I know more about my troubled sleep thanks to the new Apple Watch Series 11

I was especially impressed by the Exactograph watch face. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

Every morning, the Sleep Score shows up on the watch and in the Apple Health app. You can deep-dive to see the exact amount of time you spent in deep sleep, core, and REM with the app, also highlighting how many times you woke up during the night. The app also shows if you have an improving trend or if you are sleeping lesser than the week before, along with the heart rate variations when you are asleep. For in-depth data that correlates your sleep pattern with other metrics like heart rate, you can use an app like AutoSleep.

Today, I woke up with an ‘excellent’ sleep score, having clocked over 8 hours of sleep to mark the end of an exhausting work week. However, the watch showed I was actually awake for almost 20 minutes in small breaks through the night. I had no memory of the same, but the Apple Watch had captured these signals well.

Every morning, the Sleep Score shows up on the watch and in the Apple Health app. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

The Apple Watch Series 11 is also ushering in a bunch of new watch faces as well as watchOS 26, which brings the liquid glass design philosophy to your wrist. I was especially impressed by the Exactograph watch face, while I found the glassy digits on Flow a bit hard to discern at all times.

Overall, I like how the apps are now easy to access with gestures, a feature I have not used extensively since their launch last year. Also, an incoming spam call can be dismissed with just a wrist flick.

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My most rigorous use case with the Apple Watch is to clock the 300-calorie evening walk. The interface for workouts has changed a bit, and it is easier to start an outdoor walk. But I felt that if you are not using a sports strap that keeps the watch tightly on your wrist, there is a chance it will miss the realtime heart rate tracking, making you tread some extra steps to get to your goal. It is better to use a fabric strap that you can fasten well for runs and gym sessions.

You can deep-dive to see the exact amount of time you spent in deep sleep, core, and REM with the app. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

The good thing with watchOS 26 is the ability to customise this view to only the data that makes sense to you. However, it would have been great if the watch itself could nudge me to go for a walk or to continue a streak like some of the apps I use. These nudges work well, like Apple Watch has itself shown with its prompts to stand, which I have been religiously adhering to for years.

The battery life is something that has actually improved, despite the Apple Watch Series 11 review device being a 5G version. You can now wear the watch all day, then at bed and charge it as you are getting ready for work the next day. This 24-hour battery life will actually change your routine with the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch Series 11 is also ushering in a bunch of new watch faces. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

The 5G is not something that made a big change in my life, other than when I go for my walks without the phone and realise I don’t have the latest episode of my favourite podcast on the watch. An hour-long episode of a podcast is now ready to stream on the watch in under a minute.

My most rigorous use case with the Apple Watch is to clock the 300-calorie evening walk. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

With prices starting at Rs 33,400, the Apple Watch is now a good upgrade for those on versions older than the Series 9, thanks to the better battery life and added software features like Sleep Score. If you have been putting off committing to a cellular version, now you have a 5G reason to consider it. In my books, the Apple Watch continues to be the best smartwatch option.