Apple Watch Ultra battery life: How long will it last?

The Apple Watch Ultra largely addresses one of the wearable line’s biggest weaknesses: battery life. The Ultras’ larger chassis not only allows for a more generous display and more durable construction than any Apple Watch before it, but it also offers plenty of room for the largest battery ever installed in an Apple Watch. This means the Ultra can go even longer between charges. But for how long? Discover everything you need to know about the Apple Watch Ultra battery, including its life, charging speed and how it compares to the competition.

Apple Watch Ultra battery specifications

The Apple Watch Ultra has the best battery life specs of the series. Its tank is larger than the Series 8 and Watch SE (2022), thanks to which it lasts twice as long on a single charge.

If you’re looking for an Apple Watch that lasts longer than any other in the series, the Ultra is for you. It features a 75% larger battery than the Apple Watch Series 8, which means twice the battery life. While Apple says the Series 8 can last up to 18 hours on a single charge, the Apple Watch Ultra has a claimed life of 36 hours between charges. Impressively, we also found that Apple’s estimates are rather conservative. During our review, we regularly achieved around 40 hours on a single charge, but this number is highly dependent on your requirements as a user.

For a multi-sport, adventure-focused smartwatch, battery life is essential. We’ve found that the larger power storage allows you to get the most out of the Apple Watch Ultra without the worry of charging typically associated with the wearable range. It’s incredibly important when looking at the device’s suite of specialized features, from an emergency siren to a depth sensor and diving functions.

Low power mode

Apple has a software trick up its sleeve if 36 hours isn’t enough for you. By activating the Apple Watch Ultras low power mode, you can get an estimated 60 hours of battery life between charges.

This feature appeared with the Apple Watch Ultra and watchOS 9 in 2022. It temporarily strips the Apple Watch Ultra of several essential features to extend the life of the device. These include irregular and low/high heart rate alerts, exercise reminders, background SpO2 and heart rate sampling, and an always-on display. Low power mode also disables Wi-Fi and cellular connections, and incoming calls and notifications when your phone is off or not nearby. It’s also worth noting that you may experience a reduction in watch face complication updates and slower Siri response.

While you can manually enable Low Power Mode, Apple will automatically prompt you to do so when the Apple Watch Ultras battery reaches 10%. The mode will automatically turn off once your device is 80% charged. It’s also worth noting that Low Power Mode isn’t exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra. watchOS 9 has also extended to older Apple Watches since its launch, so devices up to the Series 4 can benefit from battery savings.

The Apple Watch series usually doesn’t see an annual update to its charging speed. As a result, the Apple Watch Ultra shares charging speeds with the older Series 7 and its sibling, the Series 8. The larger battery means the Ultra takes slightly longer to reach a full tank. While the Series 8 will need 45 minutes to go from 0% to 80% charge, the Ultra requires an additional 15 minutes. To reach 100% on Apple Watch Ultra from 0%, you need to set aside a total of 90 minutes.

Interestingly, while Apple understates battery life, the company overestimates the charging requirements of the Ultras. During our review, we needed another 10 minutes to charge the device to 100%. This isn’t a big deal, but your total charge times can go up to 100 minutes in some scenarios.

Importantly, Apple only provides one piece of the Ultra charging puzzle. An Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charging cable is included, but you’ll need a 20W USB-C power adapter to achieve fast charging.

Apple is the leader in the smartwatch industry, but there are plenty of Apple Watch alternatives available. Marketed as a rugged multisport behemoth, the Apple Watch Ultra competes with similarly billed products from Garmin and Coros.

The flagship Garmin Fenix ​​​​7 lasts up to 22 days in smartwatch mode or 75 hours with GPS burning in the background. We managed more than 20 days during our review, which is below Garmins estimates but still impressive. It’s worth noting that our Fenix ​​7 review unit included solar charging capabilities. While it’s nice to have and can add a few days to your battery life, it’s hard to see the benefits if you’re working indoors or training in the dark in the winter sun. It’s true that it can come in handy on the trail in the summer.

Solar smartphones aside, the Coros Vertix 2 is a bit of a battery life king. It lasts up to two months on a single charge, making it the preferred companion for hiking across continents. But you’ll lose key features, from REM sleep tracking to a few basic smartwatch features.

The Apple Watch Ultra is, of course, a smartwatch at heart, so it’s worth pitting it against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Google Pixel Watch series. Samsung has improved battery life on the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. We found the former could regularly scale two days on a single charge during our review, while the Pro pushed that number closer to three. The Apple Watch has at least one device firmly defeated. We called the Google Pixel Watch’s battery life painfully short in our review, and our opinion hasn’t changed much since then. Google claims it lasts 24 hours, and that might be achievable if you’re a conservative user.