Apple Watch SE 3 review: Packed with features that matter for youth

It can track the heart rate, offer Sleep Score, Ovulation estimation (for females), and with 5G cellular, users can just make or answer calls while on a jog without the phone far away from home.

Last month, Apple unveiled a new line of smart wearables-- Watch Ultra 3, Watch Series 11 and Watch SE 3.

The budget-friendly Watch SE (3rd Gen) succeeds the Watch SE 2, which was launched three years ago in 2022. It may have the same design language, but it comes with big upgrades and costs Rs 5,000 less than the launch price of the predecessor.

I used the Watch SE 3 for a little over a week, and here are my thoughts.

Design, build quality and display

As noted earlier, Watch SE 3 retains several design elements of the predecessor. It comes with a familiar squarish losenge structure with curvaceous design language.

It flaunts a beautiful, super smooth curved glass cover that wonderfully blends with the metal enclosure, made of sturdy aluminium material, which by the way, is 100 per cent fully recycled material.

Also, by weight, Apple Watch SE 3 is made with 40 per cent recycled content, including 100 per cent recycled cobalt used in the battery. Further, the device is manufactured with 100 per cent renewable electricity, like wind and solar, across the supply chain.

Also, the company offers a vast range of soft silicone and fabric-based band options.

This Watch SE 3 review unit is midnight aluminium. As you can see, it is a gorgeous smart timepiece. Apple also offers the device in starlight colour. It is also an eye-turner.

The Apple Watch is not just beautiful but also really sturdy. It features a custom, proprietary grade Ion-X glass shield on the display, touted to be the toughest glass in any smartwatch in the industry. It is well protected against scratches. Also, it is 4X more resistant to cracks than the previous iteration.

Apple Watch SE 3.

On the side, it houses the trademark digital crown, which offers a very tactile feel. It has a new-generation mic and a side button on one side. On the opposite side, there is a really good speaker.

Users can even play music or podcasts directly through the Watch SE 3 speaker. Thanks to 5G cellular support, users can directly answer or make calls, and you can hear the speaker quite clearly. Also, the owner's voice gets picked up neatly thanks to S10 chip-powered Voice Isolation feature. It can suppress background noise, so a user’s voice sounds crisp and clear on the other end of the line — even in noisy environments.

Apple Watch SE 3.

Like the predecessor, Watch SE 3 comes in 44mm and 40mm sizes, which come with 324x394p and 368x448p resolutions, respectively. The LPTO ( Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) display panel is really bright and can support 1,000nit peak brightness and comes with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch (ppi).

Apple Watch SE 3.

You can view the messages clearly without having to take it closer to the face. Also, it supports the Always-on feature, a first for the Watch SE series. This allows users to read the time or any notification with just a glance and no need to wake the screen for more brightness.

Performance

Setting up the Watch SE 3 is simple and easy. Just take it near the iPhone, and it will easily get detected and just follow the on-screen instructions. It took me less than 15 minutes to complete the pairing process.

The latest Watch SE 3 is powered by a 64-bit architecture-based dual-core S10 System-on-Chip (SoC), which comes paired with a quad-core Neural Engine. It is a very big upgrade over the S8 silicon.

The dual-core S10 CPU has 5.6 billion transistors—60 per cent more than Apple Watch SE 2—and a GPU that’s up to 30 per cent faster. We can notice the improvements in terms of efficient use of power.

Even with always-on display mode, the watch can easily last a whole day. And, it enables fast charging too (more on that later).

Unlike the premium Watch Series 11, the Watch SE 3 lacks ECG (Electrocardiogram), SpO2 (blood-oxygen saturation) reading and a hypertension tracker. But it boasts of a second-generation optical heart sensor to monitor heart rate more accurately than the predecessor.

Apple Watch SE 3.

It also supports the double-tap gesture feature, which was not available in the previous iteration. The double tap makes good use of the advanced Neural Engine of the S10 SoC to process data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine-learning algorithm. The algorithm detects the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in the blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap.

It offers hassle-free interaction on the Watch without the need for the other hand to touch the screen to perform primary tasks such as answering calls or silencing the timer, and similar stuff.

Double-tap gestures can be used to view a message from a notification, scroll through longer notifications with an additional double-tap, reply using dictation, and send a message. It can also be used to control music, podcasts and audiobooks. And, it can even be used to take a picture with an iPhone

The watchOS 26 comes with visually appealing Liquid Glass user interface. It offers refreshing user experience to operate the watch.

Liquid Glass UI on Watch SE 3

The last two iterations of the watchOS have improved the health tracking, particularly related to insights on sleep patterns such as Rapid Eye Movements (REM), Core and Deep Sleep.

Now, with the watchOS 26, the Watch SE 3 can assist the Health app to offer Sleep Score. Depending on the score, the user's sleep is classified on a quality scale-- excellent, high, ok, low or very low.

The quality of the sleep is calculated on the duration of uninterrupted sleep, bedtime schedule and interruptions.

During the week-long period, I had the Watch on the wrist for four days, it showed I had one excellent quality sleep, two high quality sleeps and one low quality sleep. These are really valuable insights for me to understand myself, and the data is compelling enough to get me serious about developing discipline to go to bed on time and have a minimum of seven or eight hours in the night.

Apple Watch SE 3.

Additionally, the Watch SE 3 can track wrist temperature (can be looked in the Vitals tab in Health app), Ovulation tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates(for women), respiratory rate, Medication Reminder, SOS Emergency security feature, international emergency calling, and 5G cellular support.

In India, it supports e-SIM offered by Airtel and Reliance Jio. It also boasts of Fall Detection and Crash Detection safety features as well.

It also boasts 64 GB of storage and a W3 Apple wireless chip, which ensures stable connectivity in terms of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with paired devices.

It can last for 18 hours under normal usage. Like any premium Apple Watch, this model too is really intelligent and can calculate battery life, and if there is a possibility of coming short, it will notify the user to charge it beforehand. So, the watch will have enough power to track the sleep pattern and last through the night.

With watchOS 26, Apple has introduced a smart battery feature that tracks the watch's battery usage pattern, and if it notices any unusual fast draining, it proactively alerts the user to charge before heading to bed.

Also, under low power mode, it can last up to 32 hours.

And, for the first time, Apple is bringing fast charging capability to the low-end SE model. With just 15 minutes of charging, it can last for eight hours. And, it can go from zero to 80 per cent in 45 minutes of being connected to the power outlet.

Final thoughts

The Watch SE 3 may not have the fancy ECG or the SpO2 tracker, but it is packed with good enough features that matter the most for improving the health and fitness of youngsters.

It can track the heart rate, offer Sleep Score, Ovulation estimation (for females), potential life-saving crash and fall detection, and with 5G cellular, users can just make or answer calls while on a jog without the phone far away from home.

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