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Apple Watch Ultra 3 Review Is it Worthy of the Name and the $800 Price Tag · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Apple Ultra three has arrived, and while it might
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: not look like a lot has changed, there's way more
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: than meets the eye. Let's go on a journey. This
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is all things mobile. I've been putting this watch through
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the paces for over a week now to find out
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: if it really holds up to the Ultra name and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: most importantly, that eight hundred dollars Ultra price tag, and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I've come to the ends of the earth to prove it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The answer is a solid maybe. And I know that's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: not as satisfying as telling you yes or no, but
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  Speaker 1: I promise you by the end of this hike, you
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  Speaker 1: will know whether it's a yes or no for you,
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  Speaker 1: because only you can make that call. And a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the features that I'm about to talk about are
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  Speaker 1: not exclusive to the Ultra three. So let's talk about
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the ones that are unique to the Ultra three. And
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  Speaker 1: in this case, the big one is satellite connectivity. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you remember, the iPhone got this a while back,
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  Speaker 1: and it basically puts you back on the map even
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: when you're off the grid without cellular connectivity. Now, imagine
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  Speaker 1: the potential of this feature on a smart watch that's
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  Speaker 1: actually strapped to your wrist twenty four to seven. This
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  Speaker 1: not only means being able to call the emergency services
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and share your location if you're lost, it also means
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  Speaker 1: that it becomes your only lifeline if, for example, crash
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: or fall detection gets triggered and you have no way
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to send out that cry for help yourself. Now, despite
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the name of this trail, I'm not actually off the
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: grid today because I wouldn't be able to show you
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: all the other features on the watch, but I can
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: show you a demo of how this works. And the
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  Speaker 1: first thing we have to do is get away from
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  Speaker 1: the trees. And this looks like the perfect spot, so
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: let's get it going. I'm not going to show you
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  Speaker 1: any of the safety demos right now. I'm just going
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  Speaker 1: to show you what it's like to connect to a satellite.
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  Speaker 1: And because the satellites aren't static, sometimes we have to
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  Speaker 1: wait for one to come above us or move around
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  Speaker 1: a little bit to lock in and kind of followed around.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to look at what it tells me
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  Speaker 1: to do and just follow and stark and there it
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  Speaker 1: is a little magic dust and we have successfully connected
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  Speaker 1: to a satellite. Now, that was pretty cool, but it
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  Speaker 1: is worth noting that the Ultra three is not the
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  Speaker 1: only smart watch with this feature. Also, it's probably not
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: going to affect your day to day because you're not
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: going to be using it as much. What is going
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  Speaker 1: to affect your day to day is battery life, which
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: brings me to feature number two. Now, we already know
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  Speaker 1: that the Ultra has the best battery life of any
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  Speaker 1: Apple Watch, and the Ultra three pushes that even further
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  Speaker 1: for an additional six hours total of forty two hours
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of daily use, at least according to Apple. But daily
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  Speaker 1: use is very different for different people, so battery life
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: gets kind of tricky, especially once you start adding in
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  Speaker 1: things like five D connectivity, which it now has, and
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  Speaker 1: it's supposed to be more efficient at using that power
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  Speaker 1: and better at connecting. However, if it's not paard to
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  Speaker 1: your phone, it's still going to drain it a little
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: bit faster. And so really all I can do here
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  Speaker 1: is tell you about my experience testing out the Apple
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  Speaker 1: Watch Ultra three today on a hike with my little
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: weight Avest, I got anywhere between forty five and forty
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  Speaker 1: nine hours. That's roughly two days, which for me meant
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  Speaker 1: one ninety minute hike, not off the grid because I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: was taking video with my phone, so they were paired
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  Speaker 1: one casual work day where I was checking my messages
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  Speaker 1: in slack, followed by two nights of sleep tracking. The
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  Speaker 1: second part of battery life is charging. The Ultra three
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: gets the Ultra Fast charging that we saw come to
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  Speaker 1: the Series ten, and on the Ultra it's even more
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  Speaker 1: impactful because you can get up to twelve hours of
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: use in just fifteen minutes on the charger. Now would
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  Speaker 1: I like it to go seven days on a charge,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of course, but this is not trying to be a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: sports watch, at least not a dedicated one. It's more
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of a hybrid, and you still get all the benefits
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  Speaker 1: of staying within Apple's own ecosystem with that seamless compatibility.
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  Speaker 1: Plus to me, that Ultrafast charging is a nice compromise
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  Speaker 1: that has already had a positive impact on my sleep tracking.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about sleep. This watch is getting new
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: sleep score, which basically just grades your night of sleep
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  Speaker 1: from one to one hundred or low to excellent. It's
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: probably building up to some kind of readiness score in
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  Speaker 1: the future, but it's cool that it not only lets
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  Speaker 1: you see how much you slept, but also the factors
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: that affected your score, like time to bed, time in bed,
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  Speaker 1: and interruptions. It's also coming to older watches, so this
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  Speaker 1: is not your only chance to get it, and it's retroactive,
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  Speaker 1: meaning I can see my past scores on the health app.
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  Speaker 1: The other big health feature coming to this watch is
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  Speaker 1: hypertension notifications otherwise known as high blood pressure. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: is not a blood pressure monitor in the sense that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you can randomly check your blood pressure. This is more
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  Speaker 1: like that irregular heartbeat or that sleep appne alert. It
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  Speaker 1: runs in the background and hopefully you never hear from it,
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  Speaker 1: but if you do, it could be potentially life saving.
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  Speaker 1: It's not on by default, so you'll have to turn
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  Speaker 1: it on during setup or after the fact in the
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  Speaker 1: Health app under heart, and then you'll need thirty days
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  Speaker 1: of data to know if you have it or not.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't worn it for that long, so I do
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  Speaker 1: not know yet. It's also not designed to be a
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  Speaker 1: diagnostic tool, meaning you'll still have to confirm with its
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  Speaker 1: traditional blood pressure cuff and get a formal diagnosis from
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  Speaker 1: a physician. You can log on the health app, but
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  Speaker 1: it could be that catalyst that alerts you of a
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  Speaker 1: bigger problem, and you can also get this feature on
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the Series nine or higher. Now that we have the
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  Speaker 1: big ones out of the way, let's take a closer
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  Speaker 1: look at design. This very much still screams Ultra, and
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: coming off the Series eleven, feels a lot heavier on
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  Speaker 1: my wrist because it's twice as heavy, even though it
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: stays pretty much the same as its predecessor in terms
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  Speaker 1: of weight, and its titanium case is also now three
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  Speaker 1: D printed, but you would never know this because it
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  Speaker 1: looks so good and it also comes in a black finish.
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  Speaker 1: Also worth noting, we already managed to ding that titanium
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  Speaker 1: frame on the Ultra three while filming this video. But
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  Speaker 1: some of the biggest hardware changes are very subtle for starters.
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  Speaker 1: It has a new S ten chip, which is new
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  Speaker 1: for the Ultra but not new for the Apple Watch.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: It's the same as last year's Series ten, and it's
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the same one that's now on the Series eleven and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the se three, which is still really good and holds up.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: But it's a year old at this point, so take
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that as you will. I have noticed a few glitches
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: with my waypoint watch face because it's constantly using that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: compass feature, but otherwise my experience has been pretty smooth.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And I like this watch face because it shows me
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the direction of home when I'm on a hike. The
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: screen is one of those subtle upgrades that you won't
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: notice until you're actually in it. It still has that
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: forty nine millimeter display, but it has smaller bezels, giving
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it more real estate for you, and it looks better
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and brighter thanks to that new LTPO three display and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: higher refresh rate. In always on and on sunny days,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: that screen shines bright. On a blazingly hot day, it
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  Speaker 1: went from shaded trees to direct new o'clock sunlight without
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: even losing clarity or brightness. Moving on to software, the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Ultra three is running on Watch OS twenty six, which
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: is a nice refresh and feels fluid with that liquid
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: glass UI. It also brings the note app to the watch,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: risk flick to silence alarms and notifications, a redesigned workout app,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and Workout Buddy, which is Apple teerleader that can give
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: you motivation during a workout in real time. I personally
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: don't need a teerleader, but it was really nice to
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  Speaker 1: have those pace alerts in my ear versus having to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: look at the watch all the time. And I do
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like that the voice sounds very natural, almost like a coach,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: so I almost want it to get those coach features
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  Speaker 1: later on to make it really, really useful, at least
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  Speaker 1: to me. Then there's the fact that it does have
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to be paired to a headset with an Apple Intelligence
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  Speaker 1: enabled phone because it needs the phone for processing power.
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  Speaker 1: So is the Apple Watch Ultra three for me personally? No,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: it's perfect for this type of scenario, but I need
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: something that can go with me from the hike to
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  Speaker 1: the office to the dinner later. And this one's just
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: a little too bulky on my wrist. But if you
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: have a larger wrist or you actually want that rugged
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: look on the Apple Watch, it could be the perfect
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  Speaker 1: fit for you. Plus, if you're coming from an older
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Ultra model or an older Apple Watch model, that battery
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  Speaker 1: life is gonna feel like a huge, huge upgrade for you,
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  Speaker 1: especially with that faster chart. But I want to know
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: what you think. Is the Apple Watch Ultra three for you?
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Let me know in the comment section below, and thanks
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: for watching.