Apple Watch SE review (2022): The best smartwatch $250 can buy

I wasn’t anticipating Apple, of all corporations, to ship essentially the most competitively priced smartwatch you should buy in 2022. However with Apple shaving $30 off the price, the brand new Watch SE is arguably essentially the most compelling wearable available on the market. For $150 less than the brand new Collection 8, this 12 months’s Watch SE delivers a complete suite of well being and health instruments, emergency options and surprisingly few tradeoffs. It even makes use of the identical new chip because the Collection 8, and it appears to be like indistinguishable besides.

Design and {hardware}

In the event you’ve seen one Apple Watch, you’ve just about seen all of them. Not like nearly all of smartwatches for Android customers, iPhone homeowners are caught with the rounded sq. face the corporate has retained 12 months after 12 months. At this level, it appears like most individuals are used to the form and have both embraced it, adjusted to it or given up complaining.

I’m a kind of who’s determined to not waste my breath asking for a spherical face. Not less than the Watch SE appears to be like inoffensive and is mild, comfy and nicely made. The 40mm mannequin I’ve been testing sits properly on my wrist and more often than not I barely even discover it’s there. A 44mm model can be obtainable.

It’s value noting that almost all latest wearables are equally unobtrusive, although at 26.4 grams (0.93 ounces), the 40mm Apple Watch SE is among the lightest round. In the meantime, the Fitbit Sense and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 each outweigh it at 37.6 grams and 28.7 grams, respectively.

Although the SE’s underside is constructed from a nylon composite and sapphire crystal as a substitute of the ceramic on its predecessor and the Collection 8, I didn’t even understand there was a distinction till I scrutinized the spec sheet.

Not like the Collection 8 and Watch Extremely, the brand new SE isn’t rated IPX6 for mud resistance, but it surely is water-proof at as much as 50 meters. It additionally makes use of an older coronary heart fee monitor than the opposite two, however comes with the identical S8 system-in-a-package (SiP) processor, in addition to an onboard high-g accelerometer that makes crash detection potential.

Like its predecessor, the SE’s display is roofed by an Ion-X glass versus the sapphire crystal on the Collection 8. I’ve had no mishaps with the brand new SE, although my first evaluate unit of the last-generation machine did get critically broken, with spiderweb cracks protecting the show after it fell off my toilet sink. In the event you’re clumsy or anticipate being careless along with your smartwatch, it could be value paying extra to get a hardier mannequin.

Show

The Watch SE’s Retina show is shiny, crisp and straightforward to learn, even in direct daylight. That latter trait has lots to do with the truth that Apple persistently makes use of colourful textual content on a black background, which is nice for readability. Although Samsung watches just like the Galaxy Watch 5 typically have larger resolutions and better brightness, additionally they typically use tiny fonts with low distinction and could be laborious to learn.

The brand new SE has the identical show as its predecessor, which is to say it’s additionally an LTPO OLED panel that runs at resolutions of 394 x 324 and 448 x 368 for the 40mm and 44mm variations, respectively. It’ll additionally max out at 1,000 nits of brightness just like the older SE and the Collection 8.

In addition to the dearth of a pores and skin temperature sensor, the primary distinction between this 12 months’s Watch SE and its extra premium siblings, is that it doesn’t have an At all times On Show (AOD). This simply means you’ll need to carry your wrist (pretty intentionally typically) to see issues just like the time, how lengthy you’ve been figuring out or a notification that simply got here by means of. It does take a second for the Watch SE to get up and present me what I’m searching for, but it surely by no means felt too laggy. In the event you’re the impatient kind and have cash to spare, although, that is one function that may make the Collection 8 value the additional $150.

Efficiency and in use

For the worth, it’s spectacular that the Watch SE makes use of the identical S8 SiP because the Collection 8 and Watch Extremely. Typically, this meant the $250 watch was simply as snappy as its pricier counterparts at setting new watch faces, measuring my coronary heart fee, beginning exercises and extra. I wore the SE and a Collection 8 throughout my testing and typically it was faster to detect that I had been strolling for 10 minutes or longer, whereas different occasions higher-end mannequin could be first. No matter which machine alerted me first, although, they each clocked roughly the identical period for my outside walks.

Utilizing the SE to trace my every day HIIT and resistance coaching periods felt precisely the identical as utilizing the Collection 8. The one distinction was that the latter’s AOD saved the exercise display on so I may extra simply keep watch over stats like elapsed time and energy burned.

Probably the most vital function that the SE lacks is the brand new pores and skin temperature sensor that Apple launched on the Collection 8. This measures the wearer’s physique temperature in a single day and, based mostly on any deviations from a baseline studying, retrospectively estimates in the event that they’ve ovulated. As a result of the SE doesn’t have the {hardware}, it doesn’t supply this ovulation-tracking function. But it surely does every thing else associated to cycle and sleep-tracking. You may log your durations or put on this to mattress to see how lengthy you’ve spent in zones like REM, Deep and Core sleep.

Regardless of packing an older coronary heart fee monitor than the Collection 8 and Watch Extremely, the SE didn’t take considerably longer to ship a studying. Frankly, for essentially the most half, I couldn’t inform that there was any distinction between the SE and the Collection 7 I had been sporting for a 12 months. Lacking options just like the ECG and blood oxygen apps weren’t issues I used a lot anyway.

Battery life

One space the place the SE lagged pricier Apple Watches is battery life. Whereas the Collection 8 often caught round all day with juice to spare the following morning, the SE tended to run dangerously low at night time if I’d been significantly energetic earlier. I often monitor one exercise each morning and depend on the watches to robotically detect my two to 5 outside walks every day, all whereas making an attempt to hit my stand and transfer targets. If I stroll for longer than 10 minutes greater than twice, the Watch SE will battle to final until midnight.

One other notable distinction between the SE and the Collection 7 and later is that it doesn’t supply quick charging, but it surely by no means took longer than an hour to get again to 100%.

Wrap-up

Apple sacrificed surprisingly few options on the second-gen Watch SE. As a starter smartwatch, it affords loads of well being and fitness-tracking features, whereas offering peace of thoughts by way of emergency options like crash detection and compass trackback. So long as you’re not extraordinarily clumsy or impatient, you gained’t miss issues just like the hardier display, mud resistance or always-on show. At $250, the brand new Watch SE is the very best smartwatch for the cash.