Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott has donated over $19 billion to charity in just five years
Diamond batteries powered by nuclear waste promise 28,000 years of clean energy
Apple Watch Series 11 46 mm Titanium Model
I’m testing the watch I purchased: the Apple Watch Series 11, 46 mm, in a titanium case. For context, it replaces my 44 mm Series 5 model. Both watches are GPS-only, without the cellular option. Why the titanium version? Simply because the aluminum case of my Series 5 was pretty battered after six years. Dents and scratches: it had seen better days. Plus, the presence of sapphire glass is a real bonus for the titanium version.
I tend to keep my devices for a long time, especially those made by Apple. My Series 5 was becoming difficult to use on a daily basis. I had to charge it twice a day, and it couldn’t install the last two operating systems (the Series 5 is stuck on system 10.6.1 released in August 2024). Unlike many reviews that compare the two latest generations, I will primarily compare the Series 11 with the Series 5. And for good reason: the differences between Series 10 and 11 are practically nonexistent.
As for my use of the Apple Watch, it’s fairly traditional: I’m not a power user
. I primarily use it as a regular watch, meaning I need to be able to read the time easily. That’s why my Series 5 was my first Apple Watch: it was the first model that allowed the display to stay on continuously. For smartwatch functions, I use the timer daily for brewing my tea, and I use my Apple Watch for health and sleep tracking. Finally, when I exercise, which is about once or twice a week, I use it to record these activities.
Very Minor Upgrades
Before diving into the review, let’s make a quick comparison between the Apple Watch Series 10 and Series 11. If you own a Series 10 and are wondering whether to upgrade to the 11, don’t bother: they’re the same. Same S10 chip, same 64GB capacity, same OLED display, same design with exactly the same dimensions and sensors. You can even compare them yourself on Apple’s website.
When Apple highlights hypertension notifications, you realize that it’s purely software, without any additional sensors, and it’s also available on previous versions of the Apple Watch.
There are, however, a few differences that are quite minor. The Series 11 is slightly heavier, has more resistant glass, and better charging management. Indeed, it can, by charging for 15 minutes, recover 8 hours of battery life. Similarly, with just 5 minutes of charging, you can achieve 8 hours of sleep tracking. Also, for those using the cellular model, 5G is finally available on the Series 11.
6 More Hours of Battery Life, Really?
Apple claims the Series 11 has significantly better battery life than the Series 10: 6 more hours in normal use and 2 more hours in energy-saving mode. However, to increase battery life from one generation to the next, there are no miracles. Battery technologies hardly evolve in a year. Thus, there are two ways to increase battery life: increase the size of the battery and/or consume less energy thanks to improvements in chips, the display, and software. However, the Apple Watch Series 10 and 11 are similar, both in terms of hardware and software. Apple might have slightly increased the size of the battery in the 11 (by about 10%, hence the difference in weight between the two generations), but we’re far from the 33% suggested by the increase in autonomy.
So, if the battery is similar, if the chips are the same and the display is the same, how do you find 6 extra hours of operation? Simply by calculating the battery life differently on the two models! Apple counts sleep tracking for the Apple Watch 11 and not for the 10. And that’s how you find 6 extra hours of operation…
NASA warns China could slow Earth’s rotation with one simple move
This dog endured 27 hours of labor and gave birth to a record-breaking number of puppies
Tedious Setup
To use my brand-new Apple Watch 11, I had to restart the setup process 4 times and, ultimately, restart both my iPhone and Apple Watch while leaving them both charging, just in case. Once that was done, the installation went smoothly.
Once configured, the watch took a good quarter of an hour to download everything, such as the watch faces and complications.
Series 5 vs Series 11
Having worn the Series 5 every day, the differences with the Series 11 are striking. The display is larger, brighter, extends much closer to the edges, and the color quality is much superior. It’s worth mentioning that my Series 5 was beginning to experience quite a bit of burn-in
.
The Series 11 is also larger while being somewhat thinner, and this is slightly noticeable. I also benefit from the features added over the years, such as wrist temperature measurement, blood oxygen level, and blood pressure tracking.
Real-World Battery Life
It’s been a week since I started using the Apple Watch 11, and here’s how it’s performing in terms of battery life. To be able to use it for sleep tracking, it’s impossible to charge it at night like I do with my iPhone. Here’s my routine: I charge it in the evening after dinner while I watch an episode or two of a TV series and get ready for bed. When I turn off the lights to sleep, I take it off the charging dock to wear it.
Thus, my Apple Watch is at 100% battery when I put it on my wrist around 11 PM. When I get up, the battery shows between 90 and 95%. Later, when I recharge it in the evening around 9 PM, the battery indicates between 60 and 70% charge. This is for typical use with the display always on, notifications enabled, and occasional use of the timer, reading messages, and checking the weather app throughout the day.
For a more active day, especially with exercise tracking, the consumption is obviously higher. On Saturdays, I play tennis for an hour and ride my non-electric bike to the court. I track both activities on the Apple Watch for a total of two hours. For this day, which is more active than average, my battery was at 51% when I recharged it at 9 PM, having started the day at 95% at 8:30 AM.
In summary, on average, the Apple Watch 11 consumes less than 1% of battery per hour in sleep tracking mode. In normal use, it consumes about 4% per hour. For sports tracking, it goes up between 6 and 7% per hour.
Overall, I am satisfied with the battery life. It’s even possible to charge the Apple Watch every other day while using the sleep tracking feature: quite an achievement.
A Minor Update
We’ve come to expect this from Apple Watches: it’s been a few years since updates from one generation to the next have been anything but minor. There has been almost no change between Series 9, 10, and 11. The same goes for the Ultra models: it’s hard to tell the difference between the 1, 2, and 3. Thus, I advise against splurging on the Apple Watch 11 if you own a Series 9 or a newer version. If you own an older version, it’s worth considering, especially since the battery in an Apple Watch degrades over time and it costs more than $100 at Apple to replace it.
New Features of watchOS 26
I’ve tested the new health features. However, since I don’t have any chronic issues, all I can tell you is that I’ve activated them and they work, in the sense that the Health app tells me everything is fine.
Regarding the feature related to blood pressure, I activated it. It works over the long term by taking values on your heart’s behavior and, based on statistics, your Apple Watch sends you a notification if it considers that you have hypertension. For my part, I activated the notifications and then… that’s it. No doubt, we will learn later that some people have discovered they have hypertension thanks to their Apple Watch. And Apple will remind us, at length, during the keynotes
…
As for the innovations concerning sleep, we have more information. Indeed, the sleep score makes its debut with watchOS 26. It’s a number, with 100 as the maximum value, based on three criteria. The first is the duration of sleep, scored out of 50, the second is the bedtime (30 points), and the last concerns sleep interruptions (duration and number: out of 20 points). I haven’t really found that this score corresponds to how I feel when I wake up. However, it’s always good to have a simple number to understand to start changing bad habits, such as going to bed earlier and sleeping longer. Note that you don’t need an Apple Watch to have a sleep score: the app can retrieve values from another watch, like a Garmin, and give you a score based on the data provided.
The last novelty: vital signs. This is a new app on the Apple Watch that groups five elements: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration. At a glance, this allows you to get an idea of your overall health status. Again, it’s hard to get an idea. The app warned me twice that my respiratory rate was a bit low, 14.3 per minute when I’m usually at 15, but I’m not sure what I can do with this information. Whether it’s for wrist temperature and blood oxygen, the watch doesn’t have enough values to tell me something on the vital signs app.