The Apple Watch is undoubtedly the world’s most popular smartwatch. Like with other Apple products radical updates are rare for what is essentially also the world’s most worn watch today. For quite a few years, Apple hasn’t tinkered much with neither the design nor the user experience. This year too, despite the changes on paper, not much has actually changed in how you use your Apple Watch. I have been using it for a few weeks now and this, I believe, is one of the more iterative updates ever to happen to the Apple Watch.
There are a couple of changes though that will make a difference. Most important of them is the faster charging. The Apple Watch with its slow charging speed presented a dilemma that smartphones or other consumer tech products never present – do you give on fitness tracking for a couple of hours to charge it everyday or do you skip sleep tracking altogether and charge it as you sleep? With the Series 7, Apple has now moved closer to solving the problem. The Series 7 cuts the lengthy 2.5 hours charge time from 0-100 percent to half. You can even plug the watch in for 45 minutes for 80 percent charge. This in itself is a phenomenal improvement and makes a huge difference in how you use the Apple Watch.
The increased case size (Series 7 is available in 41mm and 45mm options) have allowed Apple to add a 20 percent larger screen. The difference however, from the Series 6, is hard to see – both for the case as well as the screen. The display is now pushed further into the bezels and curves over the edges of the watch more. The increased screen size also helped Apple add in a full keyboard with bigger buttons and larger fonts overall. That said, the larger case is simply too large for people with smaller wrist sizes and they should stay away from it, potentially opting for the 41mm variant.
There isn’t much of a change when it comes to fitness tracking. The Breathe app is now called ‘Mindfulness’ and respiratory rate data now appears in your sleep summary. A few workout modes are auto detected now. Even with minimal changes to the fitness features or tracking, the Apple Watch continues to be the best smartwatch money can buy. But if you were hoping for a revamped design or added fitness sensors, you might just have to wait for at least year, if not more.