Last year, the Apple Watch Ultra carved out a new category of lifestyle products. While there’s already a segment of adventure-focused smartwatches, the Apple Watch Ultra bridges the gap between the bulky, sometimes tacky-designed smartwatches out there and those appropriate for every occasion. Along with the iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Series 9, Apple announced the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with remarkable improvements over the first generation. It’s not a particularly flashy or compelling update, but it should be important.
Same as hers Apple Watch Series 9, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets an updated S9 chip based on the A13 Bionic processor from the iPhone 15. The GPU is 30% faster than the Apple S8 chip, while the new custom NPU allows all your Siri data to be processed on the device instead of the cloud. Apple also claims that the new chip can do 25% better dictation than the previous model.
In addition to better hardware, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 also benefits from improvements in watchOS 10. These include new automatic controls based on your proximity to other devices. For example, the closer you are to a HomePod, the controls will automatically appear on your watch screen.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 also gets a new, brighter display with a maximum brightness of up to 3,000 nits, which makes the screen readable even in the brightest environment.
It costs $799 and will also be available on September 25.
