The Apple Watch Series 11 Review: Superb Wrist Gestures featuring Longer Battery Life
The most recent smartwatch Series 11 delivers the improvement most people really need from a smartwatch: extended battery performance.
Apart from that, this latest version serves as a direct replacement for the Series 10, keeping pace in appearance, size measurements and capabilities, with most of its upgrades derived from watchOS.
The Series 11 is also £30 cheaper for UK customers, priced starting at £369 sterling (449 euros/$399 USD/A$679), and sits above the newly revamped SE model costing £219 at the low end and the premium Ultra 3 at £749 for top-tier users.
Design and Display
Similar to the previous tenth series, this updated version measures only under 10mm slim, resulting in a trim appearance when worn, convenient to tuck under cuffs and easier to wear during sleep.
This 2,000-nit display offers excellent visibility for reading inside and outside, staying legible to read off-angle, which makes quickly looking at the time or alerts simple.
Protecting the display by glass reportedly double the scratch resistance compared to previous models, while not reaching the hardness compared to sapphire, that's only available with the higher-end titanium editions.
Capability and Runtime
This latest device incorporates the same S10 chip as last year's model with new capability for optional 5G and stronger reception when you're away from civilization.
The batteries show improvement in storage approximately 10 percent for the 42mm and 46 millimeter models in that order.
The 46mm achieved approximately 48 hours during evaluation including sleep monitoring excluding workout sessions.
Most people can nearly be able to track two full days with overnight use prior to requiring power, requiring just over an hour using a 20W or higher charger (sold separately), achieving around three-quarters charge in 30 minutes.
Should you go out for a run, it will last approximately eight hours while recording, which is long enough for endurance events or extended activities.
Product Features
- Size options: 42mm and 46mm
- Profile depth: Under 10mm
- Mass: about 30g or 37g
- Computing engine: S10 silicon
- Storage: 64 gigabytes
- Software platform: watchOS Twenty-Six
- Water resistance: 50 meters (5 atmospheres)
- Sensors: HR, ECG, spO2, Temperature, depth, mic, speaker, NFC, GNSS, Compass, Altimeter
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, NFC, UWB, 5G cellular option
Operating System Updates
The latest device comes preloaded with watchOS 26, which runs on each iteration from 2020's Series 6 and later.
It adds recently introduced transparent design elements, creating most elements partially transparent, plus introducing two new watch faces: an expansive digital display named Flow sensitive to gestures and an analogue face called Exactograph, that separates hours, minutes and seconds into their own dials.
The standout addition is the wrist-flick gesture, involving quick rotation your arm outward and then back to close applications returning to the watch face.
This functions without lifting your arm to look at the watch, meaning you can turn off alerts through simple motion with your hand.
Activity Analysis
The Apple Watch includes an extensive fitness analysis system of tools found in earlier versions while introducing a couple of new features along with updated workout app.
High BP warnings check for symptoms of hypertension over a 30-day period, alerting users to consult professionals if your heart rate data shows possibility of underlying conditions.
Enhanced sleep analysis improves sleep monitoring simpler to understand, similar to competitors from multiple companies.
Each morning the screen presents a percentage score separated into components into three categories: duration, bedtime and interruptions, each easy to understand and viewable via the health software through your mobile too.
Fitness assistant functions as intelligent training that uses your past activity records to deliver pep talks around exercise sessions, including identifying that you have already run multiple weekly exercises and the level of effort you put it.
Additionally offering spoken alerts when you reach certain milestones during exercise, like specific speed, cardiac rhythm, distance, duration or further statistics.
Options include from three speaking tones, which speak to you over Bluetooth headphones connected to your watch for one of 12 activities, including walking, running or cycling.
But, this feature depends on when you bring along recent smartphones with you, which I found irritating sufficient to avoid the function preventing inconvenience with a phone on runs.
Eco-Friendly Features
Apple says the battery should last exceeding 1000 full power cycles retaining four-fifths of its original capacity and can be replaced for ninety-five pounds.
Fixings require between £295 and £389 according to device type.
It contains over forty percent reused components such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, rare earth elements, steel, tin elements, {titanium|