The Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra pack in more features, but a higher and extraordinarily high asking price respectively compared to the SE. As entry-level tech products go, the Apple Watch SE nails the brief by having every essential feature from the more expensive models and leaving out all the features that most people won’t want – or use – in the first place.
Design & build
40mm and 44mm sizesPremium materialsUniversal band compatibility
Although it’s the cheapest Apple Watch, the SE does not feel cheap. This is still a premium built and feeling product made from aluminium in either the starlight (gold) of my review unit, midnight or silver. The underside of the watch that houses the heart rate sensor and sits against your wrist is made from a nylon composite and matches the colour of the metal casing. If you want a stainless steel or titanium Watch you’ll have to go for the Series 8 instead, though you can get a Nike version of the SE if you want to get your hands on one of the Nike-branded straps. The SE has a similar design to the older Apple Watch Series 4 and 5, with decent-sized displays but ones with larger bezels than on the newer Series 6, Series 7, and 8. I reviewed the smaller 40mm version, which at first felt too small compared to other smartwatches and Apple Watches I had previously worn. After a couple of weeks though I very much enjoyed this more compact size. The main advantage of the larger 44mm model is the larger screen and battery, but Apple pleasingly has kept all its official Watch bands full compatible with every model provided you buy the right size. The Watch is lightweight at just 27.8g without the strap for the 40mm model and 33g for the 44mm. I soon forgot I was wearing it (in a good way), and it is small and discreet enough that I did not mind sleeping with it on to track my sleep, but it’s not as slim or subtle as a thin activity tracker such as the Fitbit Inspire 3. Aside from the Digital Crown wheel, there’s one button on the same side for accessing the app tray and other menus, while a mic and speaker are housed in a slit on the left edge.
Screen & audio
Bigger bezels than other WatchesVery good displaySpeaker OK for calls
The SE has a pin-sharp OLED display that excellently produces vibrant colour all set against a black background. This has always been Apple’s approach with the Watch, and it still looks classy. The use of black on an OLED screen saves battery life too, as lit white pixels use more power. Apple uses strong Ion-X glass that hasn’t picked up any scratches in my time with it, but it’s not as durable as the sapphire screens on the steel and titanium Series 8 models. Even on the small 40mm screen I found poking about the interface no issue, and combined with the Digital Crown scroll wheel, going through messages and menus is intuitive. Like a phone, you ping in and out of apps. A swipe down for notifications and a swipe up from a control panel. It’s a mini iPhone on your wrist. You can bump the text size up if you really need, but the display is large enough to show full watch faces with many app icons and complications. The biggest downside to opting for the SE is it does not have an always-on display. When not in use, the screen is a blank black. All other models of Watch Apple sells have an always-on screen that shows the time and other information in a low-power state when the device is not purposefully risen to look at. It means if you glance down at the SE you can’t see the time, you must raise your arm to turn the screen on or tap the screen. It’s a small inconvenience. There’s a small speaker grille on the left of the watch. The audio is surprisingly loud and crisp, good enough to take phone calls on in a quiet enough environment. Though the Watch can store music and podcasts, you can’t play these through the speaker and must instead pair wireless headphones. I usually used the Watch on vibrate mode only, but if you keep sounds on you get a pleasant ‘ping’ sound when you get notifications, though you can’t customise the sound – it’s the same for every app.
Specs & performance
Same chip as Series 8Very responsive32GB storage
For the price, it’s great that the SE 2022 has the same S8 chipset as the more expensive Apple Watch Series 8. In fact, all the hardware features are the same including Apple’s second-generation heart sensor, the W3 wireless chip for connectivity, and great new features such as international emergency calling and international roaming – though the latter two are only on the cellular version of the Watch. The SE lacks the U1 chip found on the Series 6 and later, but considering it doesn’t really do much on the Apple Watch right now, it’s not a big loss in my book. You can still find the watch using the Find My app. It’s also water resistant to 50 metres, is IP6X dustproof, and has a very generous 32GB of storage. You can download audio from Apple Music, Podcasts, and Books onto the Watch and listen without your phone using headphones (Apple hopes AirPods, naturally). You can also download songs from Spotify, but it’s much less reliable than using Apple’s services. I enjoyed using NFC for mobile payments with Apple Pay, and the Express Mode feature for use on public transport is great – you can quickly touch the Watch to the contactless card reader on buses and Tubes in London to pay without having to double tap the function button as you usually do for other payments. The heart rate sensor on the underside is accurate and reliable whether you’re sleeping or on a 5k run. If you want more sensors to measure blood oxygen, ECG, or temperature, you’ll have to go for the Series 8. A cellular model is available for both sizes of Watch for an additional cost, but it will only work with certain service providers and you have to contact them to get it set up. Once up and running, you can take calls, play music to headphones, and receive messages and alerts over a 4G connection when not connected to your phone. If you get the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi-only model then you must stay connected to your phone or Wi-Fi to receive alerts at all times – but you can still track exercise using GPS and listen to audio offline if you leave your phone at home.
Software & features
Superlative integration with iPhoneGreat third-party app supportGood safety features
While Apple has not much changed the design of the Watch since the first version, we are now up to watchOS 9 for the software, and it is much improved. You get the same version on the Apple Watch SE as all other compatible models, with many different excellent watch faces to display as much or as little information as you want. Notifications ping pleasantly on your wrist as they arrive in tandem with your iPhone. Apple has made sure the two devices work in seamless tandem and the pairing remains a better overall experience than any Android equivalent. Little things like the phone or Watch mirroring Do Not Disturb mode no matter which device you turned it on or off on is a simple touch that the Google Pixel Watch fails to do when paired with an Android phone. There’s also a fun walkie-talkie mode to quickly chat to family or friends, fun iPhone features like Memoji, and the best third-party app integration of any wearable. Many, such as smart home apps or airline apps are fairly bare bones, but with the latter, you can usually easily access your boarding pass QR code in the app or via Wallet. You can even control the temperature of your tea from your wrist if you have an Ember mug, or subtly check your bank balance before splitting that meal out with friends that landed a couple of days before payday. Though it misses out on some headline features, the SE does get crash detection, the feature that can tell if you have been in a car accident and can call emergency services automatically, also triangulating your location. Apple also markets the SE as the ideal Apple Watch for a child or elderly family member thanks to its Family Setup service that lets you give a cellular Watch to them to communicate with without them having or needing it to be connected to an iPhone.
Fitness & tracking
Good GPS trackingHeart rate sensor accurateCycle tracking
The Apple Watch works very well as a wrist computer but it’s also a very good fitness tracker. With built-in GPS you can track runs easily, and I find Apple’s in-run information screen the most readable and useful even compared to dedicated fitness watches from Polar and Garmin. With watchOS 9 you can now get in-run audio and visual updates on lap times, and it’s easy to control music volume and playback on a second screen a swipe away. You can track a plethora of exercises from walking to swimming, hiking to HIIT sessions, yoga to tai chi. Some of these don’t track specific movement but allow you to view overall time and heart rate metrics by different activities in the Fitness app on your iPhone. Other metrics are kept in the Health app, such as Sleep data, and I’m glad Apple doesn’t spread your data over more than these two as it can be a little overwhelming and confusing to hunt down certain things. Sleep tracking is quite similar to what is found on Fitbit. Combining movement and heart rate, the SE gives you a graph of your sleep stages – deep, core, REM, and awake – and indicates how well you slept. Though you probably already know if you slept well or not. The Watch can also use your workout and heart rate data to estimate your level of cardio fitness and if you input data it can also estimate your ovulation for cycle tracking of your period. This is a helpful tool but should only be used as a guide, and the temperature sensor on the Series 8 means that watch is better suited to you than the SE if you want to use cycle tracking. You don’t have to pay a subscription to access any of the main data points you get from your Watch, a big advantage over Fitbit, which charges for its Premium service and keeps some data locked away if you don’t. But Apple does charge for Fitness+, a video service that guides you through workouts. You get a three-month free trial when you buy an Apple Watch.
Battery life & charging
1-2 days on a chargeMore juice on 44mm model
With the caveat that I reviewed the smaller model, battery life on the Apple Watch SE is OK. It gets me through a day and night of tracking comfortably if I don’t use GPS or stream music from it to my AirPods. Using more juice will see the power run down, as with every smartwatch, and if you want to use sleep tracking you might have to chuck it on the little puck charger before bed. Note that USB-C charging cable comes in the box, but there’s no brick. The SE has better battery life than the Google Pixel Watch, but less than the larger 44mm SE, which I would recommend over the smaller one for its battery life and bigger display. Though they don’t have as good integration with the iPhone for apps and notifications, if you want a fitness watch with better battery life then the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2 cost less and about the same respectively as the Apple Watch SE but can go for three to five days away from a charger. The SE does come with Low Power Mode, so if you find yourself without much juice you can turn that on and still have full tracking, fall detection, and other functions while turning off others to preserve battery.
Price & availability
The 40mm Apple Watch SE costs $249/£259/€299, which is a superb price for what you get. Even at $279/£299/€339 the 44mm is still very well priced considering it has the essential features of the Series 8. You’ll have to pay more for both models if you want the cellular version, and the prices can go up depending on which strap you purchase. The main miss for the SE is the always-on display, which is useful and makes the product look more premium. Aside from that, the Apple Watch SE is very fully featured. You might prefer spending $229.99/£199.99/€229.95 on a Fitbit Versa 4 to get an attractive fitness tracker in watch form, but you miss out on a heck of a lot of Apple’s excellent premium features and basically all third-party apps. If you are really into fitness you might prefer a dedicated sports watch like the Polar Pacer, which has longer battery life and even more fitness features.
Verdict
The Apple Watch SE is the best Apple Watch option for most people with an iPhone who want a smartwatch. It is very reasonably priced – not something we can often genuinely say about Apple hardware products. It has many of the features of the more expensive Apple Watch Series 8, while maintaining a modern design with the same chipset and solid battery life – for an Apple Watch, that is. If you equally value smart features like third-party app integration, music storage, contactless payments and full fitness tracking, the Apple Watch is still the best smartwatch if you have an iPhone. The SE does everything surprisingly well considering it’s the cheapest one.
Specs
40/44mm casingsIP6X dust resistant50ATM water resistanceHeart rate monitoringCycle trackingCar crash detectionGPSBarometerAlways-on altimeterOptional cellular connectivity with international roaming18-hour battery lifeLonger with Low Power mode
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
