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Irish Mirror

Lifestyle

Mark Kavanagh

Apple Watch SE review: The almost perfect smartwatch for iPhone users

Apple Apple Watch Garmin

I tested Apple Watch SE 2022 out after using the company's Watch Series 8 for a month and for comparisons I’ve also worn it alongside Pixel Watch, Garmin Venu Sq 2, Fitbit Sense 2 and Huawei Watch 3.

Watch SE holds its own against them all, combining all the best bits of Apple’s wearable tech into a more affordable model including the same dual-core S8 ship and 32GB of storage that are in Series 8.

Essentially this is a Series 8 without the always-on display, fast charging, body temperature sensor, Sp02 sensor and electrical heart rate sensor in the digital crown.

Design, build and battery life

My review unit is 44mm compared to the 45mm Series 8 model but seems smaller because of the bezel on the crisp and colourful OLED display. It is comfortable to wear around the clock.

The new Watch SE also comes in a 40mm size and both options feature a fully recycled aluminium case.

Other hardware built-in includes GPS, compass, always-on altimeter, upgraded accelerometer, gyroscope and ambient light sensor.

Watch SE is water resistant up to 50 metres and has an optical heart rate sensor on the colour-matched underside of the aluminium casing. My review model was the Midnight colour, incidentally.

Battery life is the same as every other Apple Watch I’ve tested – it needs a refuel once a day – but SE takes a little longer to recharge than Series 8.

Watch OS9

You get the new Watch OS9 features such as the headline-grabbing Crash Detection support – hopefully we will never need it but it’s nice to know it’s there.

And you get Apple Pay (which I use every day and everywhere), Emergency SOS, fall detection, noise monitoring and multi-sport tracking that is more than enough for most users.

Watch OS9 also added a huge number of new features for health, sport and fitness use.

These include a revamped Compass app which now includes a waypoints option and a Backtrack capability to track back following your route should you get lost or take a wrong turn.

The Workout app now includes the new metrics Vertical Oscillation, Stride Length and Ground Contact Time.

It also includes support for Running Power which is tracked from the wrist like wearables from Polar and COROS.

You can see heart zones during the workout zones and get alerts for heart rate zones and cadence.

And you get the ability to create new custom workouts and race against past workouts which you have saved to the Workout app.

The new triathlon mode includes tracking not just transition times but automatically transitioning from swim to bike to run.

You get kickboard swim detection too.

All these new features mean the gap between this €299 entry level Apple Watch and the likes of Garmin multisport watches has narrowed even though Fenix 7 and Epix Second Gen still offer more detailed fitness metrics and insights.

Both Google’s Fitbit Sense and Pixel Watch have more insightful sleep tracking but like the Garmin watches, they don’t offer anything close to the range of third-party app support you get on Watch SE.

And in fairness, Apple’s native sleep tracking has improved.

You can now control a lot of your Home devices from your wrist too thanks to Watch OS 9.

And as with other Apple watches, the SE automatically detects certain types of workouts such as indoor/outdoor walks and runs, pool/open water swimming, outdoor cycling, elliptical sessions, and rowing.

After about 10 minutes of activity, the watch asks if you want to start recording the workout, then displays your stats for that session on the screen. When it detects you have finished, it will remind you to end tracking.

Other features

You get support for Apple's Family Setup feature, which lets you manage an Apple Watch for a family member who doesn't have an iPhone.

During the set-up procedure, the Watch app asks if you're setting the wearable up for yourself or a family member.

All of which makes Watch SE a nice option for both schoolchildren and older adults.

Verdict

I really can’t fault Apple Watch SE. It’s the tech giant’s entry level wearable and its €299 price point makes it the best smartwatch you can buy for less than €300.

But, of course, Watch SE only works with iPhone so if you are an Android user you will need to choose a wearable by another company or jump aboard the Apple ecosystem.