Apple Watch Series 10 Review: Big screen, big dreams

It’s been nine years, four months, and 24 days since Johnny Ive and Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch. While the updates have been incremental year over year, it’s eye-opening to see how far we’ve come as we approach a decade of Apple Watch.

While the biggest Apple Watch upgrade ever was the Apple Watch Ultra in 2022, when you look back at those early generations of wearables and compare them to modern Apple Watches running watchOS 11, there’s a night and day difference. The Apple Watch Series 10 represents everything Apple has learned after making over ten different versions of the wearable and even democratizes some of the best Apple Watch Ultra features, like the water temperature sensor and a much larger screen, meaning there’s a lot more watch to love this year.

For years, the Apple Watch has been the best computer on your wrist with its high-tech software and plethora of sensors. New improvements make it a more capable health device and an extremely robust fitness tracker, and of course, it’s still the perfect companion for your iPhone. The Series 10 is easily my favourite Apple Watch in years.

It’s honestly quite charming to look back at the ups and downs of the watch as it found its footing over the last ten years. Does anyone else remember how many headlines were freaking out when it got on the cover of Vogue in China? We’ve come a long way since then…

What does the Series 10 bring to the table?

Beyond the new size and finishes, the most viable improvement is the new display tech, allowing for more efficient screen refresh rates and better viewing angles. There are also sleep apnea notifications, but we don’t know when that feature will be available in Canada. That said, there is a new speaker in the watch that you can use to play music, podcasts, and audiobooks in a pinch. Apple also brought the water temperature and some of the dive features from the Apple Watch Ultra down to the Series 10 this year.

While I’ve been an Ultra user for the past two generations, the improvements to the regular watch this year have tempted me back towards the lighter and more comfortable watch line. I do wish Apple would have bumped up the battery life just a little more, but with the new fast charging I’ve had much less battery anxiety than I anticipated.

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The new LTPO3 OLED display is my favourite upgrade since it makes the Apple Watch Series 10 act more, for lack of a better term, like a traditional timepiece. Apple uses wide-angle pixels to allow for improved viewing angles, which subtly lets the colours retain their richness and contrast at basically all angles. This makes reading the watch from the side easier, especially in the sun.

Combined with the larger screen and the max brightness of 2,000 nits, this display shines, literally. The LTPO3 aspect means that the Apple Watch can ratchet its refresh rate down to 1Hz to preserve battery just like the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro units. On the watch, this allows you to see the second-hand tick like a real watch even when the screen is in the darker, Always-on-display mode. That said, only the new ‘Reflections’ Watch face supports this, so hopefully, Apple will update all watch faces with second hands soon. This feature is exclusive to the Series 10 so far, and even the Ultra 2 can’t show the second hand, so if telling the time floats your boat, the Series 10 does it the best.

In all seriousness, I’ve been using the excellent Snoopy watch face for most of the year and never noticed that the second hand disappeared, but I’m a sucker for attention to detail, and I’m glad Apple went the extra mile here to make the wearable as watch-like as possible.

Sleep apnea notifications tack onto the existing sleep tracking feature, but unfortunately, it’s not available in Canada yet. Apple is working to bring it here, but only time will tell how long it takes to get the feature approved by Health Canada. When it gets approved, it will be available on the Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and Ultra 2. That said, unlike in the U.S., Canadian watches can still use the Blood Oxygen feature, so at least we have that on our side of the border, and once/if the sleep apnea features launch here, the Canadian version of the Apple Watch will be even better than its U.S. counterpart, at least until Apple and Massimo come to some form of agreement.

To round out sleep tracking, a new ‘Vitals’ app is arriving on all watches with watchOS 11 to help organize and utilize some important data when you’re sleeping. The new app tracks things like your heart rate, wrist temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and sleep duration all within one app that keeps track of these stats every night to establish a baseline for your health. This allows the watch to better understand when you’re overworking or getting sick. Plus, if one of your vitals falls out of this baseline, you can track it easily, and if two vitals go outside the trend line, you get a notification letting you know. You need to wear your Apple Watch to sleep for seven days to track this, but the more you sleep with your watch, the more accurate your vitals range will become.

The last sleep-related feature in watchOS 11 is nap detection outside of your sleep focus for more accurate sleep data. This is really exciting and should help people with abnormal sleeping patterns (me!) get even more accurate data. I forgot to wear my watch in the one nap I had during this review period, but I’m really looking forward to more accurate sleep tracking since I always found having to enable a sleep Focus to track your sleep stages rather annoying and meant my watch struggled to get the full picture when it comes to my sleep.

The final new feature on the Series 10 is a redesigned speaker for playing music, audiobooks and podcasts right from the watch. The Apple Watch Ultra and the Series 10 support this, and the Series 10 is way better than expected but still tinny. I was expecting the speaker to improve call quality, but in my test with my girlfriend Alex’s Series 7 as a comparison, both watches sounded equal when making phone calls. Overall, this speaker is handy in a pinch, but using it outdoors barely works, and if your arm swings when you’re walking or jogging, it creates a bit of a Doppler effect. Perhaps cyclists will get more out of it because their wrist sits stationary in front of them, but for me, there are very few times when I’m without a phone, laptop, or earbuds, so the Apple Watch speaker is a last resort for music/podcasts/audiobooks. If you charge your watch on your nightstand, it can be a decent little white noise machine, although I suspect your phone is also charging there, so again, I’m struggling to find a great use of the speaker. That said, I’m not one to complain about a feature that might come in handy in a pinch, so make sure you’ve set up automatic downloads in the iOS Watch app for music and podcasts, and maybe someday the watch’s speaker will come in handy for you. I’ve been listening to it as I write this review, and in a quiet office, it works better than I expected and is a good reminder that Apple works audio wizardry with its speakers, no matter how small they are.

The diving features are for shallow free dives around 10m deep, not actual scuba like the Watch Ultra series that can go 50m deep. Nevertheless, the depth sensor works well, is easy to read underwater, and the water temperature sensor is really fun to play with. I used it a lot the Ultra 2 when camping with my friends, and being able to dip my hand under the surface of a lake and, in a few seconds, learn how hot or cold the water is never gets old. If you’re doing a swimming workout, the Series 10 and the Ultra models will also show the temperature in the top corner of the screen.

Small changes on a device this size can have a big impact

The Apple Watch isn’t like a phone or a computer where you can change things around slightly without altering the experience. With the Apple Watch, every single milligram counts, every seam needs to be meticulously fitted, and every bit of added weight needs to justify the tradeoffs it brings to the platform.

To give itself more growing room for the next decade of the Apple Watch, this year’s model has been slimed down and has larger screens compared to all previous models. While it doesn’t look significantly different on your wrist, it’s very light, and the thinner design really makes it feel much flatter on your wrist. In turn, I’ve found it fits more securely without having to be as tight as the Ultra or the older models. Notably, I have a plastic tortoiseshell link band that I was using on my Ultra 2 at the Apple event last week, and by the end of the day, I had to take it off because it was too tight. I guess my arm swelled up during the day or something, but at dinner, I had to unclasp it. Using that band with the same number of links on the new Series 10 fits perfectly because the device’s lower profile sits closer to my wrist, meaning the band doesn’t pull as tight, but it still fits super snugly around the circumference of my arm.

Compared to the Ultra 2, the new 46mm Aluminum watch I’m testing is about half the weight, and I can really feel it. During a few runs, I tested the new Black Titanium on my right wrist and the Series 10 on my left, and the difference was very noticeable. In reality, the 26-gram difference between them isn’t much, but at this scale, the lighter watch is a lot more comfortable, and comfort is key for something you need to wear all the time. That said, I have been wearing the Ultra series for years now, so you can definitely get used to it.

A glossy finish finally comes to the Aluminum watches!

The review unit I’m testing is the new ‘Jet Black’ colour, which harkens back to the brilliant but short-lived Jet Black iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. I had a Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus, and while some reviewers lamented its glossy sides as slippery and scratch-prone, I found it beautiful. The inky black gloss reminded me of a grand piano’s elegance and the black mirror of an unlit screen. It was the perfect coating for an iPhone, and in the right light, it was hard to tell where the screen ended and the phone began. I’m glad Apple hasn’t forgotten about this amazing effect, and I’m really satisfied to see it return.

Since watches are so small, the gap between the screen and the body of the device appears larger than it did on the big iPhone 7 Plus, but at the right angle, you still get that endless screen effect, making the Apple Watch Series 10 look like a smooth black river stone. I really hope this glossy watch sells well because I really like the effect. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the natural Aluminum Apple Watch, and I hope Apple continues to stylize the mid-tier watches next year with a glossy Rose Gold or Starlite watch next year 👀.

At the Apple event, I also got to try out some of the Titanium models, and while I love the elegance of the Jet Black Apple Watch in concept, it’s definitely not as fashionable as the Titanium models. The glossy finish on the more expensive models harkens back to classic watch design and takes inspiration from jewellery. Plus, the upgrade to Titanium makes them better fitness devices since they’re much lighter than their stainless steel predecessors. These more expensive models also come with sapphire crystal display, the same clear material used on traditional high-end watches (and the Ultra Apple Watches) and can withstand significantly more scratches. While it may be more expensive, if you plan to try and use your watch for 4-6 years, a pretty average Apple Watch lifespan, this is probably worth the extra upfront cost, so you don’t have to look at a scratched screen for years on end.

In my experience with screens across various Aluminum Apple Watches, I’ve had mixed results. My first watch, a Series 2, only has two long but very thin hairline scratches across the screen. My Series 6 (which can be updated to watchOS 11!) has remained relatively scratch-free, with only three very small, almost imperceptible scratches. Alex’s Series 7, on the other hand, looks like it’s been attacked, with lots of minor scuffs and scratches, plus a big gouge on the bottom right. My Apple Watch Ultra 1, which has a sapphire crystal display, and has taken a beating on a few outdoor adventures, still looks brand new.

Speaking of glass, the Apple Watch Series 10 has a new metal rear panel that replaces the older glass backing. The sensor array is still the same as the Series 9, but the new back integrates the cellular antennas into the watch’s construction like iPhones have done since the iPhone 4. This looks a lot better and gives the rear of the watch a unibody-like appearance. Moving the antennas into the case’s shell also allowed Apple to integrate a larger wireless charging coil into the device, greatly improving charging speeds. As I mentioned, I’ve been using an Apple Watch Ultra 2 for the past year, and while it has a fantastic battery life, the charging speeds of the larger battery are only okay. Finding third-party chargers that support the Ultra’s 5-watt fast charging has also been hit-and-miss.

The Series 10, on the other hand, charges super fast and by the time I finish getting ready every morning, it’s usually fully charged as long as the battery wasn’t at absolute zero. This helped me overcome the charging anxiety of only having a single day’s worth of battery life coming from the amazing battery of the Apple Watch Ultra series. The Series 10 is also more efficient, and Apple says eight minutes on a fast charger will give you enough juice to sleep track all night. In my testing, 30-40 minutes was usually enough to top up the watch from whatever battery was left over from the day before. It comes with a fast charging cable in the box, but it’s the same model that has been shipping with watches since the Series 7. You can identify it because it has a braided cable, USB-C plug and a metal puck base.

Some have also questioned band compatibility with the new larger watches, and I can confirm that even though the new models are larger than ever, all your old existing bands will work. There may be slight gaps at the side of the lug if you’re using a smaller band, but since every Apple Watch band uses the same magnetic connector in the middle, they all work with every Apple Watch from every generation. This is incredible and is a good example of Apple having remarkable foresight and attention to detail, especially since we’ve seen both Google and Samsung release new watches this year that don’t work with any of their older bands.

Final thoughts and cool watchOS 11 features

• There’s a new Tides app in watchOS 11 that lets you track the water levels at some Canadian beaches. This is really handy for surfers, but it likely won’t apply much to most people.
• Using an Apple Watch for fitness tracking or notifications can be great, but to get the most out of it, find some cool apps. I love Waterllama for tracking my water intake as I try to cut back on soda. Paddle logger has also been updated this year to utilize your watch’s GPS to help you stay on track when canoeing, kayaking or paddleboarding.
• If you do a paddling workout, it will track your route via GPS in watchOS 11.

• After living with Double Tap since it was released on the Series 9 last year, I never want to go back to a watch without it. Over the last 12 months, I’ve become tuned to using it to accept automatic workouts, play/pause media or quickly check the weather in the Smart Stack.
• Really happy Apple removed the red circle from the crown on the cellular models this year.
• In watchOS 11, you only need to tap on the crown to end the sleep lock. This is much more convenient than holding it down for three seconds.
• There’s a new Training Load feature in the Fitness app that can tell you when you’re overworking your body so you can plan rest days. To complement that, you can also pause your Apple Watch workout streaks so you won’t lose your streak if you’re exhausted or sick.
• The new Photos watch face is amazing, and having it rotate between 24 pictures of my cat brings a smile to my face and looks cool.

The Apple Watch for the next decade?

When it comes down to brass (titanium?) tacks, there is very little to complain about on the Series 10. Its redesigned chassis makes the device easier to interact with while also being more comfortable. If I’m nitpicking, I wish the screen had slightly smaller bezels and the battery life was closer to 25 hours rather than 18, but in my time with the Series 10, I’ve loved it. Plus, you can turn on low-power mode to push the battery to 36 hours if you don’t mind disabling the always-on display.

Combined with watchOS 11, there are a lot of improvements to make the watch a comprehensive health and fitness device. However, since so many of these features are coming to the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, my upgrade recommendation is more about whether your existing watch is getting the latest upgrade or if the battery life still holds up. That said, if you’re an Apple Watch fan looking to upgrade, this is probably the best year to get the upgraded Titanium watch as opposed to an Aluminum model. The reduced weight, glossy finish, and better crystal display make it worth the investment, in my opinion. I just wish you could get it without a cellular modem to save a few bucks since, for me, and lots of others, the cost of adding an Apple Watch to a cell plan in Canada is pricier than it should be.

That said, the Jet Black and Rose Gold Aluminium watches are also great colour options for those looking to get all these awesome Apple Watch features for a more affordable price. Just be warned that the Ion-X glass screen is a little more prone to scratches.

There is also a new Apple Watch Ultra 2 in Black Titanium for anyone wanting a darker smartwatch for recreational diving, ultramarathon running, or just the best Apple Watch battery life on the market. There are some awesome new bands to match it as well.

You can order an Apple Watch Series 10 in Aluminium starting at $549 for the 42mm version. The 46mm I tested starts at $589. Adding a cellular modem to either of these increases the price by $130. The Titanium version starts at $999 and all of those models include cellular.