Apple Watch S11 review

The Watch S11 display is the same size and resolution as Series 10, which is to say a very high-quality OLED with LTPO “always-on” support. Peak brightness hits around 2,000 nits and outdoor performance remains strong. The new front-glass durability is one of the headlines this time, rather than a bigger or brighter screen. In use, the UI is crisp, responsive, well polished as you’d expect from Apple Watch. The gestures, crown and button are all familiar which is good if you value smoothness, less exciting if you were expecting a radical change. 

A lot of the “newness” is lent by WatchOS26 which brings the Liquid Glass design interface to the smallest display Apple makes and while it does unify the theme, it doesn’t feel half as radical as on iOS due to the limited scope to shine…or show through. Smart Stack, a collection of widgets handily available on rotation of the crown get a bit smarter with contextual suggestions based on where you are or what you’re doing. The watch tries to anticipate what you might want rather than you hunting for it and it’s either a hit or not life-changing, but it’s new. As is the wrist-flick feature that finally allows you to dismiss calls or notifications just by flicking your wrist. Couple this with last year's double-pinch gesture and now you can get a lot done with the Apple Watch without even touching it and that is a big step in quality-of-life enhancement. The new Workout Buddy feels like an overtly enthusiastic coach on your wrist, encouraging, data-savvy and occasionally right. Notes finally makes sense on a watch, sleep scoring now tracks not just duration, but quality, REM/deep sleep, and consistency. Hypertension alerts keep tabs on what your body’s up to while you pretend to rest. Some of it already existed on other watches but to have it all tied in with the polish of WatchOS It’s evolution, not revolution, but a good one.

Overall, it’s just as thin, light and as comfortable to wear as an Apple Watch should be. Even the strap change system remains the same, so your collection of watch straps over the years won’t become obsolete. 

Using the proven S10 SoC architecture with 64 GB storage,  apps launch smoothly, health-monitoring feels snappy, and the extra connectivity of 5G and single-band GPS is a meaningful upgrade, especially if you use the watch untethered from your iPhone. You’ll barely notice a performance jump from S10, but you’ll feel the connectivity and readiness. Although, for some reason, notifications showed up on the screen with a slight delay after the haptic buzz, something I never faced an issue with on the S10. Another meaningful bump is the jump in battery life to about 24 hours under typical use. Wearing it for over a month, I have consistently been getting that number easily, enough to get through a day, have an hour-long workout, track sleep, and wake up with some juice left.  Fast-charging is convenient too, needing only about 10-15 minutes of a top-up to give you sleep tracking through the night in case you’ve had an extra busy day. The “all-week” battery life… still a pipe dream. 

If you’re upgrading from Series 8 or earlier, the added health features, 5G, tougher glass, and improved battery definitely make a strong case. On the flip side, if you have Series 10 or even Series 9, the incremental gains may not justify the jump unless the new features matter a lot to you.