Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
literally why cant they just give the series 4/5 watchOS 11? are they really pushing the chip of a damn watch that hard? its just greed. smh
I don’t know man. Watch OS 10 is dog slow on my S7 compared to my friends S9, and the battery drain is horrendous. I will be upgrading to to a new watch in September. Feels similar to the early days of the iPhone in that regard.
 
Damn I just got my battery replaced in my 5. They will have to knock it out the park on a new release for me to upgrade though. With the lack of interesting new features I’d be interested to know why exactly it was dropped too. If Apple actually gave full security support for older devices I wouldn’t mind but usually older devices only get the more serious fixes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ajcgn
Do we know this for sure? I realize this may sound ignorant, but if you have an iOS 18 device (iPhone 14), can it still pair/sync to a watch stuck on watchOS 10?
My WatchOS 10 can pair and sync With iOS 15. I don't see why it wouldn't be able to do the same with iOS 18.
 
My WatchOS 10 can pair and sync With iOS 15. I don't see why it wouldn't be able to do the same with iOS 18.
I see. I hadn't been in this situation before, and had only run into issues with backing up/restoring from older watchOS versions. Like if you get a new watch, you need to update the old one first before you restore from iCloud back up.

So in my situation, if in 6 months, I get my child a Apple Watch series 10 that comes with watchOS 11, they won't be able to restore from backup, from their Apple Watch SE (stuck on watchOS 10).
 
  • Like
Reactions: HandsomeDanNZ
I wonder if Series 6 and Series 8 software support drop together.
The Series 6, 7 and 8 have the same processor so I would expect all three to have support dropped at the same time. I don’t think that will happen next year. We’re probably two to three years away from that happening.
 
Well I figured this day would come with my Series 5... coming up on 5 years and no reason to replace it, but the battery is getting on the weak side. I was waiting to see if it would get WatchOS 11, and if it did I was going to replace the battery. Now that I know it won't I'll keep an eye out for deals on a Series 9 as the new S9 chip should have many years of support ahead...
 
  • Like
Reactions: wbeasley
"Series 9 as the new S9 chip should have many years of support ahead". Why heck at least 1000 days. Can you imagine how fast AI is moving is probably going to reduce hardware viability life ?
 
sadly my S5 watch has been plagued with battery life issues since Watch OS 10. :(
the S3 has much better battery life still.

so guessing the battery was underpowered for the hardware and OS.

upgrade time I guess... along with iPad and iPhone.
Happy days for Apple when everyone needs more powerful hardware to get everything working together at max potential again...
 
"Series 9 as the new S9 chip should have many years of support ahead". Why heck at least 1000 days. Can you imagine how fast AI is moving is probably going to reduce hardware viability life ?
at least the battery will still be good in 1000 days.
that's the main issue most people suffer with on old Watches. The software works fine still, there arent enough new hardware features to make the jump. But if your battery life sucks then you need to do something.
 
Yeah, I saw this coming for my old Watch 4 SS. Ah well no big deal.
Honestly I wasn't all that thrilled with the WatchOS11 presentation today. Maybe more features will come out between now and Sept?? If not, I'm really in no rush to update Ultra to new OS
 
I don’t know man. Watch OS 10 is dog slow on my S7 compared to my friends S9, and the battery drain is horrendous. I will be upgrading to to a new watch in September. Feels similar to the early days of the iPhone in that regard.

Yeah I got a new apple battery on my S6 about four months ago right before AppleCare Hermes warranty would expire, and it still feels like it's showing its age. Battery life is subpar as well, better than poor of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: drunkaviator
As an Apple Watch S4 Stainless Steel owner, I am for sure disappointed but at the same time in September, this will be 6 years old watch. I am already on second battery (currently at 88%). There are days that the watch dies on my around 6 pm. I will most likely keep it for another year, and see what watchOS12 brings plus new Apple Watches. I am for sure not replacing it this year just because apple dropped the support.

This watch does everything I want, and to be honest the watchOS 11 seems a bit underwhelming in the first place. As long as I am able to track my outdoor walks, and bicycle runs, use Apple Pay, and use Siri to open my garage, that is like 95% of my watch usage.
 
A little sad that my S4 won't get the 11 update. Seems like some of the features can easily be made available like the updates to Activity app or things that don't require all of the new sensors.
 
But SE 1st gen is essentially Apple Watch S5 (same SOC) minus few features, so it makes sense it does not get support for WatchOS 11
I understand him. I wanted to buy an Android Watch since it had more features, better battery life and I was thinking that with Apple I'll certainly get mainstream support till 2025. So I'm disappointed as well. Good thing that they didn't drop the support for my M1 MacBook Air yet.
 
Series 5 owner here. I’m quite pissed. Yes it will still work, blablabla.

It’s not why I buy Apple products. Longevity in software support is a big reason I chose to go Apple. They can’t innovate sh*t in Watch so they just choose to artificially make older models obsolete/unsupported hoping that it will drive sales.

Guess what: I’ll keep my Series 5 till I die, f*ckers. Not that I would have any big reason to upgrade anyway, given the complete stagnation your “innovative” company is facing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ajcgn
I bought my SE 2020 shortly before the 2022 came out. I’m very disappointed that I got less than 2 years of software updates for it. This it the last Apple Watch I’ve bought. I don’t think Apple will provide security updates to it for long.

I don’t understand why the $149 Apple TV HD gets support for 10 years whilst the $399 Apple Watch only gets 4 years.
You have good reason to be disappointed. When the battery dies in my series 5 I’m going back to a normal watch.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.