The first set of reviews are out for the new Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch SE 3, ahead of the devices launching on Friday.
As we already noted in our buyer's guide last week, the Series 11 is a fairly minor upgrade over the Series 10. Apple says the Series 11 offers up to 24 hours of battery life, a six-hour increase over the Series 10. However, while the Series 11 does have a slightly larger battery over the Series 10, Apple also changed its testing parameters to include six hours of sleep tracking per day. So, are the battery gains that noticeable?
According to CNET's Vanessa Hand Orellana, they are:
Apple rates the Series 11 for up to 24 hours of "normal use," and after wearing it through at least three full battery cycles, I can confirm that's accurate. With notifications turned on (heavy Slack-ing and texting), at least one 30- to 45-minute outdoor workout a day, a full night of sleep tracking and some mild flashlight use, I've consistently managed to squeeze between 27 and 32 hours per charge.
TechRadar's Jacob Krol also said Series 11 battery life was promising:
The bigger story is battery life: battery capacity is up 9% on the 42mm model and 11% on the 46mm. Apple rates both models for 24 hours of typical use and up to 38 hours in Low Power Mode. In practice, I pulled my 46mm review device off the charger at 54% one night, slept with tracking enabled, and didn't hit 1% until after 5pm the next day – so I got about 17 hours from half a charge. With light use, a full day and a half is very realistic.
Given the 18-hour battery life figure that Apple advertised for the Series 10 and older was widely believed to be an understatement, though, more scientific and thorough testing is needed to determine any exact year-over-year increase.
What else is new? The cover glass on the Apple Watch Series 11 display is said to offer 2× more scratch resistance compared to the previous generation, but this only applies to aluminum models, as titanium Series 10 and Series 11 models already have a more durable sapphire cover. And if you have a cellular configuration, 5G is now supported.
The new Hypertension Notifications (compatible with Series 9 and newer) and Sleep Score health features (Series 6 and newer) do not require a Series 11.
And that's it — making the Series 11 one of the smallest upgrades ever.
Apple Watch Ultra 3 also gets longer 42-hour battery life, Emergency SOS via satellite directly on the wrist, a slightly larger display, and 5G on cellular models. This makes for a slightly bigger upgrade over the Ultra 2, albeit not significantly.
9to5Mac's Zac Hall offered a good overview of the new Ultra 3 capabilities, including Emergency SOS via satellite, which was previously limited to the iPhone:
In most instances, the connection demo experience works flawlessly. It can't work indoors, and in some cases, you may be able to see the sky, but nearby trees will prevent establishing a connection. This requirement will limit how useful satellite connectivity can be, but it's still impressive that an Apple Watch can even do this now without an iPhone.
The real winner, though, is the Apple Watch SE 3. The budget-conscious model received its first update in three years, and it packs quite a few new features.
Apple Watch SE 3 features an S10 chip, an always-on display, Double Tap gesture support, wrist temperature sensing for retrospective ovulation estimates, sleep apnea detection, fast charging support, 5G support on cellular configurations, on-device Siri, and many other improvements. It is also compatible with the new Sleep Score feature. And in the U.S., the device continues to start at just $249.
The Verge's Victoria Song said the Apple Watch SE 3 is "the one to buy."
From her review:
The line between the SE 3 and Series 11? For many people, it's now nonexistent.
The skeptic in me believes that the SE 3's glow-up is partly an effort to draw more people into the Apple Watch ecosystem. It's an incredible value, and Apple happens to be coming off five consecutive quarters of declining Apple Watch shipments due to a decrease in consumer demand, fewer models, and ho-hum feature upgrades. You don’t need to be a financial whiz to see the SE 3 will likely do gangbusters in terms of sales.
Apple Watch Series 11, Ultra 3, and SE 3 can be pre-ordered now.
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Top Rated Comments
One thing I find interesting is Blood Ox monitoring while sleeping is not available on the S10 or S11. Assume this is due to the actual calculations being offloaded to the iPhone rather than on-device which was Apple’s workaround to avoid that Massimo nonsense. If that is the case I wonder why my Series 8 doesn’t support Sleep Apnea detection but the 10 and higher do, given that low Blood Ox levels is a key metric when diagnosing that condition.