Made a good first impression.
September 7, 2022, 10:21 p.m
Tek.no / Cupertino: It’s not often that I’m really surprised by Apple’s doings. But today I was. We’ve “knew about” Apple’s fiercest smartwatch for quite some time, and the rumors hit quite well on exactly what the watch looks like.
But in living life; I have never seen a smartwatch give the same overall impression. Because here you have design and materials that work together to create a rough impression.
The clock is large, but apparently not too large. Other watches that do close to the same thing as this one are either the same size, or bigger. And few have anywhere near the ambitions of this watch.
The provisional 36 hours of battery life are far from as exciting as I thought they would be in this context. But they are also worth mentioning, and that Apple believes that the battery life should eventually reach 60 hours.
This year we will therefore get two Apple Watch series 8 watches in the usual sizes, 41 and 45 millimetres, in addition to the Watch Ultra which is therefore 49 millimetres.
As mentioned, the Apple Watch Ultra can function as a diving watch. It can measure depth and water temperature down to 40 metres. The equipment that matches this in characteristics costs a lot.
You don’t get a decompression countdown, so you know when you can dive again, or when it makes sense to jump on a plane – things that are important to divers. But the watch has the sensors needed for a third-party app to fix that glitch.
Like all watches that will be part of an expedition, or into the sea, it has extra padding around the digital crown, or navigation wheel if you like. Here the case is in titanium, a common material for expensive watches. The reason is the combination of extreme hardness and low weight. But titanium watches often cost more – even more than the 10,000 kroner this watch costs.
For me, who has rather large fists and wrists that can withstand a large watch, the Ultra model feels perfectly fine. I still don’t experience any big weight advantage – after all, there is a huge battery inside here that uses up the savings from the titanium.
The large screen is significantly larger than on the regular Apple Watch we are used to seeing. Here, the screen is flat and with the metal barely protruding on all sides. We also saw this that Samsung did with its Watch Pro earlier this year.
And it’s not that hard to guess where they got the idea from. Seasoned sports gadget manufacturers such as Garmin and Suunto have for years had dials and watch glasses that have been sunk in metal. Then the watch can withstand, for example, your wrist hitting a tree, or perhaps a stone surface, because it is not the glass that hits first. It doesn’t prevent all breakages, but it increases the chance of you getting lucky.
You also see a lot more on the Ultra watch screen. That is why it comes with its own clock screens that can show much more than before.
Since the Ultra watch is too large to fit perfectly with the existing watch straps, it also means in practice that Apple now operates a universe with several different types of accessories. They have already done that to a certain extent, since the Watch series 3 is still on sale and uses its own straps.
Roger Åberg in Swedish Feber tries out the Watch Ultra.
The last time I was as surprised by the impression from a new Apple product was when the iPhone X arrived quite a few years ago now. Watches that can do as much as the Watch Ultra claims to be able to cost a lot, and none of them have the same ambitions as Apple’s watch.
They can measure depth, temperature or have solid, powerful watch cases. But they generally cannot function as a mobile phone on the wrist, with many smart features.
It’s also rare that they look as good as this one. It looks rough, but combined with different bracelets it doesn’t look as special as it actually is.
So the question is; is it a jack of all trades? Thousand artists are known for not being the master of any of the arts. And it is clear right from the start, we know that many of the competitors have weeks of battery life.
But can 36 or 60 hours be good enough, for the other qualities to show themselves as the advantages they can be?
And will it be like a huge four-wheel drive that never sees the wilderness?
The questions are many. It’s only natural, when Apple is a bit crazy for once.
September 7, 2022, 10:21 p.m
