iFixit Apple Watch Series 6 Teardown Finds Larger Battery and Bigger Taptic Engine in Thinner Casing

[123]

FT was one thing that was innovative and got killed for .3mm of nothingness.

Not to mention the oxygen monitoring of nothingness.

There are some serious health issues that go unnoticed and for which it makes perfect sense to build monitoring into a common watch, e.g. blood pressure once this is doable. However, unless you have serious conditions which you most certainly know about, oxygen levels are just always at or above 95%.

People with chronic diseases should by all means benefit from advances in technology. But I don't see why 99% of the people can't get FT, more battery life, or a thinner watch instead of a useless gimmick.

 

[sdz]

Not to mention the oxygen monitoring of nothingness.

There are some serious health issues that go unnoticed and for which it makes perfect sense to build monitoring into a common watch, e.g. blood pressure once this is doable. However, unless you have serious conditions which you most certainly know about, oxygen levels are just always at or above 95%.

People with chronic diseases should by all means benefit from advances in technology. But I don't see why 99% of the people can't get FT, more battery life, or a thinner watch instead of a useless gimmick.

Seems to be more suitable for real fitness gurus...

masimo-mightysat-maximise-training

 

[repoman016]

What is wrong with 11hrs of usage with 60% left? That looks excellent to me, especially when the watch is only rated for 18 hrs.

While I dont disagree with you, I guess I expected a little better performance from the battery over my 4 year old s2 that chugged with most interactions.

 

[JM]

It is!

This little guy was launched in the 4th quarter of the year 2000.

It's absolutely mind blowing how far we as a people have come over the last 20 years.

Just 20 years!

Ow! The nostalgia! It hurts! 😆

 

[CheesePuff]

I find it odd that I can know my Apple Watch and iPhone battery health, but not iPad. Why is it a secret on iPad?

Great question.. but if you have a Mac you can plug it in and open coconutBattery app and it will tell you

 

[MrSimmo]

This is great, but can it play Crysis?

 

[Toratek]

Ifixit does not impress me. These are people who charge $15 for a $4 X-acto knife, after all. But hey, “technicians razor set”. What a bunch of tools.

 

[J InTech82]

Yep all these feature additions are great. But to be honest, nothing is useful enough in the longer term. ECG feels like a toy instead of a useful feature. You get excited for a little while, play with it, once maybe twice after you buy it. But you realize you never use it or care about it again afterwards, unless you actually have heart problems.

The OG heart rate monitor keeps being the primary, constantly used sensor on an Apple Watch. I'd rather have something like skin thermometer or blood pressure monitor instead of ECG or even SpO2 sensor. It's way more useful as COVID self-diagnosis. Body temperature and blood pressure are invaluable medical data that I'd like to check regularly.

Tell that to all the people who's lives have been saved from their Apple Watch ECG sensor. It's not meant to be played with like a toy, it's meant to monitor your health, and it does this very well. If you never have to worry about it's feature than either it is doing it's job, or you are very healthy.

 

[ActionableMango]

blood pressure monitor instead of ECG or even SpO2 sensor

I have hypertension, so a blood pressure monitor would be great, but I'm not aware of any technology on the horizon that would fit in a general purpose smartwatch. Everything I've seen is mechanical, bulky, and energy intensive.

I think it is far more likely that the game changing health-related sensor will be non-invasive blood sugar testing. Last I checked there were a few companies working on optical blood sugar testing and Apple was one of them. They reportedly have 30 engineers working on it and patents in place as well. Eliminating the need for blood testing would be a big, big deal.

 

[pyrodex]

I want to know what this is and what did it connect to inside if anything.

 

[ActionableMango]

Ifixit does not impress me. These are people who charge $15 for a $4 X-acto knife, after all. But hey, “technicians razor set”. What a bunch of tools.

As a DIY'er, iFixit's instructions and pictures have been immensely valuable to me. I have not found a consistently better source for that type of information.

If providing that information to me for free is funded by higher margins on tools paid for voluntarily by other people, that's wonderful. It's much better in my estimation than locking the information behind a paywall.

 

[iSayuSay]

Tell that to all the people who's lives have been saved from their Apple Watch ECG sensor. It's not meant to be played with like a toy, it's meant to monitor your health, and it does this very well. If you never have to worry about it's feature than either it is doing it's job, or you are very healthy.

The fact that ECG is still unavailable for many regions prohibits said benefits. Even then, like I said I only play with it within the first weeks of my Series 5 purchase. Now it's almost a year and I never touch the ECG app ever again.

I don't mind having all those features, especially since they cost about the same every year. But I want a more practical sensors and functions. Body temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar monitor would be way more useful and meaningful even for the healthiest and fit person.

An average joe wouldn't know what to do with SpO2 metric.. 95%, 98% is that my battery level? But anyone can understand 97°F means my body is fine.

 

[sdz]

97°F means my body is fine

Not in countries that are unaware of this stupid Fahrenheit System 😇

 

[Jaisah]

Maybe, but I have no idea how they are rating the 18 hours - way different from other manufacturers. that's for sure. I easily get 2 days on my series 3 with only 83% battery health and I wear it 24/7 to monitor heart rate (health issue). so if 2 full days on an older watch = 18 hours, then what exactly are they trying to measure. It seems they just open themselves up to the torrent of whiners and complainers that are sure to follow.

I used to get up to 4 days at a stretch with my series 4 but now (with 82% battery health) I can only get about 1.5 so I charge it every night before bed. Hopefully the Series 6 will last 3-4 days again. I'll probably still top it up before bed but it would be nice to have some buffer if I forget or if im going away for a day or 2.