The most necessary inquiries to ask concerning the new Apple Watch Series 7 aren’t concerning the Apple Watch Series 7, they’re concerning the Apple Watch you could have already got.

That’s a delicate method of claiming that if there’s nothing fallacious along with your present watch, there’s nothing within the Series 7 that ought to compel you to improve. If you’ve been ready for some key characteristic earlier than shopping for your first Apple Watch, I don’t know that it’s right here, both. I wrote very almost the identical factor final 12 months concerning the Series 6 and I feel that’s simply what we must always anticipate from the Apple Watch sequence going ahead: iterative updates that shall be nice while you substitute your present watch, however not a cause to improve.

The Apple Watch Series 7 is nice. The bigger display screen and sooner charging are the 2 headline options and each are welcome. The Apple Watch is in a category fully of its personal proper now. Nothing else is pretty much as good for iPhone customers and nothing like it’s accessible for Android customers.

Apple Watch design and display screen

The Apple Watch Series 7 didn’t get the foremost redesign that had been rumored. Instead, it seems to be virtually equivalent to earlier Apple Watches and maintains compatibility with all earlier Apple Watch straps, though there are extremely refined modifications in its general measurement and curves.

There are new colour choices accessible, together with midnight (which apparently has a touch of blue in it), starlight (a cross between silver and gold), and a darkish inexperienced. Apple despatched me the inexperienced one and in most gentle it simply seems to be grey — however once in a while it’ll pop and look visibly inexperienced.

The greatest change is the display screen; it’s 20 % bigger than the previous couple of iterations of the Apple Watch. It does the factor all display screen upgrades are likely to do: make the older display screen with its bigger bezels look small.

When Apple first made the display screen greater method again on the Apple Watch Series 4, I assumed it made an considerable distinction within the expertise and would even be price upgrading for. Here, on the Series 7, I simply suppose the display screen is very nice and appears higher, however isn’t sufficient to justify an improve.

Apple has stored the always-on display screen and says that it’s brighter in ambient mode when indoors. That is: the general max brightness hasn’t modified, however while you’re inside, the display screen ought to look rather less dim.

The different design change on the Series 7 is that it’s extra sturdy. The entrance crystal on all fashions is thicker and stronger in opposition to cracking. (It’s additionally extra refractive, so you possibly can catch a glimpse of some pixels at excessive angles.) The complete watch provides IP6X mud resistance for the primary time and maintains the identical water resistance to 50 meters.

Apple didn’t add any new well being sensors to the Series 7. It nonetheless tracks coronary heart fee and has a blood oxygen monitor and EKG. None of those sensors must be used for diagnostic functions because the Apple Watch will not be a medical gadget.

Apple Watch charging and battery

Apple continues to be focusing on 18 hours of battery life on the Apple Watch Series 7. It’s sufficient to get by a day — possibly two in case you flip off the always-on display screen and don’t work out. In my assessments, these numbers are borne out. I have to cost the Series 7 solely rather less usually than I have to cost my previous Series 5 (which is beginning to lose its battery capability a bit).

I want Apple had carried out extra to enhance battery life on the Series 7, particularly since that is technically a redesign. I might have even taken the identical measurement display screen as final 12 months’s mannequin if it had meant getting longer battery life as an alternative. There’s nothing fallacious with the Apple Watch’s battery life, however I do want that it aimed larger like the brand new iPhones did this 12 months.

Instead, we obtained sooner charging because of a redesigned charging puck that additionally makes use of USB-C. Lots of individuals have these wall adapters however may have to choose up a second one (or a multi-charger), because it’s not included within the field. (As an apart, the precise plug a part of the Apple Watch charger is longer now, which Apple says is to handle warmth.)

The charging is quicker. Apple claims it’s 33 % sooner than the older cable and that sounds proper to me. I’ve been in a position to juice up 20 % in simply ten minutes a number of occasions and it has been simpler to high off to a full cost within the morning whereas I putter round with espresso and breakfast. It makes it barely extra handy to make use of the look ahead to sleep monitoring because it’s simpler to suit a fast charging session in.

Still and all, I might have most well-liked normal Qi charging to sooner charging (if I had to decide on). Qi charging mats are low cost and plentiful now, however integrating an Apple Watch charger provides value and complexity. Older Apple Watch chargers will work simply fantastic with the Series 7, however on the barely slower charging pace.

WatchOS 8

There are a number of options in WatchOS 8 which might be unique to the Series 7, ostensibly as a result of its bigger display screen makes them attainable. The watch can match just a bit extra textual content when studying a message, for instance.

The two watchfaces customized to the Series 7 are known as “Contour” and “Modular Duo.” The former simply places numbers out on the sides of the display screen and would apparently look dangerous on screens with bigger bezels, whereas the latter permits you to have two full-width problems stacked as an alternative of only one.

The bigger display screen additionally permits for a brand new text-entry choice: a miniature keyboard. You can faucet or swipe on it and so long as autocorrect is doing its factor accurately, it really works fantastic. It’s about pretty much as good as any smartwatch keyboard I’ve used, however I nonetheless want dictating messages by way of Siri each time attainable. I want I may evaluate it to the FlickType app that was kicked out of the App Store in January 2019, however it’s not again (and there’s a lawsuit pending).

Those are the Series 7-specific options, however WatchOS 8 has a number of extra issues price overlaying. It’s in a position to auto-detect outside bike exercises — and in my testing it managed to try this very properly, even after I was hitting stoplights at each block. I want Apple would make it simpler to combine the Watch’s exercise knowledge with cadence or energy sensors on a motorbike, however cyclists are nonetheless on their very own to determine how to try this.

Apple says it’s additionally adjusting your calorie metrics if the watch believes you’re driving an e-bike. There’s no setting for it, it simply detects in case your coronary heart fee is suspiciously low and your pace is remarkably excessive as you cruise up a hill. There’s additionally no indicator in your outcomes in case your calorie metrics had been adjusted.

WatchOS 8 has a redesigned photographs app and allows you to ship photographs instantly from the watch. It has an up to date “Mindfulness” app with a “Reflect” characteristic that provides you some sort of immediate to meditate on, like “Recall a challenge you’ve overcome” and “Think about what sparks your creative energy.” As you possibly can most likely inform from the pointless scare quotes within the earlier sentence, I don’t prefer it. I feel meditation is a deeply private — and for many individuals religious or spiritual — factor, and so I recoil each time I see tech corporations lowering the apply right down to anodyne apps.

I’ve left one of the best for final: the Apple Watch permits you to set a number of timers. You can set them within the timer app. You can set them with Siri. You can use Siri to call every timer. You can see all of your timers stacked one after the opposite. It’s magical. It’s great. It’s hilarious that it took till 2021 to make this occur and even extra hilarious that the iPhone itself nonetheless can’t do it.

Seriously, although, a number of timers on the Apple Watch is nice, particularly for cooking. It means I don’t want to remain inside earshot of the sensible speaker in my kitchen if I’ve obtained one thing within the oven.

I’ve stated this yearly for a number of years now as a result of it’s true yearly: the Apple Watch is one of the best smartwatch for iPhone customers, by far. There are health trackers that fulfill niches not crammed by the Apple Watch like Garmins for extra severe athletes or Fitbits for individuals who need one thing easier. But as a common computer-on-your-wrist, the Apple Watch Series 7 is challenged solely by older Apple Watches.

If you will have a type of older Apple Watches, I don’t suppose there’s something right here that ought to compel an improve. All the brand new options are very good however not vital. If there is one thing that’s bothering you about your present watch, then by all means go for it in case you can afford it. Also, whereas the Series 3 continues to be kicking round for reasonable, I don’t suppose it’s an incredible purchase anymore. The Apple Watch SE is a greater worth.

There’s no cause that we must always have an expectation of main year-on-year updates for the Apple Watch. These smaller iterations won’t be what we’ve been hoping for — a giant redesign with way more battery — however that doesn’t make the Series 7 dangerous by itself deserves.

It’s an incredible watch — once more, one of the best smartwatch. If it’s time so that you can substitute your watch (or purchase your first one), you’ll adore it. If it’s not time to exchange your watch, it’s not time to exchange your watch.