The Apple Watch 6 has so much potential, but the sixth iteration doesn’t add anything hugely alluring.
The Apple Watch 6 (or Apple Watch Series 6 if you want to be all proper about it) is the latest watch from, well, Apple (if you don’t count the Apple Watch SE, launched at the same time). Apple Watches are rising in popularity to the point there most will know that they’re small second screens that connect your iPhone to your wearable, and you might be wondering whether the new device offers anything massively alluring; if you’re thinking about upgrading from an older model you’ll be especially keen to learn what’s new here. Well, here are the highlights: starting at $399 / £379 / AU$599 for the 40mm version, Apple’s new Watch has a blood oxygen sensor inside, new colors to delight (we’re into the red) and a more efficient S6 engine at its heart. It’s also supposed to have a brighter display in sunny conditions – we’ll come to that shortly. Beyond that, the rest of the new features that arrive with the Watch 6, like sleep tracking, hand-wash tracking, and new buckle-less bands, will be made available to older Apple Watches. On the outside, the Apple Watch 6 continues with the same design language used in previous models – a rounded, metal body with a square display that curves elegantly into the device itself. The new colors and designs are interesting, with the new blue and red flavors, in particular, appealing on the wrist, the aluminum casing blending nicely with the more striking hues. The display, using OLED technology, is as bright and clear as ever – we didn’t notice any extra brightness outside, despite the claims made by Apple, but equally we never struggled to read the display, thanks to the rich colors and good contrast ratios. As it has been in recent years, fitness is the key focus of the new Apple Watch, and it’s more prominent than ever. A new sensor allows you to see how well-saturated your blood is with that ever-so-useful oxygen, and for the most part it works well. However, Apple is clear that it’s not a medical tool, and should only be used for monitoring general fitness or wellness – so while it’s an interesting thing to check out from time to time, it doesn’t feel like a headline feature. Of more interest is the new Fitness Plus service coming from Apple, which will let Watch users interact with fitness workouts wherever they are – and any new Apple Watch will come with three free months of workouts to try. As an overall fitness tracker, the Apple Watch 6 feels like it’s got some incredible benefits – great activity tracking, good monitoring and motivation to stay active, a wide range of monitored activities – but there’s still no step up to a ‘pro mode’ for those who want to take their fitness to another level. There’s definitely potential Apple isn’t exploiting. As ever, battery life on a new Apple Watch is strange. Once again, we regularly got far longer than the advertised 18 hours between charges, usually hitting around 28-30 hours before needing to reach for the charging cable. The thing is, that’s still not long enough for what this Watch could do. With sleep tracking now on board, you’ve got another useful metric to help you keep on top of your health. But you still need to work out when you’re going to find that 90-minute window each day to charge your Watch, if you’re not going to do it overnight, which is frustrating. WatchOS 7 brings a few small upgrades – Apple’s not saying as much, but it’s clear that some are designed to help out in the current pandemic we’re facing: a hand-washing monitor just coincidentally appearing seems unlikely, and it’s a useful weapon in the fight against Covid, even if the monitoring is a little hard to please. The new Apple Watch 6 is the best Apple has to offer in the wearable space, and if you’re worried about either your heart health or respiratory system, those extra features will bring you a welcome degree of reassurance. However, for many consumers – especially those who aren’t bothered about having an always-on display – the Apple Watch SE offers nearly every feature that the Watch 6 is packing, and does it for far less of an outlay. The Apple Watch 6 release date was Friday, September 18, and you’re now able to pick one up online or in store with (relative) ease. In terms of the Apple Watch 6 price, you’re looking at $399 / £379 / AU$599 for the 40mm version, while the 44mm version starts at $429 / £409 / AU$649 (those prices are for the GPS-only version, without cellular connectivity). If you want an LTE-ready watch, the 40mm starts at $499 / £479 / AU$749, and the 44mm at $529 / £509 / AU$799. The most expensive model will still set you back $1,499 / £1,449 / AU$2,259 if you go for the most luxurious straps and finish — but Apple still believes that fashion has a large part to play in the allure of its Watch. And remember: you can still plump for the Apple Watch 3 for $199 / £199 / AU$299, or try and find the similarly-specced Apple Watch 5 discounted at many retailers. The Apple Watch Series 6 design is the same as that of any recent Apple Watch (as in, from the Apple Watch 4 onwards). Coming in 40mm and 44mm flavors for smaller or larger wrists respectively, you’ll see the same rounded edges that merge into the screen, the digital crown that spins through the interface with a simple flick of the finger, and the power button below that functions as a way to jump between apps. On the rear of the Apple Watch 6 you’ve got a heart rate monitor that’s been upgraded time and again, and which here includes new features like blood oxygen sensing and the electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor, in addition to checking on your regular heart rate and alerting you if things get higher or lower than normal. The Apple Watch 6 is also 5ATM certified, which means it can be used for swimming and pop down to a depth of 50m for 10 minutes if you so wish — but, in reality, it means that the Apple Watch is fully protected against ‘normal’ swimming. The bigger story in terms of the Apple Watch 6 design is the new range of colors – and the shade that’s particularly caught our eye is red. It’s (PRODUCT) red, a color that Apple has used for a few years now to help promote the organization trying to rid the world of AIDS, and it’s by far the most striking color of the bunch – and, happily, the one we got to review. The other colors, (gold, silver, graphite, space gray and blue), are also premium-looking, and fit nicely with the well-manufactured feel of the Apple Watch. The price is high, granted, but you’re getting a beautifully made device for your cash. It’s lightweight too – at 36.5 grams (for the 44mm edition) we didn’t feel it weighing down our wrist very often, and it’s sometimes easy to forget you have it on. As ever, you’re able to customize your Watch with different bands, and the new addition in 2020 is the Solo Loop, an (expensive) band that doesn’t have a buckle or velcro to clasp it together, and which is instead made of stretchy silicone or braided silicone that you pull over your hand onto your wrist. Sadly, the Solo Loop we were sent for review purposes was too large – it hung like a bangle around the wrist – but we could see the promise of being able to just slip it over the wrist, and not have to mess around with clasps, or worry about it flopping around during the day. The Apple Watch 6 display uses OLED technology, and it’s a fine-looking screen as a result. When you’re in darker places, it’s only the numbers, letters or whatever’s on the screen that you can see, as OLED technology enables incredible contrast between the black and white tones, which makes whatever is on the Apple Watch 6 look really striking. Where older Apple Watch models (and the new Apple Watch SE) require you to raise your wrist to see what the time is or check a notification, the Watch 6 continues where the Watch 5 left off with an always-on display. This means you don’t need to raise your wrist to see the time or an alert, and can just glance down to see what’s happening. Depending on the watch face you’ve got set up – and there are now many – you’ll also see updated info on news, health stats or battery life without needing to raise up the Apple Watch and fully wake your device (which will use more power). However, while this is useful, we feel it’s still not well-implemented. The always-on display is helpful at times, but mostly we just want to see the time. The problem is that, even though the screen of the Apple Watch 6 dims when it’s not being looked at, it’s still rather bright. So whenever things get darker, you either need to put it into theater / cinema mode (which is irritating to do, and then requires a button-press to display the time), begin sleep tracking to get the low-light monochrome version of the display or just accept that your watch will be glowing rather brightly.
