Following Apple’s Far Out event during which the company announced the much-anticipated Apple Watch Ultra;

Ardit Ballhysa, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“The Apple Watch Ultra offers adventurers excellent extreme weather and outdoor sports features comparable to Garmin Adventure Watches and superior to Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch5 Pro. The Watch Ultra can go head-to-head with many Garmin Adventure Watches in terms of durability and features as it has a durable titanium build, peak brightness of 2,000 nits in bright sunlight, advanced compass features such as compass waypoints to mark your position, and a depth gauge to provide underwater measurements. Moreover, the Watch Ultra also offers users all the smart features that make the Apple Watch immensely popular, such as making and receiving calls and texts without a smartphone, using Siri, and having access to the App Store for the largest collection of apps available on a smartwatch.

“However, certain Garmin Adventure Watches also have many useful features that the new Apple Watch Ultra doesn’t have, such as recovery metrics, lactate threshold, and longer battery life spanning multiple days. Furthermore, recovery metrics are essential for athletes, especially those who partake in extreme sports, as it gives insight into the body’s recovery process to suggest how long the recovery period should be and when the optimal time to resume exercising is. Garmin smartwatches retail for hundreds of dollars less than the Apple Watch Ultra, such as the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar which goes for $449.99, while still offering some unique features that the Apple Watch Ultra doesn’t have. However, the Watch Ultra still remains a more durable smartwatch while offering significantly better smart features.

“When pitted against the Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro, the Apple Watch Ultra is a superior device for athletes as it offers better features and a more robust design. For example, the Watch Ultra is water resistant for up to 100m, double the 50m found in the Watch5 Pro, and offers more precise GPS tracking owing to the integration of L1 and L5 GPS antennas.”