Apple Watch Series 6 initial review: Time flies

The Apple Watch is now 6-years-old, but has it got to a point where the speed of technological improvements is barely noticeable? Announced this week, the new Apple Watch Series 6 is the latest model of Apple smartwatch and comes with a couple of new features. But unlike previous years the design has mostly stayed the same and the technology inside it to many will be invisible.

We've just started wearing the new model and these are our initial thoughts.

A familiar design

• 40 and 44mm design
• New colour options
• New band styles

The new Series 6 model sports the same 44mm and 40mm design (the same as the Series 4 and Series 5 models) and offers a digital crown and touchscreen display to control everything. Long gone is Force Touch (as it was on the Series 5) replaced by a "long press". There are some new colours and materials: for the aluminium Apple Watch you can now get it in blue or (Product)Red, as well as the previous silver, black, and rose gold. For stainless steel users there's the option of a gold or graphite colourway. Titanium remains, but ceramic has been ditched.

For Nike fans there's also a variety of Nike versions and the fashion conscious can opt for an array of Hermes design bands.

If you've liked the look of Watch Series 5 you'll like the look of the Watch Series 6. We've got the stainless steel graphite model and it's smart; the shine of the stainless steel gives catches the light nicely and it's certainly a more premium finish than the black aluminium alternative - although it is more expensive.

It's also worth noting that if you opt for the aluminium model and you're fairly active, the screen is likely to pick up scratches. A year in and our Series 5 is covered in small marks picked up along the way. The stainless steel and titanium models will come with the much tougher sapphire glass which is much more durable.

Always-on display

• Brighter when dimmed

It's still here, still OLED, but now brighter when off. The Apple Watch Series 6 has two states, on and off, and while off, the screen dulls but doesn't go dark completely - great for glancing at the time.

In Series 6 Apple has boosted the screen brightness to 500 nits, up from 200 nits, which makes seeing the screen easier - especially when outside. We've yet to see if that makes a difference to the battery life, or whether it is distracting and annoying in darker environments, so we will report back on our findings shortly.

Previously, to help conserve battery life, many of the watch faces would have on and off modes. That's still the case, but some of the newer Series 6 watch faces aren't as "black and white" but merely dull.

We've also noticed, thanks to a change in WatchOS 7 that you can now interact with the complications when the screen is considered "off" which should save that double press we experienced using an Apple Watch Series 5 with WatchOS 6.

Battery life and improved charging

• 18 hours battery life
• 1.5 hour charging

We've not been able to test either, as we've only just started wearing the new Watch, but Apple claims the new processor delivers improved battery life. Apple claims you'll get an extra hour of audio playback and an extra hour for workouts.

The Watch Series 5 gave us around 18 hours, so that's more that enough for a day, but it's going to be interesting to see how it copes if we're expected to wear it in bed while we're asleep.

To try resolve that issue, Apple says that it has improved charging times. You should no longer need to charge it over night, but can get away with just 1.5 hours for a full day's juice. That's a big increase on previous models.

We look forward to seeing if Apple's claims stand up in our tests.

New sensors join the data party

• Blood oxygen
• Altimeter  

For Series 5 we got a compass, which we got excited about, but to be honest haven't used it since, and neither as far as we can tell, have many apps. This year it's an altimeter that will tell you how high you are, be it sitting at your desk or climbing a nearby hill, mountain, or more likely the case for many, office block.

We've yet to test it properly, but for fitness fans and altimeter has the potential to unlock more accurate statistics, if it's put to use in apps. You'll have a more reliable source of information to tell you how far you've climbed on your bike or hike. For everyday use it might have little practical use, so hopefully it will play its part in boosting the sporting credentials of the Watch.

Perhaps more interesting for many is the introduction of a blood oxygen monitor that using a series of lights on the back of the smartwatch can determine your SpO2 levels. It's not a medical device to the same level as the ECG that was introduced in Series 4, and for many won't mean much, but it does open possibilities in the future. Apple says the system will monitor your blood oxygen levels in the background without bothering you and collect the data to be used in the future if needed.

We got 100 per cent if you're wondering, but now that makes us wonder what we're supposed to do with that information. We've seen blood oxygen monitors in other wearable devices and in most cases, it's just data we don't need or end up turning off. 

Series 6 tech specs

• S6 SiP
• U1 chip

Things are very much the same for the Series 6 as they are for Series 5. The processor has been improved. It does feel fractionally faster whizzing around the menus, but we'll need more time to analyse, while there's also an improved Wi-Fi antenna thanks to the addition of 5GHz band support.

The Apple Watch Series 6 also gets Apple's U1 chip launched with the iPhone 11 Pro. The potential is big - allowing you to do things like open your car with your watch - but we've not had a chance to delve deeper with it just yet.

WatchOS 7

There are plenty of new features that this model and previous Apple Watch models will get including sleep tracking, Family Setup, new watch faces and a Memoji App so you can send stickers of yourself or an octopus to others. The Series 6 also comes with all the previous features found in Apple Watch Series 5.

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