Apple Watch Series 10 Review: Is the Latest Model Worth the Money?

Apple Watch Series 10 Design

Apart from the Apple Watch Ultra, all Apple Watches have a recognizable industrial design. A rectangle with rounded corners, with a digital crown on the right edge. But a lot has changed over the years. Not only the size of the display, but also the curvature of the front glass, the shape of the buttons, the size of the speaker.

While this year’s look is clearly based on the same material, this fourth, distinct design is the most successful yet, offering a thinner-than-ever profile and lower weight.

The other big change is the material used in the case. Previously, all Apple Watches had a ceramic back. That was replaced with metal. While aluminum has always been the metal in the case of the cheapest Apple Watches, and still is, the next step was previously stainless steel. The cases of the premium editions of the Apple Watch have been made of gold, ceramic, and titanium over the years.

This year, polished titanium replaces stainless steel, offering something gorgeous yet lightweight. Three colors are available: gold, natural, and slate gray. All look sumptuous and inviting.

The more affordable aluminum has also been refreshed with a casing that Apple says has been polished with nanoparticles, whatever that means, and anodized. It looks great, too.

Apple Watch Series 10 Display

The 10 Series has all-new OLED display technology that’s designed to be easier to read from a wider angle, and it’s also brighter when you’re looking at it at an angle (like when you’re discreetly glancing at your wrist on your lap during a boring business meeting).

Another screen technology is more power-efficient, so when the Always-On display is in standby mode and the screen is dimmer but still visible, it updates every second instead of once a minute, so the second hand still ticks on some new watch faces. One is called “reflections,” a classic-looking face based on traditional watch faces. It’s easy to customize and has a beautiful shine.

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Speaking of watch faces, I love the Wayfinder watch face that’s exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2. It’s one of the main things I miss about the Series 10. Now that the displays are the same size, I hope there’s no reason Apple can’t bring it to the Series 10.

There’s also the new Flux dial, a striking digital dial where the seconds are represented by a rising line that changes color and appears as minutes filling the screen.

Apple Watch Series 10 Health Features

The big news is monitoring for sleep apnea, a condition that Apple says affects more than 1 billion people worldwide, four-fifths of whom are undiagnosed. In order for the Watch to detect whether you have sleep apnea, you have to wear it while you sleep, and it analyzes the results every 30 days. The Watch hasn’t been out long enough at the time of writing, but it’s a simple system to set up. I can’t wait to see what it says.

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It joins a raft of other health features that make the Apple Watch stand out. It can track your sleep, perform an ECG, and notify loved ones or emergency services if you fall and can’t get up. It can also notify you if it repeatedly notices your heart rate is surprisingly high or low. And then there’s blood oxygen monitoring. Last year, a patent dispute forced Apple to disable this metric, but only for Apple Watches sold in the US, so watches bought in the UK still have this handy feature.

Apple Watch Series 10 Apps, Performance, and Battery Life

The 10 Series is fast and fluid, apps open quickly, and key elements like Apple Pay work reliably. There’s now a new Translate app that lets you say a phrase in one language and hear it spoken and seen written in another. It’s concise and effective, with a range of languages ​​available for download.

Depth is an app that was already available on the Apple Watch Ultra and is now available on the 10 series. When you’re underwater, it tells you how deep you are (whether it’s “Oh, almost two metres in your local pool, or a whopping twenty metres, the maximum depth). It can start automatically when it detects water. It can also measure the water temperature – although dipping your toe before diving in is still a good idea. The new Tides app, along with third-party apps like Oceanic+ and Paddle Logger, suggest that Apple wants us all to get in the water, one way or another.

Then there’s Vitals, a new app that measures key health metrics during sleep, including blood oxygenation, heart rate, wrist temperature, and sleep duration. It’s a nifty app that provides useful information. It needs seven sleep sessions before it gives results, so I’ll have to talk about that again.

Read more: Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 Review

For features like sleep apnea monitoring, you also need to wear the watch at night. Battery life on the Series 10 is the same as previous watches, which is good for a day, but not much more.

This time around, Apple has introduced much faster charging. This means that if your watch’s battery is low when you go to bed, you can charge it for eight minutes to get enough sleep monitoring for eight hours.

Previously, it took 45 minutes to charge to 80 percent, now it takes half an hour. Apple says the larger charging coil makes it the fastest-charging Apple Watch ever.