The Apple Watch 10 doubles down on fast charging over longer battery life, and I think that’s a mistake
Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 10 at its iPhone 16 event, and there’s a lot to really like about it, including the new larger display, thinner chassis and lighter weight. I also can’t wait to try out the improvements made possible by the new S10 chipset, like improved call clarity and the Translate app, while the new Jet Black colorway looks great.
As an avid surfer, the Tides app will undoubtedly be a game-changer for me: my favorite app used to be the now-defunct Magic Seaweed, which has been acquired by Surfline, and having a custom replacement Apple Watch on my wrist seems too good to be true.
For many people, though, the new sleep apnea detection feature, Breathing Disturbances, could be the bigger game changer. Breathing Disturbances, a feature that will reportedly be FCC certified soon, checks 30 days of sleep tracking for signs of sleep apnea and presents the information in a report that your doctor can read. It could help millions of undiagnosed sleep apnea sufferers.
In addition to watchOS 11’s new Vitals app, Apple also appears to be focusing on sleep and sleep tracking data.
For these new features to work effectively, however, users will need to be able to wear their Watch overnight, and there’s still one major hurdle: battery life. Without any changes announced at this time, it’s almost certainly still going to be a paltry 18 hours.”
The Apple Watch Series 10 has made strides in the battery department this year, introducing the fastest charging capabilities ever in an Apple Watch to date. It can reportedly reach 80% battery capacity in just 30 minutes of charging thanks to a new “innovative” metal back design. Theoretically, popping it on a charger 30 minutes before bed should be no problem at all.
However, if you were to fully charge it at 9pm, the watch would theoretically be dead again by 5pm the next day. You’d then have to charge it again halfway through the day, and unless you have a cable or 30 minutes handy, you’re stuck with a useless piece of aluminum on your wrist. If you charge it first thing in the morning, it could even be dead overnight. I know Apple’s battery life exceeds their stated value, but it’s still ridiculously short. If you forget to charge it, or you’re out and about for most of the day, you’re stuck with a new 50mm black mirror on your wrist.
Samsung, which made a similar investment in sleep features this year, has capped its watch batteries at 40 hours. Even the Google Pixel Watch 3 gets to 24 hours of the ‘always on’ screen mode is active.
I think Apple would get a lot more people using the new Breathing Disturbances and Vitals features on its watches, as it clearly wants people to do, if it could extend the battery life to just 24 hours. If the Apple Watch Ultra 2 can do 36 hours, what’s the holdup?
