Apple Watch Series 11 review: More of the same, but better!
Were you to sit the Apple Watch Series 11 on a table beside the Series 10 and the Series 9 and probably the Series 8, you would be hard-pressed to spot the difference. You can imagine a row of watches overlaid on the famous meme from the American version of The Office: “Corporate needs you to find the difference between this picture and this picture… They’re the same picture.”
But Apple has been steadily building its category-defining smart watch into an indispensable companion for iPhone users, with features spanning health, fitness, sleep tracking, personal assisting, remote controlling and a million other functions that insinuate themselves into your life. Who has time to get their phone out to swipe through the barriers on the Underground? Who wants to boot up their laptop every time they misplace their phone? Who carries a compass with them? Hell, this thing even tells the time!
The big selling point here is improved battery life, with between 9-11 per cent extra juice depending on whether you go for the 42mm or 46mm version. Apple now advertises 24 hours of battery with normal use, which is an impressive milestone. In reality, you get even more: I hit a day and a half with admittedly fairly light use. This makes it viable as a sleep tracker, so long as you adapt your charging schedule; I took to wearing it through the day and night and charging it when I arrive at the office, when the last thing I need is more evidence of people trying to get in touch with me. If you can remember to charge “little and often” you can essentially wear it around the clock, chucking it on charge for half an hour when it’s running low (30 minutes will get you from zero-80 per cent battery, with an hour required for a full charge).
The other major upgrade is the new strengthened glass screen on the aluminium models (titanium remains the same), which is twice as scratch resistant as the previous iteration – a major improvement given you’ll undoubtedly be catching it on things as you go about your daily life (and using a screen protector isn’t really an option).
Elsewhere you now have support for 5G connectivity, dragging the Apple Watch kicking and screaming into the 2020s. How much use you’ll get from this feature will vary; for dedicated runners who don’t want to be weighed down by their iPhone, I can see this being an attractive upgrade.
I do wonder whether Apple really needs to stick to its rigid NEW WATCH EVERY YEAR release schedule, given the incremental improvements they tend to yield (the Apple AirPods Pro were recently updated after three years, which felt about right). If you have a recent Apple Watch, you can happily wait another cycle without missing out on a killer feature. But if you’re new to the category, the Series 11 is absolutely the place you want to start looking, and if your Series 8 or earlier is starting to look a little bashed up, this will make a fine upgrade.