Something to know about me before reading this review is that I wear an Apple Watch daily for two main reasons: fitness tracking and wellness data. I am not a notification hound — I do not take calls or control my music from my Apple Watch (though it can handle both of those tasks easily).
For my specific needs, the Apple Watch has always felt a little disjointed. It can track loads of useful health, sleep and fitness data. But something that has always made me apprehensive is that, outside of running stats, I’ve never truly felt empowered by all that data — what am I supposed to do with the fact that my sleeping respiratory rate is between 13 and 26 breaths per minute?
Using the Apple Watch Series 10 for over two months, all that data is now presented in a more holistic way thanks to some key new features. New software plus key hardware upgrades like faster charging make this Apple Watch the most compelling yet — the Series 10 may have even convinced me to consistently wear my Apple Watch to bed.
SKIP AHEAD How I tried the Apple Watch Series 10 | My experience with the Apple Watch Series 10 | Who is the Apple Watch Series 10 for? | Why trust NBC Select?
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What is the Apple Watch Series 10
Apple Watch Series 10
- Faster charging
- Improved wellness tracking
- Thinner and lighter
- Still has so-so battery life
The Apple Watch Series 10 ($399.00) is the latest version of the brand’s signature smartwatch. While it may look extremely similar to last year’s Apple Watch Series 9, it has a new design that is thinner and lighter than before.
Externally, most of the changes are to the screen. It’s bigger, reaching further into the edges of the case, giving you more screen real estate than prior models. It’s brighter when viewed at off-angles, making it easier to check the time or a notification without having to look at the watch head-on. And on new watch faces, the second-hand ticks even in low-power mode when the watch is facing away from you — just like a regular watch would.
Internally, charging is much faster — the Series 10 can get up to 80% battery in 30 minutes of fast charging, up from 45 minutes on the Series 9. It also has new swim sensors like a depth gauge up to six meters and a water temperature sensor.
Most of the other changes come from the latest WatchOS 11 software, which you’ll find below. (WatchOS 11 is available for most Apple Watches released in the last five years, including older models like the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE (2nd generation).)
The Series 10 comes in 42 millimeter and 46 millimeter sizes in an aluminum or titanium case, with dozens of watch band options to choose from.
Display: 42mm, 46mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 18 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone
How I tried the Apple Watch Series 10
I tested the Apple Watch Series 10 for over two months after the brand sent a sample for review.
I wore it almost all the time to get the most workout, health and sleep data possible, charging it every morning before getting ready for the day. For the first week, I compared the fit and feel of the Series 10 to the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch SE by alternating between the three watches for exercise, sleep and daily wear.
My experience with the Apple Watch Series 10
The Apple Watch 10 has a few notable but subtle upgrades compared to the Series 9, which has made it my favorite model yet. The improved screen, faster charging and new software features like Vitals and training load make it feel more comfortable to use as a holistic wellness tracker.
What I like
Easier to see from all angles
When I need to glance at the time or a notification, I am doing just that: glancing. The Series 10’s new wide-angle OLED display makes it easier to glimpse at my watch and see what I need to see, without having to turn the whole thing towards me.
The new display is subtle on its own, but noticeable when you compare it to older displays on other models like the Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Improved fitness tracking with training load
Fitness tracking is the main reason I wear an Apple Watch — it is a great running companion with accurate live distance, pace and heart rate tracking. But it has lacked more holistic training features like recovery time and training load, features that have convinced friends of mine to buy a Garmin watch instead.
WatchOS 11 brings some much needed improvements to fitness tracking, namely training load. At the end of every workout, you can rate your effort on a scale of one to 10 (the Watch will try to guess an effort rating for you, which you can adjust to your liking). All of your workouts and effort scores are combined into a 7-day load and 28-day load.
Training load is informative and motivating, in my experience. Logging my effort for each workout let me better remember which day or how recently I had challenged myself, and helped me plan accordingly. Seeing a visual approximation of my workout activity also acted as a motivator — seeing my dotted 7-day load line go down motivated me to do a workout to bring it back up.
Living in New York City, I do find that logging each and every one of my walks pushes my training load up. Which is funny, because I don’t consider my random miles of walking to work, lunch or the grocery store “working out.” But I could always stop logging outdoor walks to omit them from my training load, if I wanted to.
Unrelated to training load: you can now pause activity rings, finally. Having my Apple Watch encourage me to close my activity rings and keep my streak alive while I am sick in bed always felt like a low blow.
Improved sleep tracking with Vitals
A similarly-visual improvement to health tracking is the new Vitals app, which shows you your overnight heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature and sleep duration. The watch also tells you whether any of these metrics were outside of your typical range.
I got the flu over the course of testing, and both the Oura Ring 4 ($349) and the Apple Watch Series 10 notified me that my vitals (heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, sleep) were well-outside my normal levels. While I already knew this (I could tell I was sick), not everyone I know acknowledges illness as readily as I do — if an Apple Watch notification can convince them to take a sick day, I am all for it.
Potential drawbacks to keep in mind
Charging is fast, but battery life is limited
The Apple Watch Series 10 charges very quickly. But it does need to be charged often, daily for most users. Charging is relatively painless, but it is something you have to build a habit around because it is something you have to do daily. While testing other wearables like the Garmin Venu 3 ($449), Garmin Forerunner 165 ($249) or FitBit Charge 6 ($159), I did not have to think or build habits around charging because battery life lasted days or weeks, not hours.
To be fair, the Series 10’s most direct competitors, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 ($299) and Google Pixel Watch 3 ($349), don’t have weeks of battery life either, but both are a little better than the Series 10, in my experience. Do I dream of an Apple Watch with 10 days of battery life? Absolutely. Will that ever happen? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem like it will be anytime soon.
Some features are opt-in or hard to find
Apple doesn’t typically force changes on its users as it adds new software features — the brand seems to prefer to add new features quietly, then let users discover them for themselves. This makes updates feel seamless, but does lead to occasional friction. For example, I had to manually turn on both Vitals and training load on the Apple Watch Series 10. Training load in particular is a few menus deep in the Fitness app — I now have a training load card added to the front of the Fitness app, but I am not sure tech-averse users will find this easy to set up without clear directions.
Who is the Apple Watch Series 10 for?
The Apple Watch Series 10 is an incremental but noticeable quality of life upgrade from last year’s model. I don’t think it’s worth rushing to purchase if you already own an Apple Watch Series 9 or Series 8. But for anyone with an older model, or anyone looking to get their very first Apple Watch, it is an easy to use yet robust smartwatch that can track and visualize a ton of fitness and health metrics, and can be as simple or as complex as you make it.
Why trust NBC Select?
I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on smartwatches, running shoes, workout earbuds and more. For this piece, I wore the Apple Watch Series 10 daily for over two months after the brand sent me one to try. I tracked my daily stats, sleep and exercise and compared the fit and feel of the Series 10 to other Apple Watch models.
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