Apple Watch Series 11: the battery lasts 24 hours and the display is super resistant

Is the most popular smart watch also the best smart watch? The question about the Apple Watch is a million dollar one and has been around ever since it first appeared on Tim Cook’s wrist in 2014, paving the way for a substantial change in the habits of those who own an iPhone. At first hordes of brazen imitators, over time the appearance of fearsome competitors who tried to carve out specific niches for themselves. Today, those who have an Android phone may be tempted by a Galaxy Watch 8, competitors will prefer a real sportwatch, while no one (at that price) offers the autonomy and sophisticated sensors for health monitoring of the new Huawei Watch GT6. The Apple smartwatch, however, remains the mainstream watch par excellence: that is, the one that meets the needs of the widest audience. Even its latest version, theApple Watch Series 11does what the Californian company’s products have accustomed us to: they improve without distorting themselves, they “brand” their competitors and make some innovations their own, but making them easy to use and always with perfect integration between hardware and software. In particular, the Watch 11 fills the main gap that was attributed to the Apple Watch: battery life. We had it on our wrist for three weeks and here are some things we liked.

finally the battery!

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The first is the main reason for purchasing the new Watch, namely its battery which now has a declared autonomy of 24 hours straight: we are not yet at the weeks promised by models like the GT6 or the Garmin Forerunner, but it is much more than the 18 hours with standard use of its predecessor. Although (to be honest), according to some tests carried out the increase would be more modest and, above all, Apple would have used a “more generous” calculation methodology. Goodbye to the need to recharge every evening, however, and space for the consequent possibility of making the most of the sleep monitoring functions which are now even more intuitive, with a sort of score given day by day to the quality of rest. It was enough for us to get into the habit of plugging it in every morning during breakfast: 15 minutes are enough for eight hours of charge, while those who have at least half an hour of time will go without problems at the end of the day and beyond.

under control

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Notifications for hypertension make their debut among the health features. To many it may seem like an extra, but during the days of our test we found ourselves dealing with an anomalous change in blood pressure. Physical tiredness? Stress? Maybe. Having the Watch on our wrist allowed us a little more peace of mind while waiting for more in-depth checks. It must be said that it is not an exclusive function of the Watch 11, it is part of the new features of watchOS 26 and is not yet approved by the European regulatory agency, but the potential developments will make it a life-saving tool as already happened a couple of years ago for the ECG. At the moment, to receive an “alert” you need at least 14 days of monitoring (and an external blood pressure monitor to be connected to record the changes and report them to a doctor). ù

sleep score

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There is also a useful innovation, as mentioned, in the analysis of sleep quality. For many, keeping the smartwatch on your wrist at night is annoying (and we are among them), but having said that, the function Sleep Score now it makes it very simple: add some data – the duration of sleep, the time you go to sleep, interruptions and awakenings during the night – and assign a score. The higher it is, the better the rest was. Trying to get closer to 100 and therefore establishing a routine would be the sensible choice. We, at the moment, have not succeeded.

the intelligent motivator

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The Apple Watch 11 is also refined in sports practice, although it is not comparable to the Ultra version and even more so to sport watches proper: here the novelty is represented by Workout Buddya sort of AI motivator that can be activated from the Fitness app. It is especially useful for runners, although it is compatible with other types of training, from trekking to cycling. We tried it on our gentle 5, 6km runs, but it would take a little longer for the encouragement to really start to be helpful. Buddy requires Bluetooth headphones, Apple Intelligence active on the iPhone and is only in English (for now). The new graphics in training mode are beautiful, with shortcut buttons for your favorite functions in the four corners of the display.

super glass

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In terms of design and dimensions, the Series 11 does not differ in any way from the Apple Watch 10: same thickness, same screen and case measurements (42 or 46 mm), only a couple of grams of difference in weight, and this is not to say that it is a bad thing for an object so tested in its daily use experience. It improves the glass of the display which is now twice as resistant to scratches, according to Apple and is called Ion-X: an excellent thing for those who are a little careless like us. Finally, another innovation that could have made a difference is the transition of cellular connectivity to 5G, with also dual band Wi-Fi (a double satellite antenna). Using the watch without the iPhone becomes possible, fast, with better coverage, but the functionality is not active in Italy and this says a lot about the reliability of the current national fifth generation network. The price of the Apple Watch 11 does not change compared to the previous series: 459 euros for the aluminum versionwhich become 809 for the aerospace titanium one. Will all this be enough to convince those who are uncertain to purchase? Some doubts remain for those who already own the Watch 10.