A larger display, a more durable build as well as faster charging, and all those features are really nice to see in all. But it was kind of a shorter list of upgrades this year, but the series 6 already had quite a bit of features, including an spo2 sensor, ecg as well as not always on display, which are also found on the series. Seven, a lot of the new features that came out this year or the watch os eight like on the fitness end of things. Those are going to be features like automatic cycling detection as well as fall detection for cycling and whats. Interesting about watch. Os 8. Is that when i was re testing the series 3 as well as the se, i also saw improvements to gps accuracy, so those are really nice to see but anyways, going back to the series 7, which is what this video is all about. So in this video ill be comparing the series 7 from the hardware end of things to the series 6. But i also have some back to back tests for running cycling as well as weight training where i was wearing the series six on one wrist and one of these series sevens on the other wrist just to get a good comparison of gps, as well as hardware Accuracy apple didnt mention any change or update to the gps or heart rate sensors, on the series seven, but from some of my tests i actually did notice a little bit of a difference in terms of heart rate as well as gps accuracy.
So definitely stick around for details on that later in the video so from the hardware end of things heres the series 7 next to the series 6, with the blue versions of both of them, so they increased the case size ever so slightly on the large version From 44 millimeters to 45 millimeters and on the small version they went from 40 millimeters to 41 millimeters. The difference is pretty much indistinguishable when youre wearing them, but the bigger difference is with the display. Where, with the series 7, you get a 20 larger display and with that new larger display, things are just a little bit larger overall and its definitely noticeable, and they leverage this new display with some of their new watch faces. That bleed all the way to the edge and then for data hungry people. They also have this new modular dual watch face. The new display is also supposed to be brighter and its always on display mode when youre not interacting with the watch, and these sort of slight brightness upgrades are usually hard to see, but this this was definitely noticeable to me. It may be hard to tell a difference on video, but in real life, its much more noticeable, oh and then going back to the blue color this year, its um its quite a bit different than last years, blue color for sure. So the series six blue color is this rich, deep blue, where the new one is significantly lighter.
It seems to have a bit more shine to it, and the band is also a bit lighter its just something. To note, if youre a fan of the series 6 blue and were curious about the series, 7 blue and then heres the series, 7 nike edition and the difference between the nike editions and the non nike editions is that these come with a special nike sport band. The nike run club app pre installed and some special nike watch faces, and i do have to say that this new bouncy watch face is pretty cool. I mean i probably played around with it for a bit too long when i first got it set up, but the nike edition still has the new contour watch face just like the non nike edition series sevens, oh and really quick. If youre finding the information. This video useful do me a favor and just hit that, like button down below its a small little thing, thatll do thatll help this video and the channel a lot quite a bit, and i appreciate it. The series 7 is also supposed to be more durable with what i think theyre calling the most crack resistant front crystal and being someone who actually has cracked an apple watch before thats definitely nice to hear. But i dont think i heard any mention about being more scratch resistant, but it is also suspe ip6x dust resistant and it is still water resistant down to 50 meters.
The series 7 also has 33 faster charging, where you can go from like zero to eighty percent. In like 45 minutes and like a full charge in about an hour and then, if youre headed to bed and notice that you dont have enough juice to track your sleep during the night, you can apparently just place your watch on the charger for eight minutes, which Will get you eight hours of sleep tracking and then another thing to note is that the series seven does also come with a new charging puck that has usb c on one end, which has something to do with that faster charging. So really those are the big new things with the series, seven and other than that things should pretty much be the same as the series six right well from the sports and fitness end of things. I did notice some minor differences in terms of gps and hardware. Actually, which i found to be kind of interesting, okay, so first lets talk about gps, so, like i mentioned earlier with watchos 8, i already have seen improvements with gps accuracy, going all the way back to the series 3 and ive also retested the series 3 versus The se for a back to back comparison, video which ill have out in a little bit, but i already did publish my re review of the series 3, which ill have linked down in the description below if youre curious on the test results on that device.
But coming back to the series 7 gps. So for all the following examples, i made sure to have my phone off or just didnt, even bring my phone with me just to ensure that the series sevens were using their onboard gps and not trying to piggyback off of my phone. So what happens when youre tracking outdoor activity, if you have your phone with you, is that apple watchers will actually try to piggyback off your phones, gps, which does have the advantage of a slight savings of battery life. But your phones, gps, can vary a bit so by just not having my phone with me or turning it completely off im ensuring that im testing the actual gps chipsets on the watches themselves. So when comparing the total distances on this first run good stuff overall and all the devices lined up pretty well and then the same thing goes for the run that i did the next day and then for road cycling. All the devices were pretty close to each other for this first bike ride, but the series seven did come about a tenth of a mile short and funny enough on the second road ride. It did the next day, which was actually on the exact same course. It also came up about a tenth of a mile short, but thats, really not that big. A deal though, but where it starts to get interesting, is with the actual gps tracks, though. So if youve been a long time subscriber to the channel, youve, probably seen these exact curves many times before and its an area where id like to test the finer detail of gps tracks.
So the series seven is in orange and then the series six thats going to be in the purple. So, on the sharp corner up top, you can see that the series seven is more accurate than the series six, where the series six takes a little bit wide and then on this bottom corner same deal where the series 7 was spot on with the actual curve. As well as the device thats in teal, which is the course vertex 2, which tends to get some extremely accurate gps tracks and then the series 6 again takes it a little bit wide, but still pretty good. Now, even though the series 6 did take those corners a little bit wide its still much better than what apple used to do, where on this corner used to just ignore it all together and kind of just blow right through it. So, overall, i am seeing more accuracy here from both, although the series 7 seems to be a bit more accurate and then for a bike ride outside which kind of tests, the gps accuracy at higher speeds im, seeing basically the exact same thing were on straight sections: Both the series 6 and the series 7 are spot on and solid, but on curves the series 6 is overshooting a little bit where the series 7 is pretty much spot on. There were just a couple corners where the series 7 was a little bit off, but overall i have to say that gps accuracy on the series 7 seems to be a little bit better than the series 6.
. So now onto hardware accuracy – and this was kind of interesting for me – so the series 6 – it has one of the best wrist wrist based optical heart rate, sensors, that ive ever tested and from what i can tell. I cant really tell a difference between the series. 7 and the series 6 heart rate sensor at all, so in theory the results should be pretty much identical. So in all the following examples of hardware accuracy, i was wearing the series 6 on one wrist and then one of the series sevens on my other wrist and then i was also wearing a chest. Heart rate strap as well as an arm hard rage, strap for comparison and then with the nike edition series, seven, even though it does come with this nike sportband, i made sure to actually change it out to the same kind of band that i was using on The series 6 just to have a nice, even playing field, and one more thing i do want to mention before going through these examples – is that im looking at these results from a very detailed level with a fine tooth comb, mainly because the series 6 has such A good heart rate sensor, so im kind of holding these to some high standards in the whole scheme of things. Apple watches in general have good heart rate sensors, but it is kind of my job to show you the differences, whether theyre, big or small, okay.
So lets first start out with the run, and i have the series seven in orange and the series six in purple. So, starting out there was about a 30 to 45 second period, where all the heart rate sensors took a little bit to lock onto heart rate, and this is pretty much normal behavior. So no worries there right around the six minute mark, though we can see that the series seven drifted a bit where the series six was pretty much spot on, where we start to see a little bit more noticeable. Difference is at the tail end of the workout, where the series seven dipped a bit and then for road cycling. This is an activity where you start to introduce more variables, which can throw off a wrist based optical heart rate sensor, like vibrations as well as bumps in the road, and we can definitely see more variants here. But, interestingly enough, more so from the series seven than the series six, there are a few little mini spikes on the first portion of the workout. But on the tail end of the workout. There were these spikes that lasted a bit longer from the series 7. And this is kind of uncharacteristic for an apple watch to wander off like this. So this was obviously a bit strange for me. Considering the series 6 and the series 7 share the same heart rate sensor, so in theory they should be producing the same kind of results.
So what i did is i went out. The next day did pretty much the exact same workouts, but this time i switched to the other series 7 just to see if the results were going to be any different. So in this next run, the series 6 took a bit longer to lock onto heart rate, but after that it was pretty much in line for the most part other than a little hiccup here and here. But, interestingly enough, the series 7 right around again that six minute mark, like the last run, tracked a little bit high and then on the tail end of the run it wandered slightly, but definitely not as bad as the runner before and then for road biking. I went out and did the exact same route just to replicate the same kind of test conditions, and even the temperature was the same for this ride. This time the series 7 took about a minute to lock on again no big deal and then both watches were pretty solid through the first half of the workout. But then, on the tail end of the workout, the series 7 wandered a little bit, not as bad as the first road ride, but slightly less accurate than the series six and then for weight. Training, which is actually one of the hardest type of activities. For a wrist based optical heart rate sensor, to get right just because of the gripping motion, as well as the varying arm movement, both the watches did pretty darn well for this type of activity, but the series six.
It did have a rather large spike here and then a little spike here and then the series seven was actually much more consistent throughout the entire workout, but there were a few sets where it tracked a little bit low but overall for weight training. These are actually very good results for risk based optical heart rate sensors, so those are definitely kind of some interesting results, especially the running and biking examples. Considering the series 6 and the series 7 share the same heart rate sensor, but i was getting slightly more accurate results on the series 6. and if it was just one of the series sevens that was that way. Thats one thing, but considering im, seeing similar results out of both series sevens. That tells me something a little bit different. We did see sort of the same thing happen with the series five, when it first came out, where it wasnt producing as accurate results as what i was expecting considering the results i saw from the series 4, as well as the series 3., so it very well Could be the same case with the series 7, where they may just need a little bit of time to tweak the firmware to get it in line with series 6. and, i suppose theres some other things to consider such as maybe they had to rework their internals. On the series 7, because it does have a slightly larger case, it could be different manufacturing cycles, different sourcing for components i dont really know.
All i can do is just kind of share the data that i collected, but really in the whole scheme of things. The series 7 – it still does – have a good heart rate sensor, its definitely something that i would rely on, but i did see some differences between the series 7 and the series 6., and that brings up whether or not you should upgrade to the series 7. If youre a series – 6 owner so heart rate accuracy aside, the series 7 does have the larger display it has the brighter always on display mode. It has the faster charging, as well as the more durable build and all those are definitely nice new features, but it is arguably more of an s your upgrade.OAgBgZowwwo
