Apple Watch Series 10 Review: 2 Months Later

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83%

83%

• Design & Comfort

  9
• Display

  10
• Features

  10
• Battery

  5
• Power

  9
• Value For Money

  7
• User Ratings (7 Votes)
  4.9

I’ve been using the jet black Apple Watch Series 10 for two months now. It has remained on my wrist for most of that time, save the odd weekend when I fancied breaking out the far more lovely Huawei Watch Ultimate.

I’m pretty sure this means I’m a proper Apple Watch user again – albeit one who occasionally sneaks away for some illicit weekend fun with the better-looking model.

This has left me in a quandary over my opinion of the Apple Watch. To clarify, I’m a long-term Apple Watch user and fan; I was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon back in 2015. The problem is that Apple’s wearable hasn’t really changed in that time.

It hasn’t. There have been updates to the design and watchOS, but it’s ostensibly the same device. A bit like the iPhone. And the Mac. It’s what Apple does, right?

The question is: do I still love the Apple Watch, or has it simply turned into a necessity?

My 2024 smartwatch journey

Let’s run through the smartwatches I’ve used this year.

The Garmin MARQ Commander spent the longest period on my wrist in 2024. It’s a brilliantly silly and crazily expensive (to the tune of about £2,600) military-influenced watch which really looks the part. It’s also a Garmin, which means it’s the watch of choice for proper fitness people.

Oh, and if you want to jump out of a plane, it’ll also monitor that ‘workout’. I just wish it didn’t have the infuriating bug that occasionally resulted in completely freezing and needing a reboot.

The Huawei Watch Fit 3 looks every bit the Apple Watch competitor – literally. Only, it costs £139.99 and offers up to ten days of battery life. It doesn’t feel any different or low-powered compared to the iPhone, either. Crazy good value for money.

The OnePlus Watch 2R was my first introduction to that brand’s take on the smartwatch and it was a solid performer with ‘take me anywhere’ good looks. Once again, battery life for the Watch 2R over the Apple Watch was an immediate knock-out awarded to the OnePlus wearable.

Next, I tried the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, which looks nothing like the Apple Watch Ultra yet somehow drew a huge amount of criticism online for alleged copycat antics. Ironically – and in my humble opinion – it’s a better consumer-focused ‘ultra’ watch compared to Apple’s effort, and that’s saying something. It’s just a shame it suffers from the same sub-par battery performance as the Apple Watch Ultra.

Lastly, and most recently, I gave Huawei’s latest flagship smartwatches a thorough testing. The Watch GT5 Pro and Watch Ultimate are superb timepieces with incredible battery life. They also look utterly lovely on my wrist and are as big and chunky as I like my watches to be.

Mark my words – after my experiences with that lot, the Apple Watch Series 10 had an awful lot to live up to.

Apple Watch Series 10 design

During the iPhone 16 event, Apple proudly revealed that the Apple Watch Series 10 was the thinnest Apple Watch they’d ever designed – and the lightest. To be more specific, it is 10% thinner than the Series 9 yet features a display that is up to 30% bigger than previous generations.

Apple has achieved this by reducing the size of several internal components, including the SIP (the chip), the speaker setup, and the digital crown.

That display is impressive, on paper. It’s the first-ever wide-angle OLED display, and although very few people seem to know what that means, it has resulted in an Apple Watch that can be viewed perfectly from very tight angles, without any loss of brightness. It does work, and the 2,000 nits of peak brightness means that the Series 10 is never going to struggle in direct sunlight.

As noted earlier, I like big, chunky watches. It should therefore come as no surprise that I was a bit disappointed after first placing the Series 10 on my wrist. It looked tiny in comparison to the Huawei flagships I’d been wearing, and the switch from a circular to square face was jarring.

However, it is undeniably light and comfortable as a result. The Series 10 also sits far closer to your skin, thanks to repositioned lugs for the strap connections.

This is a refined take on the Apple Watch – it certainly isn’t the all-encompassing reimagining that some people were hoping for from the tenth anniversary of Apple’s wearable.

Performance and battery life

There’s a new chip inside the Series 10, conveniently called the S10. Apple didn’t spend long on the performance upgrades, instead choosing to reveal how the S10 significantly improves AI and machine learning features on the new Apple Watch.

That would be exciting, if, at the time of writing, we had any idea of whether or not the forthcoming Apple Intelligence platform will play with the Apple Watch (It might be here in December). For that reason, I simply cannot comment any further on the stuff that chip can allegedly do. Sorry.

When it comes to battery life, this has been my biggest bugbear having returned to the Apple Watch. I got so used to multi-day battery life on those other watches I’ve been testing that having to suddenly charge my watch every day is a real pain in the arse.

The worst thing about it is that it keeps surprising me. I’ve been wearing the Apple Watch for ten days now, and not a day has passed where I’ve not been caught out by the 10% battery remaining warning. I’ve literally just had to take it off my wrist and place it on charge while writing this review.

I don’t understand why Apple can’t achieve the same battery life in its watches as the likes of Huawei and OnePlus. Garmin watches aren’t really comparable due to their pared-down nature, but the others are. They feel like Apple watches to use, and offer all of the same key functionality.

Why can’t Apple do it?

The good news for Apple is that the frustrating battery life you have to endure with the Apple Watch is still offset by its party trick.

What I love about the Apple Watch Series 10

There’s one thing you can say without doubt about the Apple Watch – it just works. This is Apple’s unofficial strapline, and it’s something its best products do without hesitation, crashing, or any form of weirdness.

I’d go as far as to say that the Apple Watch is the epitome of this. You put it on your wrist and it tells the time, tracks your health and fitness metrics, and delivers notifications from your phone. Bosh. It’s also super easy to navigate around the interface, and everything responds in a buttery-smooth fashion.

The new display is great, too. It’s massive. It’s bright. And it sits within a frame that is finally as thin as a square smartwatch should be.

The Apple Watch Series 10 also sits beautifully within the Apple ecosystem, obviously. Still, the single most important aspect of that from my perspective is the way it authenticates stuff on my Mac. It unlocks it and prevents me from having to type in my password whenever I do anything that requires it. It’s the ultimate convenience. It just works.

That’s it. I stared for quite a long time at my bullet-point list of stuff I love about the Apple Watch Series 10, and I couldn’t think of anything else. Equally, apart from the display, everything I’ve mentioned can be applied to virtually every Apple Watch ever made.

What I don’t love about the Apple Watch Series 10

The main thing I love about the Apple Watch is also its Achilles heel. It never crashes or does weird stuff. But it also never really tempts me to explore its depths any further, because it does the normal stuff so well.

This is absolutely on me, but I’m afraid I simply forget that it can do other stuff. I don’t even know what that other stuff is – I’ve long forgotten the updates Apple has made to watchOS over the last few years. I bet you have, too.

Why is this an issue? It adds a layer of normality to what was once a very exciting product. Now, it’s just the most reliable smartwatch on the market.

Battery life is a pain. Yes, it charges super quickly, and while that might be the saving grace, I feel like I have to charge my Apple Watch all of the time. Because I do. Compared to Android-based smartwatches, the Apple Watch has pathetic stamina, and I still cannot understand why; the competing watches I’ve used do everything the Apple Watch does but many of them last for close to a week. I don’t understand it, at all.

I prefer circular watches – always have. The Apple Watch Series 10 might be beautifully thin, but its square form factor gives it an air of 1990s Casio, and I’m not really here for that anymore.

The ecosystem

There are some new features Apple has thrown in that deserve a mention.

If you’ve suspected you might have sleep apnea (or your partner has long been badgering you to get it checked out) you’ll be glad (possibly) to hear that the Series 10 is capable of tracking the condition. Although not as good as a doctor’s diagnosis, it can detect signs of potential sleep apnea and alert you accordingly. I love how Apple keeps building this health-conscious stuff into its products.

There’s also a depth gauge in the Series 10 which has been cheekily swiped from the Apple Watch Ultra. So, if you go swimming or undertake any kind of mild diving activities, you’ll have a lovely readout of what’s going on down there, on your wrist.

Lastly, a new translation app could prove useful when travelling in foreign countries, although I have yet to give it a proper test.

Let’s get back to that good news for Apple.

As noted, I’m less than keen on the design of the Apple Watch these days, and I can’t stand the battery life. Thankfully, those two issues are almost made irrelevant due to… you guessed it – the ecosystem.

Just like every Apple product these days, the walled garden within which the Apple Watch Series 10 sits means it offers functionality that proves genuinely useful if you’re Apple’d up elsewhere in your life. It unlocks your Mac or MacBook and authenticates stuff in macOS, it connects immediately and without hassle to your AirPods, it takes whatever it is your iPhone is doing and converts it into wrist-friendly information and input. It’s even a brilliant remote control for your Apple TV.

Love it or loathe it this is what Apple does best. The teams behind this stuff are smart; they know hardware design and computing power has plateaued. To counter that and make customers as sticky as possible, the software and interoperability between devices need to be seamless, intuitive, and obvious.

Every time I look at my Apple Watch Series 10, it’s doing or displaying something predictable, based on whatever it is I’m up to. Very few – if any – other brands and platforms do this as well as Apple.

Should you buy the Apple Watch Series 10?

If you have an older Apple Watch, there has never been a better time to buy an Apple Watch. I think I’ve said this a lot about Apple recently – its products have, clearly, reached peak performance, design, and value for money.

If you’re an iPhone user who is thinking about getting into the smartwatch game for the first time, I’d recommend comparing the Apple Watch Series 10 with the competition. There’s a lot of it, and much of it is better. Unless you’re an ecosystem person, in which case, just get the Apple Watch.

If battery life is a major concern, get something else. Seriously. Watches from Huawei, OnePlus, and Garmin will smash the Apple Watch sideways when it comes to how long they can remain off the charger. Those who travel a lot or who just can’t be bothered with daily charging will get fed up with the Apple Watch’s charging routine.

If you’re a serious fitness person – get a Garmin.

Flirting with the Samsung Galaxy Smart Ring

The normality of the Apple Watch has tempted me to look at other watches this year, as noted previously, but it has also prompted me to give smart rings a try.

The most recent piece of tech I’ve wrapped around my finger, and reviewed, is the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

It’s great. I think it looks nice, using it for sleep tracking is far more comfortable than any watch, and Samsung’s Health app is superb for people like me who want dumbed-down health feedback.

The problem with smart rings like the Galaxy Ring is that you forget to charge them, all the time. Sure, the battery lasts a week, but the absence of a display or any form of visible battery level while on your finger means you have to remember to check the app, or build some form of charging routine into your life. I’m incapable of sticking to either of those things. The only saving grace for the Galaxy Ring is the brilliant little charging case.

I can’t think of a reason why you’d have a smartwatch and a smart ring, but if the former is something you’re either uninterested in or bored of, I recommend checking these rings out.

Conclusion

The Apple Watch Series 10 is the best version of the Apple Watch because of course it is.

Happily, this means it’s the best time to buy one if you’ve had your eye on Apple’s wearable for a while. Certainly, those with older versions which are displaying the telltale signs of needing to be replaced (usually related to battery) needn’t wait. Just buy it.

Just don’t expect massive changes beyond the bigger, brighter display. The overall experience of the Apple Watch Series 10 is what it has been for many years.

For me, that’s both great and a bit… dull.

That said, we probably need smartwatches that ‘just work’, right? Right?

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