Technologies

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Review: A Brighter Screen Makes My Favorite Watch Better

A searingly bright screen and faster responses are nice but not necessary upgrades.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, simply because it doesn’t have to. After wearing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for a week on hikes, bike rides and some casual spelunking (seriously!), it has less of a wow factor compared with the first Ultra. And that’s only because it feels so familiar. It’s available now alongside the Apple Watch Series 9, which shares the same upgraded chip.

Like Apple’s first Ultra, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 costs $799 (£799, AU$1,399) and is sold as an outdoors watch with a rugged design and a range of sports features. The Ultra 2 still has a customizable action button, fall and car crash detection, ECG, temperature sensor, dual-frequency GPS, and built-in LTE. It shares the same heart rate sensor, which is incredibly accurate, and has the same collection of sports features to suit divers, runners and outdoor enthusiasts. It also looks identical to the first Ultra, even though the 49mm case is now made from 95% recycled titanium.

So what is different? The screen, chip and new Double Tap feature are the key highlights. For hikers and cyclists in particular, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a lot to offer, but that’s more a reflection on WatchOS 10 than the hardware itself. You’ll be able to get most of the same great experience on earlier, compatible Apple Watches too, including the original Ultra, which I named the most exciting watch in years when it came out in 2022.

That blisteringly bright Apple Watch Ultra 2 screen

It’s impossible to spot the difference between the original Ultra and the Ultra 2 — that is, until you see the screens. Apple has cranked the brightness to 3,000 nits on the Ultra 2, earning it the title of the brightest screen on any Apple product. The iPhone 15 Pro by comparison reaches a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, the same as the original Apple Watch Ultra.

I took the Ultra 2 on a hike in the Marin Headlands on a bright overcast day, then to Ocean Beach in San Francisco when the sun was in full force the following day. I didn’t have any issues seeing the screen in either situation, whether it was a quick time check, reading a message or glancing at my workout stats. To be fair, I had no issue with the screen brightness on the first Ultra when it comes to readability and outdoors use.

But it’s the flashlight that gets a bigger boost. I took the Apple Watch Ultra 2 into a cave and it lit up the rockface much better than the first Ultra when I compared the two.

You can even force the Ultra 2’s flashlight to hit maximum brightness by turning the digital crown, which is something you can’t do on the first Ultra. Side note: Don’t do what I did and crank the brightness on the flashlight in a dark room, screen aimed at your eyes. My retinas are still cursing me.

From a safety point of view, the brighter flashlight is great if you’re walking, running or riding at night. But you can’t see workout stats, messages or make a call without losing the light. Maybe in the future, the edge of the screen could stay at maximum brightness so you could still interact with the watch and not lose the light. I’m still not totally sure what the best use case is for this brighter new screen if it’s not for safety purposes, given the screen on the first Ultra was bright enough for just about any environment.

On the flip side, the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s screen also gets dimmer than the first watch, going down to just one nit when you have the watch in sleep mode. It can also get that dim if the screen isn’t active and you’re in a really dark room.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets Double Tap

The Ultra 2 shares the same S9 chip as the Series 9, which allows for on-device Siri, overall performance improvements and the double tap gesture.

Just as the name suggests, you double tap your thumb and index finger to act as a screen press when you can’t reach the watch with your other hand. There are over 65 different actions you can make in Apple’s own apps, like skipping a track in the Music app, taking a photo on the iPhone with the Camera remote app or starting a timer. Third-party apps can also work with Double Tap.

While I wasn’t able to use Double tap on my Ultra 2 review unit, I was able to try a preview of it on the Series 9, and the implementation will be the same. So far, the most helpful Double Tap action has been responding to a message when I can’t reach the screen, like when I’m walking my dog. I’ll feel the buzz of an incoming message, raise my wrist to read it, then double tap to reply and voice-to-text dictation automatically pops up.

Double Tap builds on the foundation set by AssistiveTouch, a feature designed to help people with physical impairments control the Apple Watch without touching the screen. Double Tap is a separate function exclusive to watches that have the S9 chip, and it’s on by default, while AssistiveTouch needs to be turned on from the Accessibility menu.

Double Tap has been accurate at registering my gestures, but I wish it did more for the workout app specifically. At the moment, double tapping doesn’t do anything. I’d love to see it sub in for the action button so if you can’t press it, you could just double tap instead to perform the same action, like marking a segment.

WatchOS 10 adds so much to Apple Watch Ultra 2

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 brings several important updates for hikers, cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts thanks to WatchOS 10. Offline and topographic maps are now available in Apple Maps and the compass app supports cellular waypoints. This means it shows the last place you had a signal so you can make a call and check messages on your own carrier, or a spot where you can make an emergency call on any network.

Cyclists get two big updates with WatchOS 10: support for Bluetooth accessories like power meters and being able to see your metrics as a live activity on the iPhone. Both features work for indoor and outdoor cycling workouts.

From a safety perspective, I love seeing the live activity on screen, because you don’t want to lift off the handlebars all the time to see your stats on the watch. It shows you all the same detail as the Apple Watch but on a much larger surface area. If you pair the watch with a cycling accessory like power meter pedals you can also see more in-depth data like cadence, speed and power, including functional threshold power.

You’re also getting a few new Ultra-exclusive watch faces including Modular Ultra, which has a horizontal complication slot and the option to show the time nice and big. It’s coming to the original Ultra too. Night mode on this watch face and the Wayfinder face now activates automatically using the ambient light sensor, instead of turning the digital crown like before.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 is faster thanks to that S9 chip

Aside from Double Tap, the S9 chip also supports on-device Siri, which is helpful because it’s faster and works when the Ultra 2 or your iPhone doesn’t have a signal. You can do things like start timers, start a workout, or even add a waypoint in the Compass app with your voice.

Later in the year, you’ll be able to ask Siri for health data, such as how many hours you slept or log medications. I wish that feature was active at launch, because it’s probably one of the big reasons I’d choose to use Siri on the watch rather than pull out my phone.

To see if there was a tangible difference in performance between the first and second Ultras, I ran a couple of side-by-side tests. Opening apps was the same, but the Ultra 2 turned on 20 seconds faster than the first Ultra. Message dictation was faster on the Ultra 2, but the biggest perk is it’s more accurate, especially getting my Australian accent right.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 also has the same new ultra wideband chip found in the Apple Watch Series 9 that supports precision finding. You do need an iPhone 15 or 15 Pro to take advantage, otherwise you’ll just hear the familiar chime when you ping your phone from the watch.

I also appreciate that the Ultra 2 doubles the internal storage to 64GB of the original, a big deal for any media storage but especially for offline music. Unlike earlier Apple Watches, there is no limit to the amount of manual music downloads you can make on the watch.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 battery life is the same as before

There’s not much new when it comes to battery life as the Ultra 2 lasts the same amount of time as the first Ultra. It’s tricky to give a catch-all estimate of how long the battery will last since everyone uses their watch differently, but I get close to two full days of use out of the Ultra 2 on a single charge with notifications, a GPS workout and sleep tracking. Apple’s official rating is up to 36 hours with regular use, but it’s possible to get almost three days with light use and by not using LTE, playing music or tracking sleep.

For extended outdoor workouts with GPS, you can expect up to 12 hours, which is enough for a marathon or century ride. There’s also a low power mode that can now get up to 72 hours of runtime out of the Ultra 2 thanks to performance optimizations and the new chip. Compare that with the 60 hours Apple quoted for the first Ultra. I still have more battery testing to run with the Ultra 2, especially around LTE connectivity, so check back soon for more. You can also charge the Ultra 2 from the iPhone 15, thanks to USB-C.

While it’s a good thing that Apple managed to maintain the same battery life while adding resource-intensive tools like a brighter screen and S9 chip, I would have preferred to keep the same screen on the original Ultra and get more runtime as a result.

Who is the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for?

If you already own the first Apple Watch Ultra, this is a modest update and I’d recommend skipping the Ultra 2, especially since Apple’s always good at delivering feature updates to older watches through software. If you’re coming from an earlier Apple Watch Series, it’s more compelling because you get a completely new design, a huge screen and better battery life.

The Ultra 2 feels like it’s forging its own path compared with other sports and endurance watches because you can wear it everywhere, for almost any activity. Most importantly, it’s a true smartwatch: there are no compromises on app support, cellular connectivity or that seamless second screen experience that you often miss out on with competing sports watches.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is still missing a way to interpret all your health and fitness data with recovery metrics. I hope that’s in the works and maybe something that could be added in a software update.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs. Apple Watch Ultra vs. Series 9

	Apple Watch Ultra 2	Apple Watch Ultra	Apple Watch Series 9
Shape	Square	Square	Square
Watch size	49mm	49mm	41mm, 45mm
Materials, finishes	Titanium	Titanium	Aluminum, stainless steel
Display size, resolution	1.91-inch, 502 x 410-pixel OLED	1.91-inch, 502 x 410-pixel OLED	41mm: 1.61-inch, 430 x 352-pixel OLED; 45mm: 1.77-inch, 484 x 396-pixel OLED
Dimensions	44mm x 49mm x 14.4mm	49 x 44 x 14.4mm	41mm: 35 x 41 x 10.7 mm; 45mm: 38 x 45 x 10.7 mm
Weight	61.4g	61.3g	31.9g-51.5g, depending on size, spec and material
Colors	Natural titanium	Natural titanium	Aluminum: midnight, starlight, silver, pink, Product Red; stainless steel: graphite, silver, gold; Hermes stainless steel: silver, space black
Always On	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interchangable bands	Yes	Yes	Yes
GPS	Yes (L1 and L5)	Yes	Yes (L1)
Automatic workout detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compass	Yes	Yes	Yes
Altimeter	Yes (operating range: -500m to 9,000m)	Yes	Yes
Water resistance	10ATM (100 meters) and recreational scuba diving up to 40 meters	Yes, up to 100m	5ATM (50 meters)
Calls	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microphone	Yes (3-mic array)	Yes	Yes
Speaker	Yes	Yes	Yes
Voice assistant	Yes (Siri, on-device)	Yes (Siri)	Yes (Siri, on-device)
Mobile Payments	Yes (Apple Pay)	Yes (Apple Pay)	Yes (Apple Pay)
Sleep tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes
Period tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sensors	SPo2 (blood oxygen), ECG, optical heart, ambient light, high dynamic range gyroscope, high-g accelerometer, water temperature, depth gauge + app	SPo2 (blood oxygen), ECG, optical heart, ambient light, high dynamic range gyroscope, high-g accelerometer, water temperature, depth gauge + app	SPo2 (blood oxygen), ECG, optical heart, ambient light, high dynamic range gyroscope, high-g accelerometer
Emergency features	International emergency calling, Emergency SOS, crash detection	International emergency calling, Emergency SOS, crash detection	International emergency calling, Emergency SOS, crash detection
Compatibility	iOS 17	iOS 16	iOS 17
Software	WatchOS 10	WatchOS 9	WatchOS 10
Processor	Apple S9	S8 SiP with 64-bit dual-core processor	Apple S9
Connectivity	LTE and UMTS, Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth 5.3	LTE and UMTS, Wi-FI	LTE and UMTS, Wi-Fi 4, Bluetooth 5.3
Memory and storage	64GB	64GB	64GB
Power	USB-C magnetic fast charging	USB-C magnetic fast charging	USB-C magnetic fast charging
Battery life	Up to 36 hours; up to 72 hours (low power mode)	36-hour battery life, 18 hours on LTE	Up to 18 hours; up to 36 hours (low power mode)
Battery capacity	Unavailable	Unavailable	Unavailable
Price (USD)	$799	$799	41mm: from $399; 45mm: from $429
Price (GBP)	£799	£849	41mm: from £399; 45mm: from £429
Price (AUD)	AU$1,399	AU$1,299	41mm: from AU$649; 45mm: from AU$699

Technologies

CNET Daily Tariff Price Tracker: I’m Watching 11 Key Products for Changes, Here’s What’s Happened

The deadline for the start of Trump’s heaviest tariffs has been delayed until next month, leaving consumers stuck with more uncertainty over prices.

For the last three months, tariffs have been a hot topic, leaving consumers and businesses alike worried: Will they hike prices and by how much? It’s a question more relevant than ever this week, as President Trump punts another major deadline down the road and price-slashing Amazon’s Prime Day sales wind down as the week ends.

Amid those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by tariff-induced price increases, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.

To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products — including Apple’s popular AirPods and printer ink — have gone on sale for brief periods.

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month.

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

iPhone 16, 128GB
Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
Xbox Series X
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Bose TV speaker
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.

After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. For most of the year, they’ve hovered around $199, but ahead of Prime Day sales this week they are currently on sale for $149.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers.

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. You can currently get this model at a healthy discount for Prime Day, down to $200 from $280.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

While this product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, there is a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.

Other products

As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.

Technologies

Download All of Netflix in One Second? Researchers in Japan Just Broke the Internet Speed Record

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 12 #496

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 12 No. 496.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

If you love attending baseball games in summer, you’ll hit a home run with today’s NYT Strands puzzle. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: In the ballpark.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Play ball!

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

TEER, MEER, MEET, TEEM, ROAD, STALL, TALL, BEST, PEAT, LUNH, CULT, BUMP, BILE, PEAL, METE, BULL, STUN, NUTS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: