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Apple Watch Ultra 3 will be a boring update, top insider suggests

Published May 1st, 2024 12:13PM EDT
watchOS 10 Snoopy Watch Face on Apple Watch Ultra 2
Image: José Adorno for BGR

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This year, we expect a significant design change for the Apple Watch with the Series 10 release. However, an Apple Watch Ultra 3 apparently won’t be getting the same treatment.

While an Apple Watch Ultra update could probably be skipped by Apple in 2024, as Ming-Chi Kuo suggested, the top insider has now reconsidered his analysis by saying Apple will introduce an Apple Watch Ultra 3 this year. Still, it will have “almost no” hardware upgrades.

This information was relayed by MacRumors. According to the publication, the successor of the second-generation Apple Watch Ultra won’t have anything major.

Interestingly enough, we expect several features to arrive with the Apple Watch Series 10. Despite a redesign making it thinner, Apple is also considering a new magnet band system.

According to Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett, Apple has an “enticing road map for 2024, including hypertension and sleep apnea detection for the watch.” For sleep apnea detection, the watch would use sleep and breathing patterns to estimate whether someone has the condition and then direct users to see a physician.

watchOS 10 Control Center on Apple Watch Ultra 2Image source: José Adorno for BGR

For the blood pressure sensor, Apple will do the rollout in phases. In the first iteration, it will just tell a user if their blood pressure is trending upward and offer a journal for the user to note what he was doing when hypertension occurred.

That said, it seems weird that if an Apple Watch Ultra 3 is released, it won’t feature some of the major features expected for the Apple Watch Series 10.

Also, if rumors about a new magnet band system for the Apple Watch Series 10 are true, Apple will maintain a confusing lineup of two different band systems despite the several options available for each watch.

Previously, the Apple Watch Ultra was expected to feature a microLED display eventually. However, reports have confirmed that Apple has abandoned its in-house microLED production and might continue focusing on OLED.

In addition, BGR has recently interviewed an expert about why Apple is choosing OLED over other display technologies for the iPad, which gives us an interesting outlook on this panel for future products.

José Adorno Tech News Reporter

José is a Tech News Reporter at BGR. He has previously covered Apple and iPhone news for 9to5Mac, and was a producer and web editor for Latin America broadcaster TV Globo. He is based out of Brazil.