The Apple Watch SE is not as remarkable a split the difference as you might expect. It's an excellent choice for most customers, starting at $249.

 

The fact that I don't operate a trillion-dollar international firm could surprise the casual reader. But like any good tech journalist, I'm delighted to share all of my thoughts on the subject in a public setting. Having most closely watched hardware manufacturers over the years, choosing is a topic that frequently gets under my skin.

In general, I believe that having more options is preferable. This is relevant to many facets of life, including buying consumer products (avoid the annoyances in the opening to a post on a smartwatch). More businesses means more rivalry and options for customers. that enjoyable stuff. The issue of choice has been intriguing, especially from Apple.

There has been an ebb and flow over the years that I have observed the company. In some instances, it may come down to quality control, not offering "too many" options to the consumer, and not overstretching oneself (although I'm not sure a company with a market cap of $2–3 trillion is at risk of the latter).

These are legitimate worries, and there is a push and pull within the boundaries of one corporation. On the other end of the scale, you can deliberately restrict consumer choice while claiming to know what is best for them. It's an argument that has been made against Apple throughout the years, and with good reason.

The category of wearable electronics may benefit the most from choice among consumer electronics categories. The range of human bodies has a lot of differences in addition to the usual consumer desire. Each and every one of us here are flawless, lovely snowflakes, and we should all, at the absolute least, have watches that match our wrists. The primary criticism levelled against the initial generation of smartwatches was that they were overly large and inconsistently sized.

There are now more Apple Watch models available than ever before after eight iterations. The huge, flamboyant, and pricey Ultra, the upscale Series 8, and the entry-level SE are all available. Both of the latter are offered in two sizes and a variety of colours (41 and 45mm for the 8 and 40 and 44mm for the SE). I'm interested to see if the Ultra may come in a smaller size in the future, but for the time being, it's a big watch for mostly big wrists.

I published a rather extensive review of the Series 8 earlier today. There were many various topics covered in the article, but one in particular received the most attention. In a market where some competitors rank batteries in It has loomed over the line in terms of days, or even weeks, for a time. With the inclusion of Low Power Mode to watchOS 9, Apple has partially addressed the problem.

The existence of the feature raises an intriguing query. Which features, if any, would you disable if you had the option to do so in order to preserve battery life? Finding out which are truly useful in daily life is an intriguing exercise. Apple constantly adds new features. Some of them you'll utilise, some you won't. I can deal with losing everything that shuts down in Low Power Mode in my situation. On the other hand, someone who is keeping tabs on a heart problem might not.

Maybe this is a good opportunity to talk about what exactly "SE" implies. Alongside the Series 5, the first edition was released in 2019. After three years, Apple's strategy has included both depending on the SE and outdated models to cater to the market's bottom end (though this time the Series 7 is only around as long as retail channels still have current stock).

What the SE here (and on the iPhone) means has drawn a variety of theories. Some have noted that it originally had the meaning of "System Expansion" in Apple lingo. However, Apple executive Phil Schiller recently verified what many people already knew—that the two letters in the acronym stood for "Special Edition." From where I'm standing, I think special editions are solely for strange Batman FunkoPops that you can only get by standing in line for 15 hours at Comic-Con and then reselling with a 10,000% markup.

But I'm probably alone in that.

I'd make another, related recommendation in the case of this device: Streamlined Edition. The SE is the Apple Watch for those on a somewhat smaller budget who understand that they don't require exactly every yearly improvement to the gadget. I believe that too frequently as reviewers, we forget that the vast majority of readers consider a couple hundred dollars to be a sizeable sum of money. The SE is $150–200 less expensive than the Series 8 with prices starting at $249 for the regular edition and $299 for the cellular variant. Although it isn't quite half as expensive, it is on the way.

Of course, "cheap" depends on context. especially with regard to Apple products. There are smartwatches for under $100, but as a general rule,i have been comparing inexpensive smartwatches with a premium experience to the $200 Fitbit Versa. The SE isn't too far off the mark at $50 more.If you choose the SE over the Series 8, you forfeit the following:

1 Screen size (according to Apple, the 8 has "almost 20% greater screen area than the SE").

2 Quick charging

3 Resistance to dust.

4 An always-on display.

5 Sensing of blood oxygen, ECG, and temperature (for cycle tracking).

Although your results may vary, these concessions appear doable. And good luck distinguishing them at first glance, to be honest. Again, if my doctor advised me to purchase the watch for heart monitoring, I would probably spend more money and choose the 8. It's true that health monitoring has taken centre stage in the line, and many people will find those compromises to be significant.Other than that, the devices share a W3 processor and a claimed battery life of 18 hours when Low Power Mode is not activated. Since the Far Out event last week, I have used both the standard S8 and SE, and while much has already been written about how the Ultra is effectively a niche device when compared to the S8, I would like to add that suddenly there is a very credible argument to be made that the SE is truly the right Apple Watch for the majority of people.