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Rychiar

macrumors 68030
May 16, 2006
2,711
5,883
Waterbury, CT
The ultra is marketed as an outdoor watch but Apple know regular consumers will buy it because it’s got better features than the regular watch. The bulbous nature of it is due to it being designed to be rugged and have extra battery life compared to the S series. More about function than looks. So when a regular person wears it in normal situation, yeah it looks dumb. It’s like wearing a diving watch while going to work.
Why is it good they are staying with OLED?. It is the inferior technology…
 

Rychiar

macrumors 68030
May 16, 2006
2,711
5,883
Waterbury, CT
They release annual refresh because each consumer is on a different update path. I don’t understand the obsession with expecting a design to constantly change for something to seem new. I know I want to have a device with the best available specs when it’s the year I’m ready to upgrade and not something that was released over 12 months prior.
Sometimes the specs barely change and it’s almost the same processor. I went from a 5 to 9 and can barely tell the difference. I’m sure the people would have sevens and eights really can’t tell the difference. Just seem silly the watch would have more value to people if it wasn’t a constant update the Apple TV doesn’t get updated every year and it could use it more as the processing could be applied to more things like games.
 

satchmo

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2008
5,102
5,833
Canada
agree - but it is the best you can do. Bones and ligaments are hard to change :)

Yeah, you're either born with it or not.

My point was aimed at Apple for not making a smaller sized Ultra. I think a 45mm model with smaller bezels would sell like hotcakes.
 

Ash.415

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2021
2
8
I was hoping Apple would come up with a smaller version of the AWU and also find a way to incorporate a satellite receiver.
 

constantsnags!

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2008
171
188
Aotearoa
To be honest - if they didn't change a single thing but the battery life - everyone would be happy. It's the SINGLE biggest difference to the COROS/Garmin crew - Apple has pretty much nailed the GPS and heart rate accuracy, but the battery is not enough if you want to run Ultras or do something similar
Actually, as a Fenix 7X owner (and owner of many Garmin, Polar and Suunto watches since about 2003/4), the biggest gap between AWU2 (which I also have and love) and Garmin isn’t battery life. It’s the *native* metrics, topographical, marine & ski area mapping, and incredibly well-featured sport tracking in snow sports, water sports, and a lot more besides. Almost nobody runs milers, which is where the battery life becomes a real issue. The AWU2 will cover almost anyone for a 50k (by far the largest ultra segment), and 100k for many. I think almost all of this stuff will show up on AW, but it’s going to take a while yet.
 
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xDKP

macrumors 68020
Feb 27, 2011
2,340
2,391
Denmark
Actually, as a Fenix 7X owner (and owner of many Garmin, Polar and Suunto watches since about 2003/4), the biggest gap between AWU2 (which I also have and love) and Garmin isn’t battery life. It’s the *native* metrics, topographical, marine & ski area mapping, and incredibly well-featured sport tracking in snow sports, water sports, and a lot more besides. Almost nobody runs milers, which is where the battery life becomes a real issue. The AWU2 will cover almost anyone for a 50k (by far the largest ultra segment), and 100k for many. I think almost all of this stuff will show up on AW, but it’s going to take a while yet.

I know what you mean, and would also LOVE native maps in the workout app etc. But many of those things can be fixed with pretty cool 3rd party apps - Slope is amazing for my annual snowboard tracking etc. but it's pretty damn tough to install more battery life :)

Also - yes it would last me maybe 50K etc. but to go a weekend trip away without charging: No chance. Or a full day hiking with sleeping in the forest and back the next day? Nope. I know a power bank can save me here (and it does) but it would be lovely without the need for one.
 
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hipnetic

macrumors 65816
Oct 5, 2010
1,269
564
I believe I’m in the minority on this topic, but I really dislike the squarish design of the Apple Watch and wish they’d switch (or add) a round-faced model.

Yes, I know, you don’t fit as much information on the screen that way, but IMO a watch serves the dual-purpose of being 50% fashion/jewelry and 50% function. Note: I’m just throwing out 50% as a wild number…I haven’t really mulled over what a more accurate breakdown would be for my needs/desires, and I believe that this ratio will differ for everyone.

I dabbled with Android phones over the last couple of years and really liked a lot about the experience, but especially liked the Google Wear OS and round-faced watches. I bought a Skagen Falster Gen 6 watch and that, to me, was the ultimate in beautiful design/fashion, and it even had some very cool watch faces OOTB. I believe that Wear OS offers better customizability of watch faces, too.

With the Apple Watch, I feel like the watch face options are all about function with the styles really lacking from a “fashion” perspective.

I switched back to an iPhone but still prefer my Skagen Wear OS watch when going out to dinner and I have a lot of stylish bands that I swap in/out with it. There’s a Skagen app for the iPhone that allows me to use *some* of the functionality that it’s capable of and allows me access to *some* nice watch faces, but it’s a lot more limited when pairing it to an iPhone than it was when pairing it to an Android phone.

I also bought a lot of watch bands for my Apple Watch, and that’s fun, but the overall “package” still feels/looks more like I’m wearing a nerdy Casio Calculator watch on my wrist, as opposed to a fashionable piece of jewelry.

I do love a lot about my Apple Watch, too. I wore it snorkeling on a recent vacation (the Skagen may have been capable of that, too), and since it’s fully supported in the Apple ecosystem, I can take better advantage of the functionality between the watch and my iPhone (e.g., triggering the shutter on my iPhone’s camera). I also love the haptic feedback (e.g., alerting me to messages with what truly feels like a “tap” on my wrist) that only the Apple Watch offers. And yesterday I finally got around to installing a smart lock on one of my doors, and it‘s pretty cool to hold my Apple Watch up to it to unlock/lock the door.

My current Apple Watch is several generations old now (I believe it’s the Series 6 Nike Edition Stainless Steel model), but I haven’t seen a whole lot change over the newer generations that got me excited enough to lay out a sizeable chunk of money to upgrade. The Ultra model, being larger and with larger-width bands, would likely be the one I’d want to upgrade to. But if they made the watch face round with a classy/clean/simple look (which they’d probably do a decent job of), I’d be throwing my money at them.

Sadly, the truth is that even if they don’t give me what I want, I‘ll probably go ahead and buy the next Ultra model they release this year (or pick up a discounted prior-gen model if the rumors here of them barely changing anything on the next Ultra turn out to be true), since my Series 6 is feeling old now.
 

Karllake

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2012
231
302
There wasn’t any mention of the processor, I suspect an upgrade to support some AI features, the watch is an ideal use case to request something verbally.
 

constantsnags!

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2008
171
188
Aotearoa
I know what you mean, and would also LOVE native maps in the workout app etc. But many of those things can be fixed with pretty cool 3rd party apps - Slope is amazing for my annual snowboard tracking etc. but it's pretty damn tough to install more battery life :)

Also - yes it would last me maybe 50K etc. but to go a weekend trip away without charging: No chance. Or a full day hiking with sleeping in the forest and back the next day? Nope. I know a power bank can save me here (and it does) but it would be lovely without the need for one.
Yeah, it’s all doable with third party…but leaning on the vast trove of Health data Apple now have anonymised access to means that when it comes, and it will, it’ll probably be more reliable than FirstBeat.
 
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