That intro and the background music …. AMAZING. The way you built up the narrative (What phones did, what phones do now) and why AW Ultra could be a phone replacement- That was great. Watched entire video and it was pretty researched, well detailed. I agree with few comments that you need more reach and subscriptions. Great Video Florian.
Thank you so much for this brilliant review. Having watched dozens of Apple Watch Ultra reviews, I must say that yours is by far the most extensive and comprehensive work to date 👍
Hey Florian, when I started watching the review I just assumed you where a big RU-vidr because of the sheer quality of the video. Great work I thoroughly enjoyed it. Keep up the good work, see you when you get big!
Hi Florian. This was an absolutely fantastic and high quality presentation and review. As other viewers commented, this is the best review on RU-vid for the Ultra. I really enjoyed watching, and felt that I learned more with this one video, than with all the other hundreds I watched combined.
This video is the best Apple Watch Ultra review I have seen. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything in detail. You remind me a lot of my son and the way he likes to describe and analyze things. I will continue to follow your channel, and I am looking forward to seeing your following content.
I share your opinion that AW is great at reducing distractions from iPhone. I hope channels like yours make it even more popular. There are two major aspects to use AW as a stand alone device: 1. Battery life. 2. Apps. I still use AW4 (95% battery health) that I charge when working at my desk where I have my iPhone for calls and SMS. I enjoy going for walks with my dog without iPhone. However when I'm in my car I take iPhone with me. Not all of parking apps are available in AW. However this might improve with Android Automotive where you can install parking (and other) apps directly in your car. I hope this trend will continue with AW as independent device and developers will make more apps for it (like home security apps). Also AW allows for health "motivational" features that is quite important.
Hi Robert, welcome to the channel! :) you’re spot on there! My Series 4’s battery health was at 77% when I gave up on it. My dad still uses it as a normal smartwatch with his phone, so it’s far from dead! The big quality of life change that came with Series 7 is really the keyboard and now we get great battery life too. Really, just apps are missing at this point =)
@@FlorianBodlee I think in the future a personal device like AW could be a center for all your device related activity. For example: you enter your car and it recognises you by your AW. Same for your office - the PC/MAC would load our profile no matter what computer you use. Same for smart TV. You can be in a hotel with your AW and the Smart TV would load securely your profile for your entertainment. Same on the airplane or in the restaurant or taxi. Etc. This might be the future. AW would not need much processing power just to ID that is you.
Thank you so much for the kind words and welcome to the channel! May I ask at which elements of the video you found most interesting? I'm trying to collect some feedback, so I can incorporate it into future videos :) Thanks again and have a lovely day!
Dear Florian, Thank for taking the time and trouble to produce such an excellent review, it is really very much appreciated. I would say it is one of the very best reviews I have seen, if not the very best. You have wonderful manner and great way of communicating. I haven't bought the Ultra yet, but I did try a friends for a week or so and was very impressed. Thank you again. Kind regards, George
Given that I am considering exactly the same question now (Aug 2023) … or at least not absolutely being bound by having a phone with me every time …. This review was very pertinent indeed. It was also approached in an analytical manner whilst blending “real life experience” into it. All in all perfect so thanks. Given the timing I’m aiming to leave a purchase till the potential ultra 2 this year and then just buy one for exactly these reasons
Thank you a lot for the kind words, it’s greatly appreciated! 🙏 I think waiting for the new generation is always smart so close to the new release; if only for the price of the current generation going down. Let me know what you think of it once you pick one up 🥳
Absolutely killer battery life analysis. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. Right now my battery life mostly tracks apple's quoted 36 hours on bluetooth, (but no workouts or heavy gps nav!) so I'm kind of disappointed after all the hype I guess. I will try an iPhone free day and see if it can keep up. With my Series 5 that was never an option. I'm excited for it. The battery life is muuuch better than that, but not 2.5 days like some folks are reporting.
Florian, thanks for the excellent and detailed video. I am a retired chemist so I like detailed reviews. I am waiting for the September debute of the AW Ultra 2, which I plan to buy. I like the idea of an iPhone replacement, and getting away from phone distractions. (My wife lives on her iPhone 13. 😁) I prefer to read, study and work on my iPad, so I do that at home or at Church. iOS 10 is supposed to be an awesome upgrade, and I hope it greatly improves the usability of the Ultra. Thanks again. - Pete
man you could almost write a dissertation on this topic lmao. jokes aside, well done, the way you use your education to sth useful is quite fascinating.
Very good info, I got the ultra 2 ordered on my plan, lot of money but it's a lot of watch too. Looking forward to it. Great video. Thanks. Subscribed.
a 6pro garmin user here; the next watch is definitely the apple ultra. But since i still enjoy the current one, i can wait until it just stops working :) by that time the used ultras will be cheaper. Thanks for such an extensive review, greetings from NL
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 every time I twisted my wrist. Luckily I had a 7 day money back guarantee. So I got my money back. I hope this helps. In the end. I ordered an Apple Watch Series 8 (Starlight Variant) 41 mm with a Nike white/platuim band instead. I also combined it with iPad Pro to replace my iPhone. The mobility of the Apple swatch series 8 41mm with the productivity of the iPad Pro 11inch is an incredible combo imo. I also found a way for the battery to last between 16-20hours (5:30am-9pm) at night on single charge. I think I might make a video to show people how it can be done. Awesome video btw.
A few more points I’d like to mention: - I say in the video that you can piece together your day from the results of the battery analysis, however, I noticed that the way the results are laid out makes this non-trivial. Please check the video description for some simple maths to make it possible :) - I saw Unbox Therapy’s video shortly before I hit upload on this one. I encourage you to watch it, it’s an excellent assessment of using the Apple Watch Ultra as your phone replacement. One thing that stood out to me though is that Lew turned off his iPhone completely. To really make this work, you need to keep the iPhone on and connected to the internet. Mine is simply in a drawer at home connected to power. The reason is that if you turn off your phone completely, you will not receive notifications from apps that don’t run natively on the watch; no WhatsApp, no Slack, and also no SMS. These notifications are not sent directly to the watch but they’re relayed by your iPhone. So keep this in mind if you want to give this a shot :) - Generally, I recommend to watch my Series 7 1 month review, as it goes into detail a bit more on how exactly you can make the Apple Watch work as your phone replacement. I didn’t include this information again in this video, as otherwise it would’ve been way too long (it probably already is, right 😅) - I didn’t say anything on the “bang for the buck” of the Apple Watch Ultra in the video. Here are my thoughts: for most people it’s too expensive and you will obviously get a smartphone for this money that is much more capable. In my opinion, the Apple Watch Ultra should be viewed as the bleeding edge of technology and simply due to the size constraints, it will be more expensive than the alternatives. It’s also for sure a premium product. If you’re serious about replacing your phone with a smartwatch, this is the best you can do. However, Series 7, Series 8, or even the latest SE will also work for most people as a part time phone replacement and they’re obviously a better value proposition than the Apple Watch Ultra. - Ben Dover in the comments pointed me to the app WatchChat 2 which promises to bring WhatsApp to the Apple Watch 👌 I haven’t tried the app myself and don’t use WhatsApp much, so don’t take this as a recommendation but it may be a solution if you heavily depend on WhatsApp :) - If you have more questions, please ask away in the comments :)
Great Watch. I love it. Especially the battery life. But what I discover is that from 100% to 50% is takes very long but then from 49% to 0% it goes much faster. This is strange. In total the battery life is very good but I find it strange that it is not linear....Great Video. Thanks
That’s how battery’s work. I believe the higher the battery life the more energy is lost by heat and other factors. If your interested battery’s are pretty cool to learn about and there’s about a billion videos about them 😂
Excellent case studying analysis! Based on those results, do you often toggle on and off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi when you do not have your mobile phone with you?
Great job, outstanding review! This is the only YT video I've come across that gets to the heart of the matter: the Apple Watch is a great (essentially dumb) phone, not a smartphone replacement. It does a good job at tasks that don't require a large screen (eg. taking phone calls, listening to content, glancing at text messages, fitness/sleep tracking). It is not designed to do tasks that are keyboard or screen intensive (eg. writing emails, watching content, video conferencing). I think the ultimate setup is to replace the iPhone with an iPad + watch combo. A cellular iPad does almost everything that an iPhone does and some things (eg. stylus, split screen) it does better. This is probably what I will do: my "phone" will always be with me (unobtrusively since it's strapped to my wrist) and I will keep my screen nearby and easily accessible, but not necessarily on me.
Thank you Daphne, the nice words are greatly appreciated! :) I fully agree and this is the exact approach I'm following. I take my phone usually when I leave the house for longer or when driving but otherwise it's just the watch and an iPad if I think I'll need it. Still has its quirks but overall I recommend it! Let me know how it ends up working for you and welcome to the channel! 🥳
I’m curious as to the cellular connectivity of the Ultra. Is it the same as an iPhone? If your out where there is only 1-2 bars of service on your phone would it be the same on the Ultra or would it be a weaker connection ? Thanks.
I would never really watch videos on the watch, but the app he’s referring to, watchtube, does allow for closed app listening so you can idle with a RU-vid video to listen to, kind of delightful
I just bought the Apple watch ultra2 and use it as a stand alone device! I am trying to figure out how to add contacts but so far only way I see is manually add each contact on the watch which is annoying! Do you know another way?
Honestly, typing is very usable with a bit of practice. The browser is definitely for “emergencies” only. It’s quite buggy sometimes but it does the job in need ☺️
Danke for your hard work. I’m looking at the Ultra as a replacement for my Series 2 and to use without my iPhone. I also prefer to use my iPad when I have to “do” something. I am concerned about whether or not I’ll need to keep my iPhone turned on when I leave it at home and just wear a cellular Watch. You mentioned Slack notifications; does getting them require that your iPhone be powered on and connected to wifi and cellular? How about SMS and phone calls?
Hey Allen :) Yes, the phone needs to stay on and connected to the internet for SMS and all notifications that come from apps that don’t run natively on the watch to arrive. So Slack, WhatsApp etc. need to run on the phone and the moment the phone goes offline you won’t get the notifications on the watch unfortunately. Hope this helped and welcome to the channel :)
@@FlorianBodlee Thanks for getting back to me. So just to be clear, even SMS and phone calls (not iMessage and FaceTime audio) need the paired iPhone to be turned on somewhere? Bummer.
Great video, still deciding if it can replace my garmin Epix 2. Different watches i know but I like the smartwatch features of the ultra. Epix is superior in sport
Thank you! I haven’t tried any of the Garmin watches but I heard they’re supposed to be quite good. For me the fitness features are really second but the once I tried worked well :) Let me know how you end up choosing and whether Apple Watch Ultra can live up to the Garmin if you choose to give it a shot :)
You can create custom running workouts in the workouts app using splits and heart rate zones. However, I'm not a runner on a level where I can judge if that's good enough. Maybe others here have more experience with this :)
Hey Callan :) interesting! Are you sure it works when your phone is out of range? I just tried it again and I just get „your phone is disconnected“ and can’t play music on the watch 😔
Wie kommst Du darauf, die Apple Watch Ultra könne E-Mails ohne das iPhone senden / empfangen? Auf meiner Watch jedenfalls bekomme ich nur Fehlermeldungen. Die Account sind in der Watch-App natürlich eingerichtet. Sim-Karte ebenfalls.
Hey! Gerade nochmal an der Apple Watch ausprobiert - funktioniert bei mir definitiv mit Exchange, Gmail und Apple Mail. Das iPhone muss an sein und mit dem Internet verbunden sein. Es muss aber *nicht* mit der Apple Watch verbunden sein.
has anybody used the tmobile standalone plan for apple watches? no need for a smart phone data plan, just a watch line as it comes with 50gig of dat. i haven't tried it yet it is coming this week.
@@FlorianBodlee I ended up needing an iPhone to activate my Apple watch. So, I got a free iPhone SE 2022 with sign up for the Xfinity by the gig plan for 15 dollars a month. I gig data but unlimited talk and text on 5g network. My watch comes with a credit of 6 dollars a month toward the Apple Watch se2. I have auto pay and the unlimited data plan from t mobile for wearables for 20 a month. So that’s 27 a month for a month for an Apple Watch with standalone plan with its own phone number and 50 gigs of data, an 15 dollars a month for the unlimited talk text with 1 gig high speed data for the iPhone SE 2022. That’s 42 dollars a month. The SE2 watch needed an update and there are some functions that are lost when it is a standalone like Apple Pay on the watch. But I could just open another bank account and get a debit card for the Apple Pay on just the watch. I can receive turn by turn directions on the watch and stream music at the same time but the maps app has a tendency to turn off “ voice” so I have to select it each time I use the app. I cannot talk on the watch and also receive directions from the maps app. Also the watch does not connect to my cars bluetooth. So instead I went to Walmart and got a Monster Bluetooth car charger which uses the FM signal to relay the bluetooth audio connection. My Apple Watch connects with this Bluetooth device but volume is low. actually, I find the Maps app for the Apple Watch to have very low volume output in general and there is no way to change that.
Hey there Tom :) Do you have any experience with such an accessory? I doubt they’re very good to be honest but haven’t tried any yet. If you can recommend one I may give it a shot :)
@@FlorianBodlee I don’t have any experience with it but it’s called a wrist cam Apple Watch camera that is MFI-Certified or something, there are videos of Tech RU-vidrs like HotshotTrek using this thing
Bro how many years do you have? Because I used the first dummy phones from 2000 to 2006 and dude you wrong! Battery life on that devices was EXTREMELY AWESOME lasting at least one week with some brands reaching week and a half, maybe you are younger than me and you don’t ever used a device like that but that was the true we enjoyed devices with long lasting battery life even the first smartphones was rated with at least 3 days…. But in 2010-2011 things changed and the one day battery life was introduced like the new standard but in past only one day only could be explained as a ruined battery and we changed with a spare and voila. Nice vid but that part wasn’t correct
Hi there :) yeah I fully agree with you! I was talking about the very first mobile phones in the 80s in that part (didn’t witness that myself obviously 😅) not necessarily the Nokia I showed; that was just the oldest phone I found. That generation of phones was indeed very good on battery life! :) Fun fact; that Nokia Communicator I showed in the video is from 2001 and actually still holds a charge today 😎
Interessantes Video, wenn auch ein bisschen zu lang. Man hört aber deutlich, dass ein Deutscher hier versucht, Englisch zu sprechen (z. B. an der wechselnden britischen und amerikanischen Aussprache, so sagst du z. B. läßt statt lahst (für last) oder fähst statt fahst (für fast)). Warum das sein muss, verstehe ich nicht. Mach doch solche Videos (auch) auf Deutsch.
Hey Edgar, danke für das weitgehend positive Feedback! Ich hatte tatsächlich überlegt das Video in 2 Teile zu teilen habe mich aber letztlich dagegen entschieden und dafür die Kapitel-Marker hinzugefügt. Findest Du ich hätte Teile des Videos ganz weglassen sollen? Ich mache diese Videos hauptsächlich auf Englisch, weil ich professionell und auch privat seit Jahren überwiegend Englisch spreche und mich vor der Kamera damit einfach sicherer fühle 🤷🏻♂️ Es spart mir auch manche Fachwörter mühsam zu übersetzen.
@@FlorianBodlee Vielen Dank für deine ausführliche Antwort. Dein Video ist wirklich gut, man merkt die analytisch-wissenschaftliche Herangehensweise. Ich habe ein Abo dagelassen. Gleichwohl sind 32 min für eine Smartwatch schon recht viel. Vielleicht hält das nicht jeder durch. Ich sehe zwar auch englischsprachige Testberichte (beispielsweise von MaxTech), bevorzuge aber doch lieber meine eigene Sprache (dort beispielsweise JOCR, Technikfaultier, SwagTab). Ich würde mich wirklich freuen, wenn du deine Videos auch auf deutsch anbieten würdest. Möglicherweise erschließt man sich dadurch neue Abonnentenkreise, die durch ein fremdsprachiges Video vielleicht eher abgeschreckt sind (es bewegen sich ja nicht alle in der akademisch-wissenschaftlichen Welt, für die die englische Sprache selbstverständlich ist.
Florian - you have a very limited attention span if a cellphone is annoying and distracting and serious problems if a cellphone to you just takes up space in your pocket, what do you do with you keys and wallet? you don't want to carry a cellphone but you would rather carry an ipad?
Hi there :) it’s less about whether I can do these things with a smartphone, I used a smartphone for years and was just fine with it, but more about optimisation. To me the watch is simply better at the phone things while being less present and the iPad is better at virtually anything else than mobility than a phone. To be clear, I don’t carry the iPad everywhere. That would obviously defeat the purpose. But when I do, I appreciate the big screen and multitasking capabilities over a phone a lot and I sure get things done more efficiently. And yes, I usually carry keys and a small wallet. But that makes 2 items to carry instead of three. TLDR; you can surely keep using your smartphone or cellphone. There’s nothing wrong with them :) but for me, personally, the Apple Watch + optionally iPad combination is just better.
how can you lie so easily mate, please explain how do you get all your text messages that are from non iphone users? another useless review who doesn't address the real issues and thinks everyone has all the friends with an iphone
Hey there :) as long as the iPhone is turned on I receive SMS, WhatsApp, whatever it is normally as a notification. The iPhone just needs to be turned on and connected to the internet but it doesn’t need to be in Bluetooth range. Give it a try! Hope that convinces you :)
Whatschat 2 solves the problem that Facebook refuses to create Whatsapp for Smartwatches. I recently switched from Android to iPhone to do the exact same thing as you where my daily drivers will just be an Apple Watch and AirPods. Thank you for your reviews. They are genuinely helpful.
Hey there Ben, thank you so much for pointing this out! I’ll add your suggestion to my pinned comment. Personally, I managed to move most of my contacts to different messengers so not having WhatsApp isn’t really a big deal for me but if I ever happen to need it it’s great to know there’s a way! Does the app still work once you go on cellular? Given that this is clearly your use case, I would assume so but I can’t find anything in the app’s description or the reviews indicating that it’s possible, so I just wanna make sure. Again, thank you and all the best!
Thanks for this detailed review. You helped me to figure out why in the hell I might need this watch..leave the actual phone at home and go with the watch only. No Facebook no other social just basic communication,that’s it! Just to get rid of social media addiction, I think this watch worth the money. Thumbs up,and keep your work.
Fantastic video, really showing the capabilities of the watch. I bought one a few days ago still haven’t opened it yet because if I do I can’t bring it back. Was waiting to find something to make me decide and your video did that for me. Thank you 👍
Thank you so very much for doing this!! I have also tried to replace my phone with my ultra, and so far I have 3 blockers, where #1 is the most annoying for me: 1. Work-related 2-factor authorizations don't work on the watch, 2. Uber app was pulled out so can't order an Uber car on the watch, and 3. The phone must remain close to me for the Freestyle Libre 3 pairing to send alerts to the watch
Hey there, happy you enjoyed the video! :) I can comment at least on 1 and 2: 1) There‘s an Apple Watch version of the „Authy“ app that fully supports 2FA on the Apple Watch. If your workplace requires a specific app you‘re likely out of luck though. 3) I believe this is mostly a limitation of your CGM. It can only pair to 1 device and for essentially everyone that will be their phone. As your phone needs to be in Bluetooth range of your CGM to receive values (and hence also in Bluetooth range of your watch) it won‘t be able to even know that you‘re in hypo/hyper when you‘re away from your phone… That‘s definitely a show stopper you likely won‘t get around :/