Apple Watch Series 10 review: Subtly better

BTTR is independent, but we may earn money when you purchase through links on our site.

Remember when Apple launched the iPhone X? The brand completely skipped the iPhone 9 to implement real change with its iPhone lineup, ditching the TouchID button in favour of the advanced facial recognition camera array of Face ID.

The Apple Watch Series 10 does not offer the same revolution in design. It’s a little bigger, a little more comfortable and a little more versatile, but it’s an extremely iterative update to what has been the best smartwatch in Australia for years.

These improvements mean that it’s still the best smartwatch you can buy, but it’s really nowhere near a big enough improvement to suggest upgrading from anything later than a Series 6.

What is the Apple Watch Series 10 offering?

Like this year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 10 is the biggest Apple Watch ever. Apple has subtly tweaked the design of the watch, pushing the screen sizes out to 42 mm and 46 mm.

The watch itself doesn’t look significantly larger, though. According to the official specs, both the 42 mm and the 46 mm versions of the Apple Watch Series 10 have gained a single millimetre in height and width over the Series 9.

They have also lost a millimetre in depth. Combined with a slight change in the placement of the strap connectors, the result is a watch that sits closer and more flush with your wrist.

It’s a definite step forward, as the watch is less likely to move around, even when the strap is maybe a bit looser.

The Series 10 comes in either an aluminium or titanium finish, which replaces the stainless steel finish offered in previous generations. I tested the aluminium version, and it was comfortably light on the wrist.

The Series 10 is the first Apple Watch to introduce a wide angle OLED always on display, and it’s bright and vibrant, with a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits, and a minimum of just 1 nit.

The OLED display means that a faster refresh rate can now display changes to the display every second. This allows for a bunch of newer watch faces that gradually change every second.

The watch is powered by the new S10 system on a chip, with its built-in 4-core neural engine. Like last year’s S9, you get on-device Siri, double tap and automatic workout detection.

The watch promises up to 18 hours of battery life, which is about the same as last year, though the Series 10 does offer faster charging, with 15 minutes on the charger giving eight hours of normal use.

There’s a pair of new water sensors that can measure water depth and water temperature. This can measure down to six metres depth, and allows for a new depth app to launch automatically when the watch is submerged.

There's also an inbuilt speaker that lets you play music from the watch. If you actually use your watch for this purpose in public, we cannot be friends.

What does the Apple Watch Series 10 do well?

I don’t know if there’s anything the Apple Watch Series 10 does badly, to be honest with you.

The new OLED display looks fantastic. It’s much easier to read at an angle than last year’s model, and is super bright and easy to read in all lighting conditions.

The extra screen real estate makes the watch more functional as well. With the latest improvements to watchOS, including the Smart Stack improvements, it’s easier than ever to start a workout or find a new playlist to listen to on the new AirPods 4.

I also found it significantly easier to type out a message on my wrist using an on-device keyboard. It’s still not something I’d want to use often, but in a bind it’s definitely functional.

The Series 10 is snappy, and I’ve never noticed any kind of lag or performance issues, though I could say that of the Series 9 as well. I didn’t notice the S10 being faster in any way from a performance perspective, but it’s certainly no slouch.

The one area I did notice a speed improvement was the fast charging. Where I would have to plan out my charging of last year’s Apple Watch, with the Series 10 I can always just give it 15 minutes for eight hours.

On a couple of occasions, the watch was on the verge of death as I was heading to bed. 15 minutes on the charger was enough to get me through my night’s sleep (though it had to go straight back on the charger in the morning).

What could the Apple Watch Series 10 improve?

This is an Apple Watch, so the biggest complaint is battery life. While fast charging helps, the fact I can’t go 24 hours without charging the Series 10 is a disappointment.

There is obviously the Apple Watch Ultra 2 if you want more than a day’s battery life from a single charge. But after 10 years of Apple Watches, I wish we’d seen some level of technological breakthrough to give us a longer window of use between charges.

I’ll also mention the lack of the sleep apnoea detection function here, though it’s not really an issue. Medical features like that need to be approved by local government bodies, and while sleep apnoea has FCC approval in the US, in Australia it’s still working through the TGA.

It will launch once approved, which means it’s another strength of the watch.

Verdict

For the past decade, Apple has arguably offered the best smartwatch in the market, and that trend continues with the Series 10.

But there’s not a lot of flashy new features or functions here. Apple has made some subtle changes to the Series 10’s hardware, but at a distance, you would be hard-pressed to tell this apart from the Series 9.

There’s nothing wrong with iterative improvements, by the way. It just offers less of a reason to push for an upgrade.

And that’s ultimately where we land with the Apple Watch Series 10. This is the best Apple Watch the company has ever released, but if you own a working Apple Watch, there’s probably not enough here to justify an upgrade.

Buy the Apple Watch Series 10 online

Apple Watch Series 10

42mm or 46mm options | Aluminium or Titanium

Check Price @ Amazon