Apple's latest addition to its smart watch series, the Apple Watch 11, is Apple's thinnest and toughest yet, utilizing Ion-X glass and a ceramic coating. But it's the improved battery life that wins us over, giving you up to 24 hours and stronger 5G connectivity.
Not only is Apple's most recent Series 10 model one of our best Apple Watches, it's also one of our top overall fitness trackers period. It packs the first big design upgrade for an Apple Watch in years, with a larger and brighter OLED display, and is more comfortable thanks to its thinner build.
Apple has just unveiled the new Apple Watch Series 11, and while we're excited to see what the new smartwatch will bring to the table in practice, one of our burning questions is what makes it different to its predecessor – the Apple Watch Series 10, aka the best Apple Watch for most people available right now.
We've had our ear to the ground with all the new Apple Watch announcements at this year's big Apple event, so we're here to dissect the similarities and differences between the two models. Hopefully, this will make it a lot easier for you to decide whether last year's Series 10 is the model for you – or if you think the new Series 11 has more to offer.
Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Series 10: Price
The Apple Watch Series 10 comes at two different prices depending on the size you go for. The 42mm aluminum watch with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity starts at $399 / £399 / AU$649, but if you want LTE connectivity, you'll have to be prepared to pay a little extra.
As for the larger 46mm aluminum watch, it starts at $429 / £429 / AU$699 and also comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but, as it is with the 42mm watch, LTE connectivity is an add-on. It's worth keeping an eye out for any discounts on the Apple Watch Series 10 as they do come about, especially as we get closer to the holiday sales.
Although we don't know the Apple Watch Series 11 price for all regions, we know that it'll cost $399, which equates to £399 / AU$600. Expect it to cost the same in all regions as its predecessor for both sizes.
- Winner: Tie
Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Series 10: Design
In contrast to the Apple Watch Series 9, the Series 10 is slightly larger in size. It also has a thinner build with no added bezels, thus resulting in a more comfortable and less protruding experience – but packs the classic rounded square design.
However, it's the wide-angle OLED display that wins this redesign, which stretches further to the edges to optimize screen space, meaning you can look at your wrist from almost any angle to view the time, apps, photos, or see an incoming notification.
Apple claims that its new Apple Watch Series 11 is its thinnest, but toughest yet. With Ion-X glass providing twice the scratch resistance, the Series 11 takes it a step further with its ceramic coating, giving it an added layer of protection. It also gets all of the design tweaks above.
- Winner: Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Series 10: Features
The Apple Watch Series 10 saw the reinvention of the Smart Stack, now a multi-purpose ecosystem. This shows you weather updates, Activity Rings, and even becomes the 'now playing' section when you're listening to music, so you can easily navigate your apps without having to endlessly scroll the Digital Crown to find them.
When it comes to fitness tracking, the Series 10 has all the bells and whistles you need for tracking exercise and daily activity such as calories burned, steps, exercise minutes, Sleep Apnea detection, and the Training Load feature, which gives you an insight into the long-term impact of workouts.
Though models such as the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (and now Apple Watch Ultra 3) are more rugged and pack more intricate tracking metrics, the Series 10 fitness tracking functions are more than enough for most people.
When it comes to the Series 11, Apple has included everything from the previous watch and added two new health monitoring functions: Sleep Score, and Hypertension alerts. Taking data from your sleep interruptions and duration, the Series 11 puts all of these together to generate a Sleep Score, giving you a deeper insight into your sleep performance.
With Hypertension alerts, the Series 11 works in the background using the wrist sensor to identify any patterns of high blood pressure. If it detects an increase, it will send an alert to your Apple Watch – and potentially raise an undiagnosed hypertension condition. This is a landmark feature, and heavily rumored prior to launch.
- Winner: Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Series 10: Battery life
The battery life of the Series 10 is a too-short 18 hours, or 36 hours in "Low Power Mode", and has fast-charging capabilities, capable of reaching 80 capacity in 30 minutes.
The Series 11 on the other hand, sees a significant improvement on the battery life front, offering up to 24 hours in smartwatch mode. We don't yet know how long it'll last in Low Power mode.
- Winner: Apple Watch Series 11
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