And well, they kind of did this year. By offering so many new features such as a blood oxygen monitor, always-on display, new chipset, great color combination, and a lot more other stuff, the company has finally attracted a lot of new customers.
Starting at $399, it’s not “the best” deal you can put on your wrist, but it certainly can be. In this post, we’ve reviewed some of the prominent features of the Apple watch series 6 that will help you determine whether it’s a great strategy to upgrade or not.
Apple Watch Series 6 Review: Hardware Update
Starting from the basics, the Apple Watch Series 6 comes with a new processor, which means a more optimized battery, better performance, and new features. The series 6 has a slightly faster battery charge time too, from 0 to 100, the watch takes around 2 hours to charge, while the series 5 could easily hit the 2:30 minutes mark. That’s 30 minutes less than the previous year’s model.
Apart from charging, you couldn’t possibly distinguish if there’s a performance upgrade or not. The speed and UI of the watch are also the same. However, the screen seems to be a bit brighter on standby, that’s because of the new always-on altimeter sensor. But that’s only visible if you compare both watches simultaneously.
The only major change we could point out is the back of the watch. To accommodate the blood oxygen sensor, Apple has slightly redesigned the back.
Apple Watch Series 6 Review: WatchOS 7
With the new WatchOS update, Apple has finally enabled its users to grab their favorite apps on the Apple watch. Now, the UI is more responsive and compatible than ever. There are third-party apps for many of the things including Google Maps, weather apps, ride tracking and more.
You’ve even got third-party apps for tracking of own Apple hardware. Like there are tons of sleep tracking apps you can download from the app store. The software has also added a full on-device voice dictation, which means that the watch can now better recognize your voice if you’re outside. This includes Siri, message reply, text to speech, and other bits.
The software itself offers tons of features. Some of the prominent ones are mentioned below:
- Family Setup
- Activity Optimized for Kids
- Custom Memoji app on Watch
- Powerful complications
- New Fitness service
- Handwashing countdown timer
- Better Sleep features
- Shortcuts
Apple Watch Series 6 Review: Blood Oxygen (SpO2) Monitoring
Probably the biggest selling point of this year’s Apple Watch is the new SpO2 monitor. As a form of pulse oximetry, the device will let users know their blood oxygen level with 15-seconds on-demand readings. Apple says that its measurement is about 95%-100% accurate to what you’ll get in a professional SpO2 monitor, which is super impressive!
Apple isn’t the only company that has introduced SpO2 readings in their smartwatch, but it definitely is the closest one to perfection.
Note: To get the best readings, let your arm sit perfectly on a smooth surface and don’t make a movement.
Apple Watch Series 6 Review: Battery Life
Despite its new processor, the Apple Watch Series 6 is rated 18-hours of battery timing. Although, as expected, you wouldn’t fully get this much juice if you use it casually. A normal person with a GPS-guided workout can make it last 13-15 hours, but not more than this. The charging, as we mentioned previously, has improved a lot. Now, it will take only 2 hours for the watch to fully charge.
Apple Watch Series 6 Review: Additional Health Features
The Series 6 comes with some amazing health features and Apple proprietary Fitness App. There are a lot of interesting readings and statistics you can avail of from this Watch, including your sleep tracking, ECG reading, heart rate, rhythm, menstrual cycle tracking, emergency SOS, high decibel alerts, and a lot more.
Now that Apple has launched Fitness+, you can bring a range of workouts to your table from world-class trainers. The recording will stream on your iPhone, iPad, or Laptop and the statistics will automatically record on your Watch.
And that’s pretty much what the Apple Watch Series 6 has to offer. There are some other software-related features you’ll get with this, but those are also available on the previous models as well. In conclusion, here’s what we like and dislike about this year’s Apple Watch.