Is the Apple Watch Series 10 a serious Garmin alternative?
The Apple Watch Series 10 is Apple’s smartest, thinnest and largest-screen watch to date, packed with all the daily-life-taming bells and whistles that arguably make it the best smartwatch in the business.
The Apple Watch’s running credentials have also been growing over the years, with more mid-run metrics, better training insights and some class-leading GPS and heart rate to boot.
But even with a new Training Load tool, better offline mapping and a battery-anxiety killing fast charge, the question still remains: does the Apple Watch pack enough running smarts to rival the best running watches from the likes of Garmin, Polar, Coros and Suunto? Is it even the best Apple Watch to buy if you’re a runner? I’ve been living and running with the Apple Watch Series 10 for six weeks to find out. Here’s my review.
How I tested
I’ve spent six weeks running with the Apple Watch Series 10 42mm titanium GPS+ Cellular model, alongside various premium running watches including the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the Garmin Enduro 3 and the Garmin Fenix 8. I’ve trained, raced, slept and lived with it, including a half marathon, using those other watches and a H10 chest strap to compare the GPS, heart rate and battery life performance.
Price and rivals
Before we get into the nitty gritty, a quick word on price. The Apple Watch Series 10 starts at £399, rising to £499 for the GPS+Cellular. That’s £300 cheaper than the GPS+Cellular Apple Watch Ultra 2 which comes in at £799.
For running watches with some smartwatch smarts, the Garmin Forerunner 265 packs an AMOLED screen and some – but certainly not all – of the smart tools of the Apple Watch for £430.
If you’re looking at smartwatches outside of iOS, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 starts at £289 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra from £599. If you’re really on a budget, you can pick cheaper smartwatch alternatives like the Amazfit Active for under £100.
Design
The Apple Watch Series 10 comes in two new sizes (42mm and 46mm) with two finishes (aluminium and titanium). The latter replaces the stainless steel options and comes in slate, gold and natural (silver).
The big news: this is the thinnest Apple Watch ever with the largest display on any Apple Watch. It’s also lighter, with the aluminium cases weighing up to 10 percent less than the Series 9 and the titanium cases close to 20 percent lighter than the stainless steel Series 9.
There’s a new wide-angle OLED display that flows further down the edge of the display. Apple says it’s 40 percent brighter when viewed at an angle. It’s marginally easier to glance down mid-run to check your current pace or sneakily check the time to find out how long is left in that meeting.
The touchscreen is bright, sharp, snappy and responsive. However, I'm a big face-dripping heavy sweater and I found it didn’t play too nice when it got any kind of moisture on it.
At 9.7mm, the slimmer, lighter design definitely makes it one of the easiest watches to wear 24-7, helping you tap into new 24-7 health and sleep features like the breathing disturbances alerts and sleep apnea detection.
Coming from testing bulkier watches like the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 (14.4 mm) and even the Garmin Forerunner 265 (12.9mm), I found it virtually vanished by comparison. The difference is more subtle against the Apple Watch Series 9 at 10.7mm.
The watch’s speakers have also been upgraded, with improved audio that now lets you listen to music and podcasts without headphones, as well as make and take phone calls. The sound quality is a bit thin and it’s not likely to replace your headphones – or your phone – anytime soon. But there’s a surprisingly good top volume and it’s a handy addition.
If, like me, you like a bit of heft in your tracker, then you might actually find the Apple Watch Series 10 a little dainty. Plus, coming from the more rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2, I really miss details like the customisable action button for launching straight into runs and workouts.
You do get the same emergency SOS, fall and crash detection safety features that you’ll find on the Apple Watch Ultra 2, though, but not the siren. I’d have loved to see that alarm safety feature roll over from the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Apple Watch Series 10 is also a carbon neutral product.
Features
The Apple Watch’s post-run insights have improved incrementally over the years and it’s now a much more comprehensive run tracker. However, it’s still not a true rival to the breadth and depth you’ll get from Garmin’s top watches — at least not without leaning on third party apps.
From a sports tracking perspective, most of the major stuff is covered, with outdoor, treadmill and track running modes, plus all of your mid-run metrics, from pacing and rolling mile splits to cadence and ground contact time, and up to five stats on two customisable screens.
You can also get much deeper post-run detail via the Fitness app on your iPhone. Some of the standout insights include VO2 Max and Running Pace trends that chart improvements over time.
You can create custom workouts directly on the watch and there’s automatic running track detection that picks up when you enter your local 400m arena.
Beyond running, there’s also temperature sensing and menstrual cycle tracking – fantastic for monitoring symptoms during different phases and adapting your training, or monitoring any deviations that may be of concern.
What’s new with Watch OS 11?
WatchOS 11 brings some new training smarts, though nothing particularly ground-breaking in the grand scheme of run and fitness tracking.
The biggest upgrade is the addition of Training Load, which Garmin, Polar and Coros have offered for a while. Apple’s take on it blends biometric data including heart rate, respiratory rate and sleep duration, with optional user input. Once you’ve logged enough activity to load your baseline, the Watch provides a daily rating on the scale of 'Well Below' to 'Well Above' to estimate how much exertion you might be able to handle on any given day compared to your benchmark. The aim: to help you to make better decisions about when to go hard and when to go home within the context of your training plan.
I’m a big fan of the Effort Rating – a post-run subjective assessment – that lets you adjust Apple’s automatic scores based on your own perceived effort during the workout. If you don’t want to add your own, Apple automatically estimates the effort levels but it’s really quick and easy to input your own RPE. This adds crucial context to the Training Load readout that you can’t get from heart rate alone – letting you factor in things like how muscle soreness or a long day at work may have made that run feel harder than your heart rate suggests.
Apple Activity Ring addicts will be pleased that you can also now pause the Ring tracking on rest days, when you’re ill or injured, thus leaving streaks intact. You can also set goals for specific days, ramping the ambitions up for a long run Sunday, for example, or down if you’re long-haul travelling.
When it comes to navigation, Apple automatically creates routes you’ve run more than twice and gives you the option to follow and race against your most recent run or your all time best. You can also download offline map sections to the watch, and create routes to follow in the Apple Maps app on your phone. However, there’s no Strava-style heat map for finding quick, runnable routes nearby.
Apple has also added sleep apnea detection tools that help identify and flag periods of abnormal breathing overnight, over sustained periods — a nod that it might be time to seek some professional help. That adds to the A-Fib heart health tracking that makes the Apple Watch a more serious health tool.
Accuracy
The Watch Series 10 packs the same GPS and heart rate sensors as the Series 9. Unlike the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and most higher-end running watches, there’s no dual-frequency/multi-band GPS here.
However, in my tests that doesn’t seem to have impacted the accuracy. In my marathon and half marathon tests, it matched the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for overall distances. When you dig deeper into the GPS tracks, the Apple Watch Series 10 performs as well as the Apple Watch Ultra 2. It was also great at locking my move from lane 1 on the track to lane 8.
When it comes to optical heart rate performance, the story is much the same. The Apple Watch Series 10 matched the Polar H10 chest strap virtually beat for beat in the half and marathon tests.
I also did a long run with some strides – or faster interval efforts – at the end and the Apple Watch Series 10 nailed the changes in intensity as well as I’ve seen any optical heart rate perform.
TLDR: The Apple Watch Series 10 offers excellent accuracy for heart rate and GPS, up there certainly with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Garmin’s premium dual-frequency running watches.
Battery life
The Apple Watch Series 10 battery life remains the same as the Series 9, offering 18 hours general usage and 7 hours GPS run time on a single charge when you’re running without your phone. That’s still a long way short of even the cheapest running watches.
However, the fast charge is excellent. The Apple Watch Series 10 charges faster than its predecessors and shoots to 80 percent from zero in just 30 minutes — and you can get 8 hours from 15 minutes on the plug.
In tests, the fast charge was lightning quick. With strategic top-ups you can almost alleviate all of the battery life anxiety.
With a couple hours of training and medium usage outside of that, I found I tended to easily get 24 hours from the Series 10.
When it comes to run time battery, I tested the Apple Watch Series 10 up against the Apple Watch Ultra 2 during the Griefenseelauf Half Marathon outside Zurich (a race I’d highly recommend).
For my 1:27 half, the Series 10 burned 11%, compared to the Watch Ultra 2 at 6%. I also did a solo marathon test, and the Apple Watch Series 10 dropped from 97% to 71%, burning 26% for 3.5 hours running with my iPhone. Meanwhile the Apple Watch Ultra 2 burned 17%.
Based on that, the Apple Watch Series 10 should cover most runners for marathon day, from waking up to the finish line and the journey home. But if you want an Apple Watch that’s going to cover longer races like ultras, the Watch Ultra 2 is still the way to go.
Other Apple Watch Series 10 battery life test results:
1-hour run burned 7-8%
90 minute half-marathon burned 11%
3.5-hour marathon burned 26%
Average overnight battery burn: 17%
General usage: 1.5 days with 1.5 hours GPS run time
RW verdict
It’s never going to rival the dedicated sport watch muscle of the best Garmin running watches, but with each update to the hardware and WatchOS, the Apple Watch becomes a better running partner. And the Series 10 is a solid option for any runner.
In fact, it nudges things along nicely with a lighter, smaller-wrist friendly feel, Training Load and mapping upgrades and a big, beautiful display that’s larger than even the Apple Watch Ultra 2 without adding unwanted heft.
If you’re an iPhone owner or paid-up member of the iOS club – and you want a smartwatch with a good selection of running smarts – the Apple Watch 10 has a lot to offer, particularly if you also want a watch that’s more compact and comfortable to wear 24-7. If you’re willing to dig into the third party apps, there’s more than enough tracking, training and racing tools here to satisfy most runners.
The battery life is still undeniably short up against the running watch rivals, but that’s offset nicely by the super-fast rapid charge. If you’re disciplined with shorter, regular, timely top ups, you can nullify that problem. Still, for ultra runners, multi-day adventurers and forgetful, lazy chargers (guilty), the Apple Watch Ultra 2 remains a better bet.
If you own an Apple Watch Series 9, you probably don’t need to upgrade. If you’re a few generations back or a newcomer, then this is probably your best value bet for jumping on the Apple Watch train.
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