Apple Watch Series 11 Review: Minor Upgrades To An Excellent Gadget

The Apple Watch quickly became an important tool for any users deep in Apple's ecosystem, especially as it relates to health. Apple has been slowly adding more features to the device through software updates, and this year, the Apple Watch gets some improvements that could have a big impact on public health — like the new hypertension notifications, which are available in the new Apple Watch Series 11, along with the also-new Apple Watch SE 3 and Apple Watch Ultra 3.

But many of these new features, including hypertension notifications are also available on older Apple Watch models, through a software update. That leaves the newest devices with fewer features to really set them apart. Does the Apple Watch Series 11 do enough to stand out? Or is it more of an update for those who are due for a new watch anyway?

The overall design of the Apple Watch Series 11 is the same as last year's Apple Watch Series 10. That's not a bad thing, though — Apple made last year's model thinner than before, and the new device is just as thin and sleek. Like before, there are two Apple Watch Series 11 sizes — a 42mm and a 46mm. I'm testing the larger 46mm watch, which looks better on my wrists.

The build is a little different this year. The new model has Ion-X glass covering the screen, which Apple claims is twice as scratch resistant. I didn't test this, but any improvements to the durability of a device that's likely to be bumped in day-to-day use is helpful. Everything else about the design is the same. You'll still get the simple band release buttons, with the health sensor on the bottom of the body of the watch. It's a good look.

The display is the same on the Apple Watch Series 11 too — though that's not a bad thing either. The watch has an LTPO OLED screen, which supports always-on functionality, and can refresh every second to make it look as though the second hand is ticking.

The screen looks great. It's bright and easy to see, even in outdoor environments. Plus, like last year's model, it's easy to see at wide viewing angles, so you can glance down to your wrist during a meeting, for example, without being too obvious. It has a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, and a minimum brightness of 1 nit, so you can check the time at night without blasting light into your eyes.

Battery performance is perhaps the biggest upgrade for the Apple Watch Series 11 over the Series 10. That's a good thing — the battery life of the Apple Watch has long been its biggest weakness, and it's encouraging to see Apple working on changing that.

Apple has rated previous-generation models as offering up to 18 hours of use on a single charge. That was fine for the first few generations of Apple Watch, which could charge overnight. These days, however, Apple is leaning big into sleep tracking, so overnight charging can be counterintuitive. For the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple has increased its rated battery life to 24 hours.

Indeed, I did notice an improvement in battery life while using the device. The result is that I wasn't quite as concerned about it as before — but it didn't really change my charging habits. I usually charge while I'm in the shower and right before bed, in stints of 10 minutes or so at a time. Typically, it doesn't quite charge back what I used, so over the course of a few days, it slowly drains until I have to place it on a charger on my desk while I'm working. That's not a huge issue and more of a function of charging speed than battery life. On the newer device, however, it took longer before I had to charge it at my desk.

Again, the change is a helpful one, and depending on how and when you charge, you might find that it's enough to make battery life a non-issue for you. But there's still definitely room for improvement in battery and charging speed.

The Apple Watch Series 11 comes with Apple's S10 chip, which, for the first time, is the same chip that was found in the previous year's model. That's not really a huge deal — the Apple Watch Series 10 was easily fast enough to handle whatever you could throw at it, and that remains true for the Series 11. It never stuttered, lagged, or froze in my usage.

There is one under-the-hood change worth mentioning, though — the Apple Watch Series 11 offers 5G support. At first glance, you might not care about this — you're not streaming video to your watch. But with specific support for the high-efficiency 5G Reduced Capacity technology, cellular connectivity uses less power — one way the device is able to improve on battery. If you don't use cellular connectivity on your watch, you still won't care about this, but if you do, it's a handy change.

Apple is offering new health-tracking features for its watches in 2026 –- but none of them are hardware updates. In other words, they're all also available on older Apple Watch models. To be clear, that's a good thing –- it's nice when new features come to an older device without you having to pay extra. But that also means that if you have an Apple Watch Series 10 and are particularly interested in health-tracking features, you don't need to upgrade.

The headline new feature comes in the form of hypertension notifications. The idea is that the Apple Watch can sense how blood vessels respond to blood flow over time, then use that information to identify chronic hypertension. It's not a way to take your blood pressure without a cuff, and it tracks blood flow over 30 days, so you won't just put your watch on and get notifications right away. Maybe traditional blood pressure readings will come in the future, but for now, it's a way to get preventative information that might give you a nudge to see your doctor.

Another big feature for the year is Workout Buddy, which analyzes your health stats as you work out and uses generative AI to give you personalized feedback and motivation. As you start working out, it'll give you details about your stats for the week, then create motivational phrases as you hit milestones in your workout. At the end, you'll get a summary of the workout. It's kind of cool -– not everyone will like it, but it can be disabled.

Also new for this year is the sleep score feature, which is available across Apple devices, and gives you an idea of how well you slept. Apple's approach to the sleep score is a little different, and somewhat conservative, compared to some others, which often use all kinds of information to generate a score for the night. Apple only accounts for three measurements: duration of sleep, the time you went to bed, and sleep interruptions. The idea is that it's only using metrics that have been proven over and over again to impact sleep quality, rather than other metrics that might have less data backing them. I'm not sure how useful the sleep score will be for most people. It was very rare that I had a sleep score less than 95/100, even on nights that I know I slept very poorly. It could be useful as a way to try and refine your sleep routine and ensure you go to bed on time -– but additional information about sleep health could be a useful addition down the line.

These new features, of course, are simply being added to what is already one of the best, most comprehensive health trackers out there. You don't have to use any of the new features to find the Apple Watch to be a useful health tracker –- it's still a class-leading device.

The Apple Watch Series 11 isn't all that different from the Series 10, in most ways. The better battery life is useful, but not really a feature that you'll upgrade for. If you have an older Apple Watch and simply decide that it's time to move on, the Apple Watch Series 11 is an excellent device, but you don't need to upgrade if you have a model from the last few years.

That said, just because it's not too different from last year's model, that doesn't mean it's a sub-par watch. On the contrary, the Apple Watch remains a useful, feature-rich smartwatch, with excellent health-tracking features, a great-looking screen, and a sleek and stylish design.

The competition

The world of Android-based smartwatches is heating up. If you're an iPhone user, stick with Apple Watch -– it's worth staying within your primary ecosystem. That said, Android has plenty to offer, like the Google Pixel Watch 4, which is also a sleek device with excellent fitness tracking and relatively fast performance. It also has better battery life, so again, I hope Apple continues to improve battery and charging on its own smartwatches.

Should I buy the Apple Watch Series 11?

Yes, but only if you're due for an upgrade already.