Apple Watch Series 10 Has Same Heart Sensor as Series 9

[Artemis70]

Note that when Apple introduced menstrual cycle tracking with the Series 8 in 2022 (not last year), there wasn't any change in the sizes of the watches offered -- 41 mm & 45 mm, just as with the previous year's Series 7. Last year's Series 9 also continued the same two 41 mm & 45 mm sizes. This year with the Series 10 Apple very modestly increased the breadth of the case sizes (now the two options are 42 mm & 46 mm) while at the same time making them thinner and lighter. I hear your frustration but feel this latest move is a reasonable compromise -- the case is ever so slightly larger yet also thinner & lighter, with a 9.4% larger screen size that displays more information and is easier to manipulate (sometimes even smaller fingers can struggle with the tiny buttons on any Apple Watch).

It's worth noting that the bezels of the current Series 10 remain somewhat thick. So, there's room for improvement. It's pure speculation right now, but given that Apple succeeded this year in reducing the bezel size of the iPhone 16 Pro (not a trivial engineering problem), it's very possible they'll deploy this same approach/technology to the Apple Watch in the future, perhaps next year. So if you are among the many who are sensitive to overall case size, maybe hang out for a while longer and see what the Series 11 brings us (theoretically, the same screen size in a smaller case, or an even larger screen in a case of the same size).

Thank you for correcting me. I was convinced that it was only last year that Apple introduced the menstrual cycle tracking, but should have checked. Time flew harder than I thought.

While I understand the technical challenges, there are physical limits to take into consideration. In this case, the physical limit is the size of the average female wrist. My wife finds the Apple Watch 5 quite big, but the value outweighs the challenge of the size. Now that her AW5 is up for replacement, she will be trying the three options: AW SE, AW9 and AW10. Given that she finds the AW5 quite big, it will very likely be an AW SE. Others may come to a different conclusion trying the different options. I'm curious what the actual sales will tell us.