Nycturne
Elite Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
- Posts
- 1,494
Got my Ultra yesterday, and have gotten a bit of time with it.
I have tried the S3 in the past, but never really got into the habit of wearing the thing. The big problem was that it was either too loose and jostling around, or too tight and the sensor bulge dug into my wrist. I never could get it to behave like my old digital watches when I was younger before smartphones replaced my watch. With the Ultra, that issue isn’t present for me, but it is still a heavy watch. The alpine band works surprisingly well, but it isn’t my ideal band for regular use as I prefer something that doesn’t let sweat build up under it. I’ll probably have to grab one of the trail bands once they become available.
I did try the sleep tracking feature for the first time, and was able to get a good night’s sleep with the watch on, so that’s good.
The compass app is going to be quite useful when hiking. It shows your parked car as a waypoint automatically (thanks to CarPlay integration with Maps). The wayfinder watch face is already one of my favorites, and one of the few analog faces I like because you can set the face to display minutes rather than hours.
The one thing I wish it supported was setting the behavior of the action button based on the watch face. I could have two watch faces, one for regular use, one for backcountry use, and have the action button do the right thing for each.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I can beat the 36 hours battery life. Will need to see how much it uses during the day.
I have tried the S3 in the past, but never really got into the habit of wearing the thing. The big problem was that it was either too loose and jostling around, or too tight and the sensor bulge dug into my wrist. I never could get it to behave like my old digital watches when I was younger before smartphones replaced my watch. With the Ultra, that issue isn’t present for me, but it is still a heavy watch. The alpine band works surprisingly well, but it isn’t my ideal band for regular use as I prefer something that doesn’t let sweat build up under it. I’ll probably have to grab one of the trail bands once they become available.
I did try the sleep tracking feature for the first time, and was able to get a good night’s sleep with the watch on, so that’s good.
The compass app is going to be quite useful when hiking. It shows your parked car as a waypoint automatically (thanks to CarPlay integration with Maps). The wayfinder watch face is already one of my favorites, and one of the few analog faces I like because you can set the face to display minutes rather than hours.
The one thing I wish it supported was setting the behavior of the action button based on the watch face. I could have two watch faces, one for regular use, one for backcountry use, and have the action button do the right thing for each.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I can beat the 36 hours battery life. Will need to see how much it uses during the day.
