With a fresh new design and some exciting and very exclusive features, the Apple Watch Ultra was a milestone moment for Cupertino's smartwatch efforts, but the second-gen of the device doesn't bring a ton of new features on deck. In fact, place the first and second versions of the Apple Watch Ultra one next to the other and you will have an impossible time to tell the two apart. is a very healthy return to form for Samsung as far as smartwatches go.
The Apple Watch 2 looks just the same as its predecessor, boasting that iconic and overly masculine design language that is often associated with traversing the great outdoors. This isn't a bad thing, as the Apple Watch Ultra still looks great and sufficiently different from the regular Apple Watch smartwatches thanks to its oversized titanium and sapphire build as well as the customizable Action Button on the side.
It's a large device that definitely looks out of place, even comical on thin wrists. Even on my fairly large arm, the Apple Watch Ultra surely makes a very bold statement. The, on the other hand, is a very classy and traditional wearable that's surprisingly hefty in its larger 47mm version. The new Samsung smartwatch is also available in 43mm.
Apple revealed three brand new watch bands with the first Apple Watch Ultra: the rugged Alpine Loop, the lightweight Trail Loop, and the silicone Ocean Band. And, with the, we get new colors for all watch bands, which surely spice things up. Of course, you can still use any watch band fit for 44mm/45mm/49mm Apple Watches on the new Ultra. Apple has been essentially using the one and the same chipset on its past few smartwatch generations.
And that's exactly what we get out of the new Apple S9 SiP. Aside from being much faster than Apple's previous chip iterations, the new chipset also enables on-device Siri processing and a trove of other features. There's a new app library layout that makes more sense than the previous grid. There are also several new watch faces, most of which come to all Apple Watches, but a few remain exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra 1 & 2.