Apple Watch Ultra 2 Review: Cut from the same cloth, but still great

Well, we didn't expect any changes with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and for better or worse, that's precisely what we got. Initially, you could get the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in any color as long as it was Natural Titanium, and while that was one of our major criticisms in 2023, Apple righted that wrong in September 2024, when it announced and launched the anticipated Black Titanium color option.

The rest of the design is literally unchanged. The smartwatch is 49mm in size and has the same titanium build and sapphire glass as the previous generation. The oversized digital crown and customizable Action Button are easy to interact with even if you're wearing gloves.  

Just like the first Apple Watch Ultra, the second generation is available in a single 49mm size. That's larger than your regular Apple Watch and only fits larger wrists; it certainly looks out of place on thinner wrists. 

An important new feature is the new and improved screen of the device. Yes, the display of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is now much, much brighter than before. While the Apple Watch Ultra had a display capable of 2,000 nits of maximum brightness, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 can seemingly hit 3,000 nits of brightness. This makes it perfectly legible in just about any environment, even under the bright noon sun.

However, don't expect that you can head to the Settings app on your watch and manually boost the brightness to the eye-scorching 3,000-nit potential brightness. It doesn't really work that way: the feature kicks in automatically when it detects you're in strong ambient lighting conditions, even if you've manually set the brightness to a lower setting. This boosts legibility depending on your surroundings. 

We got a slight refresh of the existing watch bands with the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The three special Apple Watch Ultra watch bands that were announced last year are now available in different colors. This makes the design more interesting. 

In particular, the durable Alpine Loop is now available in blue, indigo, and olive hues, while the ultra-light Trail Loop comes in orange/beige, green/gray, and blue/black color combinations that will surely look as classy as it gets. Meanwhile, the ocean band is now available in blue and orange, completing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 watch band refresh.

In September 2024, we got a new Titanium Milanese Loop for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Available in both Natural and Black Titanium finished, it's intended for the ocean, as Apple puts it, but is also classy enough to wear at a cocktail. 

Of course, you're free to use whatever watch band with the Apple Watch, as long as it's listed as compatible with Apple's 44mm, 45mm, and 49mm smartwatches. Watch bands intended for the smaller 38mm, 40mm, and 41mm Apple Watches aren't compatible with the new Apple Watch Ultra 2.

New on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the new Apple S9 SiP, which not only delivers a system-wide performance boost across the board, but also allows for new features and functionalities.  

WatchOS 10, which comes preloaded on the Apple Watch Ultra 2, is a radical redesign of the Apple Watch software and significantly alters how you interact with the device. There's now a so-called Smart Stack of widgets that expand the information you can access at a glance. 

There's a new app library arrangement that makes a bit more sense than the chaotic grid of old. There's also a host of new watch faces. With widget support, new interface layout, and tons of other features, watchOS 10 finally shakes up the existing state of affairs and brings excitement to the Apple Watch.

Recreational scuba diving is supported up to 40 meters, which is already well beyond the capabilities of most people. Diving, the exclusive dive computer functionality is making a comeback, and it will now keep your dive logs.

Speaking of watch faces, Apple has come up with a new and rather functional watch face for the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Dubbed Modular Ultra, it makes good use оf the large display by displaying real-time data, like seconds, altitude, or depth, as well as up to 6tg customizable complications, the most of any Apple Watch Ultra watch face.

Other minor new features include a redesigned topographic that shows specific trail details like points of interest, trailheads, elevation and contour lines. The essential Compass app has also gotten some well-deserved love and will be displaying your current elevation in real time as well as a virtual 3D view of the waypoints and your custom orientation points. Finally, an update to the cycling functionality will be able to measure up your cadence, speed, and power once you pair a compatible Bluetooth accessory.

When it comes to the regular roster of health and wellness features, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 comes along with all the basics you've come to expect, like heart rate monitoring, ECG, and blood oxygen. Surely, it lacks some fun features like the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic's BioActive sensor that measures your body composition, but honestly, nobody has probably used this feature more than once. 

You can now employ precision finding to locate your iPhone with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 thanks to the new ultra-wideband chip on board. The smartwatch will be providing visual, haptic, and audio guidance to your “misplaced iPhone”, as Apple puts it. Overall, a decent quality-of-life improvement.

The new Double Tap feature of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Watch Series 9 series gives you yet another way of interacting with your watch. You can control the main feature of any app on your Apple Watch Ultra with a single improvised tap of your index finger against your thumb twice. Answering calls, accessing the widget Smart Stack, taking photos with the Camera Remote app, and many others are just a double tap away, which might come as especially useful when your other hand is busy.

The Apple Watch is likely one of the better consumer-grade sleep trackers available, however, not without its flaws. While the measurements are surely accurate, the philosophy behind the Apple Watch requires the user to have the Sleep Mode enabled. Still, unlike the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, the Watch Ultra 2 can't automatically detect that you're having a mid-day nap, for example, which is a shortcoming worth mentioning.

What's more, some might find it a bit awkward to sleep with this large and bulky smartwatch on. While the size of the smartwatch didn't feel particularly cumbersome to me during sleep, many will likely find it weird to wear it while they catch some zzz's. I much prefer the smaller Apple Watches when it comes to sleep tracking and uninterrupted wear.

Truthfully, the biggest rival of the 2 Apple Watch Ultra ironically came from the same ZIP code: the Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Series 8, and even most previous Apple wearables are all more than adept alternatives that can run watchOS 10 and share most health-centric and other functionalities. 

Samsung's line of Galaxy Watch 6 devices, like the newly released Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, are also more than excellent alternatives, though they only work with Galaxy devices and don't play well with iPhones. In fact, they don't play at all, but the same applies to the Apple Watch Ultra lineup, which can't be paired up with an Android device.