Thanks for your review! I have an aluminum GPS Series 4 from 2018 and I have been considering upgrading to a Cellular version because I have the ambition to leave my phone at home and go out with just the AW. When I saw the Ultra on the keynote I got this feeling of wanting to buy it so badly but then the EUR prices came out... The thing is if you also want to feel that you have a new Watch, the Ultra is the only one with a different design. Even if I bought the Stainless steel version, probably it wouldn't feel that "new" and the price gap to the Ultra is "only" 100 EUR. Apple really played this well for them, for 100 EUR you're getting so much more... it's tempting. I'm looking forward for your long term review!
Hey Bruno, welcome to the channel! :) If you want to get serious about going out without your phone, the Ultra is for sure a whole new world and I can already say that it’s worth the 100€ over the stainless steel Series 8 for sure, just form a technical point of view. The styling is subjective and I still see a big use case for the “classical” design because it looks less sporty. When it comes to the aluminium Series 8 vs. Ultra, it depends on the use case because now the price really makes a big difference. For leaving the phone behind for a couple of hours here and there Series 8 will serve you well. For going full on phone replacement, I’d highly recommend the Ultra at this point. Compared to the Series 7 I stopped worrying about the battery life basically completely.
@@FlorianBodlee Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the "relief" of not having to worry about battery life is really another very strong point for the Ultra. I have to think about it.
Can you elaborate on this? WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. work fine for receiving and replying to texts. You just can’t initiate a conversation on e.g. WhatsApp due to the lack of an Apple Watch app.
Dude it really worth it I upgraded from the series 4. with each passing year a new watch came out but it wasn’t enough of a change for me to even consider buying the new one then the ultra came out and I knew I wanted it ..I was always a g shock fan and like bigger watches and this is perfect.I got mine pre order and received it the day it was released..mine you I never had cellular watch and with this it’s really nice to have connectivity for working out walking the dog swimming ect.definitely consider I don’t think you’ll regret it
If you don't mind me asking, what is the circumference of your wrist? By the way, nice first impression video and I cannot wait to view your in depth review. You have gained a subscriber.
Hey there Scott and welcome to the channel :) It’s 17.5 cm and the small band is a tad to small. Apple exchanged it for an medium band without problems and that one fits perfectly. Happy to hear you enjoyed the video and looking forward to having you again soon ;)
Thank you for your review! How does it feel playing the piano with it? It is uncomfortable? And how about to sleep with it? I always take off my Apple Watch (series 0) to sleep, because it can't even take data overnight. But if I switch to the new Ultra, it would be interesting to use it at night as well. Will something so big be uncomfortable in bed? Thank you again!
Hi there David, welcome to the channel :) I didn't notice any discomfort when playing piano or the guitar. I also wore it for sleep tracking and the only complaint I got was from my girlfriend who bumped into it :D I wore the Series 7 and Series 4 for years before and never had problems, so I would say you're most likely fine wearing it for all your planned activities! Happy to hear you enjoyed the video and I'm hoping to see you again for the full review :)
The Apple Watch Ultra is definitely a cool watch. I do recommend to some people. Its built like a tank and works extremely well. However, I highly suggest you try it on first and wear it for a couple of days to see if you like it or not. Personally, I had to return mine. I notice the biggest problem for me was its size. It was so massive on my wrist (I have 16cm wrists). It looked awesome but it became more of a distraction (even with the screen turned off). I couldn't help but constantly stare at it evey time I twisted my wrist. Luckily I had a 7 day money back guarantee. So I got my money back. I decided to go with a series 8 cellular instead and combined with my iPad mini 6 to replace my iPhone. I hope this helps.
Can't wait for your full review. I've been waiting for years for Apple to make the watch standalone. Sadly they insist on it being an accessory to the iPhone.
Hey there Filip, welcome to the channel! Apple watches since Series 4 were already mostly feasible as standalone devices in my opinion. It's always was however unnecessarily uncomfortable because the battery on cellular would drain so quickly that 1 day was the most I ever achieved and even that wasn't trivial 😅 Besides, you're right of course in that the software isn't optimised for it to be used as a standalone device. The battery life is now on a level that's more than good enough with Apple Watch Ultra, so much I can already say before the full review. As for the software; not too much has changed compared to previous watches but I'll go into detail in my full review :)
Great info. Extrapolation doesn't work on apple watch though. I have tried and doesn't match with a real usage time. Many reasons affects this, such as different sample recording heart rate according to activity, or notifications per hour, different light sensors (infrared and normal light according to different massures), LTE signal etc. At least 8 hours of usage should give a you a better extrapolation sample. Cheers.
Hi Luis :) Absolutely! That’s why I marked these as preliminary results. I’m planning to definitely sample at least 8h per data point for the full review and repeat the tests during different times of the day and different locations to average out some of the variables. It’s gonna take a while to collect all the data but I’ll also show the variance etc. so the results should be as transparent as possible :)
Hey Florian ! Very good job ! I found out about your channel when a crazy idea came to my mind : what if I replaced my phone by an Apple Watch Ultra that could maybe last a full day. Your content is great and I'm so glad to see that it's been quite a while that you are using your AW as a daily driver. Therefore, I would like to ask you how you manage (if you do), WhatsApp on your watch ? This is a use case for me because, even I would prefer not to, I use a lot WhatsApp to talk with Friends and Family. I would love to hear your take on that. Thanks a lot and have a gorgeous day !
Hey there :) Yes, I see that this is an issue and it’s honestly one of the major pain points. Replying to WhatsApp messages is possible because you can use the reply feature when a notification comes in. However, initiating a conversation is not possible from what I know. I tried everything (Siri, Shortcuts, Web Client) I can think of short of writing my own WhatsApp client for the Apple Watch :D The web client is something that could potentially work. The Apple Watch has a hidden browser that can be used for essentially everything short of playing videos but it identifies as an iOS browser to websites and WhatsApp doesn’t let you use the web client from a mobile browser unfortunately. WhatsApp isn’t important enough for me to go all the way and write a watch app myself because I managed to convert most of my contacts to Messages but yeah TLDR; you can reply but not initiate conversations… I’ll touch on this again in my full review :D
Hi Florian, do you have to pay extra in Europa if you activate your esim on your whatch. I heard in the US they charge you a whopping 10$ a month. I don't get that because you're using datas from your phone. I remember back then they gave you a second sim card for free.
Hi there Frank, welcome to the channel! :) It heavily depends on your phone contract. For most, yes. In my particular case, I have a contract that allows me to activate more or less as many SIM cards as I want, so I have one in my iPhone, one in my Apple Watch, one in my iPad, and another spare for testing devices I use for software development; all at no extra cost. I agree that paying an extra 10$ is rough and definitely decreases the value proposition quite a lot :/ I’ll also say a few words on this in the full review, thank you for the suggestion and bringing this up! :)
Welcome to the channel Jadran :) So far it's been genuinely amazing! I even did a cooking class the first evening and got a couple drops of oil on it and they washed right out under tap water when washing my hands. Honestly, best Apple Watch band I used so far.
This is incorrect. As long as your iPhone is connected to the internet, even if it’s not with you, you will receive SMS, WhatsApp, etc. without issues.
Hi there and welcome to the channel :) I should’ve picked the M band for sure, S feels good once I have it on but it’s a bit hard to get over my hand. My wrist size is 17.5 cm :)
Question: Using cellular on the watch, if i leave iphone at home, to use all cellular functions on the watch, does the iphone at home need to be on? Or it can be shut off? If on, does it need all the antennas on?
Hi Joao :) It needs to be on and connected to the internet at least. So it can be on cellular or Wifi + cellular. Bluetooth can safely be turned off. If you use Wifi only and turn cellular off then you’ll be able to use everything on the watch with the exception of classical SMS. Hope this helps :)
It’s not showing the phone screen but the phone is forwarding notifications and SMS over the internet to your watch. So e.g. a WhatsApp message goes to your phone, the notification gets forwarded to your watch. You reply to the notification on your watch and that reply is sent to your phone from where it’s passed to WhatsApp. Your watch can’t actually talk to WhatsApp directly. It’s different for e.g. iMessage. That works even when the phone is off because the watch can handle that directly. But apps with native Apple Watch support are still comparatively rare.
Hi there Louis :) I haven't experienced problems with the compass in my Series 7 in the past year and all these bands. I'll try my best to see if there are issues with the Apple Watch Ultra on this front and if so, I'll mention it in my full review for sure :)
@@FlorianBodlee you have to wear them both on each arms. One with magnetic loop and one without. you see a delta, most of the time is acceptable error, but it does interfere ;)
@@ometofu I'll definitely give this a shot! I don't have 2 Ultras but I have a Series 0, Series 3, Series 4, Series 7, and Ultra that I can test this with - let's see :D Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi,great review !I´m looking forward for part 2.👌
Thanks Niko :)
Thanks for your review! I have an aluminum GPS Series 4 from 2018 and I have been considering upgrading to a Cellular version because I have the ambition to leave my phone at home and go out with just the AW. When I saw the Ultra on the keynote I got this feeling of wanting to buy it so badly but then the EUR prices came out... The thing is if you also want to feel that you have a new Watch, the Ultra is the only one with a different design. Even if I bought the Stainless steel version, probably it wouldn't feel that "new" and the price gap to the Ultra is "only" 100 EUR. Apple really played this well for them, for 100 EUR you're getting so much more... it's tempting. I'm looking forward for your long term review!
Hey Bruno, welcome to the channel! :)
If you want to get serious about going out without your phone, the Ultra is for sure a whole new world and I can already say that it’s worth the 100€ over the stainless steel Series 8 for sure, just form a technical point of view. The styling is subjective and I still see a big use case for the “classical” design because it looks less sporty. When it comes to the aluminium Series 8 vs. Ultra, it depends on the use case because now the price really makes a big difference. For leaving the phone behind for a couple of hours here and there Series 8 will serve you well. For going full on phone replacement, I’d highly recommend the Ultra at this point. Compared to the Series 7 I stopped worrying about the battery life basically completely.
@@FlorianBodlee Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, the "relief" of not having to worry about battery life is really another very strong point for the Ultra. I have to think about it.
Just so you know you can’t text or receive text from android users. Works great when you text or receive text from iPhone users.
Can you elaborate on this? WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. work fine for receiving and replying to texts. You just can’t initiate a conversation on e.g. WhatsApp due to the lack of an Apple Watch app.
Dude it really worth it I upgraded from the series 4. with each passing year a new watch came out but it wasn’t enough of a change for me to even consider buying the new one then the ultra came out and I knew I wanted it ..I was always a g shock fan and like bigger watches and this is perfect.I got mine pre order and received it the day it was released..mine you I never had cellular watch and with this it’s really nice to have connectivity for working out walking the dog swimming ect.definitely consider I don’t think you’ll regret it
The Ultra is just amazing.
I can’t wait 😜
I really enjoy it as well so far! :)
Great review and good footage and video shots.
Thank you Thomas! :)
If you don't mind me asking, what is the circumference of your wrist? By the way, nice first impression video and I cannot wait to view your in depth review. You have gained a subscriber.
Hey there Scott and welcome to the channel :) It’s 17.5 cm and the small band is a tad to small. Apple exchanged it for an medium band without problems and that one fits perfectly. Happy to hear you enjoyed the video and looking forward to having you again soon ;)
Thank you for your review! How does it feel playing the piano with it? It is uncomfortable? And how about to sleep with it? I always take off my Apple Watch (series 0) to sleep, because it can't even take data overnight. But if I switch to the new Ultra, it would be interesting to use it at night as well. Will something so big be uncomfortable in bed? Thank you again!
Hi there David, welcome to the channel :) I didn't notice any discomfort when playing piano or the guitar. I also wore it for sleep tracking and the only complaint I got was from my girlfriend who bumped into it :D I wore the Series 7 and Series 4 for years before and never had problems, so I would say you're most likely fine wearing it for all your planned activities!
Happy to hear you enjoyed the video and I'm hoping to see you again for the full review :)
@@FlorianBodlee Thank you for your reply! Of course, I'm waiting for that review!
The Apple Watch Ultra is definitely a cool watch. I do recommend to some people. Its built like a tank and works extremely well. However, I highly suggest you try it on first and wear it for a couple of days to see if you like it or not. Personally, I had to return mine. I notice the biggest problem for me was its size. It was so massive on my wrist (I have 16cm wrists). It looked awesome but it became more of a distraction (even with the screen turned off). I couldn't help but constantly stare at it evey time I twisted my wrist. Luckily I had a 7 day money back guarantee. So I got my money back. I decided to go with a series 8 cellular instead and combined with my iPad mini 6 to replace my iPhone. I hope this helps.
Can't wait for your full review. I've been waiting for years for Apple to make the watch standalone. Sadly they insist on it being an accessory to the iPhone.
Hey there Filip, welcome to the channel! Apple watches since Series 4 were already mostly feasible as standalone devices in my opinion. It's always was however unnecessarily uncomfortable because the battery on cellular would drain so quickly that 1 day was the most I ever achieved and even that wasn't trivial 😅 Besides, you're right of course in that the software isn't optimised for it to be used as a standalone device. The battery life is now on a level that's more than good enough with Apple Watch Ultra, so much I can already say before the full review. As for the software; not too much has changed compared to previous watches but I'll go into detail in my full review :)
@@FlorianBodlee I don’t think he mean like used alone, I think he wants it to work with his android
Great info. Extrapolation doesn't work on apple watch though. I have tried and doesn't match with a real usage time. Many reasons affects this, such as different sample recording heart rate according to activity, or notifications per hour, different light sensors (infrared and normal light according to different massures), LTE signal etc. At least 8 hours of usage should give a you a better extrapolation sample. Cheers.
Hi Luis :) Absolutely! That’s why I marked these as preliminary results. I’m planning to definitely sample at least 8h per data point for the full review and repeat the tests during different times of the day and different locations to average out some of the variables. It’s gonna take a while to collect all the data but I’ll also show the variance etc. so the results should be as transparent as possible :)
good video 👍.... waiting for full review
Thank you :)
I would love to know if the Apple Watch ⌚️ Ultra could be a phone replacement this is exciting to learn.
Stay tuned for the full review! It‘s looking very very promising though, so much I can already say :)
Hey Florian ! Very good job ! I found out about your channel when a crazy idea came to my mind : what if I replaced my phone by an Apple Watch Ultra that could maybe last a full day. Your content is great and I'm so glad to see that it's been quite a while that you are using your AW as a daily driver. Therefore, I would like to ask you how you manage (if you do), WhatsApp on your watch ? This is a use case for me because, even I would prefer not to, I use a lot WhatsApp to talk with Friends and Family.
I would love to hear your take on that. Thanks a lot and have a gorgeous day !
Hey there :) Yes, I see that this is an issue and it’s honestly one of the major pain points. Replying to WhatsApp messages is possible because you can use the reply feature when a notification comes in. However, initiating a conversation is not possible from what I know. I tried everything (Siri, Shortcuts, Web Client) I can think of short of writing my own WhatsApp client for the Apple Watch :D The web client is something that could potentially work. The Apple Watch has a hidden browser that can be used for essentially everything short of playing videos but it identifies as an iOS browser to websites and WhatsApp doesn’t let you use the web client from a mobile browser unfortunately. WhatsApp isn’t important enough for me to go all the way and write a watch app myself because I managed to convert most of my contacts to Messages but yeah TLDR; you can reply but not initiate conversations… I’ll touch on this again in my full review :D
@@FlorianBodlee, Thank a million for your feedback ! So great ! Can't wait for your full review ! Thanks a lot again.
Hi Florian, do you have to pay extra in Europa if you activate your esim on your whatch. I heard in the US they charge you a whopping 10$ a month. I don't get that because you're using datas from your phone. I remember back then they gave you a second sim card for free.
Hi there Frank, welcome to the channel! :) It heavily depends on your phone contract. For most, yes. In my particular case, I have a contract that allows me to activate more or less as many SIM cards as I want, so I have one in my iPhone, one in my Apple Watch, one in my iPad, and another spare for testing devices I use for software development; all at no extra cost. I agree that paying an extra 10$ is rough and definitely decreases the value proposition quite a lot :/ I’ll also say a few words on this in the full review, thank you for the suggestion and bringing this up! :)
Any issues with the starlight color getting dirty?
Welcome to the channel Jadran :) So far it's been genuinely amazing! I even did a cooking class the first evening and got a couple drops of oil on it and they washed right out under tap water when washing my hands. Honestly, best Apple Watch band I used so far.
When you use without your i phone the sms messages don’t work, but it works with no problem when it comes to sending messages to people with iPhones.
This is incorrect. As long as your iPhone is connected to the internet, even if it’s not with you, you will receive SMS, WhatsApp, etc. without issues.
@@FlorianBodlee I will try today and I hope this works. I will let you know.
I tried it before, it should definitely work :)
Thank you very much. You were right, it definitely worked
Awesome!! Happy it worked well for you :)
thx for your rewiev
whats your wrist size and
small band is comfortable for you or?
Hi there and welcome to the channel :) I should’ve picked the M band for sure, S feels good once I have it on but it’s a bit hard to get over my hand. My wrist size is 17.5 cm :)
Gutes Video
Danke! :)
I like it 😊
Happy to hear Truong! Welcome to the channel :)
Love mine just the Orange Ban is a Dirt Magnet
Happy you like yours! I haven’t had issues with the starlight alpine loop so far - it’s been great :)
Question: Using cellular on the watch, if i leave iphone at home, to use all cellular functions on the watch, does the iphone at home need to be on? Or it can be shut off? If on, does it need all the antennas on?
Hi Joao :) It needs to be on and connected to the internet at least. So it can be on cellular or Wifi + cellular. Bluetooth can safely be turned off. If you use Wifi only and turn cellular off then you’ll be able to use everything on the watch with the exception of classical SMS. Hope this helps :)
@@FlorianBodlee ok and what I’m doing on the watch is showing on the phone screen at home?
It’s not showing the phone screen but the phone is forwarding notifications and SMS over the internet to your watch. So e.g. a WhatsApp message goes to your phone, the notification gets forwarded to your watch. You reply to the notification on your watch and that reply is sent to your phone from where it’s passed to WhatsApp. Your watch can’t actually talk to WhatsApp directly. It’s different for e.g. iMessage. That works even when the phone is off because the watch can handle that directly. But apps with native Apple Watch support are still comparatively rare.
I’ll try to clarify this a little in my full review :)
@@FlorianBodlee ok thanks
Its been a couple of weeks now.. 😅
Next week is the week 🥳👌
And there you go ☺️⌚️
all the magnetic loops leather or metal interferes with the compass!!
Hi there Louis :) I haven't experienced problems with the compass in my Series 7 in the past year and all these bands. I'll try my best to see if there are issues with the Apple Watch Ultra on this front and if so, I'll mention it in my full review for sure :)
@@FlorianBodlee you have to wear them both on each arms. One with magnetic loop and one without. you see a delta, most of the time is acceptable error, but it does interfere ;)
@@ometofu I'll definitely give this a shot! I don't have 2 Ultras but I have a Series 0, Series 3, Series 4, Series 7, and Ultra that I can test this with - let's see :D Thanks for the suggestion!
The watch was designed for specific people. Not for you
I know I’m not the user Apple’s marketing targets, yet it works far better than any other Apple Watch for my use case so I don’t see a problem :)
Lol like the omegas were designed for astronauts and breitlings for pilots. I'm sure only those professionals can wear those watches 🤣
You got it Joao :D