Apple Watch Series 10 review – size matters, kinda

The best thing about the Apple Watch 10 is that it takes half an hour to charge to 80%.

Sure, it will warn you if you have sleep apnea and high blood pressure but for everyday use, faster charging is always better. Essential, actually. This is the fourth Apple Watch I have owned and the painfully slow charging has always been my biggest bugbear – after the weird not “charging to full” setting I have to manually turn it off just about every time I put it onto a charger. We’ll discuss that later.

I got myself the Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS 46mm Jet Black Aluminium Case) to use its full title. If you have an iPhone and either a MacBook or iPad or both, then it’s a no-brainer to get the same brand’s smartwatch. There was nothing wrong with my Watch 8 and I debated whether the much-heralded design refresh was worth it – until the half-hour recharge detail emerged. That was enough to sell me on Apple’s latest efforts.

There are some design tweaks – the screen size has increased by 1mm to 42mm and 46mm while it is 1mm thinner at 9.7mm and 2g lighter. The slightly larger screen (I opted for the 46mm size previously only available on the Ultra range) is helpful for typing or using the calculator.

I’ve spent the last few years honing what I use a smartwatch for, as I am sure we all have. I’ve tested many, many apps and features. Ultimately, what I really want the watch for, in this order, are these:

1.  Telling time. Really. I wake up too early most mornings and glance at my watch to see if I can go back to sleep.
2. Let me know when my phone rings. I experimented with using various ringtones for different people and only allowing ringtones to play for very specific people. In the end, silent is the easiest (and least likely to embarrass you if it rings in a meeting or presentation).
3. Receiving very specific messages from key people.
4. Tracking my steps (there is logic to those 10,000 steps and I use it for its intended purpose: to make myself more active).
5. Controlling Audible and podcasts (which I listen to a lot, as well as most of the news articles I “read” on my phone).
6. To find my lost phone (I’m not embarrassed to admit I use that at least once a week).

Painfully slow charging

I was so frustrated with the original Watch 1 and its painfully slow charging times, that I simply stopped using it. I was pleasantly surprised with the upgrades to the Watch 5 but it still used ye olde USB-A. The Watch 8 finally arrived with USB-C as standard, which was why I bought that green-coloured device.

I find myself having to charge my Apple Watch twice a day, no matter how much I do or don’t use it. It’s my least favourite thing about this useful and otherwise essential iPhone add-on.

I thought I was being puerile when I joked in Stuff Towers that the best feature was the half-hour charging. When all the other smartwatch-wearing geeks responded with the same excitement that I had, I realised I wasn’t suffering alone with this frustration (in my office, the charging problem rants are abundant).

The Siri integration is good, and it (she) converts voice to text well enough. I mostly reply to text messages with the presets (to which you can add your own, and I have).

I keep notifications to the bare minimum and my Watch, like my iPhone, is always on silent. I have carefully curated what messages get through to my wrist and it is a handy way to optimise only essential messages to my Watch. WhatsApp, for instance, will never be on my Watch. Like email, it’s become our public-facing means of contact and the volume of unsolicited messaging is getting as out of hand as email.

Apple only

Most reviewers count Apple’s watch exclusivity as an item in the list of cons. It seems like the natural next step that makers of smartphones will make dedicated smartwatches and expand their own ecosystem. But it does seem like a self-limiting choice because you may not convince an iPhone user to give up their primary device, but they may wear a Samsung smartwatch. Similarly, Android phone users might want to flash a little Apple on their wrist, but can’t.

Those are valid brand choices people want to make that the walled-garden approach to smartphone accessory products faces. Apple isn’t the company it was under Steve Jobs. Back then, when he made a design decision it was well-thought out and made sense. Mandating the Apple Watch to automatically slow down its charging cycle isn’t one of those decisions.

And sadly, it isn’t the only weird on-by-default-can’t-turn-off settings changes in recent years. I could go on but will save that for another time.

Apple Watch Series 10 Verdict

The thinness and (2g) lightness of the Watch 10 are noticeable if you have an older model or wear another brand but are unlikely to convince you. In my case, it was the faster charging time – which I still have to do twice a day, but it takes less time. If that’s you, you cannot go wrong with the Series 10’s impressive speeds.

The R10,595 price for the Apple Watch Series 10 GPS 46mm jet black aluminium case is nearly half the price of a new iPhone 16 but that’s what such a device costs in 2024. I think it’s fair value for what it is and expect to use it for at least two or three years – until they make the charging even faster.