Apple Watch Series 8 made its global debut along with the affordable Watch SE (2nd Gen) and the top-end Watch Ultra at the annual fall event in September.
The Watch Series 8 continues to feature the familiar design language of the predecessor but inside, it has been upgraded with a new generation processor and also a new potential life-saving car crash detection feature that can help you find medical help soon.
I have been using the Watch Series 8 for close to a month and here are my thoughts on Apple's latest premium smart wearable.
Design and build quality
As mentioned earlier, Apple Watch Series 8 looks the same as the Watch Series 7. It features a squarish lozenge design with curvaceous edges. This review unit is a 45mm Aluminium model.
It has a wide edge-to-edge display (with always-on support) and can offer peak brightness of up to 1000 nits, which is more than enough the light up the screen bright and ensure the messages and notifications are clearly visible to the eyes even outdoors. I never had to squint my eyes to read messages on the compact screen of the watch and also, even if you find the font is not big enough, you can make it larger in the settings options.
It flaunts the trademark digital crown on the right with a second-generation mic and the side button, which offers a shortcut for checking recent apps used on the Watch. And on the opposite side, it has a second-generation speaker.
Like any Apple device, the Watch Series 8 is also made of premium materials. The device's case is made of aircraft-grade aluminium and at the base, it has nylon composite materials protecting the advanced sensors.
Even at the top, the company has used thick Ion-X front glass crystal with a flat base and strong protection to resist cracks. For the stainless steel models, Apple uses sturdier Sapphire front crystals for the display,
The new Watch is made with environmentally friendly process. The Aluminium is 100 per cent fully recycled and it is sturdy too. The silver model has remained free from scratches or dents during the entire month of usage. Also, the matte finish of the silver model is visually pleasing to the eyes. The straps are made of high-quality silicone materials. They offer a soft touch feel and are sturdy.
Apple and official partners such as Nike offer colourful straps to mix and match with your outfit for the day.
Besides silver, Apple offers starlight, midnight, and PRODUCT (RED) colour options for the aluminium Watch Series 8 series. And, for the stainless steel model, you get graphite, silver, and gold variants.
It comes with WR50 water-resistant rating and IP6X certification. Meaning, you can take the Watch Series 8 for a swim in the water pool or in the sea for up to 50 metres depth.
User interface and Performance
Like the very first Apple Watch, the new Watch Series 8 is compatible only with iPhones and Apple ensures the setup process is as easy as it can get. Just switch on the Watch and place it near the iPhone ( iPhone 8 or newer models with iOS 16), and just follow the onscreen instructions.
It takes a few minutes to complete the pairing process and if you happen to have an LTE version, the session extends for another few minutes to set up an e-SIM mobile data connection.
It should be noted that Airtel and Vi (Vodafone Idea) offer e-SIM plans for Apple Watches to people with post-paid tariff plans only. On the other hand, Reliance Jio offers the same for both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers.
Apple Watch Series 8 houses a new 64-bit S8 SiP (System-in-Package) with a dual-core processor. It also features a W3 wireless chip for better connectivity with paired phone or earphones via Bluetooth and U1 chip (Ultra Wideband) that comes in handy whenever you misplace the wearable and you can track it with Find My on your iPhone with a turn-by-turn guide.
Some of the new things coming with Watch Series 8 are the two new temperature sensors- one under the display and another at the base touching the skin-- to get accurate body temperature. This doesn't actually help you check whether you have a fever or not, but this is used basically for monitoring women's health in terms of menstrual cycle and ovulation estimation.
And the big new upgrade we see in the Watch Series 8 is the car crash detection, which is also exclusive to Watch SE (2nd Gen), Watch Ultra, iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
Apple has incorporated a new dual-core high-g accelerometer, high dynamic range gyroscope, microphone, barometer, GPS, and Watch that comes with an advanced sensor-fusion algorithm trained on over one million hours of real-world drive and crash data to detect a severe car crash.
For obvious reasons (high risks involved), I did not test the effectiveness of this particular potential life-saving feature, but I trust Apple's word, based on the number of times, Watches have saved numerous lives thanks to timely heart health notifications.
Apple Watch Series 8 comes with standard sensors to track SpO2 (blood-oxygen saturation), ECG (electrocardiogram) for AFib (Atrial Fibrillation), noise monitoring, backtrack, high/low heart rate notifications, cardio fitness notification, irregular heart rate rhythm notification, menstrual cycle tracking, and fall detection.
With the Health app, Apple Watch users can get comprehensive health data in one place. The health trends offered in informative graphs are visually good and simple for any user to understand easily without any confusion.
I am particularly impressed with the sleep tracker feature. As you can see in the screengrab above, the REM (Rapid Eye Movement), Core, and deep sleep details are very informative. It also offers insightful data on my average heart rate and respiration rate during sleep. And, it is capable of knowing the time I spend in bed and how much, I really had a good quality sleep. This helped in changing my post-dinner activities. I have drastically reduced my phone usage at night and also, make sure, I walk a bit before sleep.
Like in the previous models, I love the native Activity Rings feature that helps you reach the daily target of standing or moving at least one minute an hour in the 12-hour cycle, exercise at least 30 minutes a day, and burn a minimum of 500 kilo calories a day. You can increase the limit, but even with default settings, it is enough to make you develop some discipline.
Except for walking a kilometre after lunch, I don't have any exercise regime during the day (Given how low my cardio health score is, I should do more).
I now consciously take stairs every possible time I walk between the canteen on the ground floor and the office on the second floor and also, I also walk a little over kilometre to reach the main bus station from my office. I am pleased to note, the Watch's auto walking tracking feature works like clockwork. It was always attentive to my every move and once I cross the 1Km mark, it pops a message on the screen, offering me the option to record my walk; this gets my calories calculated and adds to my daily movements target.
It offers virtual medallions for achieving the targets for the day, the week, and even the month. The colourful badge and also cardio health data had a strong effect at least on me to increase the daily activity limit and get in shape faster; not wait for the year 2022 to end and start afresh as a new year resolution on January 1, 2023.
As mentioned about my day-to-day regime, the Watch Series 8 was able to deliver one and half days of battery life. On the second day, just a few hours before bedtime (I have scheduled it from 10:30 pm to 6:00 am), I get the alert to charge the Watch enough to ensure it can last the night for sleep tracking. And, in the morning, I fully charge the Watch and the cycle continues. It takes around 90 minutes to fully charge the Watch from zero to 100 per cent.
With low battery mode, it can last for 36 hours. (Just swipe up, and tap on the battery percentage to find the low-power mode).
And, it houses a second-generation speaker and mic. They work as advertised in terms of picking my voice and also crisp audio output during a phone call even outdoors.
With watchOS 9, Apple is bringing a lot of value-added features including custom workouts to add multiple exercises such as swimming, biking/cycling, and running into one. The Apple Watch's Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-based algorithm and tracking sensors, are intuitive enough to know what exercises the user is doing and accurately calculate calories burnt and add them to the day's target. Also, with the new medication reminder, feature, users can
Final thoughts
Like the iPhone 14 over the 13 series, the Watch Series 8 too, is a moderate upgrade over the predecessor. Having said that, Apple's latest Watch is the best smart wearable with potential life-saving features in the industry.
I love the new Compass app with a visually better interface and also the track back feature, which can help the stranded user to reach the starting point safely.
Overall, Watch Series 8 is a complete package that can help the owner lead a disciplined healthy life and also be able to track vital fitness aspects of the body such as walking stability score, which can predict the probability of tripping or falling.
The AFib history, cardio health, and activity trends on the Health app for iPhone offer information in simple terms enough for any normal user to understand them clearly.
The sleeping pattern with REM, Core, and deep sleep details are insightful too. And, I mention it in every Watch review that the software and hardware deep integration makes the Apple Watches the most intelligent among smart wearables in the market.
The subtle nudges that the Watch gives such as stand alerts and the estimation of walking or exercises to do to complete the daily target are just too good. It never comes off as nagging, but actually motivates the user to complete the activity rings of the day. This way, it makes the owner become disciplined over time.
The only qualm I see in the Watch Series 8 (and even older iterations) is that it is confined to the Apple ecosystem and given how feature-rich the device is, this is a sure way for the Cupertino-based company to lure more Android phone users to its fold.
Yes, the battery life is low in the Apple Watches, compared to rival brands. But, the amount of health-related metrics it tracks all day, it is forgivable. If battery life is very important to you, then Apple has a premium model Watch Ultra, which can last for three days, but it has a higher price tag of Rs 89,900 (in India).
As said earlier, the Watch Series 8 comes in two sizes-- 41mm and 45mm. And, like the predecessor, Apple offers the new Watch in two variants-- GPS-only and GPS+Cellular--with prices starting at Rs 45,900 and Rs 55,900, respectively.
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