe a business opportunity here...

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#126

Is the Apple watch air integrated (for scuba)? Edit: Nope... found on https://www.oceanicworldwide.com/faqs/ Q: I have a wireless transmitter, can I connect it with the Oceanic+ app? A: At the moment this option is not currently available.

This would definitely be a game changer. I have a Garmin Fenix and the only thing it locks is the ability to use it for diving to 40m. Although Garmin has a similar watch for diving it locks the features I would use for Backcountry camping. If I can switch to an Apple Watch Over a sunnto or similar it would be a big boon

Which backcountry camping features does the Garmin Descent Mk2 series lack? It does basically everything a Fenix 6X can do.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#127
post #96

How can they call 36 hours of battery life "long"? The $799 version Garmin Fenix 7 solar (which they seem to be targeting) has an 18-22 days of battery life.

They are targeting enough battery to run a full Ironman or be offline for a weekend (60 hours). The explorer focus was just wacky.

The picture showing an explorer dominating a snowy mountain is hilarious, I hope he brought several battery packs to charge the watch.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#128

How many people will ever use any of those features? 0.01% of the watch owners? Fail.

It's not about using the futures - it's about imagining a life in which you use those features.

Doubt it. Consumers who buy competing smart watches from Garmin / Suunto / Coros / Wahoo do actually use those features. I see their activities posted on Strava and Facebook all the time. Apple is finally trying to compete in the same market.

Re: Apple Introduces Apple Watch Ultra

#129
post #48

How can they call 36 hours of battery life "long"? The $799 version Garmin Fenix 7 solar (which they seem to be targeting) has an 18-22 days of battery life.

What is the value of having 18 days of battery on a device like this? To me there are diminishing returns pretty quickly when it comes to battery life. I agree, there is a lot of value if you are able to hit 72-96 hours and you can go away for a weekend without worrying about charging, but 18 days seems like a waste. Are people really regularly away from their chargers for that long? At that point, I would much rathe…

When your solar panel is only putting out 8W due to rain for multiple days when you got off-grid for 3 weeks.

(which just happened to me)

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