Apple Watch Series 10 Design Review
Apple proved to us with the Series 10 that new design doesn’t always mean a strange look. Sometimes, the biggest revolutions are hidden in the details that may not be immediately apparent, but that change the user experience in this way.
The most important and coolest change you will feel in the design of the Apple Watch Series 10 is its thinner design. Apple has managed to reduce the thickness of the watch from 10.7 mm in previous generations to 9.7 mm. This is the first time that an Apple Watch is under an inch thick, and this one millimeter reduction may not seem like much on paper, but when you put the watch on your hand, it makes a world of difference. The watch fits very easily under the sleeve of a shirt or jacket and you no longer have that feeling of a bulky gadget on your wrist.
This thinning has also been accompanied by a lighter weight. The aluminum models are up to 10 percent lighter, and the new titanium models are up to 20 percent lighter than their counterparts in the Series 9. This combination of thinness and lightness takes the watch to a whole new level of comfort, especially if you want to wear it 24/7. It’s now much easier to track your sleep with the watch, which is exactly what Apple was looking for with the addition of health features that require constant checking. Apple made a big decision about the case material with the Series 10: The more expensive model, which used to be made of stainless steel, has now been replaced with grade 5 titanium. Titanium is not only about 20 percent lighter than steel, but it’s also much more resistant to scratches and gives the watch a more luxurious and modern feel. The model comes in three colors: natural, gold, and slate gray, with a cool, jewel-like shine. This change has taken the Apple Watch from a dry and empty tech gadget to a classy and fashionable accessory.
The aluminum models have not been left out either, and Apple has revived the memory of the beloved iPhone 7 by introducing a new glossy Jet Black color. This deep, glossy black color gives the aluminum model a very stylish look and takes it away from its usual sporty look.
One of the biggest concerns and rumors before the introduction of the Series 10 was that the strap attachment system would be changed to a new magnetic mechanism, which would make all our old straps useless. But fortunately, Apple listened to its users and left this system alone. This means that all the collection of straps you have collected over the years will be OK and work with the Apple Watch Series 10. This was a very smart move by Apple to keep its loyal customers and respect the money they spent on the Apple Watch ecosystem.
Slimming down 1mm wasn’t easy. To get here, Apple had to overhaul the entire architecture inside the watch. One of these drastic changes was integrating the cellular antenna into the metal back of the watch. This allowed Apple to use an all-metal back again after several generations without compromising the antenna. Also, that speaker slot, which used to be a long rectangle, is now a series of tiny holes that make the side edge of the watch much cleaner and more modern. These details show that Apple’s design team tried to fit all the parts into a smaller space, as if they were playing a very difficult game of Tetris.
Apple Watch Series 10 Display Review
The display has always been one of the most annoying parts of the Apple Watch, and with the Series 10, Apple has taken this strength a step further. By enlarging the cases to 42 and 46mm and reducing the bezels, Apple was able to create the largest display in the history of the Apple Watch. The Series 10 has a 9 percent larger display than the Series 7, 8, and 9, and up to 30 percent larger than older models like the Series 6. It’s even bigger than the massive display on the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
The extra space may be just a few millimeters, but the impact on everyday use is quite noticeable. You can now see an extra line of text in emails, messages, and notifications, or make the font size larger without it popping off the screen. This means it’s easier to read and use the watch, especially for those who are switching from older models with smaller displays.
Samsung Z Flip 7 Durability Test
One of the cool innovations on the Series 10 display is the use of Wide-angle OLED technology. This technology makes the screen appear up to 40 percent brighter when you look at the watch from the side. This feature, which Apple has mastered, is much more practical than you might think. This feature makes it much easier to see at a glance. You no longer have to raise your wrist to see the time or a notification. A quick glance, even when you’re typing or on the steering wheel, is enough to see everything clearly. The Apple Watch Series 10 has an LTPO3 display panel that allows it to reduce the refresh rate in Always-On Display (AOD) mode to 1 Hz (that’s once per second). This technical advancement has a very cool result: for the first time, the seconds hand on watch faces moves very smoothly and continuously even in the low-power AOD mode, and you no longer have to raise your wrist to see it move. It’s a small but very cool detail that gives the Apple Watch the feel of a classic, mechanical watch and improves the user experience.
Apple Watch 10 Battery Life Review
The battery has always been the weak point of the Apple Watch, and many hoped that Apple would address it on its 10th anniversary. Apple has addressed it, but not in the way we expected. Apple has officially announced that the Apple Watch Series 10, just like the Series 9, will last up to 18 hours in normal use and up to 36 hours in Low Power Mode on a single charge. This news was disappointing to many. Instead of using the space left inside the watch to fit a larger battery, Apple made a conscious choice to slim down the watch. It was a trade-off between a sleek design and a sleek battery. But the good news is that the 18 hours Apple claims are a bit of a stretch. In real-world testing, the Apple Watch Series 10 easily lasted a full day or more (between 32 and 36 hours), which is more than enough for most users.
Apple’s strategy to make up for the lackluster battery life is to offer the fastest charging speeds in Apple Watch history. Thanks to the new charging coil design on the back of the watch, the Series 10 can charge from zero to 80 percent in just 30 minutes. This feature practically changes the way you use your watch.
With this charging speed, you no longer have to worry about tracking sleep at night. A quick 8-minute charge before bed will give you the energy needed for a full 8 hours of sleep tracking. Or you can put your watch on the charger in the morning, while you’re showering and getting ready, and use it safely for a full day. This fast speed makes that one-day battery limit largely irrelevant.
Apple Watch Series 10 Hardware Review
The beating heart of the Apple Watch Series 10 is a combination of optimized hardware and smarter software that work together to give you a smooth and efficient experience. The Apple Watch Series 10 is equipped with the next generation of Apple chips, the S10. But the cool thing is that this chip is no different in terms of processing power from the previous generation S9 chip. Both have a dual-core processor and a quad-core Neural Engine. So what’s the point of this new chip? The answer is optimization and miniaturization. The S10 chip has been redesigned to take up less space, allowing Apple to make the watch body so thin.
This shows that the Apple Watch has reached a point where just increasing the processor speed is no longer its first priority. Instead, that processing power is now spent on smarter things; like processing Siri commands completely offline and on the watch itself, flawlessly executing that cool Double Tap gesture, and a new and useful feature that removes background noise during phone calls using machine learning algorithms. It’s a shift in strategy from raw power to efficient AI.
A small but very cool feature in the Series 10 is the improved performance of the built-in speaker. For the first time in the history of the Apple Watch, you can play music and podcasts directly from the speaker of the watch itself. Before this, the speaker was only for phone calls, Siri alerts, and system sounds. This feature may not be very interesting for long listening to music, but for those times when your headphones are not with you and you want to quickly listen to a piece of a podcast or a song, it is incredibly useful and takes the watch’s independence from the iPhone one step further.
Apple Watch Series 10 UI Review
The Apple Watch Series 10 comes with the latest version of Apple’s operating system, watchOS 11, which brings a bunch of new and clever features with it. These updates show that the software focus has shifted, just like the hardware, towards intelligent data analysis.
- Vitals app: This new app shows you key health metrics you’ve measured throughout the night (like heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, and sleep duration) at a glance. More importantly, the app analyzes trends in this data and alerts you if it sees anything unusual or out of range.
- Training Load feature: This feature is especially useful for athletes. Training Load analyzes the intensity and duration of your workouts over time and tells you if you’re overtraining and at risk of injury, or if your workouts aren’t working out enough to make progress.
Smart Stack: This feature, which was introduced in the previous generation, has gotten smarter in watchOS 11, automatically displaying widgets related to what you’re doing based on time, location, and activity. For example, if you’re traveling to a foreign country, the Translate app widget will automatically appear at the top of the list.
Apple Watch Series 10 Health Features and Sensors Review
Apple has been transforming the Apple Watch from a basic gadget into a powerful health assistant for years, and the Series 10 continues that trend by introducing a vital new feature and inheriting several sensors from the Ultra model.
Without a doubt, the most exciting new health feature on the Apple Watch Series 10 is the ability to detect symptoms of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a serious breathing disorder in which a person repeatedly stops and starts breathing during sleep, and many people who have it are unaware of it. This new feature uses accelerometer data to track movements related to breathing patterns, which can detect signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea.
If your watch detects these symptoms over a 30-day period, it will send you a notification and, more importantly, generate a full PDF report that you can share with your doctor for a definitive diagnosis. This feature, which has also received FDA approval, is a huge leap forward for the Apple Watch. It no longer just collects data, but with intelligent analysis, it has become a screening and early warning tool that can save lives.
The Apple Watch Series 10 inherits two important sensors directly from its bigger and bolder brother, the Apple Watch Ultra: a depth sensor and a water thermometer. These sensors allow the watch to measure water depth up to 6 meters and water temperature when swimming or snorkeling. These features may not be necessary for everyone, but they make the Series 10 a much more attractive option for those who love water sports and reduce the gap between the standard model and the Ultra model.
One of the most controversial stories about the new Apple Watch is the story of the oxygen sensor in the house. Due to a lawsuit and patent lawsuit from Masimo, Apple has been forced to disable the blood oxygen measurement feature in the new models it sells in the US through software. This means that the sensor is hardware-wise on the watch, but the app doesn’t work. For users outside the US, the feature is still enabled and working.
Contrary to rumors, the other main sensors in the Apple Watch Series 10 haven’t received any major hardware upgrades. The ECG sensor and body temperature sensor (which are mostly used to check women’s menstrual cycles and estimate ovulation) are the same third-generation sensors that were also in the Series 9.
But the biggest absence of this generation was the blood pressure monitor. There were rumors that this feature would be added, but it seems that Apple ran into a problem during testing and delayed its release. The absence of this sensor was the biggest disappointment for those who were waiting for a revolution in Apple Watch health sensors, and now all hope is gone for the next generation, the Apple Watch Series 11.
Is the Apple Watch Series 10 worth buying?
Now that we’ve thoroughly explored the Apple Watch Series 10, we come to the main question: Is this watch worth buying? The answer to this question depends on who you are and what watch you’re wearing right now.
In short, the Apple Watch Series 10 is a great product with some definite strengths and a few weaknesses to consider.
Key strengths of the Apple Watch 10:
- Design: Extremely thin, light, and comfortable, especially for 24-hour use and sleep tracking.
- Display: The largest, brightest, and most vibrant display ever on an Apple Watch with great visibility from any angle.
- Charging: The charging speed is a great deal that makes up for the regular battery.
- New features: Sleep apnea detection is a lifesaver, and streaming music directly from the speaker is also a useful feature.
Apple Watch 10 Weaknesses and Things That Haven’t Changed: - Battery Life: Still about a day old and not much better.
- SpO2 Sensor: Not available in the US market due to legal issues.
Other Sensors: No improvements in ECG and temperature sensors, and the blood pressure sensor is sorely missed.
With these things in mind, we can see who the Apple Watch Series 10 is worth buying: - If you have an Apple Watch Series 4, 5, 6, or SE: Don’t hesitate for a moment and go buy the Series 10 right now! Upgrading to this model is like entering a new world. From the much larger, always-on display to the faster processor, newer sensors (ECG, body temperature), and Series 10-specific features, everything is a big and exciting generational leap for you.
- If you have an Apple Watch Series 7, 8, or 9: The story is a little more complicated for you. Your watch is still a very stealthy device, and with the watchOS 11 update, it’s getting a bunch of the new software features from the Series 10. If a thinner design, more comfort, super-fast charging, and a slightly larger display are important to you, the upgrade could be tempting. Otherwise, you can probably safely skip this generation and wait for the Apple Watch Series 11 and its likely bigger improvements.
If you have an Apple Watch Ultra: It depends on why you bought the Ultra. If you bought it for the big screen and stealth features, the Apple Watch Series 10, with its larger display and much lighter, more comfortable body, could be a tempting option. But if the Ultra’s multi-day battery life is your top priority, don’t even think about the Series 10 and stick with that behemoth on your wrist.
If you’re buying an Apple Watch for the first time: If money isn’t an issue for you, the Apple Watch Series 10 is the best, most complete, and most beautiful standard Apple Watch Apple has ever made, and is undoubtedly the best choice to start your adventure in the world of Apple wearables.
