The tenth generation of the Apple Watch came and went without much fanfare last year, and the arrival of the Series 11 is similarly subdued. Not much appears to have changed with Apple’s smartwatch, with no redesign to be seen. Still, that isn’t to say the Apple Watch Series 11 is unimpressive or unexciting. It has new health-related features, improved durability, 5G connectivity, support for a wrist-flick gesture and, for the first time in years, the promise of longer battery life.
The most noteworthy of these is Apple’s new hypertension alerts system, which only received FDA clearance last week soon after the “Awe dropping” launch event. The feature has yet to roll out to review units, and will remain untested until later this week, when I can enable it. Thankfully, it’s not a tool that will impact my experience with the Series 11 in my daily life, as it’s something that should work mostly in the background and only alert me if it notices I might have high blood pressure.
Because of that, I’m not going to be able to evaluate its practicality in this review, and I will update this piece when I’ve had a chance to use it. To be clear, though, even after it arrives, you won’t be able to use this feature ad-hoc to get blood pressure readings. Right now, all I can say is I think it’s an important area of health to pay attention to and I’m glad Apple is giving it due attention.
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Of all the newness coming to the Series 11, the one that more people might encounter more frequently are the sleep score, wrist flick gesture and longer battery life.
Apple 90 100 Expert Score Watch Series 11 With improvements to battery life and new health metrics, the Apple Watch Series 11 is a refinement on what was already the best smartwatch for iPhone owners. Pros Longer battery life than last model
Thin and light design
Comprehensive health monitoring
Nifty new wrist flick gesture
The best smartwatch for iPhone users Cons Relatively pricey
The Watch SE 3 is better for most people $399 at Adorama Explore More Buying Options $399 at Amazon$400 at Target
A very Apple approach to the Sleep Score
In the land of sleep-tracking wearables, sleep scores are far from a new feature. But Apple is introducing it with the Watch Series 11, and as usual, its approach is a bit different from the competition. Whereas the likes of Fitbit, Google and Samsung will present you with a number and some data on how you slept, maybe assigning an animal to represent your profile, Apple’s score is shown in a ring with three colors. They represent the three components your Sleep Score is being calculated from: duration, interruptions and bedtime.
The first two are pretty self-explanatory; the longer you sleep and the less you wake up during the night, the better your score. As for the last one, Apple is looking for consistency in the hours at which you go to bed. The idea is that the routine helps your body maintain some consistency and better prepare for recovery.
I’m a huge proponent of getting more sleep, but I never was a stickler for bedtime schedules. As a reformed night owl that used to go to bed at 2AM and wake up closer to 9AM, I now go to bed by midnight and rise at 6AM. I’m surprised that despite having to get up earlier nowadays, I can still feel refreshed and energetic, as long as I’ve been routinely getting enough rest at roughly the same time each night.
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While I haven’t worn the Series 11 to bed for that many nights, the Sleep Scores I’ve received so far have been telling. The first was 82, after a long day checking out of a hotel, meeting up with a friend from Singapore and then moving to a different friend’s home in California. I only got around to unpacking after dinner and a long heart-to-heart chat that lasted hours, so by the time I collapsed in bed it was about 1:30AM.
The next night, since I was already unpacked, I was able to fall asleep a bit earlier, just past midnight. The result? A Sleep Score of 97, with full marks across the bedtime and duration sections and only one interruption of three minutes. When I finally got home and forced myself to wear the watch to bed, a combination of jetlag and general anxiety brought my score down to 53, with the duration of 2 hours and 17 minutes being the main contributing factor.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
Not only did the numbers seem to match how rested I felt, it also felt like Apple accurately detected when I had drifted off into slumber. I did find it funny how the Series 11 almost immediately told me to try and move about to meet my Stand goal for the hour, and even though I hardly stirred, it quickly told me I had moved enough to hit the mark.
Compared to the offerings from Google and Samsung, the broad strokes of Apple’s sleep score are similar. In my experience, I’d get about the same numbers for those types of nights. But it’s not the Score alone that matters. I like that Apple’s system makes it very easy to see at a glance what areas I should strive to improve. It’s almost like closing your activity rings in Fitness or watchOS — because it’s so clear on the Sleep Score’s ring where your deficits might be, it makes trying to hit a target a little easier to visualize.
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Meanwhile, sleep scores on the Fitbit app, which is what Pixel Watches use, will show more data as you keep tapping on the charts.
I do prefer Google (or Fitbit) when it comes to the interface and data visualization, though. On Apple’s Health app, scrolling through your previous results isn’t as simple as swiping horizontally through pages. I also wish I could tap the “interruptions” scale to see exactly what times I stirred or woke up. I eventually did find that information, but I had to go to the Sleep graph in its dedicated section to see more. It’s just a bit unintuitive and requires a lot of tapping and swiping around to find things.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
The Series 11’s hardier design is a subtle refinement
I usually loathe going to bed with a smartwatch on, but because the Series 11 is so thin and light, it wasn’t too bad. Its dimensions are identical to the Series 10, measuring 9.7mm thin and weighing about 0.3 grams more. As my relatively high Sleep Scores show, I didn’t actually jolt awake in the middle of the night like I usually did with previous heavier, clunkier watches. (I still hate wearing watches to sleep, though.)
More importantly, the Series 11 also has an IonX glass coating that Apple says is twice as scratch resistant as the Series 10, which might account for the slight increase in weight. While I didn’t try very hard to test that claim, I’ve certainly bumped my review unit against lots of hard surfaces, including the iPhone 17 Pro, and have yet to see a scratch.
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I even knocked it against the Series 10 on my other wrist as I laid my hands on top of each other in various yoga poses that involved lying face down, and neither device was damaged. Given that the Series 10 I’ve been wearing remains pretty pristine after a year, I’m confident that the Series 11’s hardier material means it’ll stay similarly unmarred.
Workout-tracking, gestures and watchOS 26
During my time with the Series 11, I tracked a variety of workouts, including a yoga class, as well as my usual sessions of outdoor walking, functional strength and cross training. I noticed little differences here compared to my Series 10, and the main changes were the watchOS 26 interface. After I turned on Workout Buddy, selected one of three available voices and let it finish downloading, I had to set some targets and connect headphones before I even heard anything during my sessions. I don’t usually work out with headphones on, but I can see the coaching being useful for an aspirational future where I’m perhaps trying to hit a 6-minute mile (my current time is about 8 minutes).
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
I will note that a lot of what makes the Series 11 feel new is in the software, which will be rolling out to older Apple Watches soon. watchOS 26 brings the Liquid Glass style, which allowed me to use some slick-looking fonts on my clock. I also liked the larger buttons across the interface and the refreshing feeling of looking at the translucent cards instead of the version before. It’s just a visual change that makes things feel updated, and my eyes welcomed it.
The Series 11 also gets a new wrist flick gesture that feels familiar for those of us who have covered the smartwatch industry since its inception. The gist is that you can quickly twist your wrist away from you to interact with your wearable. On other devices, you could use this action to scroll through lists of apps, for instance. On the Apple Watch Series 11, you have to first raise your wrist when a notification arrives, then flick your wrist to dismiss it and return to your watch face. This also works to end calls, alarms and timers. I was able to use this to silence an alarm, as long as I first raised my wrist before flicking.
Battery that lasts longer than a day
When Apple said during its keynote that the Series 11 will last 24 hours thanks to its re-engineered battery, my colleague Sam Rutherford scoffed. That number is measly compared to the multi-day runtimes promised by the likes of Pixel and Samsung watches, let alone Garmin’s almost week-long estimates. But when you consider Apple promises up to 18 hours for the Series 10, the improvement is nothing to sneeze at.
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Also, 24 hours is an estimate depending on how you use your Apple Watch. Many people only put their watch on when heading out for a walk, run or workout, while others use it all day. That estimate includes time for overnight sleep tracking, with 18 hours devoted to daytime “activities like checking the time, receiving notifications, using apps and doing a 60-minute workout.”
The gain in runtime is thanks in part to a 9 percent bigger battery in the 42mm model and an 11 percent larger one in the 46mm version, as well as optimizations in software and a new modem that also supports 5G.
The Series 11 certainly outlasted the 24-hour estimate in my experience. It usually lasts one and a half days, including some light activity tracking, media control and sleep tracking. One day, I pulled it off the charger at 2PM, tracked a workout at 4PM, used the camera remote control and viewfinder for about 20 minutes, went to dinner and wore it to bed. I woke up at 8AM with 39 percent left in the tank. Even hours later at 3:15PM, I still had a healthy 22 percent to work with. On a different day, I woke up with 29 percent of juice, tracked a 37-minute morning walk and had about 20 percent remaining. The energy efficiency does seem to have improved.
This also means continuous runtimes for specific activities have been increased. For example, you can run for an extra hour while tracking your heart rate, GPS and using other Apple Watch features for eight hours straight. Or, more likely, simply run a marathon without worrying about having juice after.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
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Apple was also able to boost its low power mode, now squeezing up to 38 hours of juice when enabled. It will turn off the always on display, disconnect cellular and Wi-Fi connections and also limit sensor activity, so background heart rate measurements and related alerts won’t work. I switched it on at 9:20PM one night when the battery was at 86 percent, in anticipation of a long day away from a charger.
The next day, after tracking about three hours of sleep overnight, a few workouts and general testing, the watch still held fairly strong at 22 percent at 8:50PM. I did have to restart the device and turn off low power mode a few times throughout the day just to check that certain features (like the AOD and gestures) were working, though, so uninterrupted use of the mode might get more hours out of it.
Charging is also quite speedy. I placed the Series 11 on the charging puck at about 1PM with 8 percent left, and came back ten minutes later to see it had already reached 38 percent. Just over thirty minutes later, it was fully recharged. That, of course, is with an Apple-supplied fast charger.
Which Apple Watch is right for you?
If you’re reading this review, you’re not likely to be considering non-Apple watches, so I won’t even compare the Series 11 to the Galaxy Watch 8 or the Pixel Watch 4. We haven’t even reviewed that latter one, anyway. You also probably don’t currently own a Series 10, though if you do and are wondering if this is worth an upgrade, read on.
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For those on older Apple Watches (like the Series 9 or earlier), the Series 11 is a solid upgrade. The battery life improvements will be meaningful even if you’re coming from the Series 10, though if you’re moving on from anything older the impact will be greater. You’ll appreciate the bigger screen with wider viewing angles, thinner profile and general modern features like the watchOS refresh and AI-based tools.
If you’re considering one of the three new Apple Watches, this year is a trickier situation than usual. Because it added an always on display and faster charging to the SE 3, Apple has made the entry-level smartwatch a no-brainer for pretty much anyone considering a starter device. For $250, that watch gives you everything the Series 11 does, except in a slightly bulkier case and smaller, dimmer display. You’ll be giving up ECG and blood oxygen features, as well as hypertension alerts and sensors for depth and water temperature. Battery life is also a bit shorter, and you won’t have an ultra-wideband chip for precision Find My.
But with the Watch SE 3, you’ll still be able to access a wide range of health and fitness features like wrist temperature monitoring, sleep score, emergency SOS, fall and crash detection and more. It’s a compelling option at an appealing price.
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
Wrap-up
I don’t expect companies to completely retool their products, especially 11 generations in. The Apple Watch Series 11 is a refinement of an already winning formula, packing a device that’s always on your person with exactly the type of passive features you’d want in something like that. Whether it’s quietly keeping tabs on your heart health and blood pressure changes, or providing better information on how well you slept, or even saving your life if you’ve fallen or gotten lost in the wilderness, the Series 11 is a capable companion. With longer battery life this time, it promises to provide even more peace of mind. Nifty touches like Liquid Glass in watchOS 26, Workout Buddy and 5G connectivity are icing on a rich, substantial cake.