The Apple Watch Ultra 4 enters its fourth year as the company’s biggest and most rugged wrist model with modest but meaningful hardware gains, most notably improved battery life and a new S11 processor. Priced at £749 (€899/$799/A$1,349), the device largely resembles last year’s Ultra in design and core functionality while positioning itself for features still to come.
Hardware and specifications
The Ultra 4 retains the large 49 x 44mm case and a 12mm thickness, weighing 63g. It runs watchOS 27 on an S11 chip and includes 64GB of storage. Apple rates the watch to 100 metres (10ATM) water resistance and equips it with a broad array of connectivity and sensors: Bluetooth 5.3, Wi‑Fi 4, 5G RedCap/4G, ultra wideband (UWB), heart-rate monitor, ECG, blood oxygen (SpO2), skin temperature, depth sensor, dual‑band GPS, compass and altimeter.
Health, readiness tools and pending features
Apple has improved health-tracking capabilities and introduced new readiness tools aimed at helping users manage training and recovery. However, several of the marquee features revealed as part of Apple’s smartwatch announcements for 2026 remain disabled and are scheduled to arrive via software updates later this year. That leaves the Ultra 4, for now, as the company’s top model but one that is largely an incremental upgrade over its predecessor.
Built to host future features
The combination of a larger battery and the S11 chip appears intended to ready the Ultra 4 for more power‑hungry functions Apple has signalled, including audio-related artificial intelligence features that have prompted debate. Apple’s staged rollout means the hardware improvements are in place first, while the more transformative software elements are still pending activation.
For buyers, the Ultra 4 represents a durable, fully featured flagship watch with improved endurance and refined health tools. Those seeking an immediate paradigm shift in what a smartwatch can do may need to wait for the promised software updates later this year; purchasers prioritising battery life and robustness will find the latest Ultra a solid, if not revolutionary, choice.