As the Ultra enters its fourth year as Apple’s biggest and beefiest smartwatch it gets the best kind of spec upgrade – longer battery life – while waiting for something potentially more transformative. That’s because several of the key features announced as part of Apple’s new smartwatch lineup for 2026 have yet to be enabled, awaiting updates towards the end of this year. That leaves the £749 (€899/$799/A$1,349) Apple Watch Ultra 4 the top dog, but basically the same as last year’s model.
The Ultra 4’s body, screen, colours and design are identical to the previous versions. It weighs about 1g more, but the bigger changes are on the back and inside. Upgraded sensors on the back of the watch take heart rate (HR) readings every five seconds during the day, up from every five minutes on previous generation Apple Watches.
They also enable the measurement of your heart rate variability (HRV) during the day, not only at night, which feeds into some new recovery metrics. The Ultra 4 is the first Apple Watch in several generations to get a meaningfully faster chip with the new S11. The battery life for general use in my testing now stretches to 79 hours, too, meaning the watch lasted well into its third day between charges.
Most will be able to charge it every third morning, or less if you use the low power modes, although that is far behind the week-plus stamina of top adventure watch rivals. The new watch charges at 10W with its little magnetic puck, up from 5W of previous generations, and reached 82% in under an hour and 100% in less than 90 minutes. Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, 5G RedCap/4G, UWB Sensors: HR, ECG, spO2, temp, depth, dual-band GPS, compass, altimeter The Apple Watch features some of the most comprehensive health tracking available on your wrist, which on the Ultra includes extremely accurate dual-band GPS tracking for exercise.
The more frequent HR and HRV measurements enable a few new features for the Ultra 4. The Vitals app, which monitors your stats overnight, now works during the day giving you an assessment of your general health. It can let you know when your HR and HRV are outside your usual baseline, indicating strain or sickness that might be on the way.
The new readiness app adds a popular feature from sports watches, which looks at your activity, vitals and sleep and works out whether you have properly recovered from strenuous exercise or stressful days. It gives you a score out of 10 and some advice on how ready you are for exercise, which can be a useful tool for training for a race or goal. The Ultra 4 runs watchOS 27, just like Apple Watches back to the Series 9 and Ultra 2, which includes Apple’s new Siri and improved AI tools, some of which are available now, while other exclusive features are awaiting updates planned for later this year.
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