r/apple • u/exjr_ Island Boy • Sep 07 '22

Apple Unveils Apple Watch Ultra With Large-Screen Design for Athletes and Explorers Apple Watch

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/09/07/apple-unveils-apple-watch-pro-athletes/

2.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

u/Dr_Sirius_Amory1 Sep 07 '22 edited Sep 07 '22

So here’s the deal. Those who say Garmin so much better, they mean battery and that’s about it (for most part). I have AW and a Garmin 920 for tri training. Pure sport use and training, Garmin hands down. The rest of the day, Apple. Garmin can’t show me my front door when doorbell rings. AW gives me super quick access to notifications from many apps with a few swipes. Garmin I’d be mashing that side button all day. Ultra is definitely aiming at Garmin crowd but they’re well aware they’re way behind to take everyone. If you’re doing multi day hunting or hiking, use your Garmin. Other reason Garmin lasts so damn long is it isn’t powering a touch screen with ton of sensors. Trade offs. For the weekend warrior or triathlete or marathoner who until now had to either own two watches or go all in on Garmin and lose functionality, Ultra brings those folks squarely into Apple arena and keeps them put.

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u/r0ckthedice Sep 07 '22

Hello are you me? This is 100 percent how I am feeling about this watch. I have a Garmin Fenix 6 sapphire and do some technical backcountry hiking/backpacking however I work a desk job during the week and the apple makes way more since for day to day use.

2

u/kmj442 Sep 08 '22

I have the F6 sapphire too but I'm still not buying into the AW. I mean I won't argue their smart watch functionality is 10000x better but honestly I don't need more than text/email/call notifications. I don't want to have to charge it every night (it has sleep tracking but you can't use it because it needs to charge?) and I like the 36 hour gps battery life. I've done a few full Ironman's and many half ironmans which are long enough that at the time the FR6xx battery wouldn't have held up (if I recall correctly) and I didn't like the body of the 920xt... Now I have full day tracking, sport gps, and some level of notifications along with music and BT connectivity to headphones on my wrist...its honestly perfect for me. that and honestly I think it just looks better than the AW, but that is 100 subjective.

1

u/erthian Sep 08 '22

I'm really curious how this plays out. I ordered on as soon as it dropped, but I'm skeptical it will replace my garmin. I really want it to, but it just doesn't seem there.

22

u/laxpwns Sep 07 '22

Your Garmin 920 is multiple generations old, and you should check out the new Forerunner 955 (or Fenix 7 which is getting all the stuff the 955 has later this year if you want the rugged look, both have touch screens). They’re certainly going after the Garmin crowd from an aesthetic standpoint, but once you take the new features into account, the only reason to keep using an Apple Watch is if you’re so deep in the walled garden that you couldn’t find your way out with turn-by-turn GPS.

I wanted to like the Ultra so much, and was holding off upgrading from my Series 5 to the new forerunner hoping the Ultra would impress, but outside of walled garden features it seems the forerunner and Fenix are better in nearly every single way and I can still use Siri on the Garmin.

0

u/Dr_Sirius_Amory1 Sep 07 '22

Do they have touch screens like kindles have touch screens or can you actually swipe and easily move around. I find the Garmin ux severely lacking compared to AW, but that’s also like comparing a sports car to a pickup truck and complaining the car doesn’t tow the same so it must be inferior. Garmin and Apple are two different companies with two different audiences. Apple goes after the prosumer, as has been mentioned previously in this thread. Garmin is for the hardcore outdoor crowd. Now Apple is evolving and hearing the cries of the Apple folks who wanted the AW to do more in sports/outdoor arena hence the ultra line splitting from base AW. This is their very first foray so time will tell how much they hit or missed the mark. I use my AW in swimming pool almost daily but it’s frustrating that I can’t manually mark laps and the auto lap sense sucks. Hopefully this one addresses that. I’m a triathlete and AW multi-sport “solution” is a joke, also hoping for massive improvement in this area before I consider moving to it from my g5. Last part is battery life which is the obvious one. I did say in my initial post that the comparison MOSTLY centers around that but obviously there’s much more to it. I want to see real world battery life and if/when that battery life update comes out. Is it next month? Next year? Again, I’m fine currently with my two watch setup but if AWU closes these gaps then I’ll splurge. What works for me may not work for you and that’s fine. Again, if Garmin is your bag and has everything you want/need, keep on keeping on. For the Apple folks in the grey area, this new watch may be quite the gift.

-2

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '22

Dang I couldn’t disagree more. I think garmin is absolute trash and the Apple Watch gives me a million reasons to dump my garmin. I don’t do multi day sporting events so the battery isn’t an issue. Looks like this Apple Watch will last two days so it can be used for sleep tracking whereas garmin basically doesn’t track sleep (I know it says it does but it’s beyond shit). I can’t think of any practical benefit to my garmin at this point besides battery life

6

u/eloc49 Sep 08 '22

I just wish the Apple Watch had a monochrome display mode for long rides/hikes/whatever outside. That's the reason Garmin watches get such insane battery life. I don't need or want the touch screen and all the bells and whistles when I'm staring at trees.

2

u/Dr_Sirius_Amory1 Sep 08 '22

I have a feeling that might be how they pull off new low power exercise mode.

1

u/nachobel Sep 08 '22

Hopefully it’ll still keep up with GPS. I’m interested to see how this plays out!

8

u/imnothereurnotthere Sep 07 '22 edited Sep 07 '22

I'm on a Fenix 7 and this Ultra watch seems like a meh. And no, it's not purely the battery. The best thing about the Ultra watch is it's going to push Garmin to be more competitive.

I'm still not going to wear some weird rectangle on my wrist, and 2 days battery life? no way.

Hell, this things even too big for me and I wear a FENIX 7. It looks ridiculous.

Is there a Garmin Connect alternative? Can I go to a webpage and see all my stats and change features? Nice new watch face, I've got 10 of them that show more information and data views and people can custom make them.

This thing doesn't even have ANT. Backtracking was a really cool feature but I have apps that do that.

1

u/ricky1030 Sep 07 '22

What apps do you use for backtracking? Recently jumped over to the Forerunner 955 two months ago and it’s much more useful to me than my previous Apple Watch.

3

u/imnothereurnotthere Sep 07 '22

Garmin has a feature called "TracBack" - IIRC you have to turn it on to have it save and it records your entire session and gives you a "back to start" and the general paths. I don't know if I've used it more than a few times so less knowledgeable there. I use WikiLoc and Komoot for hiking.

I have a germin GLONASS GPS in my jeep and use Gaia GPS for my real "track back" but that's when I'm in my jeep with an Ipad, which is usually how I hike+car camp. I get lost in my Jeep pretty frequently

1

u/xxotaruxx Sep 08 '22

I mean I used backtrack mid jog one time when I got a little lost in another city, and then changed to the navigate back to start since I didn't want to run back 4 miles with my 945 ( that part might just be a 945 and above feature). You have to be recording an activity, yeah. The navigate back to start gave me turn by turn directions on my watch which was pretty slick.

2

u/Forestbici Sep 08 '22

I use WikiLoc for watchOS for maps and because I can leave my iPhone at home. The Ultra looks great for being the first series, it promises but I expected more battery life

3

u/MadMennonite Sep 08 '22

Your vintage 920 aside, recovery metrics on newer watches will be skewed if you rely on Garmin Connect as your source of truth (which if you use those recovery metrics, is clutch). Trueup is the secret sauce to allow you to swap watches and keep all your daily data together. That’s one of many things that has kept me from being a full or part time AW user. Garmin Connect only writes to Apple Health, takes nothing back to it. They don’t want you to mix environments. The Ultra is a larger step closer to pulling me in to being an Apple Watch user full time, but my 945 is still chugging away pretty well, and I can spend 10 hours outside for an ultramarathon (with no special battery saving features) and not worry about having to charge my watch for several days still. One of these days I’ll be ready to get back to an AW, but it’s still not time yet.

2

u/Nikkp93 Sep 08 '22

Garmin fenix 7x does all those things though with the battery life,touch screen and if you need oled the epix covers it. Titanium and sapphire options and the like. 36 hours frankly isn’t enough for that crowed as much as I love the Apple Watch eco which is why you see a lot of the garmin comments especially when it comes to tracking and forget-ability of the tool. I want it. I do. And if they would of said “60hr smartwatch mode and 30 hours gps mode” I think they would of sealed it as is it’s a great series zero of the model though I’ll wait.

2

u/Dr_Sirius_Amory1 Sep 08 '22

Looks like dc rainmaker posted quick review already with some interesting insights. Can’t wait for his in depth review https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/09/apple-watch-ultra-hands-on-everything-you-need-to-know.html

2

u/Thirdsun Sep 08 '22

Well said.

As a cyclists I just wish Apple would have supported ANT+ to connect my power meter and other sensors.

Obviously I prefer my Wahoo head unit for serious rides but for commuting and small casual rides it would be nice to only rely on the Apple Watch.

1

u/Dr_Sirius_Amory1 Sep 08 '22

Call it hopeful enthusiasm, but now that Apple is “officially” playing in this space I think we’ll see partnerships with Wahoo and the like to help grow that ecosystem.