The Apple Watch Series 11 doesn’t make huge changes to the essential Apple Watch formula – except for the battery life.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Improved battery life | Exactly the same processor as last year’s model |
| Front glass should be more scratch-resistant | A lot of new features are software-based (and not unique to this model) |
| Wide array of bands and styles | Titanium models up the price a LOT |
Score: 3.5/5
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In this review
Apple Watch Series 11 Specifications
Apple Watch Series 11 Design
Apple Watch Series 11 Performance
Apple Watch Series 11 Battery
Apple Watch Series 11 Verdict
Ethical disclaimer: The Apple Watch Series 11 used in this review was loaned to me by Apple Australia. Apple handles its product reviews a little differently to many other companies, so it will be with me for a while, but it remains Apple’s property and will be going back to Apple. I mention this because there are so very many publications that omit or don’t consider disclosure necessary at all. I think transparency in an age of paid-for-reviews and AI slop is a must, not an optional extra only when it doesn’t get in the way of your cashflow. Ahem.
In any case, whether a product comes or goes or anywhere in-between has absolutely zero bearing on how I review anything, and Apple has had no influence on the content of this review.
For more on ART’s Ethics position, see here.
Design
Apple is, it seems, highly reluctant to change much about the Apple Watch design at all, at least externally and observably. When I first strapped the Apple Watch Series 11 on to my wrist, it felt very familiar, and while that’s maybe a good sales tactic to encourage ease of use, I was curious to find out just how much had changed.
See that specifications table up above? What happens if we throw in the Apple Watch Series 10 specifications next to it?
Leaving the claimed battery life aside for just a minute, there’s not a whole lot of design change there. It’s kind of quirky to notice how while the smaller 42mm Apple Watch Series 11 is lighter than its series 10 counterpart, all the other models are heftier, but that’s more a quirk of measurement than anything you’ll actually feel once it’s on your wrist.
Or maybe you have superpowers relating to detecting fractions of a gram of weight on your arm, if so it’ll hit you hard and I won’t judge – but that’s certainly not most of us.
Also Read:
Apple sells it in either Aluminium or Titanium finishes, with either a 42mm or 46mm display. Aluminium models are available in Rose Gold, Silver, Space Grey or Jet Black finishes, while the pricier Titanium models come in Gold, Natural or Slate finishes.
When I say pricier, I do mean it; the cheapest 42mm Apple Watch Series 11 will run you $679, a $30 rise from last year, but if you want the same watch in a Titanium body it’ll ping you wallet to the tune of $1,249.
The Apple Watch has long been a style and fashion icon and I guess the Titanium models aren’t quite as bad as the iPhone Pocket in this regard or for that matter the original Apple Watch Edition which retailed a decade ago at up to $17,000 USD, or around $26,000 AUD. By that standard, Apple’s practically giving the Titanium model Apple Watch Series 11 away.
I will also note that the relative lack of exterior design changes leaves the Apple Watch with the same controls as it had last year. The digital crown works well as does the side button and touch display, but the right hand side of the watch body is a button free zone.
Hey Apple, you’ve got some spare interface space on this side of the Apple Watch. How about putting an, oh, I don’t know, action button on the side? I feel like you’ve already done this kind of thing before…
Feels to me like there’s space here for a button. Maybe for the Apple Watch Series 12, Apple?
Also read:
The one area where the Apple Watch Series 11 has seen a design upgrade is in the covering glass. Apple’s claim for the Ion-X glass on the Apple Watch Series 11 aluminium models is that it’s twice as scratch resistant as the glass on previous models.
Without lab equipment and quite a few Apple Watches to act as both test and reference subjects that’s quite a difficult claim to properly assess, and as I’ve noted before many times, I’m not into the kind of destruction porn that often masquerades as proper scientific “testing” of durability across the Internet.
The Apple Watch Series 11 retains the prior model’s IP6X rating, which puts it in an interesting space in terms of water and dust resistance.
Also read:
Why your “waterproof” phone isn’t actually waterproof
IP6X would suggest, as per the way IP resistance numbers work that the Apple Watch Series 11 is essentially dust resistant but has no tested water resistance claims to make at all. At the same time, Apple’s specification page for the Apple Watch Series 11 says that it’s rated for water resistance at up to 50 metres.
Which is… deeply weird, but then Apple’s long been difficult around warranty claims for Apple devices where there has been water damage.
Here Australian Consumer law is your friend to an extent, and even Apple has to (begrudgingly) admit this, noting that its own warranties cannot override local legislation. Still, I’d be careful and not push that 50m claim too closely if I were you.
Performance
The Apple Watch Series 11’s internals are built around the Apple S10 processor in fundamentally the exact same ways that the Apple Watch Series 10 was, which means that it’s fundamentally a very similar watch running basically the same suite of watchOS features as existing models in the family.
One upgrade under the hood that you might not notice at the watch level is the introduction of support for 5Ghz Wi-Fi networks where the older models were 2.4Ghz only.
Like prior models you’ve got the choice of either the baseline Wi-Fi models or the more expensive LTE capable variants; if having phone-style access without your iPhone present is important to you it’ll run you $170 more per Apple Watch, plus whatever fees your telco charges you for smartwatch integration on your existing mobile phone plan. One smaller upgrade here is support for 5G on the Apple Watch Series 11. The bigger benefit there is likely to revolve more around slightly better data access in crowded locations than needing huge quantities of data downloaded to your Apple Watch per se there.
For iPhone users, there’s absolutely no doubt that the Apple Watch is the smartest wearable available to you, and like every other generation there’s no support for any other operating systems built in; at the absolute bare minimum you’d need an iPhone present for basic setup of the Apple Watch Series 11, but quite what you’d do with it or the benefit you’d get without a paired iPhone to fall back onto eludes me for the moment.
Apple’s updates to watchOS have made it a nice and slick wearable OS with only a slight learning curve for controls and features, but they’re not particularly unique to this model.
None of this is “bad”, but it does rather point to the Apple Watch Series 11 being a gentle evolution of the Apple Watch rather than a radical reinvention.
Well… except for one factor.
Battery
When I wrote up the Apple Watch Series 10 last year, I headed up that review with this observation:
The Apple Watch Series 10 is a delightful smartwatch to use… for as long as the battery lasts.
Battery life for the regular Apple Watch models has long been a headache, because the best that Apple could offer to date for any non-Ultra variant of its watches was “up to” 18 hours of battery life, or in other words significantly less than a day. That’s been the story all the way back to the original Apple Watch, which means, yes, you could have spent up to $26,000 on a watch that had less than a day’s battery life a decade ago… but once again, I digress.
While it runs on the same underlying processor and has the same sized screen as the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple’s managed to finagle just a little bit more theoretical battery life out of the newer model, with the claim of up to 24 hours of battery life.
24 hours has a nice psychological sound to it, but does the Apple Watch Series 11 live up to the battery hype?
As always, it depends on your precise usage.
During my review period I’ve certainly had fewer issues with battery life woes on the Apple Watch Series 11 than I have with prior models over the course of one day, and very light users could get into that second day, depending of course precisely on when you take it off its charger. I’m not a big fan of sleeping with a watch on (tastes can totally vary here) but its improvements in battery life do open up the possibilities for sleep tracking if that’s your thing.
If you do get stressed out by battery life and you’re away from your charger, you can switch it to low power mode for up to 38 hours of battery life until you can get back to some sweet, sweet power.
If you want the very best Apple Watch life that’s likely to be the Apple Watch Ultra 3, though Apple has been reluctant to send one of those my way for testing as yet.
It feels likely that it won’t, so I’ll go find a reputable third-party review of it for those who are keen:
Also read:
Apple Watch Ultra 3 Review (Pickr)
The Apple Watch Series 11 keeps to Apple’s proprietary Apple Watch charger design, and while that’s a nicely established bit of technology with an ecosystem of supporting third-party products, I did once again hit the issue that some Apple Watch certified chargers built before Apple started offering larger Apple Watch bodies can sometimes struggle a little with precise placement for charging.
Apple Watch Series 11: Alex’s Verdict
The biggest and most evident upgrade to the Apple Watch Series 11 is in the battery life, and even there it’s an upgrade that won’t utterly change the way you use a smart wearable. If Apple had flipped over to, say, 48 hour battery life in a regular power mode that would be revolutionary; this is more like a very welcome but gentle evolution.
A lot of the other new features are really more software-specific to watchOS 26, and that’s not unique to this model. If you wanted those features and the best battery life and the action button – and yes, Apple, I’m going to remain angry that you’ve kept that as an exclusive feature – then the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is likely a better bet. If you just want in on the ground floor for basic smartwatch essentials – which watchOS manages very well indeed – then the $399 Apple Watch SE 3 (affiliate link) might be a better buy.
None of which makes the Apple Watch Series 11 a bad smart wearable; it’s very good, but it sits in a family of very good smart timepieces without a real “key” new selling point beyond that expanded battery life, and possibly the improved durability if you’re likely to be taking it into more hazardous environments – or, like me, you’re sometimes a little clumsy.
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Apple Watch Series 11: Pricing and availability
The Apple Watch Series 11 retails in Australia with pricing starting at $679. The 46mm Space Grey Cellular version with the Black Sport Band used in this review would cost you $899 in Australia.
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