Should You Upgrade to Apple Watch Series 6?

Apple’s September 15th event just ended and they left us with the brand new Apple Watch Series 6, and the absolute most important question people have on their minds is if they should actually upgrade to it, because it’s available to order right now!

The answer is actually different depending on which Apple Watch you currently own and how important the new features they introduced are to you. Let me quickly go through everything Apple announce about the Apple Watch Series 6.

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The biggest change is the new finishes, and this time, we have 3 of them, blue aluminum, product Red aluminum, and Graphite stainless steel. There’s also a couple of new bands, which are very interesting this year.

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There’s the new Solo loop band that lacks any type of clasp or buckle, it’s simply one piece that you stretch and slip over your wrist, and Apple actually has you print out a template that you can wrap around your wrist so you can order the perfect size for your band.

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There’s also a totally unique braided solo loop band which is made out of Yarn with silicon threads to keep it stretchy, so we’re excited to get our hands on that.

Apple did mention some new watch faces including the GMT face, the chronograph Pro face, the Art face, the new Memoji face and more, but it seems like those Faces are available on all Apple Watches that support WatchOS 7, which is available now.

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What are the new features of Apple Watch Series 6?

By far the biggest new feature of the Series 6 is the new Blood Oxygen sensor, which uses infrared light to measure your blood oxygen levels.

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You can use it by going into the new Blood Oxygen app and taking a 15 second measurement, but what’s really great is that it actually takes background readings every once in a while so it can warn you if your blood oxygen levels are low, and it even works while you sleep, which is a huge deal for those with sleep issues. There’s also the new S6 chip which is said to be more efficient and 20% faster than the previous S5 chip.

This is going to help balance out the battery life because a pretty huge feature this year is that the always-on display is now 2.5X brighter when outdoors, which was one of our biggest issues with the Series 5 Apple Watch. And then there’s also the new Oximeter sensor which detects elevation, which can be useful for hiking.

Now apart from what Apple mentioned, there are a couple of specification differences as well.

Specification Differences of Watch Series

The new Apple Watch Series 6 can now connect to the 5GHz Wi-Fi band instead of being previously limited to only 2.4GHz.

Is there a hidden feature with Apple Watch Series 6?

One hidden feature is that the Series 6 comes with the U1 Ultra band chip built in, and I have a feeling Apple is going to announce some great features with that chip at next event where they’ll probably announce the Air Tags.

Apple is still rating the battery life as the same 18 hours, even though the new S6 chip is more efficient, probably because of the brighter always-on display.

Downside of Apple This Year?

But the main downside this year is that every new Apple Watch is no longer shipping with a power adapter in the box, so you have to pay an extra $19 if you want to add that to your purchase.

And there you go, that’s every single change with the Apple Watch Series 6, and now let’s answer the original question.

Whether You should Upgrade or not?

Like I have told before, it depends on which Watch you own right now, so I’m going to split them into two different groups.

The Series 4 and the Series 5 and in one group, because they have the updated design with the curved display and they have processors which are noticeably faster than the older ones.

They also have the updated sensors which not only look awesome but they work better than the ones on the older watch models.

And they also have the ECG feature which is pretty cool since it’s already been detecting heart issues in people’s hearts. And the fall detection has actually saved lives as well, so props to Apple for all of these changes.

But between the Series 4 and 5, the only real difference that was noticeable apart from the storage upgrade was the always-on display, and to some people, that difference was enough to upgrade to the series 5.

And obviously, there are more important differences this year, but in reality, if you already have one of those two newer Apple Watches, your experience won’t change that much unless one of those new features is much important to you.

For example, if blood oxygen monitoring is something your health requires, then you should absolutely upgrade to the Series 6 from even the Series 5.

Or if the new Wi-Fi improvements or the new altimeter are a big deal to you. Or if you think there’s great potential in the U1 chip and you don’t want to have an Apple device without it.

If those things are important to you, then it will definitely be worth the upgrade. But if those things don’t really matter, I also don’t think that the processor upgrade itself is going to be worth it.

Coming from the Series 4 or the 5 because those already felt very quick and snappy. The display is going to look basically the same, and the battery life isn’t going to be drastically different, but the brighter always-on display could be a huge deal for you. But if you just want an Apple Watch for fitness or working out, then the Series 6 won’t really make much of a difference.

And keep in mind that the Watch Series 4 and 5 still support the same new bands, they support the same new watch faces and they even support the new Family Setup feature, so that an Apple Watch can be used without an iPhone being connected.

Conclusion

So, I would probably just keep my Series 4 or 5 for another year to see what Apple has to offer in the future, especially if they get glucose monitoring working. Now if you still have the Apple Watch Series 3 or older, then congratulations for waiting so long because now is probably the perfect time to upgrade.

It’s got a great curved display, the sensors are now updated and packed with a ton of great features, and you will notice a massive difference going from one of those older Watches to the new Series 6, so it’s definitely worth upgrading.

Now one thing to keep in mind is that if blood glucose monitoring is important to you, or any of the other rumored features, and you’re totally happy with your current watch, then it may be a good idea to just wait.

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