The best Apple Watch for most people
I'm PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I've written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I've been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
With new features such as body temperature sensing and car crash detection, the Apple Watch Series 8 is the right choice for most smartwatch buyers.
The Apple Watch Series 8 (starting at $399) looks exactly like its predecessor, but it offers some notable health and safety improvements not available on last year's model. Its biggest upgrade is the ability to measure and track changes in your body temperature while you sleep, with a dual-sensor design for more accurate readings. If you have a menstrual cycle, the Series 8 can use your body temperature data to estimate the date of your last ovulation. And on the safety front, the watch can detect if you've been in a car crash and automatically call for help. With these upgrades, plus an already unrivaled user experience and app selection that's further enhanced by watchOS 9, the Apple Watch Series 8 remains the best iPhone-compatible smartwatch for most buyers, and remains our reigning Editors' Choice.
Starting at $399, the Series 8 sits in the middle of Apple's smartwatch lineup, between the rugged Apple Watch Ultra ($799) and the refreshed Apple Watch SE ($249).
The spotlight-stealing Ultra is meant for adventurers who want to veer off the beaten path, with outdoor-focused features like an emergency siren, more finely tuned GPS for improved location tracking off the grid, and a more durable design. The Watch SE, which forgoes an always-on display and some advanced health sensors but offers all the safety features of its pricier counterparts, is positioned as the more sensible choice for children, older adults, and budget-conscious buyers. That leaves the Series 8 as the best Apple Watch for everyone else.
Design-wise, the Series 8 looks identical to its predecessor, sporting the same rectangular case, rounded corners, flush-sitting side button, and Digital Crown/home button. (The Ultra adds a programmable orange Action button.) Its size, materials, and connectivity options remain unchanged from last year: You can choose from a 41mm (small) or 45mm (large) case in aluminum or stainless steel with Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi support, or add cellular connectivity to the mix. The stainless steel and cellular models cost extra.
Depending on which size you choose, the Series 8's 1.6-inch/1.8-inch always-on OLED Retina display is colorful and easy to read indoors and outside, with a maximum brightness level of 1,000 nits. The Ultra can hit double that at 2,000 nits, which should make it even easier to see in snow, surf, and sunlight. The Series 8's touch screen responsiveness remains exceptional: I never experienced lag when swiping and tapping, even while simultaneously running multiple apps. Aesthetically, I prefer a round face on a watch, but I can't deny the practicality of Apple's squarish design for reading text and viewing notifications.
In a slight course change, Apple selected a more neutral color palette this year, ditching the blue and green options of the Series 7. The aluminum Watch 8 comes in Midnight, (Product) Red, Silver, or Starlight, while the shinier and stronger stainless steel model is available in Gold, Graphite, or Silver. The stainless model adds a bit more heft to your wrist, weighing about 1.5 or 1.8 ounces, versus 1.1 or 1.4 ounces for the aluminum model.
If I had my pick I'd go with the stainless steel model (starting at $699), which has a much more striking, premium look compared with the duller aluminum version. For this review, Apple loaned me a 45mm aluminum Series 8 in Starlight with cellular connectivity. The company also loaned me an iPhone 14 and a pair of second-generation AirPods Pro 2 to use with the watch, but this review focuses exclusively on the Series 8.
I'm still waiting on the Ultra review unit to arrive, but I got some hands-on time with the new rugged model at Apple's headquarters. I'll reserve judgment for my full review, but the Ultra is a major design departure from any other Apple Watch, featuring a massive 49mm titanium case and a completely flat sapphire crystal display (versus the domed one on the Series 8).
The Ultra's instantly recognizable design will likely attract as many non-adventurers as outdoorsy types. For what it's worth, the Ultra's new GPS radio, which features L1 and L5 bands, should offer improved accuracy in skyscraper-laced cities. Most wearables, including all other Apple Watches, support only the L1 band.
Like the Series 7, the Series 8 has an IP6X certification, meaning it's totally dustproof, and a WR50 rating, so it's water resistant to 164 feet and safe for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or the ocean. You can also wear it in the shower or hot tub without worry. The Ultra boasts a WR100 rating, meaning it can withstand depths up to 328 feet, and it's safe for recreational scuba diving as well as water sports like kitesurfing and wakeboarding.
The Series 8 ships with watchOS 9, the latest version of Apple's wearable operating system. WatchOS 9 is a major update from the last generation and brings a host of updated features to Apple smartwatches, including a new Compass app and International Roaming, both of which I'll detail later in this review. The refreshed wearable OS also delivers fresh watch faces, a Medications app, new workout metrics, and sleep stage tracking.
On the health front, watchOS 9 also includes a new AFib History feature designed to help you track the frequency of this condition over an extended period of time. It will estimate how often your heart rhythm shows signs of AFib, an irregular rhythm, and lifestyle factors that may influence it, such as sleep, alcohol consumption, and exercise.
In the box with the Series 8, you get your selected strap plus an Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C cable. Note that you need your own USB-C power adapter because Apple doesn't provide one.
Apple claims with typical use, the Series 8 lasts 18 hours on a charge, like its predecessors, or 36 hours when you enable the new Low Power Mode that comes with watchOS 9. Low Power Mode disables or limits battery-intensive features like the always-on display, automatic workout tracking, and heart health notifications. Key features remain on, like Fall Detection, activity and sleep tracking, and overnight temperature sensing.
It's a nice option when you know you have an especially long day ahead and won't be able to change your watch when you usually do. To enable Low Power Mode, navigate to Settings > Battery, then toggle it on.
Even without enabling Low Power Mode, the Series 8 lasted as long as 40 hours on a charge with light use in testing, allowing for two nights of sleep tracking. In this case, I had Airplane Mode and Sleep Focus, two other battery-saving features, enabled much of the time, but otherwise had the always-on display turned on during the day with the screen brightness set to 100%.
With normal to heavy use, the Series 8 lasted 30.5 hours before I got a notification that the battery was down to 10%. That slightly beats the Series 7, which lasted 29 hours under the same circumstances.
In comparison, Samsung says the Galaxy Watch 5 lasts up to 50 hours on a charge, but I only managed to get 36 hours by disabling the always-on display. In general, the battery life of a feature-rich smartwatch with a large, bright screen still doesn't come close to that of many fitness trackers and dedicated sports watches, which can sometimes last weeks on a charge.
The Apple Watch is quick to recharge. In testing, it went from dead to 100% in about an hour when placed on the included charger.
The Series 8's most notable upgrade from the previous generation is the addition of two new sensors designed to accurately measure a new metric: your overnight body temperature. Several other wearable devices—including the Fitbit Charge 5, the Oura Ring Generation 3, and the Whoop 4.0—already track skin temperature variations, a metric that indicates whether you're running hotter or colder compared with your baseline. Apple's temperature feature works the same: It doesn't let you take an on-demand reading like a basic thermometer, but samples your wrist temperature every five seconds overnight when you wear it to bed and tracks changes from your baseline.
The watch has one temperature sensor located close to your skin, and another just under the top glass. Apple says this dual-sensor design helps to cancel out the ambient air temperature for more accurate readings.
Apple added a new Wrist Temperature section to the Health app, where you can view your data, including graphs of your temperature deviations down to 0.1-degree Celsius over the past week, month, or six months. You won't see any data in this section until the Health app establishes your wrist temperature baseline, which takes about five nights. I've only worn the Series 8 to bed a few nights, so it's still establishing my baseline, but I will follow up when I get my data.
For comparison, the Galaxy Watch 5 has an infrared skin temperature sensor, but there's currently no way to view your data.
The Watch 8's new temperature sensor enables more accurate period predictions, and a new women's health-tracking feature: retrospective ovulation estimates. Apple's new ovulation-tracking feature is interesting, but will only really prove useful to a very specific group of people: those who are trying to get pregnant but having problems doing so.
The Apple Watch can already estimate your fertile windows, but based on your temperature data, the Series 8 can now tell you the date of your last ovulation. As an important distinction, it doesn't predict when you'll ovulate next, it can only tell you when you did, after the fact. If you know you were sexually active when the watch said you last ovulated, but you didn't get pregnant, this may be a sign that there's an issue worth discussing with a doctor.
Note that using Apple’s retrospective ovulation tracker and fertile window predictions as a form of birth control is a very bad idea. Your fertile window can shift from month to month, and the day you ovulated last month won’t necessarily be the day you ovulate during the current month.
To receive retrospective ovulation estimates, you must first enable Cycle Tracking and wear your Apple Watch to bed each night with Sleep Focus turned on. After about two menstrual cycles, you'll start seeing retrospective ovulation estimates. On the Apple Watch and Health app, retrospective ovulation dates are shaded in purple while predicted fertile days are shaded in blue.
As an important privacy protection, if you use Apple's Cycle Tracking feature, make sure your phone is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID. Also be sure to enable two-factor authentication on your device if you haven't done so already (to check, navigate to Settings > [your name] > Password & Security, and it should say "On" next to Two-Factor Authentication).
Following the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, many women are rightly concerned about the potential implications of tracking their period with an app, and whether authorities will be able to access that data and use it against them in an abortion case. To that point, Apple says that with the privacy protections mentioned above, your Cycle Tracking data is encrypted on your device, in transit when synced with iCloud, and on its servers. In other words, your Cycle Tracking data is stored in a way that Apple can't read, and the company doesn't have the decryption key.
Theoretically, it would only be possible for authorities to obtain this information if they had physical access to your unlocked device. If you’re worried about this possibility, the safest option is to forgo tech-based period tracking altogether.
Although the new Apple Watch Ultra watch is designed for adventure, the Series 8 offers the same revamped Compass features.
The new Compass app in watchOS 9 lets you create Waypoints to mark a location you want to find again, like your campsite or a waterfall you stumble upon while hiking. Another new Compass feature called Backtrack uses GPS data to record your path, generating digital bread crumbs to help you retrace your steps and find your way back to where you started.
On first launch, the Compass app displays a new hybrid view featuring an analog compass dial, plus a real-time digital view of your current bearing. Scrolling the Digital Crown surfaces a new orienteering view showing nearby Waypoints.
To mark a Waypoint, just tap the location icon in the lower left corner of the Compass app. You can give your Waypoint a name, assign it a color, and select from a grid of symbols to represent it. Ahead of a trip, you can manually input coordinates to create Waypoints you want to check out. Note that to view or create Waypoints, you must allow the Compass app to use your Precise Location (to do so, navigate to the iPhone Settings menu > Compass > Location, and toggle on Precise Location).
Tapping a Waypoint via the orienteering view brings up a list of all your saved locations, and you can use the Digital Crown to scroll through the list. When you find the Waypoint you want, just tap on it and the Compass app will show its relative direction and approximate distance from you. In testing, I had no trouble dropping Waypoints and using the Compass to navigate back to them.
To begin Backtracking, tap the footprint icon in the lower right corner of the Compass app and go on your way. It's a good idea to start Backtrack from the parking lot before you set out on a hike, so you can easily find your way back to your car. As you hike along, you'll see the Compass app marking your route.
You can leave Backtrack running in the background and do other things on your Apple Watch at the same time, like track your workout and control music playing on your AirPods via Spotify. Backtrack records your location once every two minutes, so it's less battery intensive than tracking an outdoor workout with GPS. When you're ready to head back, tap the pause button then select Retrace Steps.
In certain scenarios, the Compass app will automatically engage Backtrack when it notices you start to go off the grid. This might happen, for instance, when you're in an area without Wi-Fi and away from common locations like your home or car. I wouldn't rely solely on the automatic Backtrack mode, but it could prove helpful if you forget to manually engage the feature.
Apple has long touted the proven life-saving features of its wearables, including Fall Detection, heart health notifications, and Emergency SOS. Its latest smartwatches and iPhones boast a new safety innovation: Crash Detection.
The Apple Watch Series 8, the Apple Watch Ultra, and the Apple Watch SE can all detect if you're in a severe car crash, and, if necessary, call 911 for help. This feature also works on the iPhone 14 lineup.
In the event of a wreck, the Apple Watch will display a message on screen saying, "It looks like you've been in a crash," and give you the option to call emergency services or cancel the alert. If you don't respond after a 10-second countdown, the watch will automatically connect you to emergency services, provide them with your location, and notify your emergency contacts.
If your Apple Watch doesn't have a cellular connection, Crash Detection can still contact emergency services via your paired iPhone, as long as it's nearby.
To enable Crash Detection, Apple outfitted its latest wearables with a more powerful motion sensor featuring an improved accelerometer and gyroscope, and developed a new sensor-fusion algorithm based on real-world crash and driving data.
The new accelerometer can detect up to 256 g-forces (up from 32) and samples data four times faster than the previous generation. The new gyroscope doubles the dynamic range of its predecessor, with the ability to sample up to 800Hz, offering better context for impact data generated by the accelerometer. Together, these components can detect the extreme impact and sudden speed change of a severe crash. Because it relies on this new hardware, Crash Detection isn't available on older Apple Watches.
Obviously, I'm unable to test Crash Detection without putting myself in serious danger. For its part, Apple tested the new motion sensor at professional car crash test labs, and used data from those trials to develop its Crash Detection algorithm.
Apple's tests simulated four types of real-world crashes: head-on, rear-end, side-impact, and rollovers using common passenger cars like sedans, minivans, SUVs, convertibles, and pickup trucks. During the tests, four crash test dummies in the vehicle all wore an Apple Watch on each wrist. iPhones in the cupholders, on dashboard mounts, and in the crash dummies' pockets collected even more data.
In addition to the accelerometer and gyroscope, Apple's Crash Detection algorithm takes into account data from other sensors, including the GPS and barometer in your watch, and the microphone of a connected iPhone, to accurately detect the unique patterns of a wreck. In the event of a car crash, the GPS would detect a rapid deceleration, while the barometer would show a swift change in air pressure if the vehicle's airbags deployed, and the iPhone microphone would pick up the sound of screeching tires and breaking glass.
Does it work? For now, we'll have to take Apple's word for it.
WatchOS 9 offers a lot on the fitness front, including a new Multisport tracking option for triathletes, heart rate zone data, and support for Custom Workouts. When tracking a run, the Apple Watch can now show your real-time power, stride length, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation. Measured in watts, running power takes into account your speed and incline to help you gauge your effort. Stride length, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation are efficiency metrics that can help you evaluate your form.
Later this year, Apple plans to add a fun Race Route feature to watchOS 9 that will let you compete against your last or best result for routes you repeat. As you track an Outdoor Run, Outdoor Cycle, or Wheelchair Run Pace workout along a previous route, the Apple Watch will alert you when you're ahead or behind your previous result, and warn you if you go off route.
Apple also plans to add a new Automatic Track Detection feature that uses Maps data to automatically detect when you arrive at a running track and count your completed laps. When you arrive at a track, your watchOS 9-powered Apple Watch will pop up a notification giving you the option to choose a lane. Specifying which lane you're running in allows for more accurate pace and distance data. Apple says this feature will initially be available for 400m tracks in the US.
To check the accuracy of its workout metrics, I tracked the same 45-minute yoga session on the Series 8 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. During the moderate-intensity yoga session, the Series 8 said I had an average and max heart rate of 106bpm and 164bpm, respectively, and burned 192 total calories. The Watch 5 Pro offered a similar result, saying I had an average heart rate of 109bpm, a max heart rate of 161bm, and burned 183 total calories.
The Series 8 also offered similar pulse readings to a Peloton Heart Rate Band during a 20-minute indoor rowing workout. For that, the Series 8 and Peloton Heart Rate Band said I had an average heart rate of 139bpm and 134bpm, respectively.
Some globetrotters might be irked by Apple's iPhone 14 eSIM requirement, but the Apple Watch will soon make it easier to stay connected when traveling internationally.
A new International Roaming feature headed to watchOS 9 later this year will let you extend a service plan on your iPhone to your cellular-connected Apple Watch "for little or no additional fee," Apple says. With International Roaming on your wrist, you'll be able to make calls, reply to texts, stream music, and enjoy all the other perks of a cellular connection when you're away from your phone while traveling. This feature will be available on all cellular models from the Series 5 onward running watchOS 9, and Apple is promising support through more than 30 carriers worldwide.
Here in the US, calls with my parents via the Series 8 over Wi-Fi sounded clear on my end, and they were able to hear me just fine. Texting on the watch is easy enough thanks to the dictation option and the full QWERTY keyboard with support for swipes and machine learning-powered word predictions. You can even easily text emojis and GIFs.
Notifications come through reliably, so I'm always in the loop when my Wyze Cam Floodlight detects motion, the Furbo 360 alerts me that my dog Bradley is barking, or Apple's Find My app warns me when my iPhone or AirPods are no longer nearby.
With Apple Pay, you simply tap the side button twice to pull up your card, then wave your wrist near a compatible card reader to check out at supporting stores, which worked without a hitch in testing. If I can't seem to locate a certain app or feature on the watch, Siri is always there to help quickly pull it up.
Google's Wear OS is catching up, but Apple's wearable platform still boasts an unmatched selection of preinstalled(Opens in a new window) and third-party apps. Some popular third-party apps available on the Series 8 include Calm, iHeartRadio, iTranslate Converse, Microsoft Outlook, Pandora, Shazam, SmartGym, Spotify, Ten Percent Happier Meditation, Tipsy-Tip Calculator, and YouTube Music.
As I noted in my Galaxy Watch 5 review, Samsung's Wear OS-powered smartwatches offer all the Google standbys like Maps and the Play Store, but are missing some popular apps available on the Apple Watch, including Amazon Music, Facebook Messenger, Pandora, and Telegram.
The Series 8 is the Goldilocks option in the current lineup of Apple smartwatches. If the $799 Apple Watch Ultra is too pricey or big for your wrist, or the $249 Apple Watch SE lacks the features you want, the $399 Apple Watch Series 8 is probably just right. The Series 8 can track your body temperature deviations, estimate the date of your last ovulation, and detect severe car crashes and automatically call for help, features that are not available on last year's model. Those features don't necessarily justify an upgrade if you already own the Series 7, especially since both versions sport the same design and Apple's new Low Power Mode is available on earlier models via watchOS 9. But if you're in the market for a feature-rich iPhone-compatible smartwatch to stay connected, keep tabs on your health, and track your fitness, the Series 8 is our Editors' Choice winner.
With new features such as body temperature sensing and car crash detection, the Apple Watch Series 8 is the right choice for most smartwatch buyers.
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I'm PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I've written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I've been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
Before becoming an analyst in 2020, I spent eight years as a reporter covering consumer tech news. Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
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