The new Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale but won’t ship to customers until this Friday, September 20. But on Tuesday, the embargo on early reviews was lifted and published online. The first impression from those reviews is that the Series 10 is another solid offering from Apple.
The Verge’s Victoria Song usually wears an Apple Watch Ultra 2 because of its larger display, but she found that with the Series 10, she doesn’t miss the Ultra 2. “Ultimately, the Series 10 is a sleeker, more wearable Ultra,” Song said. Song also likes the slimmer profile: “It fits easily under jacket lapels, doesn’t catch on straps during my Pilates class, and doesn’t slide up and down my arm when I’m running.” Song notes that the new sleep apnea detection feature requires a longer testing period, but she said, “I prefer this implementation over Samsung’s, which only evaluates two nights of sleep data at a time.”
Cnet’s Lexy Savvides points out that “the wide-angle OLED makes the display brighter when you’re looking at it at an angle, like when it’s idle.” Savvides also tested the new voice isolation feature in the noisiest location she could find, and it worked great. “It’s reassuring to know that even if you find yourself using the watch to make a call from a very noisy location, like a concert or festival, the person on the other end of the line will be able to hear you.”
Liz Plosser of Women’s Health is an Apple Watch “superuser” and shares the sentiment that it gets the “features” of the Ultra 2 without the bulk. And thanks to the battery improvements (30 minutes of charging to 80%; 8 hours of typical use on a 15-minute charge), Plosser now wears the Series 10 overnight. She recommends the silicone bands as “the most comfortable to sleep with.”
TechCrunch’s Brain Heater points out that the Series 10’s design is “refined, not reinvented. In fact, you might not notice it at first glance.” If you’re going to wear the Series 10 while you sleep, Heater says that “the Apple Watch will never outshine the Oura and other smart rings, but shrinking the product is a step in the right direction.” As for health features, “Apple is taking a step forward and a step back,” effectively replacing the blood oxygen monitor with sleep apnea detection.
YouTuber Marques Brownlee thinks the Series 10 is “definitely another incremental upgrade — now you know that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” He recommends the Series 10 to owners of the Series 7 and older. “It feels like Apple’s big statement: ‘This is the Apple Watch,’” Brownlee said, in response to the anticipation of a redesign.
Fellow YouTuber iJustine got her hands on both new watches and tested the Series 10 while paddleboarding. She then used the Ultra 2 while hiking and scuba diving. She concluded her experience by saying, “I am so impressed with Apple, how they are constantly pushing the boundaries and empowering us as consumers and everyday people to take back control of our health.”
igamesnews will publish its own review of the Apple Watch Series 10 soon. In the meantime, check out our Apple Watch superguide and our guide to everything you need to know about watchOS 11.
