Apple Watch Series 7 vs 10: is switching worth it yet?

The Apple Watch Series 10 has a larger screen and a thinner design, but is switching from a Series 7 a good idea anyway?

Switching from the Series 7 to the Series 10

In addition to a larger screen and a thinner design, the Apple Watch Series 10 also has a new chip and new health functions. These are the main differences between the Apple Watch Series 7 and the Apple Watch Series 10.

S10 chip, neural engine and storage space

The Apple Watch Series 10 is equipped with the new S10 chip. According to Apple, it is specially designed for performance, energy efficiency and intelligence. However, it remains unclear how much faster the chip is compared to the S9 chip. Apple did say during the presentation that the S10 chip performs better when it comes to machine learning, Siri, health features and the Double Tap function.

The chip in the Apple Watch Series 7 has no neural engine, while the Apple Watch Series 10 has a 4-core neural engine. There is also a new generation ultra-wideband chip for more accurate location determination, Bluetooth 5.3 compared to Bluetooth 5.0 and the Series 10 has no less than 64 GB of storage space (the Series 7 has 32 GB). What you will especially notice when you compare the two smartwatches is that the Series 10 is a lot faster.

Screen and housing

The Apple Watch Series 10 is available in two sizes, namely 42 and 46 mm. The Series 7 is also available in two sizes, but they are both a millimeter smaller. According to Apple, the new Watch up to 30 percent more screen surface than the Series 6. In practice, this amounts to approximately an extra line of text on the screen. The 46 mm version is even slightly larger than the screen of the 49 mm Apple Watch Ultra (2). The large screen makes switching to the Watch Series 10 worthwhile for some people.

Due to the larger design, the resolution of the screen is also higher. The 46mm model has a resolution of 416 x 496 pixels, the 45mm model of the Series 7 has a resolution of 396 x 484 pixels. The Series 10 also has a wide-angle OLED screen, unlike the Series 7, and the maximum brightness has increased from 1000 to 2000 nits. Furthermore, both the screen and the casing of the Apple Watch Series 10 have rounder corners and a design that is almost ten percent thinner than that of the three predecessors.

Charging and battery life

You can charge the Apple Watch Series 10 from 0 to 80 percent in just 30 minutes. With the Apple Watch Series 7 it takes you 45 minutes, so that is quite a significant improvement. If you also use your Apple Watch to track your sleep, you will be happy with the fact that you only need to charge the Series 10 for 8 minutes to use it for 8 hours. This could also make switching to the Apple Watch Series 10 worthwhile. Moreover, the battery lasts up to 18 hours in standard mode and up to 36 hours in power saving mode.

Other functions

The Apple Watch Series 10 has a number of new features. These are probably not directly features that will make you switch to the Watch Series 10, but for the sake of completeness we mention them. The best-known new feature is sleep apnea detection. This feature is also coming to the Series 9 and Ultra 2, but not to the Series 7.

The Series 10 also has fall detection and the Double Tap function. The new Apple Watch also lets you play audio directly through the speaker, and you get a water depth gauge and a water temperature sensor.

Material and colours

For the Series 10, Apple has switched from stainless steel to titanium for the top models. Aluminum is still used for the basic models. The aluminum Apple Watch Series 10 is available in Silver, Rose Gold and Jet Black.

The titanium version is available in Natural, Gold and Slate.

Switch to the Apple Watch Series 10

If you want to switch to the Apple Watch Series 10, it is probably because of the larger, brighter screen, the thinner design, the faster S10 chip, the faster charging, or the new health features. You can currently buy the Apple Watch Series 10 from €448.95. Be sure to check out the deals below. This way you can be sure that you don’t pay too much!