It’s official—the Apple Watch Series 7 is due to be released this coming Friday (October 15). With its larger display, increased durability, and fast-charging capabilities, the Series 7 is set to be Apple’s best watch yet. But is it really all it is hyped up to be? And how does it compare to the Apple Watch Series 6?
To answer these questions, here is everything you need to know about the latest Apple Watch.
Apple Watch Series 7: New Features
Colors
The new Apple Watch comes in five all-new aluminum colors: green, blue, red, starlight, and midnight.
Design & Display
The Series 7 comes in brand-new screen sizes, 41 mm and 45 mm—their biggest yet. The watch also has an Always-On Retina display, which is up to 70% brighter indoors. To accommodate the larger screen, Apple have redesigned their buttons, so apps are both easier to see and utilize. In an Apple Watch first, a new QWERTY keyboard has been added, letting you tap or slide from letter to letter, and uses machine learning to predict which words you are typing. You can also use the scribble feature to write letters on your screen, which is a lot easier to do with a larger display!
Durability
The Series 7 prides itself on being the most durable Apple Watch made so far. It is crack resistant, water resistant up to 50 meters, and also dust resistant, which is another brand-new feature for an Apple Watch. With robust geometry and thicker front crystal, the Series 7 has more strength and a sturdier shape, designed to be significantly more resistant to heavy impact.
Health & Fitness Capabilities
The Apple Watch Series 7 has a number of useful health-monitoring features. You can measure your blood oxygen levels, heart rate, take an ECG, track your sleep, and practice mindfulness. You can tap into dozens of workouts with Apple Fitness+, the first fitness service powered by Apple Watch. The watch even has a cycling tracker which detects when you start pedaling.
Battery Life
The watch has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts up to 18 hours and is now even faster to charge, taking 45 minutes to go from 0 to 80%.
Additional Specifications
- S7 with 64-bit dual-core processor
- W3 Apple wireless chip
- U1 chip
- 4G LTE and UMTS: GPS and cellular models
- Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz
So How Does the Apple Watch Series 7 Shape Up Compared to Its Predecessors?
With a starting price of $399, it is important to know whether this watch is worth investing in if you own a Series 6 or older.
The Series 7 boasts a much bigger display, with nearly 20% more screen area than the Series 6 and over 50% more screen area than Series 3. The crack-resistant front crystal is over twice as thick as the screen of Series 6, adding a significant increase in strength and durability. Although it has the same battery life as Series 6, Series 7 does have a much faster charging time of up to 33%. Aside from the larger screen, increased durability, and faster charging, the essential features and applications of the Series 7 watch aren’t too different from the Series 6, especially in terms of the health and fitness capabilities it offers.
So what is the general verdict from the tech experts?
CNET’s review concludes that it is probably not worth investing in the Series 7 if you already own a Series 6 or Series 5, “but if you have an aging model like the Series 3, Apple’s latest watch will feel like a noticeable leap forward.”
TechRadar notes that it is probably best to wait for next year’s Apple Watch 8 if you’re looking for new health-tracking features. However, TechRadar does admit that “the Apple Watch 7 has incremental improvements rather than revolutionary changes, but it’s still the best Apple Watch you can buy.”
Engadget concurs that “the Series 7 will be a satisfying purchase, especially if you’ve never used one before. Despite its relatively high starting price of $400, what Apple offers is currently the best in the market, especially for the iOS ecosystem.”
The latest edition to the Apple Watch family is clearly a step up from its predecessors in terms of its display and durability, so it may well be worth the money if you’ve never owned one or you want to upgrade from a much older model.
