Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Which watch should you buy?

Hello everyone, today I’m going to compare the new Apple Watch Ultra to the Apple Watch Series 8 in aluminum and stainless steel versions. Despite these two devices being of the same generation, there are still a lot of differences between these two models, so let’s go ahead and go over all the specifics.

Apple Watch Ultra	Apple Watch Series 8
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
+ Exceptional rugged design + Bright and vivid display + Solid and reliable battery life + Intuitive and logical watchOS 9 interface + Excellent performance and functionality + Great selection of wellness and health features	+ Beautiful look, premium feel + Smooth performance + Tons of bands available – 1st and 3rd party + Water-resistant + Huge amount of fitness tracking options, plus custom programs (available with watchOS 9) + Sleep stages (available with watchOS 9)
CONS	CONS
– At $799, it’s not very affordable – Little differentiation from the Apple Watch Series 8 – Just a single color option	– Temperature sensor is underused – Some may be getting tired with the design – Only pairs and activates with iPhone (sorry, iPad users)

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Specs

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Models, Sizes & Colors

Let’s start with model, sizes and colors. There are two sizes available for the Apple Watch Series 8. You can choose between the smaller 41 millimeters and the larger 45 millimeters. Only the largest 49-millimeter size Apple Watch Ultra is available.

There are two different case materials available for the Apple Watch Series 8. The less expensive option is aluminum, and the more expensive option is stainless steel. Both of those colors and materials are available in various colors, for example, Starlight and Midnight on Aluminum and Graphite and Silver on Stainless Steel.

The only available material and colour for the Apple Watch Ultra is natural titanium.The Apple Watch Series 8 Aluminum is available with GPS or GPS Plus Cellular. When you reach the stainless steel Apple Watch Series 8 model, it’s slightly more expensive if you want to include the cellular.

Apple only sells it with cellular service, so there isn’t a way to get a less expensive model without cellular service if you choose the stainless steel.

The Apple watch Ultra is a high-end option with only a cellular configuration. However, if you don’t want or need a cellular plan, you can purchase a cellular version and use it without it, or you can add a plan later.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Displays

Now let’s examine the displays. I’ve already covered sizes 41, 45, and 49, but there are other distinctions.

This completely flat display on the Apple Watch Ultra is reinforced with titanium on the edges. The sapphire glass off the display of the Apple Watch Ultra is made of.

With its rounded display and lovely curves, the Apple Watch Series 8 maintains the company’s classic design. Apple’s Series 8 uses sapphire on the stainless steel model and ion X glass on the aluminium model. This makes it feel great when you swipe in from the sides.

The series 8 and the Apple watch Ultra have always-on displays, so you can see some information even when your wrist is down. Still, the Apple watch Ultra has a brighter display, reaching up to 2000 nits of peak brightness when you are outside, while the Apple Watch Series 8 only goes up to about 1000 nits.

That’s a big deal for people who are adventuring and are in bright Sun light areas where even the brighter Apple Watch series 8 can still struggle in extremely bright conditions.

Since we’re discussing screens, the Apple watch Ultra has a unique watch face that no other Apple watch has, called the Wayfinder face. It uses a larger display, adds more complications, and has a night mode setting that increases contrast by using a black background and red imagery and text.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Design

Compared to earlier iterations, the Apple Watch Ultra has undergone a significant redesign, and the differences in design go beyond just the displays. Compared to series 8, which resembles series 7, which resembles Series 6, which resembles Series 5, the Series 8 is easily distinguishable as an Apple Watch Ultra just by looking at it. The process of almost starting over.

If you’re wearing the Apple watch Ultra properly on your left wrist, there the action button on the left side is highlighted in International Orange. A color Apple appears to have more or less branded and created for. You can program the action button to do pretty much anything you want, including shortcuts to perform some action, open the workouts app, start a dive, or whatever else you want to set it to do.

The Apple Watch Ultra has an improved speaker that is not only louder but has two speakers, and Apple has a new three-microphone array that supports Siri. In order to make it easier to press while wearing gloves—which is crucial if you’re running outside in the cold or diving underwater—the Apple Watch Ultra’s digital crown is more prominent and has more knurling.

Since we’re discussing design, I won’t bring up the bands. When purchasing an Apple Watch Ultra, anything that worked on your previous Apple Watch will also work on the Apple Watch Ultra, as it supports any 45-millimeter bands.

The Trailblazer Trail Runner band, which is great for running.The Alpine Loop, which I’m demonstrating here in orange and the Ocean band, which is great for diving . It is lightweight and reflective, are all new band options that Apple will offer you.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Iternals

The Apple Watch Ultra is not any faster than the Apple Watch Series 8. They are utilizing the most recent S8 SIP(System-In-Package) to run all the internals. Both devices also have a standard set of sensors, such as heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen measurements, and a new temperature reading that can track changes in your core body temperature over the night.

The Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 8 support GPS, but the Apple watch Ultra has a better GPS. It is a dual-frequency GPS that supports both the L1 and L5 bands and should be more precise in general, but it’s especially good in areas with large buildings like cities and when running a marathon.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Durability

What about resistance to dust and water? Similar dust resistance ratings are given to both watches, but the Apple Watch Ultra is more water resistant than the Apple Watch Series 8. The Apple Watch Series 8 is water resistant to 50 meters, while the Apple Watch Ultra is water resistant to 100 meters.

While the Apple Watch Ultra is certified for scuba diving down to 40 meters, Apple claims the Apple Watch Series 8 is also swim proof. Apple has additional certifications to support this. Later this year, it will release a depth Gauge app for the Apple watch Ultra that can display information about the water’s temperature, your current depth, and how long you’ve been submerged.

With your Apple watch Ultra, you could use the fully functional dive watch Oceanic plus, which will be available on the App Store.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Siren

I wrote about the Apple Watch Ultra’s new updated speakers, but I omitted to mention the device’s new siren capabilities. The speaker on the Apple Watch Ultra can produce a siren that is 86 decibels loud. There is a dedicated siren app to go with it, where you can start and stop your siren and see how much battery life you have left.

Apple claims that this is loud enough to be heard from more than 600 feet away, at least if you’re in an open field and there’s room for that sound to travel.

Both the Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra support the new backtrack feature, which can assist you in navigating out of any of these places. So, when you do turn on the siren, it’s using a lot of power to put out such a loud noise to help people find you hopefully. You’ll be able to see how much battery life is remaining at the same time.

Apple Watch Ultra vs Series 8: Battery Life

Let’s finally discuss battery life. With up to 18 hours of typical usage, the Apple Watch Series 8 has roughly the same battery life as previous generations of Apple watches. You can extend this battery life to 36 hours by turning on low power mode. With normal use, the Apple Watch Ultra should last about 36 hours, but 60 hours if the low power mode is activated.

Although the charger for the Apple Watch Ultra has a braided nylon cable that’s just nicer for reinforced and more sturdy compared to the one that comes with the Apple Watch Series 8, both versions of the Apple Watch support fast charging and come with a USB-C to Apple Watch charger in the box.

Final Words

The setup summarises the differences between the regular Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra. I won’t go into detail about how their software functions or how they differ because many of their features are similar. Instead, I’ll focus on the new features that are unique to each model.