Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review: The Series 12 Is Closing the Gap
Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review: The Series 12 Is Closing the Gap
Apple Watch Ultra 4 评测：Series 12 正在缩小差距
Not much has changed about the Apple Watch Ultra since its debut in 2022. The company’s heavy-duty smartwatch is still massive, titanium-clad, and equipped with enough emergency features to make one feel slightly more prepared for an apocalypse than the average Joe. Each generation has brought incremental improvements, but the Ultra has largely stuck to the formula, and this year’s release isn’t any different. 自 2022 年首次亮相以来，Apple Watch Ultra 的变化并不大。这款苹果的重型智能手表依然体型庞大、采用钛金属外壳，并配备了足以让你在面对末日时比普通人更有安全感的应急功能。每一代产品都带来了渐进式的改进，但 Ultra 在很大程度上仍沿用了既定方案，今年的版本也不例外。
After testing both the Ultra 4 and the new Series 12, I noticed how little separates the two Apple Watches. The gap between them seems to shrink a little further every year, leaving fewer reasons to pay $799 for the beefier version. The Series 12 now shares many of the Ultra 4’s health and safety capabilities, and the Ultra’s biggest differentiators—its multiday battery, dedicated Action button, and satellite messaging—are more tailored to people who actually spend time off the grid. 在测试了 Ultra 4 和新款 Series 12 后，我注意到这两款 Apple Watch 之间的差异微乎其微。它们之间的差距似乎每年都在进一步缩小，这使得人们花 799 美元购买这款“更强悍”版本的理由越来越少。Series 12 现在共享了 Ultra 4 的许多健康和安全功能，而 Ultra 最大的差异化优势——多日续航、专属操作按钮（Action button）和卫星通信——更多是为那些真正需要在户外离线环境下活动的人群量身定制的。
This makes the Ultra 4 a more specialized smartwatch than ever, but also a tougher sell. Its benefits are clear for trail runners, divers, or anyone who regularly ventures outside cellular coverage. However, if your main goal is tracking health, workouts, and daily tasks, the Series 12 offers the same core experience for $400 less. And for current Ultra owners, the Ultra 4 serves as a reason to appreciate—and stick with—the generation you already have. Fortunately, there are no price changes, but there are no new finishes either. 这使得 Ultra 4 比以往任何时候都更像是一款专业化的智能手表，但也更难推销。对于越野跑者、潜水员或任何经常在蜂窝网络覆盖范围之外活动的人来说，它的优势显而易见。然而，如果你的主要目标是追踪健康、锻炼和日常任务，Series 12 能以低 400 美元的价格提供同样的核心体验。对于现有的 Ultra 用户来说，Ultra 4 反而让你更珍惜并继续使用你手中的旧款。幸运的是，价格没有变动，但也没有提供新的配色。
Ready, Set, and Recover
准备、就绪与恢复
The Ultra 4 gets the same new Health Sensing System as the Series 12, powered by Apple’s faster S11 chip and improved optical and electrical heart rate sensors. The system now tracks heart rate every five seconds throughout the day, and it measures heart rate variability (HRV) as often as every five minutes, which is up to 24 times more frequently than its predecessor. It also logs two HRV variants: Recovery HRV, which is intended to identify daily stressors, and overall HRV, which provides broader cardiovascular context. Ultra 4 搭载了与 Series 12 相同的新型健康传感系统，由苹果更快的 S11 芯片以及改进的光学和电学心率传感器驱动。该系统现在全天每五秒追踪一次心率，并每五分钟测量一次心率变异性（HRV），频率比上一代产品提高了 24 倍。它还记录两种 HRV 变体：旨在识别日常压力的“恢复 HRV”，以及提供更广泛心血管背景信息的“整体 HRV”。
While both of the new Apple Watches benefit from the higher-frequency tracking, it’s probably a more meaningful upgrade for people considering the Ultra as a fitness tracker. The Ultra 4 can now provide a more comprehensive picture of how your body is recovering and responding to stress throughout the day. Overnight Vitals now compares Recovery HRV against your personal baseline, and a new daytime view lets you look through differences between your day and overnight metrics. 虽然两款新款 Apple Watch 都受益于更高频率的追踪，但对于将 Ultra 视为健身追踪器的人来说，这可能是一个更有意义的升级。Ultra 4 现在可以更全面地展示你的身体在全天如何恢复以及如何应对压力。“夜间生命体征”（Overnight Vitals）功能现在会将“恢复 HRV”与你的个人基准进行对比，而新的日间视图则让你能够查看日间指标与夜间指标之间的差异。
The standout wellness feature, though, is Readiness. It combines recent activity, sleep data, and vitals to generate a daily score from 0 to 10, along with one of four recommendations: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. The score updates throughout the day as new information comes in, so a workout or change in daytime vitals can change your recommendation. You need to wear the watch to bed for at least seven nights before it can establish enough of a baseline to produce that initial score. I have only had the luxury of a Readiness score for two days now, so I will report back in a month. 不过，最突出的健康功能是“准备度”（Readiness）。它结合了近期的活动、睡眠数据和生命体征，生成一个 0 到 10 分的每日评分，并附带四种建议之一：恢复（Recover）、调整节奏（Pace Yourself）、准备就绪（Ready）或全力以赴（Go For It）。评分会随着全天新信息的录入而更新，因此一次锻炼或日间生命体征的变化可能会改变你的建议。你需要佩戴手表睡觉至少七个晚上，它才能建立足够的基准来生成初始评分。我目前只体验了两天的“准备度”评分，所以我会在一个月后再向大家反馈。
For outdoor enthusiasts or endurance athletes, a Readiness score can act like a gut check: Is today the day to push your limits, or should you take it easy? The appeal of Readiness is that it (attempts to) turn a pile of health data into something actionable. But it is still a wellness metric that doesn’t account for every factor, and it shouldn’t be used to determine whether it’s safe to exercise. I generally find Readiness scores more useful as a way to track patterns over time than as a daily directive about whether I should work out. 对于户外爱好者或耐力运动员来说，“准备度”评分可以像是一种直觉检查：今天是挑战极限的日子，还是应该轻松一点？“准备度”的吸引力在于它（试图）将一堆健康数据转化为可操作的建议。但它仍然只是一个健康指标，无法考虑所有因素，不应被用来判断运动是否安全。我通常认为“准备度”评分作为一种长期追踪模式的工具，比作为是否应该锻炼的每日指令更有用。
Apple is also bringing Audio Intelligence features to the Ultra 4, including Live Rewind and Siri Recap, though those are arriving later this year. A redesigned Health app with additional longevity insights is also coming later. Simply put, some of the Apple Watch’s most interesting software changes aren’t actually available at launch. 苹果还将为 Ultra 4 带来音频智能功能，包括“实时回放”（Live Rewind）和“Siri 总结”（Siri Recap），尽管这些功能要到今年晚些时候才会推出。重新设计的健康应用程序以及额外的长寿洞察功能也将在稍后发布。简而言之，Apple Watch 一些最有趣的软件更新在发布时实际上还无法使用。
Battery Goes the Distance
续航表现更进一步
Where the Ultra 4 has a clear advantage over its predecessor and the Series 12 is battery life. Apple has boosted the battery life to up to 50 hours of normal use, compared with 42 hours for the Ultra 3. Low Power Mode extends that to 84 hours, up from 72 hours. It’s also designed for longer workouts, with up to 18 hours of standard workout tracking, 25 hours in Extended mode, and 45 hours in Max Extended mode. Charging gets a boost, too: Fifteen minutes now adds up to 18 hours of battery life. That makes the Ultra 4 better suited for multi-day hikes, camping trips, and endurance sports. Ultra 4 相比前代产品和 Series 12 的明显优势在于电池续航。苹果将正常使用下的续航时间提升至最高 50 小时，而 Ultra 3 为 42 小时。低电量模式将其延长至 84 小时，高于之前的 72 小时。它还专为更长时间的锻炼而设计，标准锻炼追踪可达 18 小时，扩展模式下为 25 小时，最大扩展模式下为 45 小时。充电速度也得到了提升：充电 15 分钟现在可增加长达 18 小时的续航。这使得 Ultra 4 更适合多日徒步、露营旅行和耐力运动。
Apple hasn’t changed the design or price this year, and it comes in the standard natural and black titanium. When choosing between the Series 12 and Ultra 4, their similar capabilities mean aesthetics and fit play a bigger role in the decision. The Ultra looks sportier and feels more durable, but its 49-mm titanium case is still quite large. The screen takes up my entire wrist, and I’d love to see Apple offer a 46-mm option for smaller wrists. 苹果今年没有改变设计或价格，它提供标准的自然色和黑色钛金属版本。在 Series 12 和 Ultra 4 之间做选择时，由于它们的功能相似，外观和佩戴感在决策中起到了更大的作用。Ultra 看起来更具运动感，手感也更耐用，但其 49 毫米的钛金属表壳依然相当大。屏幕几乎占据了我整个手腕，我非常希望苹果能为手腕较细的用户提供 46 毫米的选项。
When I’m running and sweating, interacting with the Ultra 4’s display also becomes slightly frustrating. That’s a limitation of touchscreens generally, but it’s one I wish Apple had attempted to address on an outdoor-focused smartwatch. I do very much appreciate the physical Action button, which I use as a shortcut to start and pause a workout. This helps, but many of the watch’s controls still depend on tapping and swiping the touchscreen. During one of my runs, for example, I… 当我跑步出汗时，与 Ultra 4 的屏幕交互也会变得有些令人沮丧。这是触摸屏的普遍局限性，但我希望苹果能在这一款专注于户外的智能手表上尝试解决这个问题。我非常欣赏物理操作按钮，我用它作为开始和暂停锻炼的快捷方式。这很有帮助，但手表的许多控制功能仍然依赖于点击和滑动触摸屏。例如，在我的某次跑步中，我……