Last year’s Apple Watch Ultra blew every other mainstream smartwatch out of the water. It was the first genuinely new Apple Watch in years, packing a bigger and brighter display, an all-new Action button, a more rugged design, a battery that could last days on a single charge, and a bunch of advanced sensors and features for runners, cyclists, hikers, adventurers and other endurance athletes. Heck, it even worked as a bonafide dive computer, as we found out when we tested it in Hawaii.
This year, Apple has come out with a second-generation version of that beast of smartwatch. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) is an upgraded and more refined version of the original Ultra — which Apple no longer sells — but it’s also very similar to its predecessor.
In this review we’re not going to focus on everything that the Ultra 2 can do — we’ve covered that extensively over the past year — but instead focus on what makes the Ultra 2 unique. Here’s what you need to know.
Apple Watch Ultra 2: What We Think
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is admittedly a pretty incremental update over last year’s Ultra. It looks the same, has the exact same health- and fitness-tracking capabilities, has the same battery life, and has the exact same price. Like the Series 9, the big update with the Ultra 2 is that Apple decked it out with a much-improved S9 chip that enables some new features like double tap gesture controls and on-device Siri processing, and gave the Ultra 2 a brighter display.
If you’re looking for the best Apple Watch you can buy, the Ultra 2 is clearly it. Apple isn’t selling the original Ultra anymore so there’s not much of a buyer’s dilemma; you can still buy the original Ultra from third-party sellers, but it’d have to be steeply discounted for it to make sense to buy instead of the Ultra 2.
The bottom line: if you were thinking about buying the Ultra, but hadn’t pulled the trigger just yet … the Ultra 2 is now the obvious new choice. It’s Apple’s best smartwatch to date.
The Apple Ultra 2 comes in one size: 49mm. And it’s available in only a cellular model, although you don’t have to set it up with a cellular plan and you can use it just like a GPS-only smartwatch.
Apple
The brighter display makes for easier outdoor viewing
The Ultra 2 has the brightest display of any Apple Watch to date. Thanks to the new S9 chip and advancements to the display architecture, the Ultra 2’s display can reach a max brightness of 3,000 nits; this is a significant improvement over the 2,000 nits of last year’s Ultra and this year’s Series 9.
Of course, just like with the Series 9, you’re probably not going to notice this increase in brightness most of the time. The Ultra 2’s screen only reaches its max brightness when its ambient light sensor (and some advanced software) deem it needs to, which is predominantly when you’re outdoors and in direct sunlight. Most of the time, especially when you’re inside or at night, the Ultra 2 and the Ultra both have about the same brightness. And if you think about it, this makes sense. Having a super-bright display on constantly would cause a big hit to the Ultra 2’s battery life, which is rated as the same as last year’s Ultra.
Precision Finding is the killer feature
Tucker Bowe
Tucker Bowe
Above photo: Precision Finding helps you pinpoint the location of your misplaced iPhone … but it only works if your Ultra 2 is paired with an iPhone 15.
Just like with the Series 9, my favorite new feature of the Ultra 2 is Precision Finding. It’s enabled by the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip and it essentially makes it even easy to pinpoint the location of your misplaced iPhone. When you hit the “Find My iPhone” button on your Apple Watch, Precision Finding will tell you how far you are from your iPhone and slowly guide you to its location. As you get closer, your Apple Watch will show you the changing distance in real time and point you in the right direction. Then when you get within a few feet, your Apple Watch turns green and — boom — you’ve found your iPhone.
Honestly, anybody who has worn an Apple Watch for years knows exactly how often they use the “Find My iPhone” feature on their Apple Watch. Precision Finding on the Series 9 and Ultra 2 just makes that feature so much better (and even a little fun).
There is a pretty big caveat to Precision Finding, however: you need to have the Ultra 2 (or Series 9) paired with an iPhone 15 model. If you have any iPhone that’s older — even last’s iPhone 14 — then Precision Finding won’t work and the “Find My iPhone” feature will work just how it did in year’s past. And that’s kind of a bummer.
Double tap gesture controls are neat, but not a game changer yet
One of the standout features enabled by the S9 chip is double-tap gesture controls. Essentially, you can do a quick double-tap action with your thumb and pointer fingers to perform quick actions on your Apple Watch hands-free. You can quickly access the widgets in your Smart Stack. You can answer or end phone calls. You can start and stop a timer. Or you can play/pause music.
Full disclosure: I wasn’t able to test out the double-tap gesture controls on the Ultra 2 — it’s getting rolled out later this month in a software update. But Apple did send me a review unit of the Series 9 with preloaded software that allowed me to test these gesture controls ahead of time. And it worked pretty well.
The idea with double tap is that you can perform quick actions on your Apple Watch when your other hand isn’t free. Say you’re walking the dog or carrying something; a quick double tap will make your life a bit easier. That said, it remains to be seen how often I’ll actually use these double tap gesture controls. They can only control so much — and, in my testing, my Apple Watch was able to sense my double taps about 90 percent of the time, so it wasn’t always the most reliable. I’m guessing that most people are going to use it just when they’re in a pinch, as navigating your Apple Watch the traditional way (with your other hand) is still way easier, faster and you can do a lot more.
Siri is more reliable for voice texters
One other neat thing that the S9 chip delivers on the Ultra 2 (as well as the Series 9) is that it enables on-device Siri processing. So when you use a “Siri” or “Hey Siri” voice command, instead of having to send that info to the cloud, your Apple Watch can process the request right away.
The main result is a faster and more accurate Siri. So if you use voice commands to send texts or emails, you’re going to notice that Siri is just a little bit faster and a little less error prone.
Additionally, Apple is going to roll out a software update towards the end of the year that will enable this on-device Siri processing to support your health data. Basically, Siri will be able to access your Health app and tell you things like your current heart rate and sleep information.
The Ultra 2 has a more eco-conscious design
Even though it doesn’t necessarily affect the user experience, it’s pretty cool that Apple is making sure that it’s products are more eco-friendly. The Ultra 2, for example, is a much more environmentally friendly gadget than the original Ultra. According to Apple, when the Ultra 2 is paired with Alpine Loop or Trail Loop watch band, it “features 95 percent recycled titanium, compared with no recycled titanium in the first Apple Watch Ultra.”
For those wondering, Apple’s criteria for a carbon-neutral product is this according to its website: “100 percent clean electricity for manufacturing and product use, 30 percent recycled or renewable material by weight, and 50 percent of shipping without the use of air transportation.”
Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Apple Watch Ultra: What’s Similar
If you own an Apple Watch Ultra, it’s admittedly difficult to justify spending another $800 to upgrade to the Ultra 2 — they are just too damn similar. They look the same, work basically the same and have the same battery life. And unless you upgrade to the iPhone 15, you’re not going to get Precision Finding, which is in my opinion the coolest new feature of Apple’s two newest smartwatches, the Series 9 and Ultra 2.
Of course, if you didn’t buy the Ultra last year, there’s little reason why you wouldn’t upgrade to the new Ultra 2 — heck, Apple doesn’t even sell the old model anymore. The Ultra 2 gets a little brighter and has some new features (like double tap and on-Siri processing), but for the most part it’s just like the original Ultra … which, let’s be clear, makes the Ultra 2 the ultimate Apple Watch for athletes and fans of big screens.
