Expensive Apple,
As , your Apple Watch SE shouldn’t be new. The second era got here out in September 2022 alongside the Collection 8 and the primary iteration of the Extremely. You’ve given the iPhone, all fashions of the iPad, AirPods, MacBooks and each the flagship and premium smartwatches updates since then — however not the price range smartwatch. Final month, my editors requested me to see how the Watch SE stacks up in 2025 and I used to be joyful to oblige. I like getting my palms on novel tech, analyzing, evaluating and experiencing a tool (then giving it again after I’m executed so I don’t need to accumulate extra stuff). However this evaluation left me chilly. The Apple Watch SE feels bland and decidedly lesser-than in 2025.
It’s a reasonably secure guess we’ll see a brand new mannequin of the SE quickly. There are, after all, rumors. Plus, the launch of the iPhone 16e suggests you might be nonetheless eager about churning out extra reasonably priced variations of your units. There’s a couple of $150 worth distinction between the SE and the bottom Apple Watch Collection 10. The latter goes for $399 at full worth and as little as $329 on sale. The SE prices $249 and has gone for as little as $149. Whereas I don’t count on a price range watch to have every little thing the flagship does, there are just a few options that really feel non-negotiable in 2025 in addition to some affordable compromises that almost all budget-conscious patrons will in all probability be prepared to just accept. As a each day smartwatch wearer and shopper gadget reviewer, I’m providing you my utterly free recommendation on what I’d prefer to see on the subsequent Apple Watch SE.
Give us an even bigger (not higher) show
I normally put on an Apple Watch Collection 9 however earlier than that, I sported a hand-me-down Apple Watch Collection 4 with a scratched display. Other than the scuff, the display on the 40mm Apple Watch SE I reviewed feels equivalent to the one on that wearable from 2018. In truth, each have the identical dimension show areas, which is cramped and dinky in comparison with the beneficiant actual property on the 42mm Collection 10. In fact, the latest Apple Watch obtained a 2mm dimension bump, so a extra direct comparability can be to the 40mm Ninth-generation watch, which has 150 sq mm extra room, due to thinner bezels. Contemplating the rising quantity of data our watches deal with, I’d like an even bigger panel to view it on.
The brightness and total readability of the SE’s OLED Retina show is completely sufficient. There’s no want for the higher-end LTPO 3 expertise the most recent watches have. And the SE’s 1000 nits of brightness is a lot, too. Even in shiny daylight, the display is legible. True, it could’t get all the way down to a single nit of brightness just like the newer watches can and, whereas that’s distracting in a darkish room, utilizing sleep focus at bedtime turns the display off utterly.
Once I upgraded to the Collection 9, the function I most appeared ahead to was the always-on show (AOD). That’s as a result of my Collection 4 required me to carry my wrist repeatedly earlier than lastly lighting up. It was irritating to easily examine the time. However after I reviewed the Galaxy Watch 7, I turned off the AOD for a lot of the testing and didn’t miss it a bit. Seems, if the watch reliably and shortly snaps to consideration after I flick my wrist, AOD isn’t as essential. So if dropping that function can hold the associated fee down, that’d be an appropriate tradeoff. At present, checking the time on the SE is barely, however not considerably higher than my expertise with my older watch. Which may very well be solved by a extra superior processor.
Let’s have a quicker (not the quickest) chip
I understand after I say the processing energy of the Apple Watch SE feels sluggish, I’m dishonoring my 14-year-old self whose pipe dream was proudly owning a Casio calculator watch. However nonetheless, in comparison with my expertise with present fashions, the SE lags. Opening apps, controlling music playback, beginning exercises and speaking with Siri is simply slower than it needs to be. A price range watch doesn’t must pack the zenith of Apple’s system-in-package (SiP), however stepping as much as 2023’s S9 chip would make the watch really feel satisfyingly zippy.
A processor bump may additionally allow double faucet, which debuted with the Collection 9. However that’s not vital — I may take or depart the gesture management function. It doesn’t really feel as correct or as built-in with the OS as, say, Samsung’s model on the Galaxy Watch. Although I’ve to confess, with my Collection 9, it does really feel slightly magical after I can double pinch to start out a advised strolling exercise — particularly after I’m grappling with the leash of a loopy pet.
The S9 chip additionally permits on-board processing of Siri requests, which suggests these don’t need to borrow a related telephone’s web. If I’m on a motorcycle experience and wish to log it as such, I can simply ask Siri, even when I left my telephone at residence. (True, the cellular-enabled SE can full these requests and not using a telephone, however the worth bump and month-to-month service price for that configuration begins to muddy the thought of a price range watch.) Siri requests are additionally accomplished a lot quicker once they’re dealt with on the watch itself. Once I need Siri to shortly set a two minute timer for steeping inexperienced tea, the method with the SE simply takes too lengthy.
For Pete’s sake, make it cost quicker
My dad’s title is Pete. And if he had an Apple Watch SE (as an alternative of his Collection 7), I do know he’d need it to recharge in an affordable period of time. General, the battery efficiency on the SE is surprisingly good. I can get by way of a full day that features monitoring a run, a Health+ exercise, setting timers, obsessively checking the climate, logging meds and taking a few canine walks — all with sufficient juice left to trace my sleep. By the point I get up, it’s normally time to stay the watch on the charger. That’s the same expertise to my Apple Watch Collection 9. However as an alternative of getting the battery refilled whereas I bathe and prepare for the day, the SE takes over two hours to go from round ten % to 100. That’s too lengthy to attend.
Hold your titanium and sapphire crystal
Finances fashions all the time get handed the less-expensive supplies and that’s OK. The aluminum alloy Apple makes use of in its non-premium watches strikes stability between sturdiness and lightness. The Ion-X glass on the entrance isn’t as sturdy as sapphire glass, nevertheless it’s inexpensive. I’m not making an attempt to talk for all budget-conscious folks, however I and each different frugal particular person I do know tends to swaddle all costly tech in display protectors, circumstances and all method of different protecting measures the second it leaves the field. So if barely much less sturdy supplies can shave {dollars} off the asking worth, by all means, Apple, achieve this.
We’ve seen rumors that your subsequent SE is perhaps housed in a plastic case with brighter colours on the watch bands, presumably in an effort to enchantment to children. I’d must see what sort of plastic you are feeling is robust sufficient to face as much as the chaos of youngsters, but when it could final just a few years with out failing whereas additionally protecting the worth down, I’m open to the thought.
It’s OK if my watch isn’t a health care provider’s workplace
Health monitoring is excessive on my listing of non-negotiable options. And accuracy for that requires a collection of sensors — a gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS, altimeter and an optical coronary heart charge readeran optical coronary heart sensor, gyroscope and accelerometer, GPS connection and an altimeter. The SE has all of these and the information collected from my tracked exercises and runs had been on par with what my newer watch would collect.
The SE lacks {an electrical} coronary heart charge sensor so it could’t take an ECG studying. There’s additionally no temperature sensor, which the Collection 10 makes use of to assist predict ovulation and menstrual cycles. If and when your organization ever works out the patent dispute over its blood oxygen sensor, I think about a brand new Apple Watch SE received’t get that functionality both.
That’s tremendous. I’ve used the ECG studying precisely as soon as — to try it out for comparability on one other smartwatch evaluation. I used to be hyper-obsessed with my ovulation cycle for a complete of six months, roughly eight years earlier than my now seven-year-old child was born. Whereas it’s neat that our watches can compile a lot information, I believe it’s extra vital to cowl the fundamentals: inform me after I’m actually hauling on a run and when my coronary heart charge will get as much as 170 on a HIIT exercise. We are able to get these extra specialised, seldom-used well being assessments elsewhere.
The SE doesn’t have a depth gauge or a water temperature sensor both. That’s additionally tremendous. I don’t suppose anybody out there for a price range wearable will thoughts terribly that it isn’t designed to go scuba diving with them.
Newer flagship Apple Watches have an extremely wideband (UWB) chip inside to assist with extra exact discovering of a misplaced iPhone and helps further interactions with a close-by HomePod. I exploit my watch to seek out my telephone as much as 3 times per day. The UWB permits a extra exact approach to find units, and that interface pops up on my Collection 9 every time I ping my telephone, providing a cute little sport of cold and hot, pointing an arrow within the path of my lacking handset. However I principally ignore the instructions and simply hear for the da-ta-da-ta-ding-da-ding of the telephone’s ringer. Which is to say, I didn’t miss the dearth of UWB within the least on the SE.
Wrap-up
When the Apple Watch SE got here out in 2022, Engadget’s Cherlynn Low called it the best smartwatch $250 can buy. That was actually the case on the time. However two and a half years later, it’s affordable to count on extra out of your price range timepiece. I bear in mind the last decade or so post-college when $250 represented greater than my month-to-month meals allotment. For a lot of, even an “reasonably priced” Apple buy remains to be a big one.
For a similar cash, individuals can get much more in the event that they step exterior of your walled ecosystem. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch FE is simply $200. Not solely does it have the identical sensors as the corporate’s flagship wearable, it could additionally carry out an ECG. For $200, we may additionally get a Fitbit Versa 4 as an alternative. True, it doesn’t pack almost as many options because the Pixel Watch 3, nevertheless it covers the fundamentals nicely, monitoring exercise, delivering notifications and going for as much as six days on a cost. It’ll even pair with an iPhone. After which there’s the Garmin Forerunner 165. Proper now it’s our editors’ favorite running watch and it may be had for $250. Making a high quality $250 smartwatch isn’t exterior the realm of chance.
Apple, it can save you your premium supplies, tremendous specialised sensors and nice-to-have extras like UWB connections in your flagship and premium fashions. That manner, people who find themselves prepared to pay extra will nonetheless really feel like they’re getting their cash’s price. Simply give attention to the options that make a distinction to on a regular basis customers, and neglect these inessential perks. There’s nonetheless room so that you can make a fairly priced watch that doesn’t really feel like a second-class accent.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/revisiting-the-apple-watch-se-in-2025-left-me-with-a-long-list-of-update-requests-163046835.html?src=rss
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