A guide to choosing the right Apple Watch

This year, Apple released three new Apple Watch models: Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 3. If you received an Apple gift card over the holidays and are exploring the different models, we can help point you in the right direction.

At $799, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is clearly aimed at a niche, high-end market and athletes. For most consumers, the purchase decision likely lies between the Apple Watch SE 3 and the Apple Watch Series 11, starting at $249 and $399, respectively.

Despite its lower price, the Apple Watch SE 3 comes with much of the same software as the Series 11. If you’re looking for a straightforward smartwatch with essential features like step counting and sleep tracking, the SE 3 is an excellent and affordable choice.

While the Series 11 and Ultra 3 offer modest improvements over their predecessors, the SE 3 has received a significant upgrade from the SE 2. The smartwatch jumps from the S8 chip to the S10 and now has an always-on display, supports fast charging, offers better resistance to cracks, introduces new health features, includes a wrist temperature sensor for advanced sleep tracking and more retrospective sleep tracking.

While not as flashy as the Series 11 and Ultra 3, it certainly stands out and is great value, especially for first-time buyers and younger users. The gap between standard and budget smartwatches has never felt smaller.

Of course, if you want access to more advanced health features, better battery life, and a larger screen, the Series 11 would be the better option for your needs. But it’s worth comparing both models because the SE 3 might be all you need.

We’ll walk you through the similarities and differences between the two smartwatches to help inform your decision.

Similarities between Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3

• S10 chip: Both models come with the same chip, which means there won’t be significant differences in performance.
• Always-on Retina Display: The watches can show the dial and time even when your wrist is down.
• Heart Health Features: Both watches have high and low heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm notifications and low cardio fitness notifications.
• Wrist flick and double tap: Both models allow you to perform a “wrist flick” gesture to dismiss notifications and timers, and a “double tap” gesture to trigger actions like answering calls or playing music.
• Emergency SOS: The watches can quickly call local emergency services, share your location and notify your emergency contacts when you press and hold the side button.
• Drop detection and crash detection: Both watches can automatically alert emergency services and designated emergency contacts when a hard fall or serious car accident is detected.
• Waterproof to 50 meters: Both watches can be used for swimming.
• Sleep tracking: Both models have sleep tracking, sleep tracking notifications and Apple’s new Sleep Score, which gives you a number on a scale of 1 to 100 for how well you’ve slept. They both also have temperature sensing, which can provide insight into your well-being by tracking nightly changes in your wrist temperature.
• Cycle tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates: The watches can determine when you were most likely to ovulate in your previous cycle.
• Fast charging: Both watches can be charged quickly (up to 80% charge in about 30 minutes for the Series 11 and up to 80% charge in about 45 minutes for the SE 3; 15 minutes for up to eight hours of normal use for both models).
• Find iPhone: Both watches let you press a button to play a sound on your iPhone to help you find it. However, the Series 11 has “precision tracking”, which means it can pinpoint the exact location of your phone.

Differences between Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3

• Battery life: The Series 11 can last up to 24 hours (28 hours in low-power mode), while the SE can last up to 18 hours (32 hours in low-power mode).
• Health features: The Series 11 comes with more advanced health tracking features, including hypertension notifications (detects high blood pressure), an electrical heat sensor, an EKG app, and Blood Oxygen app.
• Screen and display: The Series 11 can reach up to 2000 nits, while the SE 3 goes up to 1000 nits. Plus, the Series 11 has a wide-angle OLED, while the SE 3 has a simple OLED screen.
• Size: The Series 11 is available in 46mm and 44mm sizes with aluminum or titanium cases, while the SE 3 comes in 44mm and 40mm sizes with an aluminum case. In addition, the Series 11 is almost 10% thinner than the SE 3.
• Color: Series 11 comes in aluminum colors: Jet Black, Silver, Rose Gold and Space Grey, and titanium colors: Natural, Gold and Slate. The SE 3 comes in Midnight Aluminum and Starlight Aluminum.
• Other minor differences: The Series 11 comes with a depth gauge to six meters, a water temperature sensor, 1 nit minimum brightness (versus 2 nit minimum brightness on the SE 3) and certified IP6X dust resistance.