Apple Watch Series 11 Analysis: Wrist-Flickingly Good and Longer Battery Life

The most recent wearable 11th generation brings the one thing most people actually want from their wrist gadget: improved power endurance.

In other aspects, the new model functions as a straightforward upgrade for the Series 10, keeping pace in appearance, dimensions and capabilities, with most of improvements originating from software.

This new model furthermore priced £30 lower for UK customers, costing from £369 (€449/$399 USD/679 Australian dollars), placed higher than the recently updated SE model costing £219 for entry-level buyers and the premium Ultra 3 at £749 in the premium segment.

Design and Display

Similar to the previous tenth series, the latest iteration is just 9.7mm thick, creating a slim fit when worn, easy to sneak under cuffs and more comfortable during sleep.

The 2,000nit interface offers excellent visibility for reading indoors and out, remaining clear at various perspectives, which makes glancing down for timekeeping or alerts straightforward.

Protecting the display by glass that is significantly more durable than earlier versions, though not quite as tough compared to sapphire, that remains exclusive for the more expensive titanium versions.

Performance and Battery

This latest device incorporates equivalent S10 silicon as last year's model while adding support for 5G connectivity option and improved connectivity for those times exploring remote areas.

The batteries have increased in storage significantly with the smaller and 46 millimeter models correspondingly.

The 46mm lasted a good 48 hours in testing with sleep tracking excluding workout sessions.

Typical wearers will just about be able to track 48 hours including sleep before needing a charge, which takes just over an hour with a 20-watt or more powerful adapter (available separately), hitting about three-quarters charge in 30 minutes.

Should you engage in exercise, the device can continue about eight hours for monitoring, adequate time to complete marathons or multiple events.

Product Features

  • Case size: 42mm and 46mm
  • Case thickness: 9.7 millimeters
  • Mass: around 30 to 37g
  • Chip: S10 processor
  • Internal storage: 64 gigabytes
  • Operating system: watchOS 26
  • Swim capability: 50 metres (5 atmospheres)
  • Monitoring features: Heart rate, Electrocardiogram, spO2, Temperature, depth, mic, speaker, NFC, Global navigation, compass, altimeter
  • Wireless features: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, NFC capability, UWB, 5G cellular option

watchOS 26 Features

The Series 11 ships with the latest watchOS, functioning on each iteration from 2020's Series 6 and newer.

This includes the latest Liquid Glass interface, creating interface components semi-translucent, along with fresh interface options: a big digital interface called Flow reacting to motion plus an analog display called Exactograph, dividing time components into individual displays.

The most impressive innovation is the wrist-flick gesture, requiring swift turning your hand backward and reversing to exit screens returning to the home screen.

The feature operates without lifting your arm to view the screen, enabling wearers to stop notifications using a quick gesture of the wrist.

Wellness Monitoring

The Apple Watch incorporates an extensive health monitoring suite of features from previous models plus including a couple of new features and revamped fitness program.

Hypertension alerts check for symptoms of elevated BP through extended monitoring, alerting users to get yourself checked out when pulse information indicates potential underlying conditions.

Enhanced sleep analysis improves sleep monitoring simpler to understand, similar to competitors including various manufacturers.

Each morning the screen presents a numerical rating divided into categories into three categories: duration, bedtime and interruptions, which are all easy to understand and accessible in the Health app through your mobile as well.

Workout buddy serves as automated guidance that uses your historical exercise information to give you encouragement before and after workouts, like detecting previous running sessions multiple weekly exercises plus intensity measurement you demonstrated.

Also featuring verbal notifications when you reach specific targets during exercise, including certain tempo, pulse rate, range, period or additional measurements.

There is a choice of three voices, delivering verbal guidance via wireless earbuds paired with the device across twelve exercise types, such as walking, jogging or biking.

However, it only works when you bring along newer iPhone models during activities, which I found irritating sufficient to avoid the function to avoid being encumbered with a phone on runs.

Sustainability and Environment

Apple says energy storage maintains exceeding 1000 full power cycles maintaining 80 percent of initial performance and can be replaced for £95.

Repairs cost approximately £300-400 depending on the model.

It contains significant amounts of reused components such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium components, specialized materials, steel, tin elements, {titanium|

Brian Hernandez
Brian Hernandez

A passionate writer and shopping enthusiast with a keen eye for quality products and lifestyle trends.