For the last week, I’ve been investigating the fresh Apple Watch — mostly by sleeping. That’s due to the fact that Apple Watch Series 10 is capable of detecting signs of sleep apnea.
I’ll request a fewer more weeks of sleep before possible sleep apnea can be flagged. In the meantime, there’s plenty to admire in the waking hours of the day.
Apple Watch Series 10 has a larger screen and a thinner design. It besides gains fresh tricks like always displaying seconds and talker media playback.
Of course, the fresh hardware includes all the Apple Watch features introduced in fresh years. These include Crash Detection, the double tap gesture, and better performance just to name a few.
Bigger and thinner than your Apple Watch
Apple Watch Series 10 is the plan I think we’ll see for Series 11 and Series 12. Apple Watch Series 10 is clearly an evolution of the first Apple Watch. It’s not a extremist fresh plan branch like Ultra and Ultra 2. Still, the fresh plan is simply a milestone in thinness. Series 10 marks the 4th case plan in the Series line. Each case plan has evolved after 3 product release cycles:
- Apple Watch, Apple Watch Series 1/Series 2, Apple Watch Series 3
- Apple Watch Series 4, Apple Watch Series 5, Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Series 9
- Apple Watch Series 10
Apple Watch Series 10 is inactive instantly recognizable as an Apple Watch. Casual observers may not even admit it as a fresh plan at a glance. Hold it in your hand, however, and the thinness is rather noticeable. There’s no confusing which is old and which is fresh erstwhile viewing from the side.
Series 10 fundamentally removes the tallness of the screen without actually removing the screenThe benefit of an interior redesign that affords a thinner Apple Watch is how it wears. Apple Watch Series 10 sits more flush to your wrist. This results in a watch that feels more modern, more premium, and just nicer. Even the Digital Crown has shrunk to fit the slim profile. This contrasts with the Digital Crown on Apple Watch Ultra that has gear-like ridges and a surrounding crown guard.
New materials and a Beyoncé throwback
I’ve only briefly handled the fresh titanium Apple Watch Series 10 models. If you like the glossy look of stainless steel, the lighter titanium frame with the same reflectivity will feel welcome. That’s especially actual for customers upgrading to larger cases compared to older watches.
Jet black Apple Watch Series 10 and black titanium Apple Watch Ultra 2The model I’ve been investigating is the fresh black aluminum Series 10. Not space gray. Not midnight. Actual black. Apple calls it jet black. I call it friggin’ awesome.
It’s not just black either. It’s the first aluminum Apple Watch with a glossy finish.
Before now, aluminum watches have all had matte finishes. There was 1 aluminum iPhone that managed to pull off a glass-like black surface.
The jet black Apple Watch Series 10 is simply a call back to that jet black iPhone 7 Plus from 2016.
For a deeper scope in history, the jet black Series 10 finish is like the 2013 Mac Pro.
The Ion-X screen lacks the scratch opposition of the more costly sapphire display models. However, it’s a truly sharp look with the starter Apple Watch Series 10 price.
I’m besides pleased that you can pair the first-ever gold color-matching stainless steel Link Bracelet to the gold-colored titanium Apple Watch without being Beyoncé in 2015. Technically hers was 18k gold and 1 of like 3 (including the
and a erstwhile shoemaker). Still, the Series 10 can run watchOS 11 so choice your fighter.
Speaking of bands, many existing Apple Watch customers will be happy to know that existing bands proceed to be compatible. For example, the band from my 42mm Apple Watch Series 2 works with the 46mm Apple Watch Series 10.
Faster charging speeds > somewhat more battery life
Customers want sleep tracking features, and Apple Watch Series 10 takes it to the next level with sleep apnea monitoring. Sleep apnea monitoring is besides available on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in watchOS 11.
Where Apple Watch Series 10 beats Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 is fast charging. Series 10 is rated for fast charging from 0 to 80% in just 30 minutes. That’s up from 45 minutes on the Series 9 and 60 minutes on the Ultra 2.
When you want to wear your watch throughout the day and each night, all second counts. Series 10 can besides charge adequate to track sleep after just 8 minutes of charging.
Apple ships Series watches with 18-hour battery life. It could have kept the Apple Watch Series 9 dimensions and most likely delivered a small more battery life. Apple Watch Ultra exists as the thicker watch with a 36-hour battery life rating though. Ultra’s place in the line affords Apple Watch Series 10 the luxury of going thinner. That’s welcome as long as it’s maintaining the same battery life as the watch it replaces.
I besides think improving charging speeds for Series watches is more applicable than packing in more battery. Adding a fewer extra hours of battery life won’t change the way you usage your watch. Doubling battery life with Apple Watch Ultra can. Faster charging speeds, though, limits the time the watch needs to be off-wrist.
Sleep apnea detection: a sleeper feature in the waiting
As for the impact of sleep apnea monitoring, stay tuned. The feature requires data from at least 30 sleep sessions to supply insight.
Sleep apnea monitoring won’t be explicitly determinative. Instead, Apple Watch will notify users about the anticipation of sleep apnea. The data provided by Apple Watch is intended to be a helpful signal. Apple hopes it leads people to follow up with a medical professional. From there, a medical professional will urge a conventional sleep test.
Hopefully more people are alerted to the anticipation to sleep apnea. This can scope customers who otherwise may not know to consult their doctor about the condition.
We regularly see Apple Watch customers usage heart wellness alerts as the first signal before consulting a medical professional. These alerts frequently lead to life-saving discoveries. If sleep apnea monitoring can lead to quality-of-life improvements, then the Apple Watch acquisition will be worth it.
Customers can learn more about the sleep condition in the wellness app on iPhone.
Making sense of the blood oxygen sensor status
Apple is relying on the Apple Watch accelerometer, processing power of the chip inside, and extended investigation into studying sleep. This includes customer-generated data through Apple’s sleep study.
The company is assured in this gyroscope-based method of detecting breathing disturbances while sleeping. The United States Food and Drug Administration agrees.
Sleep apnea monitoring, which requires regulatory approval, eschews the blood oxygen sensor that first shipped with Apple Watch Series 6.
That could be due in part to ongoing patent litigation between Apple and Masimo over the technology. However, the blood oxygen sensor is only disabled for nee models sold in the United States since last year.
Customers in the US and abroad will all usage the same sleep apnea monitoring methodology.
The only information to know for customers in the United States is that the blood oxygen sensor is presently inactive. For any upgrades, this will mean losing access to that data point after coming from a Series 6 or later.
Ultra-lite in all the right ways
Apple Watch Series 10 is so not the Apple Watch Ultra, but in any ways it’s similar.
One embraces a sleek plan that maintains battery life standards. The another is simply a rugged sports watch that can last for days.
When Apple Watch Ultra was introduced 2 years ago, I saw it as a preview of the Series roadmap. The Ultra wouldn’t request to change for any time. A velocity boost, double tap gesture, and (a year later) darker finish are enough to warrant a second version. Now we’ve reached the point where Ultra can go unchanged without seeming dated.
At the same time, the Series line has picked up a fewer things from the Ultra line.
Apple Watch displays have grown over the years. We’re at the point now where the smaller Series 10 is the same size as the larger Series 3. It must be an appetite for a larger display that made the larger Series 10 compete with Apple Watch Ultra.
Apple surely has data that shows any Ultra customers placing more importance on screen size than utmost sports capabilities. The larger Apple Watch Series 10 is the result.
Apple Watch Series 10 is nearly half screen, half casingPerhaps we’ll see an Apple Watch Ultra with slimmer bezels and more screen real property in a year or two. For now, we have the Apple Watch Series 10 with an Ultra-like display size. It besides gains the previously Ultra-only Dive app (for snorkeling, not diving), and titanium replaces stainless steel.
In any ways, Apple Watch Series 10 is the Ultra for the remainder of us, and that’s rad. I am fond of the Ultra as an endurance watch. However, the Series line is unmatched erstwhile it comes to being an attractive object you wear. That’s even more actual now with the Series 10 design.
Apple Watch is, believe it or not, besides a watch
The first Apple Watch wasn’t a large watch. It made up for that with features like Apple Pay, workout tracking, and notifications.
Apple worked around battery life constraints. It only turned on the display erstwhile a wrist raised, a button was pressed, or the screen was tapped. This is how the current Apple Watch SE models proceed to work.
White ceramic Apple Watch Series 5, the top material to date, at an undisclosed location in FloridaFive years on, Apple Watch Series 5 introduced Apple’s first always-on display (years before coming to iPhone). Glancing at the time without requiring another action brought the Apple Watch closer to how average watches work.
Another 5 years on and Series 10 brings 2 changes that make it a better watch for telling time. The first is better viewing angles. Apple Watch Series 10 is the first to usage OLED technology optimized for viewing from the sides.
Viewing angles didn’t substance erstwhile the Apple Watch needed to be straight in front of you to be engaged. Now viewing the display with our wrists lowered is simply a norm for the Series line. The display appearing 40% brighter at more viewing angles is especially appreciated on watch faces with lower contrast.
Seriously, I’m telling you, it tells time
The another improvement to the time-telling experience with Apple Watch Series 10 is support for displaying seconds in always-on mode.
Series 5 through Series 9 only refresh the time erstwhile per minute erstwhile the display is dimmed. A caregiver friend of mine erstwhile explained that they preferred wearing a basic watch. The reason is that they could reliably number seconds during certain patient routines.
Reflections, Flux, and Activity DigitalApple Watch Series 10 solves that problem, starting with 3 watch faces.
The fresh Flux and Reflections faces show ticking seconds even erstwhile the watch face is dimmed. Flux uses a vertically rising line to denote ascending seconds through each minute. Reflections provides analog watch hands. It includes a seconds hand that sweeps erstwhile the display is lit and ticks erstwhile the display is dimmed.
A subtle update to a classical watch face
Activity Digital on Apple Watch Series 2 and the discontinued Apple Watch Magnetic Charging DockThe 3rd option is an update to an existing watch face: Activity Digital. Tempo developer Rahul Matta has described this face to me as the de facto fitness face, and I agree. Activity Digital kept me accountable when I first dived into workouts with Series 2 and Series 3.
(If you’re logging runs or walks with Apple Watch, use Tempo to make sense of it all.)
While we’re on Tempo, can we backtrack for a minute and discuss how good the white ceramic Series 5 was? Unfortunately, it doesn’t get watchOS 11.Activity Digital includes the option to show seconds. They vanish erstwhile the watch face is in always-on mode though . For me, this was visually jarring.
However, Series 10 updates the watch face erstwhile per second in always-on mode. This means the digital seconds keep counting up in either display state. I absolutely love this. It’s visually pleasing for me, and it has utility for tasks that benefit from counting seconds.
I would guess that more watch faces will work this way over time. Brighter viewing angles and displaying seconds in always-on mode is unique to the Series 10 hardware for now.
Apple Watch Series 10 can yet do this thing!
Apple Watch has always been able to play spoken word and musical audio without headphones. You just should be on a telephone call with call waiting music. Admittedly, that’s a beautiful large catch.
Apple Watch customers have long wondered why podcasts and music can’t play from the built-in talker like telephone calls. The answer most likely has more to do with Apple’s audio quality standards around music than anything.
However, Apple is utilizing the redesigned talker strategy as a reason to enable media playback sans headphones. The feature is besides now available on Apple Watch Ultra 2 with watchOS 11.
Ultra 2 and Series 10So how is this feature? most likely better for spoken audio than music in most situations. I appreciate it more for being a feature that should be than being a feature I’ll want to usage often.
I’ve found media playback through the talker useable sometimes. For example, taking the dog for a fast walk on a very quiet street. I was besides impressed erstwhile media playback worked to livestream Accidental Tech Podcast in Steve Troughton-Smith’s Broadcasts app. You know, for science.
In regular use, I think talker media playback will be most useful in a pinch. Forget to charge your AirPods before you go for a run? Apple Watch media playback through the talker is better than nothing erstwhile your headphones die before you make it home.
Also, the feature made Jeff Benjamin’s day erstwhile it was announced. possibly Apple Watch talker media playback will make your day too.
If you thought the Beyoncé mention was a deep cut, wait’ll you read this section
There is 1 certain thing that I’ve tested each year since my Apple Watch Series 3 review in 2017:
In terms of performance and experience, my 1 complaint in investigating over the last fewer days was being locked into the telephone app during a call. This means you can’t mention a message in message or a location in Maps erstwhile you’re on a call over cellular which I imagine is simply a processing limitation.
Technically, this is actual erstwhile utilizing the telephone app on Apple Watch even erstwhile your iPhone is nearby.
However, it’s the situations erstwhile you leave your telephone behind altogether that you announcement this limitation. If you want to mention your calendar during a call, you’ll request to hang up and call back.
And so we have the timeless questions about existence that have fascinated humanity for millennia, crossing cultures and philosophies:
- Why do we exist?
- Are we alone in the universe?
- Why doesn’t Instagram make an iPad app?
- Can the Apple Watch leave the telephone app during a call yet?
I can’t even come close to answering the first 3 questions. I can report, though, that the answer to the final question is inactive a nope.
I’m well aware that no one, myself included, is all that bothered. Anyway, thanks for indulging me, back to Earth now.
Is the fresh Apple Watch good?
There’s plenty of runway for future innovations to Apple Watch.
A possible roadmap should include bringing blood force monitoring, Apple Intelligence-powered Siri, and someday video calling.
I would love to see Apple Watch be able to charge utilizing MagSafe like the iPhone. It could then go further and be able to take a charge from the back of the iPhone.
For now, Apple Watch Series 10 is in a healthy space for a decade old product category. (See my review of the first Apple Watch from 2015 if you want to feel old.)
Apple Watch Series 10 achieves equilibrium. It does so by exceeding the display size of the Apple Watch Ultra by 3% while going thinner than ever.
It does this while packing in:
- a larger battery with faster charging
- a six-meter depth gauge
- a water temperature sensor
- Apple’s first wide-angle OLED for wider viewing angles
- seconds that always display
- and a microphone with voice isolation.
Series 10 raises the bar for what we can anticipate from the Apple Watch going forward. That makes it far exceed good before you always compare it to prior generations.
Should you buy or upgrade to Series 10?
Apple Watch Series 10 is simply a ridiculous update over Apple Watch Series 3 and earlier. If you bought a Series 3 during its 3rd year due to the fact that it was $200, it’s time to let it go. You won’t regret it.
Series 10 besides makes for an incredible first Apple Watch. It has a design, processor, and feature list that will age well over the next fewer years.
Is there adequate here to impress Apple Watch Series 4 and SE customers? I think so. Between the larger screen, thinner design, and always-on display, there’s a lot to announcement immediately. Apple Watch Series 5 customers besides gain access to watchOS 10 erstwhile upgrading to Apple Watch Series 10.
Series 10, Ultra 2, Series 2It’s the Apple Watch Series 7 through Series 9 crowd that may request more reason to upgrade. Buying a fresh band may be adequate to keep your watch feeling fresh for another year or two.
However, Series 10 is simply a large reason to upgrade if you want to decision to a model with cellular. You may besides control to a different size display or effort a fresh colour or case material. The fresh shiny black aluminum finish and thinner plan would be adequate to make me envious.
Apple Watch Series 10 availability
Apple Watch Series 10 is available in 42mm and 46mm case heights. It comes in aluminum or titanium cases and GPS-only or cellular configurations. Pricing starts from $399 with availability from Friday, September 20.
Aluminum colors include polished jet black, matte rose gold, and matte silver. Polished titanium colors include slate, natural, gold, and Hermès silver. Either Apple Watch Series 10 material can be configured to be carbon natural as part of the Apple 2030 initiative.
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