New regulatory filings via the 3C certification website show that the Apple Watch Ultra has a battery that is 76% larger than that in the Series 8, and more than 100% larger than the battery inside Apple Watch SE.
Venkatesh Gorantla for MySmartPrice:
The new Apple Watch Ultra comes with a titanium case and offers up to 60 hours of battery life. Apple also launched the Watch Series 8 and the affordable Watch SE second-generation with some iterative upgrades over the respective predecessors.
The Watch Ultra, on regular use, can offer up to 36 hours of battery life. With the new low power mode, the battery life can be extended up to 60 hours. A 3C listing revealed that the Watch Ultra packs a 542mAh battery.
The Watch 8 comes in two sizes – 41mm and 45mm. The 41mm variant packs a 282mAh battery. The 45mm variant, on the other hand, has a bigger 308mAh battery. Series 8 is claimed to offer up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge.
The Watch SE 2 40mm variant packs a 245mAh battery, whereas the 44mm variant has a 296mAh battery.
MacDailyNews Take: You want battery life in your Apple Watch? You know what to do.
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The main reason I have not purchased an AW is the battery life. For me, it’s not a ‘watch’ if it doesn’t last several days without charging. I don’t want to have to pack a separate charger on every trip I go on, or ever worry about my watch dying on a day where I use it a lot.
The AWU looks like it is closing in on solving this problem, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the battery estimates were conservative (Apple often does this). But I have to imagine that there are more people who want an AW with better battery life, and not so much the extreme sports kit. How many potential AW customers go scuba diving, and how many wish their watch lasted more than a few days?
I wish Apple had instead/also released a high-end Apple Watch that was geared more toward this audience. I suspect that many of the AWUs will be sold to desk jockeys who (1) want the extra battery life, (2) want to signal that they’re high-end customers, not plebs with regular AWs, and (3) have precisely zero use for most of the extreme sporting features.
I also think the cladding is a bit ugly (I love the lip/guard though), and I’d be willing to pay more for a nicer-looking AW that was more aesthetically pleasing and focused more on multi-day battery.
You totally miss the point of Apple Watch, checking the time is a tertiary feature of this wrist computer/iPhone extension. I used to have the same attitude “if the wake on wrist raise feature doesn’t work perfectly every time then it fails as a watch”, then I got a series 0 Watch that lasted me for 5 years, my second is a series 4, my wrist feels naked without it on. We’ve all gotten used to needing to charge many of our mobile devices at the end of each day. Having reached a happy time where battery life lasts all day, at least for Apple products, putting my Watch on its charger overnight is zero hassle. I’m more interested in battery longevity over the course of years than needing to have my Watch battery last for several days.
I’ve disabled Always On Display since the Series 5 and plan to do the same for the Ultra.