Apple Watch Ultra 4 to Get Improved Battery Life

I switched from the Ultra 1 to the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro 51mm back in like March and couldn't be happier. Yes, it doesn't exactly run on the Apple ecosystem so I can't reply to text messages or see the text photos, but I can read my texts on the nice and large AMOLED display (MicroLED available for a premium too), still have the ability to do contactless pay, blood and oxygen sensors, ECG, and much more. Best of all, besides the display, is the battery life. As it sits on my arm right now, it tells me I have 19 more days of battery available. I last charged it 5 days ago. And I do NOT take it off at night. I sleep with it on my arm and it monitors my quality of sleep and has a bunch of insights for me in the morning.

Preference- I prefer the look of the Garmin as well. More "rugged", bigger screen, etc. The Ultra was getting very boring. Year after year of looking the same and the absolutely horrid battery life. Yawn.

Zero regrets. However, I will not be getting rid of my iPhones and switching to anything else in the near future. I've had nearly every iPhone since 2007 and no plans to change.

Except the screen isn’t actually bigger. It’s just…round.

It’s clear from studying Apple’s design that they worked very, VERY hard to make the case size of the Ultra appear as sleek and small as possible. That design language could easily translate to a larger display.

The Garmin software is horrendous. The map display — supposedly improved on the fenix 9 — is unuseablely slow. Can’t imagine what it’s like on the 8. The Connect app is a disaster. Took an hour to get the watch paired to my phone. The Explore app has the most tedious map download option anywhere. And now Garmin is pushing its map subscription service (yes, really, a subscription for maps) everywhere, front and center. Non-dismissible.

The Fenix has some things going for it for certain. The dedicated buttons and haptic feedback are great (on the 9). But the software experience is so reminiscent of the tech from early 2000s. Use a little. Debug a lot.

I’ll look again at the Fenix 10 in two plus years if I’m still alive.

For now, I’m content charging at night and using the absolutely stellar WorkOutDoors. And if the Ultra 4 offers more battery, so much the better.

Read Mark’s other breaking news, “Sun to come up tomorrow”

This site may as well be renamed www.markgurman.com ('http://www.markgurman.com') - so boring.

You mean www.macgurman.com? (http://www.macgurman.com?) I’ll show myself out…

This site may as well be renamed www.markgurman.com (http://www.markgurman.com) - so boring.

Still laughably poor compared with virtually every other smartwatch and fitness watch.

Just tried and returned Garmin’s latest flagship. Garbage.

When you are actually using the watch’s features as intended, the battery life is nowhere near advertised. And the Garmin software is jarringly janky, even compared to the horrid Liquid Glass UI debacle.

Still laughably poor compared with virtually every other smartwatch and fitness watch.

Which smart watch are you comparing it to exactly? And do those watches have an OLED display? Do those have hypertension notifications? What about fast charging? And what about the entire Apple ecosystem? Crash and fall detection; Apple Pay… “find my” … stream music which AirPods…