Apple Watch Ultra 4 gets 50-hour battery life, Readiness and S11 chip

Apple Watch Ultra 4 is official, and this year’s upgrade is mostly about battery life, health tracking and Apple Intelligence. The design remains familiar, but there are some meaningful changes underneath, particularly for anyone using the Ultra for longer workouts or recovery tracking.

Battery life gets a useful boost

Battery life moves from 42 hours on the Ultra 3 to 50 hours of normal use on the Ultra 4. Low Power Mode also increases from 72 hours to 84 hours, which is a decent step forward without Apple changing the basic size of the watch. 

Furthermore, Apple rates the Ultra 4 for up to 18 hours during a normal outdoor workout, 25 hours in Extended Workout mode and as much as 45 hours in Max Extended Workout mode. Fast charging gets the battery to around 80 percent in 45 minutes, while 15 minutes on the charger provides up to 18 hours of normal use. 

That is probably the most straightforward hardware improvement this year. The Ultra already had decent battery life by Apple Watch standards, but 50 hours makes two full days of normal use much more realistic.

The Health Sensing system gets much more data

Ultra 4 shares Apple’s new Health Sensing system with the Series 12. Apple has increased the surface area of the electrodes, redesigned the photodiodes and fitted larger, more power-efficient green LEDs.

The more important change is how frequently the watch collects data. Background heart rate can now be sampled every five seconds, around 60 times more frequently than before. HRV is measured every five minutes, which Apple says is 24 times more frequent.

Apple is also bringing HRV much further forward in the software. It now appears in the Vitals app with a daytime view, while Recovery HRV has been added to the health feature set. The Ultra 4 retains ECG, blood oxygen, temperature sensing, sleep score, sleep apnea notifications and hypertension notifications. 

The extra data feeds into the new Readiness app. Each morning, the watch looks at sleep, vitals and recent activity and produces a score showing how prepared your body appears to be for the day.

Unlike many readiness scores, Apple’s number is not fixed in the morning. It can change as the day progresses, so a hard workout, changing vitals or other activity can alter the picture later on.

Apple Health starts interpreting more of the data

The Health app is also getting a substantial redesign later this year, with Apple Intelligence used to provide more personalised guidance.

Health Age estimates how your health compares with your chronological age. A new Longevity section brings together information collected by Apple Watch and iPhone, while users can add blood tests and other medical records so that the Health app has more context.

Apple is also introducing an at-home VO2 max assessment. The iPhone camera tracks movement while the user follows pacing and on-screen guidance, with the result appearing when the test is finished.

This broader shift may ultimately matter more than another sensor metric. Apple Watch has collected a large amount of health data for years. Readiness, Recovery HRV, Health Age and the redesigned Health app put more emphasis on making sense of it.

S11 brings Audio Intelligence to the Ultra

Ultra 4 moves from the S10 chip in the previous generation to the new S11. It has a 64-bit dual-core processor, four-core Neural Engine and 64GB of storage, with Apple using the extra processing capability for its new Audio Intelligence features. 

Sound Recognition can alert the wearer to noises such as alarms, sirens, traffic and doorbells. Live Rewind lets you double-press the Digital Crown and retrieve a transcription covering the previous 15 seconds.

Siri Recap goes further by using ambient listening to create high-level notes. Users can switch it on manually or decide when it should operate using a schedule. Apple says audio is not recorded or stored, speakers are not identified and synced data is protected with end-to-end encryption.

The rest of the Ultra formula stays familiar

Apple has not substantially changed the physical formula. Ultra 4 remains a 49mm Grade 5 titanium watch available in Natural and Black, with a flat sapphire display reaching 3,000 nits. It retains 100-metre water resistance, recreational diving support to 40 metres and precision dual-frequency GPS. 

Satellite communications for Emergency SOS, Messages and Find My also remain, along with 5G RedCap and LTE connectivity. Those are not new to the Ultra 4, as the Ultra 3 already offered satellite connectivity and 5G RedCap. 

That makes this more of an internal upgrade than a redesign. The case, display and core outdoor features remain largely unchanged, while Apple has concentrated on battery endurance, health sensing and the processing needed for its new intelligence features.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799. Pre-orders open today, with availability beginning September 18.