What’s the battery life like?
It’s not bad: up to 36 hours battery life and up to 60 in low power mode, which still doesn’t marry up with its competitors, but at least you can take it on a multi-stage. For a fraction of the price, for example, you can get almost as much GPS battery life and more low power life from the Coros Pace 2.
What other activities does it track?
Swimming, cycling, hiking, mountain climbing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding, scuba diving. Pretty much everything, and more than some of Garmin’s lifestyle offerings like the Garmin Vivomove Trend.
Apple Watch Ultra running review
The Ultra has noticeably improved GPS because of a clever antennae built in, and has a new action button on the left, which is customizable to do the things you want it to do. It’s great, and much more useful than just a touchscreen as a runner, but its placement doesn’t feel very user-friendly on a run.
The battery life is so much better than previous versions of the Apple Watch, and for that I’m grateful. However, with something like a Garmin, you could get upwards of 8 days, maybe even close to a fortnight. To be presented a piece of tech that (fanfare!) might last 3 days, doesn’t feel that great, to be honest.
What I really loved was the new precision start feature, meaning you don’t have to wait for a countdown before you start your run. But I can’t mark up for fixing something Apple introduced in the first place!
However, I loved the Adventure function which automatically traces your steps, and it has a ton of functions for swimming and tri, including an internationally recognized diving gauge – and that’s seriously impressive.
Should you buy it? Yes, if you’re already bought into the Apple ecosystem, didn’t flinch at the price, and your adventures are limited to the weekend. For everyone else? Maybe hang on in there for V2, cos Apple are clearly on the warpath – it’ll be fascinating to see what’s next.
Where can I buy it?
You can buy the Apple Watch Ultra from John Lewis.
