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Apple Watch Series 10 review: another awesome wearable

In our Apple Watch Series 10 review, we explore whether it’s worth upgrading to the latest wearable in spite of minimal visual differences.

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the weather app

Our Verdict

The Apple Watch Series 10 is almost the perfect smartwatch, with an impeccable operating system, a beautifully thin and light design, and a big, clear screen. While iterative and not revolutionary, that doesn’t reduce its practicality. It’s a wonderfully well-rounded wearable.

Reasons to buy
  • Bigger screen
  • Excellent OS
  • Super light and comfortable
  • Variety of health features
Reasons to avoid
  • No blood oxygen readings in the USA
  • Not a major upgrade

Every year, Apple offers us a new smartwatch with a fresh design and a few new features. 2024 is no different, and the iPhone 16 launch in late September also saw the reveal of the brand’s latest wearable, the Apple Watch Series 10. So, we’ve spent the better part of the last month putting the device through its paces to see whether it’s worth upgrading to for Apple Watch users, or if you’re better off saving money and picking up last year’s Apple wearable.

In short, it’s complicated. While the Apple Watch Series 10 is mightily impressive, it’s not the sort of generational leap that makes you feel like you’ve no choice but to upgrade, despite some user-friendly upgrades and a more lightweight design. Like with its iPhones, Apple’s yearly updates aren’t revolutionary, but they’re still quality, and this latest Apple Watch is a perfect example of that. Still, with so many alternatives from Android brands on our guide to the best smartwatches, it’s also important to highlight how it compares to competitors, and that’s a different story to contrasting this year’s version against the Series 9. With that in mind, let’s get into our full review.

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Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the device leaning against a mac

Price and availability

The Apple Watch Series 10 is available directly from Apple and other retailers like Amazon and Walmart. It starts at $399 for the 42mm aluminum model and $429 for the 46mm. There’s also a more luxurious titanium model for both sizings, starting at $699 and $749, respectively. You can get all the models with cellular tech for $100 more, enabling you to connect to the internet wherever you are, even without your phone.

While you can’t upgrade the device beyond the material and cellular connectivity, you can configure different watch strap combinations that push the price upwards, including various rubber, textile, and stainless steel options. The aluminum models are available in Silver, Rose Gold, and Jet Black, the latter of which seems like a scratch magnet. Meanwhile, you can get the titanium Series 10 watch in Natural, Gold, or Slate options. The model reviewed here is the Silver aluminum 46mm model.

Specs

Here are the Apple Watch Series 10 specs:

Battery Li-Ion 327 mAh, up to 18 hours of normal use
Display LTPO3 wide‑angle OLED, 2,000 nits peak brightness, 1 nit minimum
Chipset S10 SiP with 64‑bit dual-core processor, 4‑core Neural Engine
Storage 64GB
Weight 42mm: 30/29.3 grams / 46mm: 36.4/35.3 grams
Colors Aluminum case: Jet Black, Rose Gold, Silver / Titanium case: Slate, Gold, Natural

Features and software

The Apple Watch Series 10 doesn’t feature any new health sensors, but with an electrical heart sensor, optical heart sensor, temperature sensor (outside the US), compass, always-on altimeter, high‑g accelerometer, high dynamic range gyroscope, ambient light sensor, and the new depth gauge and water temperature sensor, what else do you really need?

That’s a lot of technical information there, but what it means is you’re getting a wide range of health and fitness metrics you can track. You can take an ECG of your heart, follow your period cycles to work out when you’re ovulating, see your heart rate for any warning signs, and monitor your sleep. However, you can do all of this on the previous Apple Watch. Nothing mentioned yet is actually new.

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the reviewer using the compass function

That doesn’t diminish the benefits brought by the new watchOS. While not exclusive to the Series 10 (if you have a Series 6 or newer, you’ll get most of the watchOS 11 benefits), it’s still a big improvement over the previous generation. My favorite update is the Smart Stack, a pile of tiles that lives below the home screen. Just double-tap your fingers, spin the Digital Crown, or swipe down to see weather, fitness, or photos.

The best bit is that the Smart Stack is contextual. Every morning, I need to take some tablets around 8 am. Sure, I get a notification, but around an hour before it’s already sat in my Smart Stack. I then get ready for work, but what if it’s going to rain or there’s lots of wind? Well, the Smart Stack will automatically show me precipitation or wind speeds. Then, after work, I’m in the pub and hear a song I like. The Smart Stack knows there’s music playing and offers up Shazam, all without me asking.

When there’s nothing contextually important, it shows me things that are generally always important, and it’s great at knowing what I need when I need it. It’s one of the many ways watchOS keeps proving itself as the best wearable operating system. Yet, while an excellent new feature, it’s also coming to the last four generations of watches, so it’s not a reason to upgrade.

The same is true for Double Tap, a wonderful tool that lets you tap your fingers twice to interact with the watch. This is great when you just want to check the weather on your home screen or stop a timer while cooking with only your watch hand spare. I would always use my nose before, just swiping along the screen and looking like an idiot, so having not owned a Series 9, it’s a delightful new way to interact with my watch. But if you have a Series 9, this is nothing new.

So, what is? Well, in terms of health and fitness tracking capabilities, there’s nothing really. Beyond the new depth sensor for underwater activities, it doesn’t look like the Series 10 gets anything. One of the headline new features, sleep apnea notifications, is exciting, but also coming to the Apple Watch Series 9. So why would you get this watch?

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the device on a desk next to some keys

Well, you probably shouldn’t if you have a Series 9. There are three main upgrades to the Apple Watch Series 10: the charging, display, and weight. Let’s start with the latter: the weight drops a bit for the aluminum models, but for anyone who wants the luxury choice, the weight difference between stainless steel and titanium is big, meaning this time around the $699 option is around 10 grams lighter. But that’s the most boring of the three improvements. The biggest difference is the display.

Design and display

The “beautiful new design” of the Apple Watch Series 10 is, well, not that new. While thinner and lighter, it looks pretty much the same as the last few models. In use, however, it feels dramatically better, and much of that is down to the new display. While just as bright as before, it’s now bigger and better when viewed at an angle, making a notable difference.

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the user using the altimeter

The wide-angle OLED is 40% brighter when viewed at an angle, meaning you can easily see information on the watch when your wrist is resting on a table or the sofa. While a niche benefit, it brings another level of usability to something that needs to be easy to use. It’s a watch; I need to be able to see the time as easily as possible. Now I can.

The best aspect of the new screen, however, is its size. It’s the biggest watch display Apple offers (in the 46mm case), and it details more than enough information. The extra line of text when viewing messages or notifications, or the extra metric while working out, just reduces the amount you need to touch the device, which is ideal for a watch.

If you’ve ever been tempted by the Apple Watch Ultra, not because you’re an outdoorsy adventurer but because of the big screen, then the Series 10 is a better option. It’s less bulky and better when viewed at an angle. It’s not as bright, but it’s more than bright enough. I live in a country with about 600 mm of precipitation a year, meaning it’s incredibly bright and sunny, and I have absolutely no issues viewing my watch on the sunniest days.

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review comparing the sizing against the Apple Watch Series 9

In terms of the design, it feels like the previous generation has been pancaked a bit. While it’s only a millimeter taller and wider, the big screen makes it feel much, much bigger (in a good way). Meanwhile, a millimeter lost in thickness makes it feel quite a bit thinner.

The back cover glass housing all the sensors is thinner too, meaning the watch doesn’t stick out above your wrist too much. While it may not be excitingly different, the new design of the Apple Watch Series 10 is excellently fine-tuned. It feels like the perfection of a design Apple has stuck with for a long time now (something that you could say for a lot of its devices of late).

Battery

The battery on the new Apple Watch is the same as the old Apple Watch, offering up to 18 hours of general use, according to Apple’s website. In reality, what this means is an easy full day with notifications, workout tracking, and anything else you can think of. There has never been a day, even when I get up at 6 am for work on Friday and get back home at 1 am after a night out, where the watch died before I got to bed.

On that same Friday night, with me bleary-eyed after a few too many apple juices, I was still able to track my sleep. That’s thanks to the faster charging, which let me put the watch on the new charger and get a 50% charge in about 15 minutes, which is more than enough for a night’s sleep. Apple advertises 0-80% in 30 minutes, and that makes a bigger difference than any non-gargantuan battery improvements.

If you think about it, charging your Apple Watch while you shower and get ready for work and coming back to it at 100% is perfectly fine. Any small bump in battery life wouldn’t matter. Unless I was going to get two days of use out of it, there’s not much use in battery improvements, but charging improvements make it far easier to give it some juice without disturbing your day.

Performance

Perhaps the least exciting area to explore is the Apple Watch Series 10’s performance. If you’re coming from a Series 5, you’ll see an improvement, but if you own anything newer, it’s hard to notice. While the previous generation S9 chip offers on-device processing of certain Siri requests, I’ve never noticed dramatic speed improvements, and it only really helps if you have spotty internet.

Custom image for Apple Watch Series 10 review showing the device leaning against a mac

The S10 SiP in the new watch doesn’t seem to be a dramatic upgrade over the S9. Apple stopped short of saying the new chipset is actually better than the previous generation in its announcement, and I suspect any differences are so negligible no one would be able to notice. The S6, 7, and 8 all offer similar performance too, so if you’re happy with those, there’s probably no reason to upgrade for snappier swiping.

Now, you may think that a performance upgrade could help with Apple Intelligence’s release as it slowly rolls out over the next few months. Well, it won’t. Any AI that does come to the Apple Watch, like notification summaries, your iPhone will handle before delivering the information to your watch. If you want AI, you’ll have to check out our iPhone 16 review to see if the upgrade is worth it.

But any performance quirks do not really matter. The reason there’s not much to say about performance is because there’s rarely an issue with it. You’re not going to do anything too demanding with a wearable, so don’t upgrade just for a new chipset. My old Apple Watch Series 5 is still going strong, and I never had any performance issues with it. While it won’t get the new watchOS, it’s still perfectly usable for pretty much everything the average user needs.

Should you buy the Apple Watch Series 10?

Overall, judging a new Apple Watch is a little bit difficult. These are not devices you’d want to upgrade every year (unless you’re properly nuts about tech). The last four generations of Apple Watch have felt largely the same, and that’s okay. This new Apple Watch also feels pretty similar to the last one, but when compared to what Apple put out four years ago, you can see the benefit of incremental changes.

With a new thinner design, a gorgeous and usable display, the best wearable OS available, and a whole bevy of health and fitness features, it’s easily the best smartwatch out there (unless you’re a die-hard extreme sport enjoyer). The only issue will be which watch you currently have on your wrist and the phone you have in your pocket. The latter is simple: if you have an iPhone and want a wearable, get the Apple Watch. If you have an Android phone, there is no point in getting an Apple Watch.

As for whether to get this Apple Watch, let’s make it simple: if you don’t have an Apple Watch and want one, the Series 10 is the one to get. If you have a Series 6 or later, I’d recommend waiting. These devices last, making them very worthwhile investments. However, their long life cycle also makes an upgrade less worthwhile. Wait until your watch won’t get the new operating system and then make the move. That is unless, of course, you just want a shiny new thing. In that case, go ahead; it’s a lovely piece of kit.

Alternatives

If you aren’t convinced by our Apple Watch Series 10 review, here are some alternatives to check out.

Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)

If you have an iPhone, the Apple Watch really is the one to get. If you have Android, I definitely wouldn’t get an Apple Watch. So the only alternative to an Apple Watch is, well, a different Apple Watch. If you want to save a few bucks and miss out on a few features, the Apple Watch SE is a solid bit of tech. However, there are rumors of a new model on the horizon, so maybe wait until next year.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

As before, I wouldn’t recommend anything other than an Apple Watch as an alternative to an Apple Watch, so here’s another one. If you want to spend even more money for a bigger frame and battery, titanium design, and brighter display, along with a lot of features for outdoor adventurers and deep-sea divers, the Ultra 2 is excellent (but also very, very bulky).