Apple Watch Series 10 review: Almost Ultra

BY ANDREW UTTERBACK

Podcast Producer

I was watching the iPhone 16 event back in September with anticipation for the Apple Watch Series 10. 

Rumors said it could look just like the Apple Watch Ultra with squared off edges and a flat display. The possibility of that alone had me with my wallet out and my Series 5, that I had been using for three years, ready for the “old tech” drawer. 

Plus, this was the tenth Apple Watch, and we all remember how significant of a redesign the iPhone X was. 

Just a few minutes into the start of the event, Tim Cook said the Series 10 would feature a “beautiful new design.” I was beyond excited for the few seconds in between that statement and the teaser trailer that showed the exact same design as last year’s watch. Which was the same as the year before that (I could continue).  

Though this is not to say the Series 10 is without improvement.

The headlining new features of the world’s most popular watch are its new display, which is the biggest one yet, and its sleeker profile. Toss in a few health upgrades and a faster chip and you get an upgrade, that while still minor, is one of the more substantial of the past few years. 

Imagine an Apple Watch in your head and there’s the design of the Series 10. The watch still has the exact same form factor as the Series 7, 8 and 9, with a few differences in the dimensions. 

The Series 10 is “nearly 10 percent thinner” than its predecessors and the display size options are now 42mm and 46mm, the 46mm option being the largest Apple Watch display yet. The Ultra is definitely still a larger total package, but the Series 10 is the new screen real estate champ. 

The bigger screen isn't all that noticeable coming from a Series 7 or newer. My 44mm Series 5 definitely looks small sitting next to the Series 10, but since most of the screen size bump comes from smaller bezels, you don’t notice much of a difference on your wrist. 

The Series 10 really does feel slimmer, though. 

I never had any problems with my Series 5 fitting under dress shirts so the Series 10 also passes the formal attire test and feels just a little slimmer than my Series 5. If it means I bump my watch into just one less door post, that’s a win. 

The new display is also an LTPO wide-angle OLED display, the first from Apple. The claim from the Apple Newsroom press release is that this new display is “up to 40 percent brighter than Series 9 when viewed from an angle.” 

Can you notice this? I think so… 

The watch face is very easy to read from an angle, but I didn’t really have any problems with my old one either. The off-angle clarity is quite good, though, so I never have to be obvious when I twist my wrist to check a text when I’m in the middle of a boring conversation. 

The display also refreshes at once per second instead of once per minute when the display is in always-on mode so a ticking minute hand can now be seen on some watch faces. 

In all of the Series 10 ads I've seen, the large display is the feature that gets promoted the most. It’s not drastically larger though than the past few watches, but you can notice it when reading a long text or scrolling through a watch app with a lot of information. 

Jet black aluminum is the new color and my personal watch finish of choice, which makes this the first jet black Apple product since the iPhone 7 (my first phone). I have to say, this is a very good looking watch. The jet black paired with the larger display makes the Series 10 my second favorite looking Apple Watch behind the glorious matte black titanium Ultra 2. 

Speaking of titanium, the Series 10 is now offered in a titanium finish, which runs you around $300 more. 

And speaking of the Ultra, the Apple Watch Series 10 inherits some of its big brother’s features. It gets the Ultra’s water temperature sensor and depth gauge, as well as the depth app for diving. The Ultra can still dive up to 100 meters, 50 more than the Series 10, but the fact that these features are no longer Ultra exclusive is definitely nice. 

The series 10 has the new S10 chip which makes everything you do on it just a little bit faster. In my use, there hasn't been a single time where it was laggy or slow to open anything. Performance gains will likely be noticed long-term as the watch should stay this fast for longer. 

Fellow tech nerds and I heard Apple say “bigger display and thinner body” and got nervous. As we know by now, the key to battery life is not exactly thinness and better displays. However, battery life on the Series 10 has been excellent for me. My busiest day included well over 10,000 steps being tracked, many notifications checked and a workout. I still wasn’t below 20% at the end of the night. 

I’m currently writing this part of the review in a coffee shop at 4:55 p.m.  in the afternoon. I’ve been wearing the watch since  8 a.m.  in the morning, and after 9 hours of notification checking and light usage, I’m sitting at 79%. 

I have yet to play 18 holes of golf with the Series 10, but I imagine it would take something like that with 4-5 hours of constant workout tracking and GPS usage to kill this battery before you go to bed. 

Do I wish it lasted more than one day? 

Definitely, but I’m okay with the one day battery life if it means we can have the watch be as thin as it is. 

Even if you do run it down, the Series 10’s battery can now charge from dead to 80% in around 30 minutes. Meaning if you’re someone who uses sleep tracking on your Apple Watch, a quick half hour on the charger while you shower and get ready for bed is enough to charge it fairly close to 100%. 

New to the Series 10’s slew of health features is sleep apnea detection. 

Apple says the watch uses the user’s heart rate, respiratory rate and wrist temperature to alert of possible sleep apnea. One should still check with a doctor for a full diagnosis, but like the Apple Watch’s irregular heart rhythm warnings used to detect signs of AFib, this can be a helpful heads up, if you will. 

The Series 10 also has improved speakers that now allow for media to be played straight from your wrist. I queued up Spotify on my watch and sure enough, I had my playlist playing right from my watch. 

I thought this was mostly useless after seeing this feature in the keynote (and mostly still think it is), but the one valid use case I've seen is that you can use your Apple Watch as a speaker in the shower instead of your phone or a Bluetooth speaker. 

The speaker upgrade is most useful for taking calls on your wrist, and the person on the other line can now hear you even better thanks to neural engine powered background noise suppression. 

Lets run through what else you get. 

All of the WatchOS 11 features have been great, with the most noticeable being notification summaries, smart stack and health/fitness upgrades like training load recording and the new vitals app for sleep tracking data. 

The Series 10 also has a metal back instead of ceramic, and the almost iconic red dot on the digital crown for cellular models is now discreetly integrated into the body.

“Double Tap,” the feature that lets you tap your thumb and index finger together to perform actions on the watch, has actually been one of my most used features. This was introduced last year on the Series 9 and is extremely useful when you are holding something and can't bring your other hand over to act on the notification. 

Last year, I was strongly leaning towards getting an Apple Watch Ultra. I’ve gotten to the point where my mountain climbing and deep sea diving are just too much for the normal Apple Watch… Okay, not really. 

But the larger screen, better battery life and a few of the “Ultra” features were all things that I wanted and was willing to pay a little extra for. 

Not twice as much, though. 

$800 for an Apple Watch is a hefty price tag and hopes were so high for the Series 10 because I wanted the tenth generation “redesign” to be Ultra-reminiscent.

It wasn't, at least not design wise. But, it turns out that’s alright, because what we got is an Apple Watch with a bigger screen than the Ultra, a much thinner and more practical design, all-day battery life and even some “Ultra” features all for $399 for the 42mm and $429 for the 46mm. 

I can easily recommend this to anyone with a Series 5 or older and especially those considering the Ultra. 

I’ll be interested to see what Apple does with the Ultra 3 next year because the Series 10, as it sits in the watch lineup right now, is shooting above its class. And I promise that’s not the Jet Black iPhone 7 nostalgia speaking.