Leave a good first impression.
Tek.no / Cupertino: Often I’m not really surprised by Apple’s actions. But today I was. We’ve “know” about Apple’s most powerful smartwatch for quite some time, and the rumors speak well of what exactly the watch will look like.
But in living life. I’ve never seen a smartwatch that gives the same overall impression. Because here you have design and materials that work together to create a rough impression.
The watch is large, but it is clearly not very large. Other watches that are nearly the same as this watch are either the same size or larger. And few of them have anywhere near the ambitions of this hour.
The temporary battery life of 36 hours is far from as exciting as I thought in this context. But it’s also worth mentioning, and that Apple believes battery life should eventually reach 60 hours.
So this year we will get two Apple Watch Series 8 watches in the usual sizes, 41 and 45mm, as well as the Watch Ultra which is therefore 49mm.
As mentioned, the Apple Watch Ultra can function as a diving watch. It can measure depth and water temperature up to 40 metres. 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 — important things for divers. But the watch contains the necessary sensors for a third-party app to fix this flaw.
Like all watches that will be part of an expedition, or at sea, it has an extra padding around the digital crown, or the navigation wheel if you like. The case here is titanium, a common material for expensive watches. The reason is a combination of extreme rigidity and low weight. But titanium watches often cost more – even more than 10,000 kroner this watch costs.
For me, someone with fairly large fists and wrists who can handle a large watch, the Ultra model looks just as good. I still don’t have any significant weight advantage – after all, there’s a massive battery inside that takes away the savings from the titanium.
The big screen is much larger than the regular Apple Watch screen we’re used to seeing. Here, the screen is flat and the metal is barely protruding on all sides. We also saw that’s what Samsung did with the Watch Pro earlier this year.
And it’s not hard to guess where they came up with the idea. Seasoned sporting goods manufacturers like Garmin and Suunto for years have had glass dials and metal-soaked watches. Then the watch can withstand, for example, your wrist hitting a tree, or perhaps a stone surface, because it’s not the glass that hits first. It does not prevent all fractures, but it increases the chance that you will be lucky.
You also see a lot more on the Ultra watch screen. This is why it comes with its own watch screens which can show a lot more than before.
With the Ultra Watch being too big to fit perfectly on current watch straps, this also means in practical terms that Apple runs a world with several different types of accessories. They have already done so to some extent, as the Watch Series 3 is still on sale and uses its own straps.
The last time I was surprised by the impression of a new product from Apple was when the iPhone X arrived a few years ago so far. Watches that can do as much as the Watch Ultra claims to be able to cost as much, and none have the same ambitions as the Apple Watch.
They can measure depth and temperature or have strong and sturdy watch cases. But in general it cannot function as a mobile phone on the wrist, with many smart features.
It’s also rare that she looks as good as this. It looks rough, but it doesn’t look as special as it actually is when combined with different bangles.
So the question is; Is it a jack of all trades? Thousands of artists are known to have not mastered any of the arts. And obviously from the start, we know many competitors have weeks of battery life.
But could 36 or 60 hours be good enough, for other qualities to emerge as the advantages they could be?
And would it be like a gigantic four-wheel drive that would never see the wilderness?
The questions are many. It’s only normal, when Apple is a little crazy for once.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
