Apple Watch Series 8 and the second-generation Apple Watch SE are set to launch this Friday, September 16, and forward of time, the primary critiques of the units have now been shared by choose media publications and YouTube channels.
Each of the brand new fashions are very incremental upgrades in comparison with the Apple Watch Series 7 and the unique Apple Watch SE.
New options for each fashions embody the S8 chip, automobile crash detection, and worldwide roaming. Provided that the S8 chip options the identical CPU because the S7 and S6 chips, the Series 8 doesn’t have any notable efficiency enhancements in comparison with the Series 7 or Series 6, however the brand new Apple Watch SE is as much as 20% sooner than the unique.
The Series 8 can also be outfitted with a brand new temperature sensor to assist with menstrual cycle monitoring, whereas the second-generation Apple Watch SE options new color-matched again circumstances and a decrease $249 beginning value, versus $279 for the unique. Series 8 pricing begins at $399, which is unchanged from the Series 7.
Each fashions are overshadowed by the all-new Apple Watch Extremely, which is ready to launch subsequent Friday, September 23 with a bigger 49mm titanium case, a bigger show, a extra rugged design, a customizable Motion button, new bands designed for the outside, water resistance as much as a depth of 100 meters, and extra. Apple Watch Extremely is priced at $799.
We have rounded up each written and video critiques of the Series 8 and new SE beneath.
The Verge‘s Victoria Track on the Series 8’s new temperature sensing characteristic for retrospective ovulation estimates and menstrual cycle deviation:
As for accuracy, it is slightly exhausting to say, as I’ve solely had the Series 8 for a few week. I don’t have two cycles’ price of temperature knowledge, and I’ve solely simply established a baseline. For the few nights I do have temperature knowledge for, nonetheless, it largely corresponds to what I acquired on my Oura Ring. For instance, two nights in the past, the Oura Ring stated my physique temperature was 0.5 levels larger than regular, whereas the Series 8 stated it was 0.41 levels larger.
Track additionally commented on Series 8 battery life:
Honest warning: enabling low-power mode is not going to magically get you multiday battery life, and I by no means acquired the complete 36 hours. With common utilization with out low-power mode, my Series 8 acquired round 24 hours earlier than I wanted to stay it again on a charger. Low-power mode was principally a great way to get a bit of additional juice so I might make it house or to get me by the final mile of a long term after I forgot to high up the battery earlier than heading out.
Engadget‘s Cherlynn Low confirmed that the second-generation Apple Watch SE performs equally to the Series 8 given each fashions have the identical chip:
In any other case, this 12 months’s Watch SE truly packs the identical system-in-a-package (SiP) processor because the $400 Series 8, in addition to a high-g accelerometer that makes crash detection potential. In my time with it, the SE has, unsurprisingly, been simply as responsive because the Series 8, beginning exercises and finishing coronary heart fee scans in the identical period of time.
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