Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE Review: Better Features, Worse Battery | WIRED

Every year, the Apple Watch comes with a vaunted and vetted new health feature.

Some of these debut to universal acclaim. For example, closing your activity rings is still the best, and simplest, fitness game—enough to make my 5-year-old gasp and urge me to close my red ring before she goes to bed. Others, like 2018’s electrocardiogram on the Series 4, are met with more measured reactions. Will it help people? Will it hurt?

This year, Apple includes an optical blood oxygen sensor, which measures oxygen saturation in the blood (SpO2). Other fitness-tracker manufacturers, like Garmin, have had this capability on its watches for years. Assuming the sensor on the new Apple Watch Series 6 isn’t wildly inaccurate—and my readings haven’t been—it can be a useful tool. You do need a doctor to formally diagnose sleep apnea or asthma, but if you know you have those health problems, it can be useful to keep an eye on it with this sensor. It’s also useful if you’re an athlete hoping to reap the benefits of training at altitude.

I don’t use the SpO2 measurements enough to strongly recommend an upgrade if you already have last year’s Series 5. But it does bring the Series 6 ever closer to being a comprehensive fitness tracker. I have a bone to pick with the Apple Watch SE, though. Given Apple’s consistent push to bring health features to everyone, I find it odd that it would yank them on the new midrange watch in the same year it announces Family Setup for WatchOS.

Would it really have been so hard to continue selling the Series 5 at a lower price? Sheesh.

If Wishes Were Key Fobs

Photograph: Apple

When I line up last year’s Series 5 and the new Series 6 and SE in a row, they all look pretty much the same.

The Series 6 does have a brighter display that makes it easier to read outside, a new processor, and Apple’s U1 chip, which makes the watch more accurately detectable relative to other devices around it. But it doesn’t feel much faster than the Series 5. The U1 chip, with the ultra-wideband antennas powering it, is also only useful in theory at this point, unless you’re one of the lucky (rich) people in line to buy a 2021 BMW compatible with Apple’s new CarKey feature.

The most useful upgrade, I found, is a much faster recharging time. The Series 5 took well over 2 hours to juice up. I took it off every night, placed it on its inductive charging stand, and wished it sweet dreams.