So I set out to answer the one question
that everyone has the most about the Apple Watch Ultra edition: How long
does a battery actually last in real life GPS mode? So to answer that question
yesterday I embarked on a 70-kilometer, 13,000ft elevation gain, trail run…hike…whatever
you want to call it, through the Alps! [Shouting in high winds]: …Italy….France…. to figure out whether or not this thing could
actually last that distance. And then, whether or not it's suited for it. And in doing so
I discovered a lot of interesting things. Some good, and some…not so good. Now fear not
though, I'm still going to talk about all like the normal stuff as well. Like running, and cycling, and
swimming. And all the kind of things that you do with this watch that's not like just purely up in
the Alps and stuff like that.
Now first up though is the price. The Apple Watch Ultra Edition is $799USD,
though it's 999EUR. So just be aware of that. Those prices are basically double what the
Apple Watch Series 8 prices are, which is $399 for the base edition, and then if you drop down to
the SE that's $249. So just kind of put things in context. There are a number of hardware differences
we'll start off with the very first one the case is larger on the ultra it's a 49 millimeter case
compared to the 45 millimeter on the series eight however the display is actually just a tiny bit
bigger than the series 8 it's really not that much bigger instead it's a lot brighter it's 2 000
nits versus 1000 nits on the series eight the next change you'll probably have noticed is of course
the case itself is designed quite a bit different on the right hand side there are larger buttons
and larger digital craft the reason for those is more easy access with gloves and then around that
is what's called a button guard that's designed to go ahead and prevent accident on button presses
of those buttons especially if you have gloves on or a coat jacket Etc on the other side is the
new action button on that button is designed to basically like instantly trigger a certain
action so you can customize it to for example if you press it once it opens up the workout
mode but in particular you can choose what exactly to do in the workout mode you can say I
want to start a run or a particular run workout whatever activity and then once in that activity
or in that particular app you can go and customize what happens within the app next note that all
models of the ultra do have cellular or LTE built into them there's no like two-tier system where
there is with for example the series eight next there's a different band or strap options you've
got the Alpine Loop which is this orange one that you've seen probably all the ads it looks amazing
it really is amazing for the most part and then you've got the Trail Loop which is like a velcroy
sort of one and then the ocean Loop which is design more for the scuba ROM but you can use
it as you see fit and speaking of like fabricy sort of things for a lack of anywhere else to
stick it in this review the Apple watch Ultra Edition actually comes with like a braided cable
a braided charging cable starts it looks nice oh and a quick note if you're finding this video
interesting useful if you give it a like at the bottom it really does help with this video and the
channel quite a bit now let's start talking about the software features and how this all works of
course the ultra runs watch OS 9 that's what it's pre-loaded with out of the box and so there's a
bunch of features there some of them depend on hardware and some of them are software across all
watches starting with some of the hardware ones there's new vehicle or crash detection as well as
wrist night temperature those are ones that depend on Hardware on the series 8 and the ultra and then
for wrist based temperature it'll go ahead and basically take the temperature at your wrist each
night primarily used for female Health tracking meanwhile then you've got watch OS nine features
that are applicable across the board to watch OS 9 watches that includes a multi-sport triathlon mode
includes heart rate zones includes the ability to edit and create structured workouts includes
running power and running efficiency metrics and then there are two different pieces of software
that are just on the ultra itself the first one is a new dive app called depth that app is certified
to 40 meters so the app itself is certified at 40 meters but the watch Hardware is certified to 100
meters I've seen a lot of confusion about that and they've listed all these waterproofing dive
certifications then there's also a third-party app as well that apple is like super tightly partnered
with that has much more features in the depth app for example multi-gas support Etc I didn't have
a chance to fit in diving in this time frame but I do plan a dive trip to be able to test all this
out and compare it against some of the other smart watches out there that do diving I dive myself
so something I definitely want to dive into a bit more get that dive into I didn't mean to do
that by the way that was just completely like slip of the tongue so let's talk about some of
the Apple watch Basics from an activity tracking first and then we'll get into the sports and just
keep on like diving deeper and deeper and deeper into this first off from an activity tracking
standpoint apple has a concept called Rings there's these three rings they basically track
move standing and your exercise for the day as you go through your day you're basically trying to
complete that circle on the Rings now just check out this animation last night after my hike just
watch it so I keep on talking this is absolutely insane and so there's an entire cult around like
closing your rings and I get it like it reminds you kind of constantly to close the Rings at the
end of the day it's like hey you've got an eight minute walk and you'll finish this ring out and
you're like I will do this eight minute walk right now but all this data is shown not just on the
watch itself but also on the fitness app which is a companion app on your iPhone and you can see
data for just that day as well as historical data how it Compares you can compete against friends
again all this stuff hasn't really changed in the Apple landscape in quite a number of years so
if you're familiar with an Apple Watch it's the same here as well what has changed though is the
sleep tracking and watch OS 9.
