Apple Watch Ultra Unboxing and Hands-On

The Apple Watch Ultra is the newest and greatest product from Apple. To see if the Apple Watch Series 8 is worth the upgrade, we picked up one of the new watches and compared it to the Series 8.

The Apple Watch Ultra measures in at 49mm, a full 4mm over the 45mm Apple Watch Series 8. It's larger than you might think, and it's thicker than you might think. If you can comfortably wear a 45mm Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra isn't as big as you might think.

It's not as heavy as the Apple Watch Series 8 but it's still noticeable. It might feel too large, but it comes down to personal preference. The Ultra wrist will fit as small as 130mm.

We picked up the Alpine loop and the Ocean band from Apple. The Alpine loop has two layers and is similar to the Woven Bands. The Ocean loop is a sort of ridged sport band.

Apple designed the Apple Watch Ultra for explorers and explorers only, so the average user won't ever need a Depth app for diving. Even for casual hikes, the option to set Waypoints and use Backtrack in the new compass app is useful. Even though it's exclusive to the Ultra, the built-in Siren has the potential to be useful even in urban areas.

The dark mode that shows the face in red on the Apple Watch Ultra's WayFinder face is an option that we would like to see more of.

Even if you have gloves on, you can use the Apple Watch Ultra's Action button to quickly access various Ultra features. It can launch workouts, set waypoints in the compass app, and more.

The speaker quality has been improved with the addition of extra speakers, and the Digital Crown has been made more accessible with bigger ridges.

The Apple Watch Ultra is an affordable option for the feature set it offers. The Apple Watch Ultra has options that are nice to have just in case, so it may be worth picking it up, even if you don't go out much.

Do you own an Apple watch Ultra? We would love to hear what you think in the comments.