{"id":59137,"date":"2025-10-03T11:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/59137\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:08:10","slug":"i-took-the-apple-watch-ultra-3-away-for-a-weekend-and-ran-a-marathon-and-i-didnt-have-to-charge-it-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/59137\/","title":{"rendered":"I took the Apple Watch Ultra 3 away for a weekend and ran a marathon \u2014 and I didn\u2019t have to charge it once"},"content":{"rendered":"

I usually wear a dedicated sports watch, where battery life is measured in days or weeks, so the news that the Apple Watch Ultra 3<\/a> had six more hours of battery life didn\u2019t initially sound that impressive to me.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019ve used the Apple Watch Ultra 2<\/a> to run marathons before, and I know that Apple tends to be conservative in its battery estimates, so I was keen to see if the Apple Watch Ultra 3 could surpass the 42 hours it\u2019s listed as lasting.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I had a trip to Inverness in Scotland lined up to run the Loch Ness Marathon, so I charged the Ultra 3 to 100% at 1pm on Friday afternoon to see how far through the weekend it could last.<\/p>\n

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The results were surprising, impressive and actually gave me a real shock. The watch didn\u2019t run out of juice until Monday afternoon, just before I arrived home from the trip, and I had no fear of it dying during the marathon on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Loch Mess Marathon battery test<\/p>\n

\n

\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

I used the Apple Watch Ultra 3 normally throughout the weekend, with the screen always-on and for sleep tracking on Friday and Sunday night.<\/p>\n

I did take it off for the night before the marathon because I don\u2019t look at any sleep tracking info on the morning of a race, so it saved some battery then by automatically going into low-power mode overnight.<\/p>\n

Along with the marathon itself I also used the watch to track my shake-out run on the Saturday, and I used normal tracking settings for those runs, not the low-power GPS. I didn\u2019t listen to music using the watch on the runs though, which can be a big battery drain.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

On the morning of the race \u2014 44 hours after I charged it \u2014 the watch still had 51% battery, meaning I was confident it would last the event without a top up.<\/p>\n

I finished the race in 2:24, and when I checked the battery shortly afterwards the Apple Watch Ultra 3 still had 27% left.<\/p>\n

Naturally, a longer marathon time will drain more battery life, but there was enough juice left for a few more hours of running when I finished.<\/p>\n

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When I woke up the next morning, the battery life was in the red, but it still lasted the flight home. I put it into low-power mode when it hit 2% and that got me another hour or so \u2014 you could definitely extend the life longer with some strategic low-power stints.<\/p>\n

How does it compare to sports watches?<\/p>\n

\n

\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

While three days of battery life including a marathon was impressive for the Apple Watch Ultra 3, you certainly can get more from the best sports watches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro<\/a> on my other wrist and it was still at 33% when I got home on Monday, having charged it to 100% at the same time as the Ultra 3. I also used the Fenix 8 Pro\u2019s power-intensive LiveTrack feature during the marathon, which was sending my location to my family using its built-in LTE throughout.<\/p>\n

Even smaller watches than the Fenix 8 Pro, like the Garmin Forerunner 970<\/a>, will comfortably outlast the Ultra 3, but the Ultra 3 is a true smartwatch that\u2019s more useful day-to-day \u2014 it showed my boarding passes for the flights to Inverness, as one example.<\/p>\n

The Ultra 3 also charges incredibly quickly, and given that it now lasts over two days comfortably even with heavy use, you\u2019re always likely to find a 30 minute window to charge it in that time.<\/p>\n

Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News<\/a> and add us as a preferred source<\/a> to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!<\/p>\n

More from Tom’s Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I usually wear a dedicated sports watch, where battery life is measured in days or weeks, so the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[203,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-59137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}