The very first time I was convinced to keep my smartwatch on while hitting the bed was with the Apple Watch Series 8. I was really keen on tracking the quality of my sleep, even more than my activity during the day. The sleep data got me hooked, and I’ve been using the watch consistently for most of the last two years. When the shiny new Watch Series 10 landed on my desk for review last month, I wondered how much better the latest iteration could be. I’ve had it on for close to a month now, and here’s my experience with it.
Design
At first glance, the Apple Watch S10 doesn’t look drastically different from its predecessor. However, at 9.7 mm thick, it is the thinnest Apple Watch now. The watch is available in both 42 mm and 46 mm sizing options and I’ve got the former for review. The 42 mm aluminium option weighs only 34 grams and feels super light — an important factor for someone like me who wears the watch through the day and to bed as well. There are a bunch of finish options this time around. You can pick jet black, rose gold or silver on an aluminium finish. Or you could opt for the more luxe titanium finish in natural, slate or gold variants.
Display & Interface
The display on the 42 mm model remains nice and bright at 2,000 nits. Visibility is never an issue — whether you’re on a quick jog at 7 a.m. or checking your step count mid-afternoon. With the integration of audio playback, for the first time, you can now listen to podcasts, music and audiobooks right on the watch. Spotify integrates well with this feature too. The device runs on Watch OS 11, which brings a bunch of new functionalities to the device.
I was most interested in the new Vitals app that tracks your health metrics during sleep and then gives personalised health insights and alerts. It tracks my heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, wrist temperature and sleep duration overnight to give me an overall glance of my “vitals”. Over a period of time, it showed me any outliers in my patterns. The only hitch was when I see an outlier marked under ‘Vitals’ to see which parameter it was under, say sleep or heart rate, I’d have to go back to a particular date under ‘Sleep’ option to check what went wrong.
There’s also new training load data. The workout app asks me to rate my effort at the end of each workout. After a 28-day tracking period, it tells me whether my training load is consistent or if it’s high — which means I might have been exerting too much in my recent workout.
Dive in
This year, Apple seems to have focused a little harder on making the Watch appealing to water babies. While this wasn’t easy to try for someone like me who is scared of being under water, divers and swimmers stand to gain a lot of meaningful insights from the new apps. There’s the Depth app which provides basic information such as current depth, maximum depth, time spent underwater and the water temperature. It records activities such as snorkeling, underwater pool swims and shallow free-diving. On the Watch 10, it works only up to 20 feet underwater.
There’s also the new Tides app, where you can search for a particular location and the app shows the current tide level and future high and low tides. It also shares details about the swell height and duration in certain locations. You can also use the app to check the weather, wind, and sunrise and sunset times, making it easier to plan travel or sightseeing.
Battery
The brand says that the Watch S10 can be charged up to 80 per cent in about 30 minutes, and that’s definitely been the case during my month-long usage. While charging times — and battery life too — had given me a reason to complain in the past, this time around, the charging times were overall quick. I wear the watch to track activity during the day and to monitor my sleep and vitals at night. So a quick 30-minute charge when I get ready in the morning, and similar duration while I wrap up dinner kept the Watch going for more than a day on end. However, it still doesn’t cross the 1.5 to 2-day mark on a full charge with my kind of usage.
Verdict
If you’ve only ever used a basic smartwatch or have used an Apple Watch Se or a Series 6/7 or older, then an upgrade to the Watch 10 will truly feel significant and meaningful. Yes, it is the most advanced watch from the brands in 2024. However, if you have been using a Watch 7/8/9, then the marginally bigger display, new apps and quicker charging time might not be reason enough to make the switch already.
