While I love my Apple Watch 11, I cant deny that the Watch SE 3 is the better choice for most people

Date:
Thu, 16 Oct 2025 05:46:41 +0000

Description:
The Apple Watch 11 has been a massive upgrade for me over the SE 2, but I
cant help but think the SE 3 does more than enough for most peoples needs.

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After three years of wearing the Apple Watch SE 2 , Ive recently upgraded to the Apple Watch 11. And, oh my, what an upgrade it is!

The entire experience, in large part thanks to the bigger and brighter display, is fantastic! The speedy new S10 processor makes every function seem so much faster in comparison, while the improved battery life gives me enough juice to wear it through the night and take advantage of Apples new Sleep Score feature.

The main reason for me wanting the Apple Watch 11 was blood-pressure monitoring, although I still cant use it because in Australia, where Im
based, the Therapeutic Goods Association (essentially the Aussie counterpart to the USs FDA) hasnt approved it yet. And given the TGAs track record of taking months to approve the ECG app and sleep apnea monitoring previously,
Im not expecting it to arrive any time soon.

Without this feature, the Series 11 honestly feels like overkill for my personal use case especially since nearly all the other health and fitness tracking features are available on the (much cheaper) Apple Watch SE 3, including the Sleep Score. Upgrades where it matters most

Aside from missing out on cardiac health monitoring features, and only minor differences in design and materials used in constructing the two
smartwatches, the Apple Watch SE 3 is nearly as good as the Series 11. I
agree with my colleague Jacob Kroll who says it's currently the best for most people in his Apple Watch SE 3 review . In fact, he scored it higher (4.5 stars out of 5) than he did his Apple Watch 11 review (4 stars) surely
that's saying something.

What I appreciate even more and something I probably should have kept in
mind before reaching for the Apple Watch 11 is that despite being a significant upgrade over the SE 2, the SE 3 is selling for the same low
price. For context, the Apple Watch 11 starts at $399 / 369 / AU$679, while the SE 3 comes in at a starting price of $249 / 219 / AU$399.

The Watch SE 3 gets the same S10 processor as the Series 11, so the display can now be set to always-on, and you also get the fancy double-tap gesture
and wrist-flick functionality that made headlines last year with the launch
of the Apple Watch 10 . The S10 chip also means that day-to-day performance
is near-identical to the Apple Watch 11.

Given those similarities, does it really make sense to spend the extra cash
on the more expensive Apple smartwatch? It may not be as bright as the Apple Watch 11, but that's a good display (Image credit: Future) Going the distance

Battery life is one area where the Apple Watch 11 wins out. Now with up to 24 hours on tap, the SE 3 only offers 75% of that, with no more than 18 hours in comparison. However and I do mean however there are two ways the cheaper wearable can go the distance.

Firstly, low-power mode pushes a single charge to nearly two days of use and, secondly, fast charging is now a feature on the SE series. If you want to
wear it all day and all night to get a sleep score, you can either set it to low-power mode or pop it on its charger for a short while before bed. You can then leave it on the charging pad in the morning while you get dressed to
last you the rest of the new day.

Even the durability of the SE series has been improved. Despite being
careful, my SE 2 screen got a fair few scratches, but the SE 3 is now four times more resistant to cracks thanks to the same Ion-X glass being used on the aluminum (cheapest) variant of the Series 11.

So, again, Id argue that the SE 3 can still hold its own against its more expensive sibling. Futureproofing is overrated

The Apple Watch SE 3 misses out on 5G connectivity if you opt for the LTE version, which youll get with the Apple Watch 11 although, at the time of writing in Australia and Canada, Apple is still working with telcos to enable 5G support (meaning it doesnt yet work on the Ultra 3 either in both countries).

I personally dont think 5G support on a wearable should be a major selling point a smartwatch isnt the kind of device that needs a fast connection. And if LTE connectivity is important, I dont see 4G networks being shut down any time soon.

Moreover, most of us typically have our phones with us I know I do so the average user will anyway be tethered to their paired iPhone. The case for the SE 3 continues to strengthen. When health matters I've use the Apple Watch 11 to monitor blood oxygen levels, but I'm still waiting for hypertension notifications (Image credit: Sharmishta Sarkar / TechRadar)

The Apple Watch SE 3 doesnt just miss out on the hypertension notifications, it also doesnt have blood oxygen monitoring, sleep apnea detection and irregular heart rhythm notifications. If you already have any of these conditions, youre (hopefully) under your doctors care and have probably invested in the Apple Watch 10 or 11 and that makes complete sense to me.

I dont have any of the aforementioned health issues which is why I was fine with the SE 2 for a while but Im at that stage in a womans life when nearly everything is in flux, including blood pressure that needs checking a few times a week. I've been doing that for well over a year using an at-home battery-powered machine. I just thought having real-time notifications would be helpful, something to share with my doctor.

Don't get me wrong: I love the Apple Watch 11, but given I'm not quite
getting what I had hoped for right from the start, I think the larger 44mm Apple Watch SE 3 would have served me just as well.

So I would strongly recommend that if you're keen on a new Apple Watch, consider what you really need from it and then splurge.

Hypertension monitoring isnt new to wearables and I know some of you are wondering why I dont opt for, say, a Samsung smartwatch, which has had the same feature for a while (and it works in Australia). But Ive been an Apple user since 2009 I really cant see myself switching systems now. You might also like... These are the best Apple Watches in 2025 Looking for something else? Pick one of the best smartwatches for iPhones instead Here's how hypertension notifications work on the Apple Watch 11



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/smartwatches/while-i-love-my-apple-wa tch-11-i-cant-deny-that-the-watch-se-3-is-the-better-choice-for-most-people


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