After rocking the latest iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Watch Ultra 2 I can say definitively that the Apple Watch steals the show. The new iPhone is a great upgrade. Coming from the 13 Pro Max the camera upgrades and action button are a joy to behold. But I interact with my Apple Watch many more times during the day than I ever do with my iPhone. Not more minutes, but more interactions.
The speed improvements on the new Apple Watch is what really stands out. I’ve been annoyed at how slow the Apple Watch is for years now. Stock prices would load slowly, web pages loaded at a glacial pace, and Maps was borderline unusable. I couldn’t believe how many times I heard Apple podcasters say “I’ve never thought the Apple Watch Ultra was slow”. To which I burst out laughing. Show me someone who didn’t think the Ultra 1 was slow and I’ll show you someone who uses their iPhone for EVERYTHING and only looks at their Apple Watch for the time and notifications.
I’m finally able to use my Apple Watch to visit web pages with some reasonable speed. So at this point many of you may be thinking why would I want to surf the web on a tiny screen less than 2”? Fair point. But there are times when I don’t have my iPhone on me while I’m walking in the house and I think of something that I want to check on the web. I have investments in Gold so I like to keep an eye on that. I use the Apple Watch app uBrowser which has a preset for www.goldprice.org.
On the Ultra 1, when I would hit one of my stock price complications to see one of my investments, the stock app would open to that stock instantly. HOWEVER, the stock price was old. This is something most people don’t realize who say that the Ultra 1 wasn’t slow. The slow processor took 30 – 90 seconds to update to the current price. On the Ultra 2, these stock prices update within about 5 seconds. I love that!
I love to listen to YouTube videos on my Apple Watch when I go out walking without my iPhone. I simply cue up the WatchTube app on my watch. On the Ultra 1, everything was laggy. But with the Ultra 2, it’s as fast and responsive as my 15 Pro Max. A lot of those videos are simply someone talking into the camera and you don’t really need to see the screen much. But if something interesting coms up, I can point my wrist and see it. And that new bright screen is amazing! Videos on screen in the sun look awesome!
I also do a lot of waking and hiking. And when I’m wearing my gym shorts on a hot day I often don’t want my iPhone with me. Especially since the big and heavy 13 Pro Max was way too bouncy in my shorts. Periodically, I need to check my location on the trails if I get a little disoriented, on the Ultra 1 it was infuriating to stare at the little updating circle just turn and turn. But with the new Ultra 2, you get your location lickety split.
And then there’s Siri. The Ultra 2 made all of my dreams come true. I had written a couple weeks ago how I use Siri all the time while out running without my iPhone. And yes, even with my high expectations the new chip in the Ultra 2 has met them. Not only is it way faster, which I expected. But it’s also more accurate, which was a delightful surprise.
The new hand-free double tap way of interacting with the Apple Watch is another potential game changer. However, I haven’t used that yet so I can’t comment on it. But that alone may make the Ultra 2 worth bypassing the Ultra 1 which isn’t getting this upgrade. But even without that feature, I’d say bypass the Ultra 1 is you were thinking of getting one on discount. The processor on that watch is just way too old and slow.
As I say all of the time. How big of an impact new features have on your life is combination of frequency and size. A new feature may be huge but maybe you only use it once a month. Or a feature could be fairly small but maybe you use it 5 times a day. They both add up to a big impact. The new Apple Watch is full of small improvements that I use multiple times per day. So my delight factor with the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 is quite high on a daily basis.
I’m finally able to use my Apple Watch to visit web pages with some reasonable speed. So at this point many of you may be thinking why would I want to surf the web on a tiny screen less than 2”? Fair point. But there are times when I don’t have my iPhone on me while I’m walking in the house and I think of something that I want to check on the web. I have investments in Gold so I like to keep an eye on that. I use the Apple Watch app uBrowser which has a preset for www.goldprice.org.
On the Ultra 1, when I would hit one of my stock price complications to see one of my investments, the stock app would open to that stock instantly. HOWEVER, the stock price was old. This is something most people don’t realize who say that the Ultra 1 wasn’t slow. The slow processor took 30 – 90 seconds to update to the current price. On the Ultra 2, these stock prices update within about 5 seconds. I love that!
I love to listen to YouTube videos on my Apple Watch when I go out walking without my iPhone. I simply cue up the WatchTube app on my watch. On the Ultra 1, everything was laggy. But with the Ultra 2, it’s as fast and responsive as my 15 Pro Max. A lot of those videos are simply someone talking into the camera and you don’t really need to see the screen much. But if something interesting coms up, I can point my wrist and see it. And that new bright screen is amazing! Videos on screen in the sun look awesome!
I also do a lot of waking and hiking. And when I’m wearing my gym shorts on a hot day I often don’t want my iPhone with me. Especially since the big and heavy 13 Pro Max was way too bouncy in my shorts. Periodically, I need to check my location on the trails if I get a little disoriented, on the Ultra 1 it was infuriating to stare at the little updating circle just turn and turn. But with the new Ultra 2, you get your location lickety split.
And then there’s Siri. The Ultra 2 made all of my dreams come true. I had written a couple weeks ago how I use Siri all the time while out running without my iPhone. And yes, even with my high expectations the new chip in the Ultra 2 has met them. Not only is it way faster, which I expected. But it’s also more accurate, which was a delightful surprise.
The new hand-free double tap way of interacting with the Apple Watch is another potential game changer. However, I haven’t used that yet so I can’t comment on it. But that alone may make the Ultra 2 worth bypassing the Ultra 1 which isn’t getting this upgrade. But even without that feature, I’d say bypass the Ultra 1 is you were thinking of getting one on discount. The processor on that watch is just way too old and slow.
As I say all of the time. How big of an impact new features have on your life is combination of frequency and size. A new feature may be huge but maybe you only use it once a month. Or a feature could be fairly small but maybe you use it 5 times a day. They both add up to a big impact. The new Apple Watch is full of small improvements that I use multiple times per day. So my delight factor with the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 is quite high on a daily basis.
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