Apple Watch Series 6 + WatchOS 7 Review (vs Series 3, 5 + SE) | Which Should You Buy? By InsideTech

The latest generation of Apple Watch is now here and just like last year's model. The new series 6 brings only a small handful of changes. One of those is related to the accessories, which is why I'm starting this review by showing you the unboxing, because for the first time ever Apple Watch no longer ships with the USB wall adapter. This 5 watt adapter, is what all previous Apple Watch models have shipped with, but in an effort to reduce the more than 50 million metric tons of e-waste we produced last year, this will no longer ship in the box and I think that's absolutely the right decision since you're watching this YouTube video right now. You almost certainly already have the means to charge the Apple Watch from one of a plethora of other USB sources, ranging from the wall adapter that came with your phone to the USB port on your computer and beyond. The fact is that households just don't need yet another USB power adapter and the only essential part to charging Apple Watch.

The magnetic cable still comes in the box. This change comes as part of a wider movement for apple to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of more recycled materials in the manufacturing process. So it's good to see apple, making some positive strides towards creating a more eco-friendly product in this video, we'll be assessing all the new features of the series. Six, and also discussing how this compares to the rest of apple's lineup, including the new Apple Watch. Se, to help you decide which one is right for you.

This is the new Apple Watch Series 6. Let's take a look for this review I'll, be showcasing one of the series 6's new finishes, as I have here, the graphite stainless steel model, which has a slightly lighter appearance than the space black model of last year. Apple also introduced new aluminum cases with blue and product red finishes. Alongside some new straps like the solo loop and braided solo loop, I'm also wearing one of the new sports bands, and this cypress screen is much darker than the cactus screen that was available last year, which, incidentally, matches much more closely with the midnight green iPhone 11 Pro the Apple Watch. Design is largely unchanged from last year, with the same button and mic placement, the same screen sizes and the same materials used.

The displays appear to be identical too, but in fact the series 6 now has a two and a half times brighter, always on display for when the watch is dimmed. What this means is that when you're using the watch, you don't notice a big difference, but the series 6 is now much brighter in the always on display mode. So the time your workout metrics and other information is now more visible without you needing to wake the watch. This seemingly minor change was actually one of apple's main talking points during the launch event. But, what's perhaps more impressive, is that they've managed to achieve this without compromising on the battery life? Tear downs have now shown us that the new battery is indeed slightly larger, so I decided to test the series 5 and series 6, watches side by side.

The watches underwent exactly the same. Testing both were set to max brightness, received the same notifications throughout the day were worn for the same workouts and were even worn overnight as they tracked my sleep approaching the 30th hour of continuous use. You can see that the series 5 battery is just about to give up, whilst the series 6 still has a healthy, 20, remaining apple didn't claim any big gains in battery life, and I don't think you should necessarily expect this if you're coming from a series 5. But in their attempt to compensate for the brighter AOD apple, may, have inadvertently improved the battery life compared to last year, and this certainly seems to be the case based on my own testing. The watch now offers faster charging too, which is handy if you need to top up during the day and thanks to iOS 14, your iPhone will now let you know when the watch is fully charged.

The battery improvements could also be attributed to optimizations with the watch's new s6 processor, as you'd expect. This comes with some minor refinements over last year's s5 chip, but it can potentially provide an up to 20 performance boosts opening, apps and scrolling is noticeably superfast and snappy. But, to be honest, I didn't notice a drastic difference compared to the series 5. And I think a lot of the speed boost is actually due to optimizations in watchOS 7, which of course, is also available on older devices like the series 5. What was more interesting to me is that the new watches gain the u1 chip that we first saw introduced with the iPhone 11.

The chip uses ultra-wide band technology for spatial awareness and will likely become very important for upcoming features like digital car keys and precise tracking you'll also notice that Apple Watch 6 has a redesigned back and that's to accommodate the watch's principal new feature. Monitoring of your blood oxygen saturation levels, four led clusters and four photodiodes combine to produce visible and infrared light that shines onto the blood vessels in your wrist. Using the amount of light reflected back, the photodiodes and new algorithms can then measure the amount of oxygen in your blood. This, combined with the ECG app, is part of apple's movement to make Apple Watch a more capable health and fitness tracker. You need to make sure your watch strap, is secured tightly and to keep your arm still, ideally on a flat surface in order to attain a successful measurement.

So far, I've found taking measurements a bit temperamental and though the tech is impressive, I'm not confident the results are ever truly precise, as dave2d has already pointed out. This part of your wrist isn't an ideal place to take your blood ox measurement anyway, and for me personally, this isn't a feature I'll often be using after the novelty of this cool new app wears off. We've already seen reports of the ECG function helping to save people's lives and though I don't think the blood oxygen feature will have as significant an impact. It may be useful if you're concerned that your measurements are too low and would therefore want to consult a medical professional. I can also see it being interesting to compare to your usual levels at the summit of a high altitude hike, so the feature does have some merit beyond simply a fun.

Gimmick, however, Apple makes it very clear that this isn't intended to be used for medical purposes and that it's more of a general fitness and well-being monitor. For this reason, I could happily take or leave Apple Watch's biggest new feature, and I don't think this is a reason for series 5 owners to be jealous speaking of altitude. The series 6 also introduces an always-on altimeter, which continuously tracks elevation changes in real time both indoors and outdoors. This is just a minor new addition that makes metrics a little more precise for tracking your workouts and builds on the compass feature that the series 5 introduced. The always-on nature of the feature also means that you can add a complication to a watch face for real-time elevation tracking without needing to go into the compass app and that's it.

Those few features we've covered are everything: that's new with Apple Watch Series 6, which really highlights the fact that this is just a minor iteration of last year's model. The rest of the new features are actually baked into the software in watchOS 7 and aren't exclusive to the new series 6. One of those I briefly mentioned earlier is sleep tracking, which has previously been one of the most sought after Apple Watch features. When you go to bed, the watch can automatically turn on do not disturb and prevent the screen from waking by raising your wrist. This even sets a custom lock screen for your phone and alongside bedtime, reminders and the wind down and wake up features.

The sleep app is designed to help you prepare for and enjoy a good night's sleep Apple Watch uses its accelerometer to notice the subtle movements associated with breathing and to differentiate between sleeping and waking states. The watch gives you an overview of your sleep data, and you can use your iPhone to manage the sleep schedule and view your sleeping trends. Sleep tracking isn't an exclusive feature, but the series 6 has been designed to accommodate new watch. Os features like this, for example, by improving battery life and providing faster charging, so those who are tracking their daily and sleep activity are more easily able to top up the battery. In brief stints, during the day I personally tested using the watch continuously tracking my activities in the day and my sleep during the night, and though it's not ideal, it is definitely possible to adapt to charging the watch in shorter spells.

If you don't have time to fully charge in one go, I can imagine that this impracticality will invite some complaints, and I'd be the first to advocate for further improvements to battery life. But at the same time, if you really want to wear your watch throughout the entire day and night, I think you've got to accept that it will be harder to find time to charge the watch. This is probably the biggest new watch OS 7 feature, but it also brings smaller changes like adding four new workouts to the fitness app, which has been redesigned alongside the iPhone app for a new way to view your trends and activity. Siri gets some improvements too, with spoken translations and new Siri shortcuts. Dictation is now processed on the watch itself, so requests are faster and more reliable, especially with the power of the new series.6 watches the new handwashing feature can automatically detect when you're washing your hands, based on the sound and your movement and then start a 20-second countdown timer it'll encourage you to keep going if it detects you've stopped too early and can even remind you to wash your hands when you get home with the current global situation. This feature is clearly very timely, and I think for kids, especially it's a fun way to encourage you to wash your hands properly.

But those of you who follow me on Twitter already know my thoughts about this feature, and I ended up turning it off after finding. You need to overemphasize gestures, to trigger it and did often think I'd stopped before I actually had nice idea apple, but it's not for me. Watch OS 7 brings new watch faces too, including more app specific faces that are tailored with custom complications to certain activities, for example, for photography and for gazing at stars. You can easily share any watch faces with friends directly from the watch and with the new emoji app you can create and share custom emoji based watch faces and stickers. Family setup is an interesting new addition too, which lets you set up.

Other apple watches for those who don't have their own iPhone and for those setting up the watches for kids. There are new school modes rules and limitations. You can implement to help manage your family's watches. One change I really don't like about the new OS is the removal of all force touch gestures, since the new replacement gestures are generally slower and more cumbersome. We saw apple phase this out with the iPhones last year, but on the Apple Watch.

This has been a really useful and sensible feature to have teardowns have shown that the force touch ring has been removed from the series 6. So there's not even a hope of the feature. Returning watch OS 7 is available for all watches, dating back to the series 3 and is compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 14. Some features are restricted to certain devices, but all are available on the new series.6. overall Apple Watch Series 6 builds on an already fantastic smartwatch, bringing just a handful of small but handy new features to increase apple's, already extensive lead over the competition.

The new blood oxygen sensors and always on altimeter expand Apple Watch's capabilities as a health and fitness tracker, which may be especially appealing to those looking forward to apple's upcoming fitness plus service. The new Apple Watch is simply the best smartwatch you can buy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that this is the one you should this table here summarizes the major new features introduced with each generation and, as you can see, there have really just been minor additions since the major redesign with the series 4. The series 3, is now the only Apple Watch available sporting, the old design, with the smaller screen, which I think makes it suitable only for those who are on a tight budget and need just the basic Apple Watch features. As for the other watches, I think the always on display is the only major feature you need to take into consideration and if you need to have this in your watch, you've got to get either a series 5 or 6. The rest of the feature.

Differences for me at least, are largely non-essential. The battery and performance differences aren't so substantial, and all three series have the new larger screen design the ECG feature and full detection. So it's really going to be down to price as to which will be the best to go for and since Apple have discontinued, the series 4 and 5. This will be down to the third party retailers available in your region. Those with an aging series 3 should consider the new series 6, but anyone who currently has a series, 4 or 5 definitely doesn't need to upgrade, but there's one final option to consider, because apple this year have introduced a new type of Apple Watch altogether.

Inspired by the iPhone series, the new Apple Watch. Se takes the design of the series 4 and the power of the series 5 but misses out on a few of the newer features in order to keep the cost down Apple Watch. Se doesn't come with the ECG, the new blood oxygen sensors or an always on display and like the series 3, it's only available in aluminum and not one of the luxury metal finishes. It still has useful health features like heart rate, tracking and fall detection, and it even gains the new always on altimeter of the series 6. And for me this makes it easily the best value Apple Watch in the lineup.

For anyone considering the cheaper series, 3 I'd highly recommend you stretch for the SE, if you can, which offers a significant improvement in design features and performance. I'd even recommend the Apple Watch. Se ahead of the new series 6. , since most of the extra features are superfluous and is only the always on display that I think might be a dealbreaker. Having said that, the prospect of potential future applications is greater with the series 6, since it has apple's u1 chip plus, you might be enticed by the greater durability of the stainless steel and titanium models, which are also only available with the series 6.

So those looking to buy for the long term should consider this too still at a starting price of 279 Apple Watch. Se is by far my favorite Apple Watch of the current lineup, but which Apple Watch do you think, offers the best value for money, and how do you feel about apple, removing the wall adapter from the box? Let me know in the comment section which watch you'll be buying and feel free to ask any questions about the watches and if you should upgrade apple fans, stay tuned, since my iPhone 12 reviews are coming very soon, but for now. Thank you all very much for watching, and I'll see you all in the next one.

Source : InsideTech