The Apple Watch Series 11 Won Me Over To Smartwatches

I have never liked smartwatches. The last time I used one regularly, it felt like I was paying extra for something on my wrist that simply repeated the distractions of my phone—and though I could disable those distracting features, doing so just made the watch even less functional. For the longest time, there was nothing your smartwatch could do that you couldn’t do better on your phone—and wearables like the Oura Ring, which I have worn consistently for several years, handle health tracking less intrusively than smartwatches.But over time, the app ecosystem for smartwatches—particularly the Apple Watch—has expanded far beyond what a ring can do, particularly if you’re into fitness. In short, though the Series 11 may have been a relatively minor upgrade, there’s never been a better time to buy an Apple Watch than right now.The Series 11 comes in 42mm ($399) and 46mm ($429) sizes, with 64GB of storage. It has hypertension notifications, sleep scoring, and a blood oxygen sensor, and—more important than all of those—the screen is twice as scratch-resistant as before. As before, you can get it in aluminium or titanium, and in GPS-only or cellular version—and the Watch I’ve been using is the 46mm Series 11 in natural aluminium, with cellular compatibility.Unless you’re a petite woman, I would go for the 46mm size, and though the cellular compatibility is a $100 upgrade — plus the monthly cost of upgrading your mobile plan to add an eSIM to a smartwatch — it’s worth it for hikers, runners, and anyone else who does outdoor sports. Not only can you update to any health tracking or map apps while you’re on the move, but you can leave your phone at home and still listen to music or podcasts by connecting your AirPods to the watch.Courtesy of AppleThe biggest improvement to the Apple Watch in recent years, though, has been how Apple Watch apps are now far more useful companions to the phone version. I love using the fitness app Gentler Streak on my phone, but it’s built around the watch, where you can easily log workouts, with built-in split timers, and so on.Outside of fitness, another highlight is Apple Maps, which is just superb on the watch. Put simply, it was far easier to glance at directions on my watch when walking to a theater on a rainy night in London rather than pulling out my phone in a downpour. The haptic taps telling you when to turn are also very useful.Even after 10 years on the market, the Apple Watch still isn’t perfect, though—and the battery life and charging situation are the biggest flaws. You’ll want the always-on display enabled, but with that, plus exercise tracking and sleep monitoring, you cannot get through a full day, which is stupid. You end up hunting for times to sneak in partial charges, and even the fast charging is too slow.Courtesy of AppleThe Apple Watch Ultra 3 has a bigger battery—but is also heavier, bigger, and more expensive. The Apple Watch being thin and light is part of its magic, and the bulk of the Ultra is simply too much for many people. My hope is that Apple embraces silicon-carbon anode battery technology soon, which has enabled Chinese Android phone manufacturers to fit batteries with double the capacity of an iPhone into a very similar, but less expensive, chassis. You could wait to buy an Apple Watch until that trickles down to wearables, but Apple has a tendency to be the last to embrace new hardware technology like that. iPhones still charge comically slowly compared to their Android competitors.And yet, I now go to bed every night with it on my wrist, and use it to track every workout and walk I go on, and leave my phone behind when doing weekend adventure sports, relying on the watch alone. For someone who once hated smart watches, it’s a true accomplishment.

The Apple Watch Series 11 Won Me Over To Smartwatches

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