The Apple Watch Series 11 is as sleek as its predecessors, but the changes under the hood will make you want to dig deeper

I wear either an Apple Watch Series 10 or Ultra 2 daily, and I’ve come to terms – especially while running the watchOS 26 beta over the past few months – with having to place it on the charger at some point during the day (or every other day for Ultra 2). Charging has always been an issue, albeit a smaller one, thanks to the addition of fast charging.

So, while I knew Apple was likely to announce that the Apple Watch Series 11 was getting new health features and better performance, I audibly gasped when Apple claimed the battery life was stretching to 24 hours.

It’s not something I was able to test during my brief hands-on session after I raced out of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park at the conclusion of its Awe Dropping event and headed for the test area, but if the battery life lives up to Apple’s promise, it would solve one of the biggest qualms with the smartwatch.

Up to 24 hours of battery life

The Series 11 is rated for up to 24 hours of battery life from either the 42mm or 46mm size. While the dimensions are the same as the Series 10 – it’s still 9.6 millimeters thick – Apple has re-engineered the battery, paired it with a more efficient 5G modem on cellular models, and made some performance boosts with watchOS 26.

The re-engineering has resulted in slightly larger batteries – about 9% bigger on the 42mm and 11% larger on the 46mm – and this all comes together to make the runtime significantly longer.

If you enable Low Power Mode, which turns off some functionality, including the always-on display, the Series 11 can last for up to 38 hours. Fast charging is supported, courtesy of the cable and charging puck in the box, and can get you from 0% to 80% in just 30 minutes – I use this regularly on the Series 10.

A more durable display

While this is essentially the same display as on the Apple Watch Series 10, that screen was a big upgrade over its predecessors, and the clarity, richness, and vibrancy of the Series 11 display – 42mm or 46mm – are impressive.

It’s still an LTPO3 screen, specifically an always-on Retina OLED that slopes down the edges with a variable refresh rate (as low as 1Hz). It looked great in the brightly lit demo room, and can get as bright as 2,000 nits. I’m excited to go on a hike or maybe a stroll on the beach with the new Workout Buddy when I can test the Series 11 for longer.

The only display change is an Ion-X front glass that offers twice the scratch resistance. Needless to say I didn’t get to try this – I don't think the Apple reps would have been too impressed – but considering the front is nearly all glass, this should aid durability.

Powering the Apple Watch Series 11 is the S10 chip with a 64-bit dual-core processor, the same one found in the Series 10. Apple's watchOS 26 – which brings with it Liquid Glass, the Notes app, Workout Buddy, and new gestures – ran really smoothly during my demo, and I don’t expect performance will be an issue. You also get 64GB of storage, and there’s a new Flow watch face that takes the best of Liquid Glass and turns it into numbers – I have a feeling this will be a hit.

Two new health features

The Series 11 arrives with blood oxygen monitoring (which is now back on Apple Watches in the United States, at least for the time being) alongside activity tracking, a skin temperature sensor, heart rate, and ECG (electrocardiogram), plus sleep tracking with sleep apnea detection.

Apple is also adding two new health features, though you may not need to upgrade to get them. Arriving on the Apple Watch Series 11 (and other Apple Watches running watchOS 26) is a new Sleep Score. As someone who also wears an Oura Ring and has tested the Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch, this is a welcome addition.

Beyond just knowing hours asleep and time spent in various stages like REM or deep sleep, you’ll now get a rating – e.g., 73 or 100 – and a classification for how well you slept. It’s a helpful addition, and makes sleep tracking more actionable.

Here’s the neat part: it can look back at your previous sleep-tracking data and assign a sleep score retroactively. This way, you can immediately start picking out trends. I’m keen to give this a go, but you don’t need a Series 11 for this.

The other big new health development is that Series 11 can alert you to possible hypertension (high blood pressure) over a rolling 30-day period. It uses a custom-made algorithm developed by Apple’s health team and the optical heart rate sensor to analyze pulse signals and morphology. If it detects a pattern over 30 days, you’ll get a notification recommending that you see a doctor for “possible hypertension.”

Apple expects to notify over a million people of a possible issue in the first year – but to be clear, it’s not surfacing blood pressure results or measuring individual points. Apple says this feature will be available in the US (subject to expected FDA clearance) and over 150 other countries on the Series 11, as well as the Series 9, Series 10, Ultra 2, and Ultra 3, this month.

5G connectivity arrives

Last but not least, cellular models of the Apple Watch Series 11 are moving beyond 4G LTE to 5G. This is a more efficient modem that will provide better coverage in supported markets and should speed things up when you’re using the Apple Watch without an iPhone. It also still supports 4G LTE connections as well as L1 GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou, and second-gen Ultra Wideband connectivity.

All in all, the Apple Watch Series 11 isn’t a huge next-generation leap, but it certainly moves the ball forward, and could represent the most significant battery life increase for a non-Ultra Apple Watch. And the fact that it lasts for 24 hours – although we’ll need to confirm that in testing – might make it worth upgrading for that reason alone.

The Apple Watch Series 11 also keeps the same starting price as the Series 10. The 42mm Series 11 with Wi-Fi starts at $399 / £369 / AU$679, while the 46mm begins at $429 / £399 / AU$699. Both sizes are aluminum and come in Jet Black, Rose Gold, Silver, and a new Space Gray finish. Cellular connectivity costs about $100 more for both sizes.

Let us know what you think of the Apple Watch Series 11 in the comments below.

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