Jess wants one, I'm not convinced
By Abby Turner, Melbourne ยท
Jess has been dropping hints about the Ultra 3 since it came out, mostly by leaving the Apple page open on the iPad. So I've had a good look.
The case is titanium, 49 mm across and 12 mm thick. That's a big slab. On Jess's wrist it'd look great because she's got the forearms for it. On mine it looks like I've strapped a matchbox on, and the corners would catch on my sleeve every time I reached across a bed. The 24 mm strap at least spreads the weight.
What you get for the extra money over the Series 11 is sapphire instead of Ion-X, 100 m water resistance, cellular, and the dive computer features. The sapphire is the bit I'd actually pay for, because screens on my ward live a hard life. The dive computer I'd never use. Cellular is handy for the camping trips if you want to leave the phone in the car, though there's often no signal where we go anyway.
Battery is better than the normal Apple Watch, but it's still a charge-every-couple-of-days device rather than a forget-about-it one, and at US$799 to $899 I want forget-about-it.
Good for: iPhone people who hike, swim properly and break things. Not for: small wrists, people who resent chargers, or anyone who'd be just as happy with a GW-M5610 at a sixth of the price. Jess, if you're reading this, it's still a maybe.