Review: Two Months With the Apple Watch Series 10

[AgeOfSpiracles]

My biggest question around the S10 vs U2 debate is whether the S10 battery will survive during very long workouts (3-4hr) with bluetooth+streaming+GPS, without enabling any low-power mode features. Has anyone done marathon training with the S10? If my experience with the S6 is any indication, I suspect that it would last the whole workout without any music/podcasts streaming, but I need those and would prefer to not bring my phone along.

 

[ab2c4]

I wear my ultra 2 24/7. Have been for a year now. I can honestly say I don’t notice it at all. I’m struggling with the concept that the weight is huge. I mean it weighs 61 grammes vs 36g. Neither is exactly a vast tonnage! The much better battery life is a huge plus.

If you never take it off how do you charge it?

 

[dbc34]

I wear my ultra 2 24/7. Have been for a year now. I can honestly say I don’t notice it at all. I’m struggling with the concept that the weight is huge. I mean it weighs 61 grammes vs 36g. Neither is exactly a vast tonnage! The much better battery life is a huge plus.

41% increase in weight is a pretty big difference, and for a smaller screen? I wore both, I’m a much bigger fan of the 10 and I wanted to like the Ultra more.

 

[Asthmatic Kitty]

"The larger version of the Series 10 has the biggest display of any Apple Watch, including the Ultra 2, but it's only a little bit bigger than the Ultra 2 so you're not missing out on much if you have Apple's more rugged watch. The Series 10 is lighter and thinner, though, so it can be more comfortable."

Ok what am I missing: the larger series 10 at 46mm is a bigger display than the Ultra2 at 49mm?

Yeah, those numbers are for the case size, not the screen size. And the Ultra has bigger screen bezels and more metal casing around the screen than the Series 10.

 

[dbc34]

My biggest question around the S10 vs U2 debate is whether the S10 battery will survive during very long workouts (3-4hr) with bluetooth+streaming+GPS, without enabling any low-power mode features. Has anyone done marathon training with the S10? If my experience with the S6 is any indication, I suspect that it would last the whole workout without any music/podcasts streaming, but I need those and would prefer to not bring my phone along.

I have done some half marathon training. I’m not a very fast runner so 10 miles takes me about 2 hours. I use bluetooth to my speakers and GPS. I have the cellular version and don’t carry my phone. Takes about 40% of battery to complete.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

My series 6 went from all day, plus a 1+ hour gps-recorded run, to being dead by 3pm when I updated to watchOS 11. Photo syncing was the culprit; turned it off and all is back to normal. I was ready to ditch it for the 10, too.

Same. I never thought to turn off photo synching because I don't really take many photos.

I picked up the Watch 10 last week. Besides double-tap and my battery woes going away, I can't really tell the difference at all. I thought two whole screen generation upgrades at once would be amazeballs… nope. Makes me wonder what the folks who ugprade year-over-year are getting out of it.

I like double-tap, though.

 

[bradman83]

My OG SE battery has started to act weird. Some days it lasts all day (6a - 9p) and some days it's dead at noon. I have no notifications on and I rarely use it for anything but Fitness tracking - not Olympic level training either. I don't do sleep tracking. I like the mindfulness app to force me to take breaks throughout the day, too. Otherwise, it's just an extension of my phone for quick weather or time tracking.

I'm really tempted by the 10, and I know it would be a huge upgrade, but I think even the 2nd gen SE would be a good (and cheaper) upgrade for me.

Was anyone in my boat and made either choice?

My OG SE battery seems fine despite being down to 81% battery health, but I'm springing for the 10 this year mostly because the SE stopped getting watchOS updates. (Note that the SE launched alongside the 6 and the 6 got watchOS 11 but the SE did not).

I would be similarly concerned about upgrade support for the 2nd generation SE, which is over a year old now.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

The hardware is still there, so I have hope that it will be re-enabled after the legal disupte is dead.

I think he's saying that they're being cheap by not paying off the patent trolls

 

[ab2c4]

Yeah, those numbers are for the case size, not the screen size. And the Ultra has bigger screen bezels and more metal casing around the screen than the Series 10.

Interesting. I'm guessing that works the same way with my se2 watch. It's 44mm but has big bezels which I assume are counted in the 44mm? So hypothetically if I got a series 10 46mm the useable watch face would seem much bigger.

 

[Thisismattwade]

My OG SE battery seems fine despite being down to 81% battery health, but I'm springing for the 10 this year mostly because the SE stopped getting watchOS updates. (Note that the SE launched alongside the 6 and the 6 got watchOS 11 but the SE did not).

I would be similarly concerned about upgrade support for the 2nd generation SE, which is over a year old now.

What feature are you most excited about for OS 11? I wonder if we have different use cases cuz I’m just not that interested.

I even thought modifying daily Rings goals would be cool, but it turns out I can just do it in the Workout app on my 13 Pro and it syncs to my Watch.

I hope this Photos fix works, as I’d like to eke out another year on my SE.

 

[ChelseaDrew]

Still see no reason to upgrade from my Series 4. I'm not sleeping with my watch on, so uncomfortable. I'll get the Gen 4 Oura Ring for that.

I’m still rocking my series 4 (cell/gps). Some days the battery last 8/9 hours or more other days it doesn’t but it is what it is. If my phone is near it in my pocket it will last longer but if it is not in notice the drain more. I honestly only care that it still tracks runs and some other workout things. I’m not impressed much by the 10 or Ultra.

 

[dialogue]

"The larger version of the Series 10 has the biggest display of any Apple Watch, including the Ultra 2, but it's only a little bit bigger than the Ultra 2 so you're not missing out on much if you have Apple's more rugged watch. The Series 10 is lighter and thinner, though, so it can be more comfortable."

Ok what am I missing: the larger series 10 at 46mm is a bigger display than the Ultra2 at 49mm?

The number represents the case size in millimetres, not the display size.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

I have done some half marathon training. I’m not a very fast runner so 10 miles takes me about 2 hours. I use bluetooth to my speakers and GPS. I have the cellular version and don’t carry my phone. Takes about 40% of battery to complete.

My S6 has been mostly fine for HM training. It's the full that has me concerned. I think it would make it through race day (since I don't use bluetooth or streaming during races), but it's the Sunday long runs in training that have me concerned.

 

[dbc34]

My S6 has been mostly fine for HM training. It's the full that has me concerned. I think it would make it through race day (since I don't use bluetooth or streaming during races), but it's the Sunday long runs in training that have me concerned.

I would probably have the same concerns excpet my slow self won’t finish a full in the time the roads are closed so I’ll stick to the HM.

 

[Stiksi]

My OG SE battery has started to act weird. Some days it lasts all day (6a - 9p) and some days it's dead at noon. I have no notifications on and I rarely use it for anything but Fitness tracking - not Olympic level training either. I don't do sleep tracking. I like the mindfulness app to force me to take breaks throughout the day, too. Otherwise, it's just an extension of my phone for quick weather or time tracking.

I'm really tempted by the 10, and I know it would be a huge upgrade, but I think even the 2nd gen SE would be a good (and cheaper) upgrade for me.

Was anyone in my boat and made either choice?

Or just swap the battery, you get a new watch when you do that.

 

[johnnygee]

Bought the Apple Watch Series 10 GPS, 46mm Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Solo Loop. Received it September 20. Replaced the Solo Loop with a black Speidel Twist-O-Flex band, installed a Spigen Elite Shield EZ-Fit screen protector
and haven't looked back. The battery lasts >24 hours. My only complaint: Apple needs to settle the problem with Masimo (whoever they are) and restore the O2 sensor.

 

[mdatwood]

I wear my ultra 2 24/7. Have been for a year now. I can honestly say I don’t notice it at all. I’m struggling with the concept that the weight is huge. I mean it weighs 61 grammes vs 36g. Neither is exactly a vast tonnage! The much better battery life is a huge plus.

I also love my Ultra 2. Bought it on a great sale on Amazon to replace my Series 8, right after they announced the 10. The extra battery life really is a big deal. I also like the weight and chunkier look of the Ultra. Much closer to current watch styles today.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

Interesting. I'm guessing that works the same way with my se2 watch. It's 44mm but has big bezels which I assume are counted in the 44mm? So hypothetically if I got a series 10 46mm the useable watch face would seem much bigger.

You'd think so but that's not exactly the case.

I took my 44mm S6 in and compared it to both the small and large S10. Despite having an equivalent screen, the smaller S10 looked much smaller than my S6 because of the way it draws the faces on the watch.

I think it pays to think of the watches in terms of "small/large" and mostly ignore the numbers. And nothing beats just putting the two sizes on your respective wrists in person.

 

[Dr McKay]

My OG SE battery has started to act weird. Some days it lasts all day (6a - 9p) and some days it's dead at noon. I have no notifications on and I rarely use it for anything but Fitness tracking - not Olympic level training either. I don't do sleep tracking. I like the mindfulness app to force me to take breaks throughout the day, too. Otherwise, it's just an extension of my phone for quick weather or time tracking.

I'm really tempted by the 10, and I know it would be a huge upgrade, but I think even the 2nd gen SE would be a good (and cheaper) upgrade for me.

Was anyone in my boat and made either choice?

My old Series 5 battery was the same, 16 hour days and sometimes it would have 20%+ left other days it would have died by 1800. No vast difference in the number of notifications I was getting either. Noticing a lot of variability on my Ultra 2 though I upgraded to though as well, anywhere from 4 to 7 days out of it.

 

[Roadster Lewis]

It didn’t seem much like a review, more an overview of features…

I’ve been happy with my AW10, I went for the shiny black aluminium version, with cellular - it is noticeably bigger than my old AW7, but feels lighter on the wrist. I almost went for an Ultra2, but am glad I didn’t.

 

[FlyingDutch]

If someone already opted for an Ultra 2, why should consider a partial downgrade to a 10 ? I can’t see the point for the comparison. They have a different user base.
the 10 is a good replacement for older 6/7 series users…

 

[Odan]

It's really the best watch IMO, glad I bought the jet black, looks one piece with the screen. The screen itself is way better than the last generation. They're also well priced, good job Apple.

 

[Thisismattwade]

Or just swap the battery, you get a new watch when you do that.

I’m not in warranty so I have no idea what that’d cost. I did find out the battery health is 79%, which Apple’s site says is basically consumed and needs to be replaced.

I can get a $209 refurb 2nd gen SE for 15% discount and I have a $100 giftcard. Thats under $100; but my main question is whether an S10 would so vastly out perform the 2nd gen SE, and last longer, to justify the spend.

I’m going to see how killing Photos sync works for the next couple days. I even have this thing constantly in Theater Mode to avoid the screen accidentally draining it.

 

[haydesigner]

I think he's saying that they're being cheap by not paying off the patent trolls

If you've read anything besides headlines, you (and original commenter) would realize that this has never been a patent troll case.

 

[WannaGoMac]

My series 6 went from all day, plus a 1+ hour gps-recorded run, to being dead by 3pm when I updated to watchOS 11. Photo syncing was the culprit; turned it off and all is back to normal. I was ready to ditch it for the 10, too.

Watch/Photos/Photo Syncing/off.

Hope this fixes it for me thanks!
Battery life took a 25% hit with Watch os 11!