4 in Fitness Trackers
Apple - Watch Ultra 2
Running these analyses costs money. Buy through my links to support the site! I may get a small commission for some links, and it doesn't cost you anything. Thank you!
Reddit Reviews:
Topics Filter:
Based on 1 year's data from Mar 17, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
72
101
"I easily get though a 12 hour shift with a workout and still have 55-60% battery left after 24 hours."
"I’ve only used it for 25k trail runs so far—but I had it streaming music, tracking my run, and navigating with a map/route guidance. It went from near 100% to ~70%. I’d trust it for a marathon or a 50k without hesitation"
"I’ve completed two marathons with my Apple Watch Ultra 2, playing music to my AirPods without a phone or disabled settings. ... One was when it was brand new, and I ran for nearly 5 hours without any issues. ... Recently, I ran a 4-hour marathon, playing music downloaded to watch cellular turned on. I ended with around 20% battery and only have 90% health now."
35
32
"It’s also pretty well established that AW has the best motion tracking which shows up when you use the swim feature for distance. ... In swimming, it’s not even close. 100% of garmins worn during our pool swims are incorrect, regardless of swimmer level. ... Every single Garmin incorrectly reported swim distance vs manual counting. Freestyle 4000m in 25m pool."
"it has been very accurate both open water and in the pool. Pool is probably 100% accurate for counting laps and strokes."
"My AWU2 is great for swimming. ... Very accurate indoor and in open water. ... I don’t think it has ever been inaccurate on tracking laps in a pool or distance in open water."
72
18
"It’s well known that Apple has the best optical hr in the business and has since the series 4."
"The later AW is best in class for non chest straps. ... For daily fitness, Apple Watch is just better IMO. ... It being the most accurate heart rate tracker not a chest strap makes it the best fitness tracker to me. ... Maybe I should say it's the best workout recorder because it records the most accurate heart rate data. ... I just really like the AW for every day fitness more so than what Coros or Garmin can provide. ... Executing a training plan I've set out for myself and recording the results. Results being the duration and heart rate data during the planned workouts. I then upload that data to Training Peaks and use Training Peaks to keep up with my training load over time. So the every day fitness part is executing and recording my workouts. ... Apple Watch is data recording. Together they are tracking my fitness."
"I also validate my heart rate with a cheststrap occasionally and I will say that the watch is very accurate up until going beyond 175 bpm."
94
11
"my AWU2’s cellular connectivity is above and beyond the thing I care most about on long, remote runs."
"I like being able to stream Spotify over LTE without the need to sync playlists and download music for offline playback. On my Garmin watches I'd end up listening to the same music all the time because I hated fusing with updating my music. With Spotify I just launch the app and it picks up where I left off on my phone, desktop, car, etc. ... I can also stream Podcasts and live radio streams. No need to download stuff ahead of time."
"the Apple Watch cellular model lets you leave your phone behind. ... Perfect for activities like running."
12
1
"I’ve had my watch for 7 months not a single scratch on it."
"The sapphire will absolutely do it. ... the staggering consensus is the screen will hold perfectly. ... in 3 years of daily use I’ve never scratched the sapphire."
"Because the glass of the AWU is flat & incased in the titanium frame, it still perfect for me after more than 2 years."
Disliked most:
6
135
"The battery life is a literal joke. ... Do an activity? There goes 75% of your battery."
"after having it die on a couple seven mile/1.5 hour runs WITH the battery freshly charged and battery saving options on"
"I had a full charge on my AWU2 before bed last night, went for a 2h hike this morning (using a third party app called Footpath because the built in Workouts app is garbage for hiking), and I'm at 44% battery at this moment at 1:22pm in the afternoon. ... If you start using GPS, it's like 4-6h. ... I hate micromanaging my watch. This is the last AW one I own for sure. ... I’m sorry, but I 100% don’t believe you’re getting 42h while tracking 2h GPS activities on your AWU2 without severely affecting functionality (battery saver, turning off AOD, etc)."
3
8
"I have teeny tinny wrists (small woman) and tried on my friend’s Apple ultra 2 and it was comically large on my wrists. ... The watch itself extended just a tiny bit past my wrist."
"plus I hate wearing it to bed as it’s huge ... the ring is way more comfortable to wear (especially during the night time)"
"wearing it was bad (thin wrist)"
9
27
"one day I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep and I got a 95 sleep score on Apple lol the Garmin was correct in telling me I got shit sleep."
"It misses key info and HR was clearly elevated compared to baseline even on the Ultra, but it doesn't count that. So a night of drinking and shit sleep, still give you a 95 score! ... But the vitals aren’t accounted by the sleep score as far as I can tell and my HR was higher though not abnormally high by Apple Watch standard but this could be because of sampling it does compared to the Garmin ... both HR and RR were elevated but not enough for Apple to flag but the sleep score doesn’t include those metrics, which I really think they should. ... The sleep scores doesn’t take into account vitals."
"Because what's the value of the score if it doesn't correlate to real-world experiences? It's meaningless to get a high score and be told you slept great just because you slept a long time, but it was restless and low quality and you feel like garbage. ... My Oura gives a much more accurate picture of my sleep then Apple Watch unfortunately. ... I'm not sure there's much I can do short of sleeping for 4 hours to get my Apple Watch score to drop below 90."
0
24
"it's super annoying to not having enough physical buttons to do workouts the way I want to. ... This was somewhat improved with the Apple Watch Ultra because it does have an extra physical button you can map to things like "next interval". The Garmin has full capabilities through physical buttons though. ... This is specifically an issue because when it's wet, particularly if you are wearing gloves or sleeves that might brush the screen, the Apple Watch touch screen is completely unusable because it'll trigger spurious touches. ... You can lock it, but that limits usability. If you don't lock it, it's a mess. I frequently had runs abruptly stopped and canceled. Super frustrating."
"I already got sick and tired of touch screens with my Apple Watch ... Dripping sweat, rain and sleeves really screw with touch screens ... where I live we have like 6 months worth of snow so needing to take off my gloves and disable a screen lock before being able to pause my workout is an annoying PITA."
"i tried the apple watch ultra for diving, it’s ok but you can’t use it at all once in the water ... Not to mention i can use it with gloves etc etc."
0
3
"the workouts are primitive"
"AW allows some customization there but its pretty limited."
"Unfortunately it doesn’t have."
0aky_Afterbirth_ 1.0I only dive 3-4 times a year, and my AWU2 is great for my needs. With AOW dives, I’m not going past 30m. Since there’s always some nonzero risk of an accident causing my depth to dip below the AWU max of 40m, I do eventually plan to have a backup dive computer with me just in case my AWU fails, but it’s been perfect for me so far. If you already plan to have an Apple Watch for daily wear, and also need a dive computer for occasional recreational dives, I think it’s a great option. The colour display with high brightness is something that I was not able to find at a similar price point for a dive computer that also functions as a daily smartwatch.
200206487 1.0Switch from Apple Ultra Watch 2, etc. to Balance 2 XT. With Gadget Bridge and GrapheneOS, I’m very happy.
21045Runner 1.0I had an Ultra 2 which I bought for the cell feature and Spotify. That worked intermittently the entire time I had it. It wouldn’t even play downloaded music correctly most times. I even paid for an Apple Music subscription thinking it would be better. It wasn’t. I did use it as my only watch for about 6 months and it was pretty good but charging every other day got old and the battery got pretty bad after 18 months or so. I sold it when the 970 came out. I would add that I do not pay attention to any of Garmins useless training stats and algorithm junk that people seem to love so much. I just want a watch that’s accurate and easy to use. You can do worse. But. It’s just not as good as a Garmin for triathlon. You know it’s not. You’re hoping someone will convince you otherwise.
I ran both a 955 and a AWU2 for a year. Used my Garmin for racing, used my AWU2 for swimming and running (using native app for swimming and WorkOutdoors for running) and a Garmin Edge 1050 for biking (indoors and out). I ended up ditching my AWU2 when the cell signal became so jenky and limiting that I was forced to download music before running, making half the use case for the watch useless. I only intermittently had cell service with it, so for biking I had to carry my phone anyway. I ran a sub 4 hour marathon with the AWU2 (charged to 100% morning of, turned off nothing) and I was at less than 40% battery at the end, so I question if it could really last a full IM even in battery saver mode. The battery was excellent when it was new, 18 months later I wasn’t getting two days including workouts. I now have a 970 and it’s wonderful. The AW is excellent, but I just got tired of having two devices and the cell service on the AW was so spotty I gave up on it. Lastly, the “metrics” that Garmin gives you are pretty stupid. Listen to your body, not some silly watch that says you should or shouldn’t train. Having 2 watches isn’t a big deal from that standpoint. If you are letting an algorithm determine your ability to do things, you’re doing it wrong. It can be a guide. It is not the answer.
Aacemyan 1.0Same with wrist flick which is available on Ultra 2
I think sweet spot in Garmin lineup is the 970 right now. Pretty much all features of the Fenix 8 Pro but at a much better price - and way more comfortable to wear sleeping. I alternate between the 970 and Ultra 2 pretty regularly depending on what I’m doing.
Academic_Sleep_7682 1.0SE watches made to suck (or the base models for any product or any brand ) so person will buy more expensive model or the Ultra here in Apple Watches. My Ultra 2 gets me 2 days tops whether always on display is ON or OFF just minor differences in battery life, on power saving mode it gets more than 2 days, around a day extra.
AccomplishedCorgi583 1.0I did a 10 hour day hike and the battery got to 3% and I didn’t use any battery saving methods. I switched to garmin and I don’t have to charge it for multiple hikes
AdagioClean 1.0Apples Watch ultra 2 Wore an old Apple Watch SE for my first five years but eventually it just kept dying doing longer endurance events that it was too annoying. (Norweigan foot march, half marathons, long bikes) Apple is the most intuitive for the average person and I don’t want to fiddle and fuck around with a garmin, but garmin does offer a lot of benefit if it fits your use case
adamm_96 1.0Any of the Ultra series Apple Watches will be much better on battery life. You can get them for $300-500 used and I picked one up (new) at Costco for a bit over $500. Ultra 2 lasts plenty long enough for typical marathons or more. I just got back from a half marathon this morning and only lost 10% battery. Other benefit is you’ll get 2-3 days between charges which helps compared to the standard watches
AdamMc90 1.0I ran Paris marathon last year and my AW8 ran out of battery at 38k so I took the first opportunity to upgrade to AWU2. Runna saved the run up to that point but I’ve never ran a marathon according to Strava which is annoying 😂
Affectionate_Rice520 1.0I’ve had the ultra 2 pretty much since it came out. The battery is the big one for me. I usually charge at night for a little while but sleep with it on. If I forget and it waits to the next day there’s always battery left. I wouldn’t push it three days but I also follow the optimized battery settings where it mostly stops at 70% so others may seem longer life if they constantly charge to 100%. Get the apple titanium band. It’s so light I love it and it still looks premium enough in a suit