There are few such examples of longevity, as the Apple Watch. Now in its 10th year (therefore the 10th Generation), it feels more mature than the previous year. And perhaps the year before. On the face of it, doesn’t look like it took Apple a lot to achieve that, but it wouldn’t have been easy to give the Apple Watch Series 10 a larger display and a definitively slimmer profile without any complications with battery life. Maintaining status quo, would be classified as a win. As is the sleep apnea tracking feature, which could be life changing for many.
Think about it. The biggest display ever in an Apple Watch; so much so that the Watch Ultra now has a smaller display to contend with in a complex hierarchy. The slimmest Apple Watch ever, which may not look like much at first, but becomes perceptibly clear when it adorns the wrist. All this, while retaining battery stamina parity with the previous generation Watch and yet integrating faster charging. It is perhaps not the complete overhaul many expected (usually, such fallacies find traction on social media), but these troika of changes are a few steps more intricate than an incremental, generational update.
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Think about how things have changed. The early Apple Watch generations had the 42mm and 38mm sizes. From generation 4, that became 44mm and 40mm. Three generations later, that became 45mm and 41mm. Now, with the Apple Watch Series 10, you’d imagine the 46mm would be too big and 42mm has a larger footprint than those who prefer slimmer watches. The latter can be an argument, but 46mm sits surprisingly easily around the wrist. That additional line of visibility on the screen, is what makes this transition worthwhile.
On-screen keyboard is easier to use, there a wider window those swipe to type gestures and entirely possible to read a message without having to scroll for two remaining words at the end. I had switched from the second generation Apple Watch Ultra to the Watch Series 10, and while that’s a less prominent transition, differences clear nonetheless. The wide-angle OLED holds readability better when at an angle (notice this, you’d rarely look at a smartwatch straight on), and with it, colour shift is less pronounced.
At this point, I must reference the colour options you get, depending on whether it’s aluminium or titanium that you pick. The former retails silver, with a very likeable rose gold and the undeniable charms of the jet black (at this point, I must note that new black finish on the Watch Ultra 2 became an instant favourite, in the limited time I saw it at launch). Titanium has something called natural that is a darker take on silver, a more gold-ish gold and slate which is a mix of dark grey and black.
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Apple’s big pitch for this year is the sleep apnea detection. The feature cleared FDA approvals soon after the announcement, and it’ll be interesting to see how this develops. The crux remains, enable this and wear the Apple Watch to bed. Since Apple has pending legal issues with Masimo over the use of the blood oxygen sensor, they’ve instead tasked the accelerometer to detect any breathing disturbances. This will need 30 nights worth of your sleep data to create a baseline to understand the breathing patterns and potential disturbances. This feature will be the next big step for wearables across the board.
While I have still not completed 30 nights with the Apple Watch Series 10, it would be impossible for me to be able to comment on whether the sleep apnea detection is accurate—health and fitness tracking is subjective at best, and I may not even get a notification if I don’t have sleep apnea.
A bigger watch screen could mean two things — a larger battery packed inside, or the same battery capacity but with lesser runtime because there’s a bigger canvas to illuminate. Neither is the case with the Apple Watch Series 10. It lasts relatively in the same ballpark as the Watch Series 9, with the new chip and watchOS optimisations helping balance frugality that may have otherwise been lost. in parallel, is the faster charging that this generation of the Apple Watch can draw upon—that’s almost 80% for a fully discharged Watch, in about half an hour. A quick charge before heading to work, should take care of the sleep tracking battery usage.
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There are two questions you must answer at this point. First, which Apple Watch series do you have at present? And secondly, the Apple Watch Series 10 or the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (that gorgeous black I’d mentioned earlier; I digress)?
Finding an answer to the first is simpler. If you have an Apple Watch older than the Series 7, display and other improvements make a world of difference. For the previous generation, perhaps it’s not as big a step forward in terms of the overall experience, to warrant spending afresh a year later.
The answer to that second question is trickier. The Watch Series 10 is closer to the Watch Ultra 2’s proposition, with parity across watchOS 11 (the Watch Ultra 2 can also detect sleep apnea, for instance). But, the Watch Ultra has created a lifestyle niche for itself, which is undeniable. However, for most users, the Apple Watch Series 10 with its ultra-slim platform, may be ticking off some things on the coolness checklist too.