Apple Watch Series 10 Review: 10 Years Already, But Little Change

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Since its release ten years ago, the Apple Watch has become the best-selling watch in the world. A feat that Apple owes to its audacity, creativity and sense of innovation, all sprinkled with unique marketing know-how.

For the tenth anniversary of the Apple Watch, we were therefore expecting a little novelty, the Apple watch having not evolved much in 10 years. Apple's keynote had the effect of a cold shower on us. On paper, the Watch 10 evolves very little compared to the Watch 9. A bad impression ? To find out, we put on the Apple Watch Series 10 for two weeks. Discover our full test.

Its thinner design and its featherweight

Finally! The “classic” Apple Watch finally changes his look, well almost. Don't expect a clear evolution, Apple has chosen to keep the same lines as previous generations. We therefore find this rectangular dial with rounded corners with the control crown on the side. The attachment system is also the same, the navigation one too.

On the other hand, Apple has completely revised the design to offer a watch that is both lighter and thinner. So the speaker and antennas have been repositioned, the digital crown, the glass screen and the S10 processor refined.

The result is a watch 9.7 mm thick for only 35 g ( in the GPS/Cellular version in 42 mm). This represents a 10% cast iron for the aluminum version and 20% for the titanium version. This may seem anecdotal but on a daily basis, this slimming cure is felt, to the point that we sometimes forget that we are wearing a watch .

Its biggest screen

The case of the Apple Watch Series 10 changes (available in 42 and 46 mm) so its screen too. And it's not a moment too soon.On the 42 mm version, the space saving is around 9% compared to the Series 9, 30% compared to the Series 6 and 75% compared to the Series 3! The 46 mm even breaks all size records at Apple. The screen is 3% larger than that of the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

This space saving logically translates to better reading comfort. Browsing is also more pleasant. For example, we were able to respond to messages in a few words with much greater ease than on previous versions.

The OLED screen of the Watch Series 10 is also brighter. It can reach 2,000 nits (the iPhone 16, for example, does not exceed 1,600 nits) and go down to 1 nit to avoid damaging your eyes in dark environments or when waking up. The refresh rate also follows current standards: it varies from 1 to 120 Hz depending on the interactions you have with the watch. All good.

Sleep apnea

Every year, Apple offers a small health/sports feature to justify the move to the next generation. The Apple Watch 10 introduces sleep apnea detection, an increasingly widespread (or identified) condition.

To detect sleep apnea, the Apple Watch Series 10 uses data collected by the accelerometer, then analyzed and processed by the S10 chip, identical to the S9. This is also why the Watch Series 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 can also benefit from this feature.

Before being alerted by a possible apnea, the user must first accustom the watch to their sleep cycles. So you need to sleep with the Watch Series 10 for 30 days with at least 10 non-consecutive nights.As we don’t suffer from sleep apnea, we haven’t been able to test the system’s effectiveness, but we recently found a guinea pig willing to give it a try. We’ll update this review to share his feedback.

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Faster charging

While the battery life of the Apple Watch 10 doesn't change a bit (we'll come back to that), the charging speed does.Apple promises to recover 80% of autonomy in 30 minutes of charging and 8 hours of use in 15 minutes. Figures that our tests confirm.

With the arrival of sleep apnea, the monitoring of this data could well extend to more users. The watch still needs to have enough energy to last the whole night. Thanks to the fast charge, even if the battery is exhausted, an 8-minute charge can monitor sleep for 8 hours. The same goes for an evening that could last late into the night. We can only appreciate it.

Autonomy still limited to one day

It’s been ten long years now that the Apple Watch’s battery life hasn’t improved. And this generation won’t change that. The Series 10 still lasts a maximum of 18 hours of continuous use without pushing too hard on sports activities or GPS. It can go up to 36 hours with energy-saving modes, like previous generations.

It seems regrettable to us that Apple has still not managed to optimize the autonomy of its watch. If we could once put this down to technological limitations, this is no longer really the case in 2024. Some manufacturers have indeed managed to offer models with equally contained dimensions but much more enduring. Apple prefers to add new features every year. An understandable choice but not acceptable for all that.

Few changes for years

The main problem with the Apple Watch Series 10 is the same as that of the latest iPhone 16: it doesn't 'does not bring much change compared to generations previous. This is all the more sad because it is the model celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Apple Watch.

So, the Watch Series 9 launched last year has nothing to envy it, except for its larger screen and faster charging. Because, we remind you, sleep apnea detection, the main technical novelty of the Watch 10, is available on the Series 9.

These minor developments pose two problems, the most obvious being the lack of appeal for the novelty, especially since Apple continues to sell its watch for almost 500 euros. A little creativity would therefore not hurt, especially in terms of design. It takes more than a jet black color to satisfy us.

Above all, these tiny improvements raise the question of the release rate annual.Apple, which is the green knight of tech, continues to maintain this pace of releases that no longer has any reason to exist, if not to continue to rake in profits in order to satisfy shareholders.

It might be time to reconsider this way of selling tech, because consumers, themselves, are ready to change their habits. As proof, while the smartphone market has declined in volume in recent years, the refurbished market has exploded.

In itself, the Apple Watch Series 10 is a very good smartwatch. Still as effective for tracking health and sports activity (provided you have an iPhone), this new version is lighter and more comfortable to use thanks to its larger screen. The faster charging is also welcome, as is the sleep apnea detection function.

Despite everything, we can't help but feel a certain weariness. Apple continues to offer more or less the same thing every year, without gimmicks, without surprises, without audacity. This is all the more regrettable since this model embodies the ten-year anniversary version. We would have thought that the party would be crazier.

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Teilor Stone

Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116