Apple Watch Series 10 review – bigger screen, thinner, lighter and better

It’s 10 years since the first Apple Watch and it has come a long way. The Apple Watch Series 10 is the culmination of a decade of improvement and the device has become an indispensable part of life for millions of users.

Tech Guide has been using Apple Watch Series 10 for a couple of weeks.

It is thinner and lighter but also now includes the largest display of any Apple Watch.

At just 9.7mm you can notice the lower profile when it’s on your wrist and that larger display at 46mm (it’s also available in 42mm) means you can view more information at once and have a larger view of regular of things like your timers, fitness trackers, heart rate and much more.

Compared to Series 7, 8 and 9 it is 7 per cent larger than the 45mm case and 9 per cent bigger than the 41mm case.

But not only is the screen larger, it is also brighter and easier to read when viewed at an angle.

This is thanks to a new wide angle OLED display which improves visibility and readability when viewed off centre.

We found this helpful when trying to catch a glance of the watch even when it was by our side or in our lap and while exercising.

The time and anything else we had on the screen was always easy to read.

The wide angle OLED display uses new LTPO3 technology which makes it more power efficient than previous models and enables Series 10 to have a faster 1Hz display refresh rate in Always On mode.

What does this mean? For the first time on Apple Watch you can see a ticking second hand in Always On because the screen updates once a second instead of once a minute.

Now you can see a ticking second hand on number of the watch faces including the new Reflections and Flux watch faces.

To achieve the thinner profile, Apple redesigned the chip, shrunk the digital crown internally by 1mm and redesigned the speaker to be 30 per cent smaller without compromising audio quality.

In fact, that speaker is loud and clear enough for you to use it to listen to music, a podcast or an audiobook.

The Apple Watch Series 10 aluminium cases also weighs 10 per cent less than last year’s model with the titanium cases weighing 20 per cent less than stainless steel.

Apple Watch Series 10 also has a new metal back that integrates the cellular antenna into the case.

This compression also contributes to the thinner design.

For our review, we looked at the Apple Watch Series 10 with jet black aluminium – this is the first time Apple has produced this glossy aluminium finish and it looks great.

Apple is also offering polished titanium which replaces the stainless steel models of previous generations.

If you love hitting the water, then the Apple Watch Series 10 is a good fit.

It now has a new depth gauge which can measure down to 6m which is ideal if you’re snorkelling, shallow diving or just taking a swim.

The depth app, which was already included with the Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2, shows users the time, current depth, water temperature, how long you have been underwater and the maximum depth.

And this can be activated as soon as Apple Watch senses that you’re in the water.

watchOS11 also features a new Tides app which gives you hourly reports over a seven day period for shorelines around the world.

The Workout app can keep track of even more workout types so you can monitor your distances and include route maps.

Training load is a new way to see how your workouts are impacting your body and can tell you when you need to ease off, stay the same or ramp things up.

On the health and wellness side, the Vitals app can measure key metrics while you’re sleeping including things like heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen and sleep duration.

This way users can see any changes and access relevant information to understand if they’re linked to other aspects of your life including caffeine, alcohol medication, elevation changes and strenuous exercise.

Onboard is the ECG app and heart health notifications for unusually high or low heart rates and their regular heart rhythms.

Safety features also include Fall Detection which uses the onboard gyroscope and accelerometer which can tell if you’ve had a fall and, if you remain motionless for longer than a minute, it will contact emergency services.

Crash Detection works in a similar way and can detect if you’ve been in a severe car crash and automatically dial emergency services if you don’t respond.

Another feature we like is the faster charging thanks to a larger and more efficient charging coil.

Now you can get back to 80 per cent charge in 30 minutes.

This is handy for those users who wear their Apple Watch to monitor their sleep.

Now when they get out of bed, they can recharge their Apple Watch completely even faster.

There was a day when, for some reason, the battery ran down pretty quickly and we had to charge it again in the afternoon.

Apart from that one time, Apple Watch Series 10 has easily lasted the entire day and night.

Apple Watch Series 10 is available now and starts at $649.

It is available in two new finishes – aluminium (silver, jet black and rose gold) and polished titanium (natural, gold and slate).

VERDICT

The Apple Watch Series 10 is the best model Apple has released – it has a bigger screen, thinner and lighter design and now has an even more refined design. Throw in the health, wellness and fitness features, faster charging and wide selection of apps and you can’t go wrong.