Good
Always-on display
More storage
WatchOS 6 brings decent upgrades
Bad
Too similar to Apple Watch 4
Battery life poorer
Always-on display too bright at night
The Apple Watch Series 5 is another step of Apple’s relentless pace at the head of the smartwatch pack. The new model takes everything that made the Apple Watch Series 4 so good, sprinkles on a few extra features, and then replaces the previous model with this superior one.
The new version of watchOS brings a solid list of new features, several of which I cover properly in the health and fitness sections below: cycle tracking, noise level alerts, and activity trends among them.
The other most useful new features are: new watch faces, improved Siri capabilities, and some new apps.
It’s essentially the Apple Watch 4 not a bad thing as this is one of the best smartwatches, with a compass, more cellular bands to call emergency services worldwide and not much more.
The screen now never switches off, dimming to an ambient, always-on display when you’re not raising it to look straight at it. Apple has fixed one of the biggest bugbears about its smartwatch, and that’s by far the biggest feature of this new device.
The always-on display is really useful, and we quickly got used to glancing at the Watch to see the time.
The Watch 5 design is exactly the same as last year’s model, which isn’t unexpected given that 2018 saw a big overhaul. Ceramic and titanium options now join the 40mm and 44mm Watch range and they look pretty sweet, although they do command a premium price.
The Series 5 meanwhile has prices starting at £399 for the aluminium model with a 40mm case. That goes up to £429 for the 44mm case and the price climbs higher if you go for the stainless steel or the titanium or ceramic models. Start throwing in some fancy straps and you can quickly end up putting the price up.
Key Specifications
Review Price: £399
LTPO OLED display with always-on ability
WatchOS 6
18 hour battery life
44mm and 40mm sizes
ECG, HRM and GPS
There’s a claimed 18-hour battery life on the Apple Watch and I found that it didn’t even make it this far which I was disappointed with it would be good for a smart watch to have a battery that last longer. I have been testing out a new Garmin watch at the same time and only charged it once since I have had it. That being said, I’m still impressed with the versatility of the Apple Watch and won’t hesitate to recommend it as an accessory to any iPhone user. If you’ve got the Series 4, then the Series 5 isn’t a meaningful upgrade. But if you’re on a Series 3 or even an original Apple Watch I’d certainly suggest the upgrade.
