This means the Apple Watch is sealed off from dust and doesn’t allow any particles inside.
Series 7 expands on durability by keeping the WR50 rating (it’s swimproof and waterproof), but bumps the dust rating up to IP6X. The Apple Watch Series 7 is nearly identical to every Apple Watch before it - with some nuanced upgrades. It’s impressive and essentially fixes the issue of the battery running dry with a quick charge feature.Ī similar build with some upgrades to durability In most cases, if we charged for 45 minutes before bed, the watch could make it through the night and a majority of the next day. When it came to charging before sleeping or charging right after waking up, we were able to place the Series 7 for about six to seven minutes on the charger to get between 30% and 40% of battery. The upgraded Apple Watch Charging Cable included with the Series 7, Apple claims, should charge the Watch from 0% to 80% in 45 minutes and to 100% in 75 minutes - which proved to be the case in our testing. Most days we took a few calls, tracked some workouts, monitored our heart rate and responded back to a boatload of messages. If you wanted to track for the whole night, you’d need to charge the Apple Watch again.Īpple is still promising “all day” battery life, which equates to about 18 hours, and we’ve been hitting that day in and day out. With watchOS 7 last year, Apple rolled out Sleep Tracking, which caused a bit of a power issue for some users.
There’s no improvement when using the display outdoors.
Apple says they’ve tuned each watch face as well and it really is only noticeable inside. Apple claims the Series 7’s display is 70% brighter than the Series 6, and we did notice in side-by-side tests that the Series 7 displayed complications (widgets on the screen like weather or activity) with more clarity. The always-on nature allows you to look at the Watch and see the time or whatever else is on your watch face without needing to tap the screen or engage it. The display is an always-on Retina display, which offers vibrant colors and sharp contrast points (think sharp text when reading an email). As a result, we found ourselves doing a whole lot more directly on our wrist over the past week. Dialing a number in the phone app features much larger numbers, and the same goes for the calculator. WatchOS 8 has been optimized for the new screen, and the user interface as a whole or with individual apps will look a little different.
This is a unique characteristic of the glass OLED display, as it slopes down the edges.Īnd the screen is a full millimeter larger in comparison to Series 6 (41mm from 40mm, and 45mm from 44mm) - it’s a small difference on paper, but it does let you more easily read a large section of text, see more details without scrolling and easily hit the right on-screen button. The increase in size is immediately noticeable - so much so that looking at the side of the Apple Watch lets you see the outer rim of the watch face and even make out notifications as they pop in. Instead, the bezels around the display are slimmed down to just 1.7 millimeters thick. The larger display breathes fresh air into the Apple WatchĮven with the larger display, Apple didn’t increase the case size, so it’s not like you’re wearing a larger watch on your wrist.
Competing options from Fossil don’t offer deep integrations with iOS, and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 doesn’t work with the iPhone. The Watch SE is a good competitor, as it only lacks the zippy performance, an always-on display and a few health features. How this compares: In comparison to other Apple Watches, Series 7 is the most advanced, with a larger always-on display, support for fast charging and health features like the ability to monitor blood oxygen along with an electrocardiogram function. The larger display makes it easier to interact with, and as a whole the interface feels less cramped. What you need to know: The Series 7 features a large display (20% bigger over Series 6 and 40% over Series 3), and it can charge faster. If you have a Series 3 or older, the larger display along with new communication and health features will be the biggest leap.
Those from a Series 5 or older will see performance improvements, the ability to take an ECG or blood oxygen level and benefit from the bigger screen.
Who this is for: If you have a Series 6, there’s not a real reason to rush out and upgrade to the Series 7. Your CNN account Log in to your CNN account