What we like: Apple unveiled three new smartwatches this year at its iPhone event: the Apple Watch Series 11, the Apple Watch Ultra 3, and the Apple Watch SE 3. The Series 11 costs $399 and is the Apple Watch most people should buy. This device's price sits in the middle between the $250 SE 3 and the $800 Ultra 3.
The Series 11 offers all the health-tracking capabilities of the Ultra 3 and a longer battery life than the SE 3. This makes it the best choice out of the three for health-conscious users looking to wear their smartwatch around the clock.
Apple adds 5G to Series 11 for efficient connectivity, Ion-X glass for durability -- twice that of the Series 10, and a wrist-flicking gesture to dismiss messages or calls.
Coming from the Series 10's 18-hour battery life, the Series 11 gains six more hours. That's 24 hours of heart rate tracking, phone-free notification delivery, and uninterrupted sleep monitoring. Speaking of sleep monitoring, the WatchOS 26 software update brings the long-awaited sleep scores to Apple Watches, so people can more easily see if they got a good or poor night of rest.
The Series 11 also receives a major health feature upgrade, FDA-cleared Hypertension Detection, which can monitor and detect high blood pressure over 30 days. The feature doesn't provide by-the-minute readings on blood pressure. Instead, it uses Apple's PPG heart sensor to take a 30-day average reading that its algorithm determines is either above or below the hypertension threshold. This is another feature the more affordable SE 3 lacks.
Also: I tested the Apple Watch Series 11 for a week. Here's who should buy it
Who should buy it: I recommend the Series 11 to people who have already used an Apple smartwatch before and want to upgrade battery and health features. This is the watch to buy if you want to track your sleep, avoid constant charging, a full scope of health tracking features.
Who should look elsewhere: If you want the Hypertension Detection feature but don't need a 24-hour battery capacity, I suggest buying the Series 10 instead. The smartwatch is about to be seriously discounted -- especially ahead of holiday shopping.
If you want a more affordable smartwatch for activity and sleep tracking, I recommend the SE 3, which is already seeing early Black Friday discounts. Alternatively, if you want to splurge on a bigger screen display and the full suite of Apple Watch's best features, I recommend the $800 Ultra 3. It comes with standalone satellite communication, all the health tracking features, and a 42-hour battery life.
Apple Watch Series 11 tech specs: Display size: 42mm or 46mm | Chip: S10 chip with 64-bit dual-core processor | Battery life: 24 hours | Storage capacity: 64GB | Sensors: Optical and electric heart sensor, temperature sensor, accelerometer, blood oxygen, gyroscope, water temperature sensor | Price: $398