Apple Watch Series 8 review

In comparison with the all-new Apple Watch Extremely, the Apple Watch Collection 8 seems a bit of acquainted – and that’s as a result of it largely is identical smartwatch as final yr, each externally and internally, with a handful of recent additions that look to tempt older Apple Watch homeowners slightly than Collection 7 homeowners.

The query is, with value hikes in lots of areas around the globe, is the Apple Watch Collection 8 definitely worth the value? Or must you search for a just-as-capable Collection 7? Effectively…  

Design & show

• An identical design to the Collection 7
• At all times-on show
• Snug to put on

For those who’re in any method aware of the Apple Watch, you’ll immediately recognise the Apple Watch Collection 8. Apple has all the time used an analogous design for its wearable, and unsurprisingly, that hasn’t modified this yr. If it ain’t broke, don’t repair it, proper?

In fact, Apple has enhanced the design through the years, increasing the show and shrinking the bezels, however that’s not true of the Collection 8, which seems an identical to its predecessor.

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What you do get is 2 variants of Collection 8 in 41mm and 45mm casings, with Apple’s curved rectangular aluminium physique that creates a close to seamless joint with the subtly curved show. That’s paired with the Digital Crown wheel, used for scrolling, and a multi-function facet button on the left.

It’s obtainable Midnight, Starlight, Silver and Product Purple colors, however the Blue and Inexperienced finishes of the Collection 7 are not any extra.

The principle spotlight of the Collection 8 design is the marginally curved show, measuring in at both 1.6in or 1.9in relying on the casing you go for. Although it stays unchanged, it’s nonetheless spectacular with slim bezels, vivid colors and a powerful peak brightness of 1,000 nits that makes it simple to make use of even in vibrant daylight.

It additionally sports activities Apple’s always-on show tech, exhibiting a dimmed model of the watch face always. The power to look down and rapidly test the time or climate with out tapping the show to wake it’s simply as useful as ever.

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Accompanying the watch are a wide range of watch straps at various value factors, although for those who’re shopping for the entry-level watch combo, you’ll probably rock the usual fluoroelastomer sports activities strap.

This strap has a snug match that doesn’t irritate the pores and skin – a specific bonus when you think about you’ll be carrying it to mattress if you wish to observe your sleep.

It’s additionally sturdy with an Ion-X glass coating that ought to defend from scratches and cracks, together with water resistance that permits the Watch to be submerged right down to 50m.

That’ll be sufficient for many of us, however if you wish to use the Apple Look ahead to mountaineering or excessive sports activities, the upgraded sturdiness, extra Motion button and improved straps of the high-end Apple Watch Extremely might tempt you extra.

Good options & watchOS

• S8 chipset brings negligible efficiency good points
• Automobile crash detection
• watchOS 9 provides significant updates

With a near-identical design and construct to its predecessor, it may be laborious to identify what’s new with this yr’s wearable.

The obvious improve to the Apple Watch Collection 8 is within the processor division with Apple’s S8 chipset, although in precise use there’s no distinction in efficiency between the Collection 7 and Collection 8. The 2 smartwatches really feel simply as responsive, with apps and widgets loading immediately, and there’s no increase to total battery life so far as I can inform.

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Nonetheless, the Collection 8 does have a brand new trick or two up its sleeve, with a brand new gyroscope and high-G accelerometer that may detect for those who’ve been in a automotive crash and phone emergency companies in your behalf. It builds upon Apple’s spectacular fall detection for train and may present added peace of thoughts for people who drive typically, particularly in quieter areas.

The brand new sensors can detect forces as much as 256G – for reference, most automotive crashes are available at someplace round 200G – and when used at the side of different sensors on the Watch, together with the barometer to detect a shift in atmospheric stress, it ought to be pretty correct with little to no false activation.

This could work at the side of a related iPhone, utilising sensors of each units to find out key info like location, course of journey and ranges of deceleration, and relay this to emergency responders within the type of a pre-recorded message. It’ll all the time connect with your smartwatch first, even when an iPhone is close by, as your iPhone may’ve been misplaced within the crash.

People who go for a mobile variant of the Apple Watch Collection 8 can even sit up for worldwide roaming assist for the primary time, with Apple claiming that the performance ought to work in any area the place your service has voice over LTE (VoLTE) assist.

The mix of the Apple Watch Collection 8 and watchOS 9 represents among the best smartwatch experiences in the marketplace, with an ever-expanding library of impressively customisable watch faces that cater to everybody, from people who need to pack as many interactive widgets on display without delay to extra minimalistic, fashion-focused faces. It’s simple to alter faces on the fly too, with a swipe left or proper.

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It’s not simply watch faces that make the Apple Watch expertise what it’s; it additionally gives spectacular integration with iPhones, not solely exhibiting incoming notifications however offering a method to answer texts, WhatsApp and different notifications with out getting your cellphone out of your pocket. You can also make calls, entry Siri and carry out most iOS capabilities in your wrist.

There’s additionally the sheer variety of third-party apps obtainable for the Apple Watch, together with many widespread apps like Google Maps, Citymapper, Carrot Climate and Spotify, that additional broaden the performance on supply.

It’s an elegantly designed wearable working system that’s easy to make use of and, as corny because it sounds when Apple says it, ‘it simply works’.

Well being & health monitoring

• New ovulation monitoring performance for household planning
• Temperature monitoring at evening
• New multi-sport train monitoring

Whereas there won’t be many new good options from this yr’s wearable, Apple has boosted the Collection 8’s well being and health monitoring capabilities.

That primarily comes within the type of a brand new temperature sensor that tracks your baseline temperature as you sleep, alerting you to will increase or decreases in temperature as little as 0.1 Celsius. Apple says this will increase the accuracy of sleep monitoring, as your blood vessels dilate and improve blood circulation to the extremities as you sleep, however that’s not the principle cause for its inclusion.

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As an alternative, the temperature sensor is concentrated on monitoring ovulation, which can assist with household planning. The watch makes use of the sensor to retroactively determine while you started ovulating, monitoring for patterns of biphasic shift in sleep and an elevated temperature in response to altering hormones. It gained’t work instantly although – it’ll want two months’ value of knowledge earlier than it’ll start monitoring.

Importantly, it doesn’t use the information to foretell future ovulation, however you should utilize the information offered to make your individual estimations on while you’re more likely to ovulate subsequent.

What’s most essential is the safety of stated knowledge, with Apple stating that you simply’re in full management, with not even Apple itself capable of see it. You’ll be able to select to share the information within the type of a PDF with a health care provider, however once more, that’s provided that you determine to take action.

The temperature sensor is definitely cut up into two – one on the wrist, one beneath the show – to assist account for warmth flux and bias within the setting and supply extra correct readings. Basically, for those who sleep along with your hand beneath the pillow and will get hotter than typical, the Watch will perceive and compensate for that.

It’s value noting, nevertheless, that it isn’t designed to provide reside readings. It’s solely obtainable when the Sleep mode is energetic in your Apple Watch, and it’ll offer you a single temperature studying for the evening, slightly than readings by means of the evening just like the Fitbit Sense 2 can. As such, Apple says that it’s not designed to provide you a heads-up on whether or not you’re getting a fever, as some may assume.

Temperature sensor apart, the Apple Watch Collection 8 is extra succesful than ever in the case of well being and health monitoring. The corporate’s signature motion monitoring rings are current, monitoring your motion, train and stand hours all through the day and, with watchOS 9, the Apple Watch lastly gives correct sleep monitoring with Deep, Core, REM and waking durations tracked by means of the evening.

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It’s nonetheless not as in-depth because the likes of Fitbit and Huawei, missing personalised recommendation to enhance your sleep, but it surely fixes a long-time criticism with Apple’s wearable.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

By way of train monitoring, the Collection 8 introduces assist for multi-sport exercises (like triathlons) and assist for extra superior sports activities, however what runners will admire most is the introduction of coronary heart charge zone monitoring, accessible on the watch mid-exercise.

It’s a function seen on loads of different health watches, so it’s a shock to see it so late within the recreation on the Apple Watch, but it surely’ll be helpful for letting you recognize at a look whether or not you may push your self additional based mostly in your coronary heart charge.

The core train monitoring expertise hasn’t wildly modified although; the watch offers monitoring for all types of exercises, with correct distance readings for out of doors sports activities due to its built-in GPS, together with key metrics like cadence, velocity, energy burnt and coronary heart charge. Nonetheless, this does rely on the exercise chosen.

The power to reassign the facet button as an motion button to cease and begin workouts, like with the devoted Motion button on the Apple Watch Extremely, would’ve been a pleasant contact. As an alternative, you’re relegated to utilizing the contact display, and that may develop into a bit of annoying over the chilly winter months while you may be carrying gloves for those who train outdoor. 

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Submit-workout, you will get a breakdown of the exercise on the Watch itself, or you should utilize the Well being app in your related iPhone to delve deeper into the stats, together with a warmth map of your exercise for those who went for a stroll, run or cycle.

The Well being app is a specific promoting level of the Apple Watch expertise, because it collates all types of knowledge out of your Apple Watch and different well being apps you may use (like meals monitoring apps) to give you an summary of your well being based mostly on a large set of knowledge.

Battery life & charging

• 18 hours of battery on a single cost
• New Low Energy mode extends battery at the price of performance
• Full cost in round an hour

The Collection 8 stays just about unchanged within the battery life division, with Apple nonetheless aiming for 18 hours of use on a single cost – a determine that largely matched my expertise, although I may squeeze a bit of over 24 hours out of a cost with out devoted health monitoring.

In fact, battery life is affected by a lot of components together with the widgets you utilize in your watch face, how typically you utilize watch apps, what number of notifications you get, GPS and health monitoring and even taking biometric readings, so your mileage might nicely fluctuate.

Regardless, that’s nonetheless wanting the competitors just like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Professional and its multi-day battery life, however contemplating most of us are within the behavior of charging our telephones each evening, it doesn’t really feel like an enormous deal. Sure, longer battery life could be appreciated, however not at the price of performance or design.

If battery life is essential to you, the Apple Watch Extremely and its 36-hour battery life might attraction extra – although it’s a lot chunkier than the Collection 8 because of this.

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There’s a new Low Energy mode obtainable as a part of watchOS 9 that extends battery life to round 36 hours, but it surely’ll additionally disable coronary heart charge and blood oxygen monitoring, flip off the always-on show and solely ship notifications as soon as an hour. It’s a helpful workaround if you recognize you’ll be away from a charger for some time, but it surely’s not one thing you’ll need to use typically.

The watch additionally advantages from the elevated charging speeds launched on the Collection 7, with the Collection 8 reaching 69% cost in simply half-hour in testing. If nothing else, that makes it simpler to maintain on prime of the typical battery life, topping up simply earlier than you go to mattress or while you get up within the morning. 

Value & availability

The Apple Watch Collection 8 pricing largely matches that of its predecessor within the US, beginning at $399 for the 41mm variant and $429 for the 45mm variant, however the identical can’t be stated of different areas around the globe – thanks, inflation.

The Apple Watch Collection 8 has elevated by £50 within the UK, beginning at £419 and £449 relying on the dimensions, making it extra premium than ever – and that’s with out the high-end straps or chrome steel physique. It’s even worse in Europe, beginning at an elevated €499 and €539 in comparison with €429 and €459 of the Collection 7.

It’s protected to say that the Apple Watch Collection 8 isn’t essentially the most inexpensive smartwatch round, particularly exterior of the US, however there’s something to be stated in regards to the high-end expertise on supply.

For those who’re tempted, you should buy the Apple Watch Collection 8 from the Apple Retailer alongside retailers like Greatest Purchase within the US and Amazon within the UK.

We cowl the place to purchase the Apple Watch Collection 8 in additional element individually, and to see how the Apple Watch compares to the competitors, check out our number of the most effective smartwatches.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Verdict

Apple hasn’t thrown out the rule e book in the case of the Apple Watch Collection 8. It does the whole lot you’d count on an Apple Watch to do, together with just a few new options to tempt these but to take pleasure in Apple’s wearable.

That stated, there’s not sufficient right here to entice somebody with an Apple Watch Collection 7 as a result of, realistically, the 2 smartwatches are near-identical. Certain, there are new perks together with automotive crash detection and ovulation monitoring, however the chipset, design and expertise are largely unchanged.

It’s as a substitute focused at new prospects or individuals nonetheless rocking an older Apple Watch that’ll benefit from the upgraded show and design launched with the Collection 7, together with the automotive crash detection, ovulation monitoring and improved health monitoring of the Collection 8.

The Apple Watch Collection 8 won’t be essentially the most exceptional replace in Apple’s historical past, but it surely’s nonetheless the most effective smartwatch for iOS customers.  

Specs

• 41/45mm casings
• 41mm x 35mm x 10.7mm, 32g (41mm)
• 45mm x 38mm x 10.7mm, 38.8g (45mm)
• IP6X mud resistant
• 50ATM water resistance
• At all times-on retina show, as much as 1000nits
• Blood oxygen, ECG, coronary heart charge and temperature monitoring
• Cycle monitoring
• Automobile crash detection
• GPS
• Barometer
• At all times-on altimeter
• Non-compulsory mobile connectivity with worldwide roaming
• 18-hour battery life
• As much as 36 hours of use with Low Energy mode