Reviews You Can Rely On

Apple Watch Series 5 Review

This is easily the best watch out there for iOS users
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Apple Watch Series 5 Review
Price:  $400 List
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Manufacturer:   Apple
Austin Palmer
By Austin Palmer ⋅ Senior Review Analyst  ⋅  November 8, 2019
Contributions From: David Wise & Jenna Ammerman
79
OVERALL
SCORE
  • Ease of Use - 30% 8.0
  • Smart Functions - 20% 8.0
  • Display - 20% 9.0
  • Fitness Impact - 15% 9.0
  • Battery Life - 15% 5.0

Our Verdict

Earning one of the highest scores we have seen to date in all of our years testing smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 5 easily claimed one of the top spots and is a fantastic choice for anyone with an iPhone. This watch has an eye-popping display that is sure to turn heads and is jam-packed with features and functions. The Series 5 is easy and intuitive to use, integrating perfectly with your Apple iPhone, and can double as a fully functioning fitness tracker. However, all of this performance comes at a bit of a cost, both in terms of price and power consumption. The 5 is one of the more expensive smartwatches we have tested to date and we found its battery life to be fairly lackluster compared to other products. It's still easily the best of the best for iOS users and our top recommendation — just be aware that you might be charging it every night.
REASONS TO BUY
Fantastic display
Tons of fitness tracking features
Smart functions
REASONS TO AVOID
Pricey
So-so battery life

Our Analysis and Test Results

In addition to the standard version, you can also get an LTE-enabled Series 5. This costs a bit more but gives the watch standalone connectivity with its own eSIM card, allowing you to leave your phone and home and still pay for things or make calls. It can also add a bit more to your phone bill for the additional connected device.

apple watch series 5 - the series 5 is one of the most intuitive and easy to use...
The Series 5 is one of the most intuitive and easy to use smartwatches we have tested to date.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Ease of Use


According to its ratings, the Series 5 is water-resistant to a depth of 50 meters, or 5 ATM, so you are totally fine to wear it in the shower or the pool. The Series 5 has haptic feedback and a crown scroll in addition to a very responsive touch screen, so we never had any issues navigating through the different menus. The screen lights up almost instantly when you raise your wrist to look at it, lacking the annoying delay prevalent with other models.


It's easy to swap wristbands, allowing you to easily go from a sporty band in the gym to a more stylish one for a night out in just a few minutes. The charging cable attaches to the back of the watch for wireless charging and is a fairly strong connection, though it can come loose if you drop the watch or it gets jostled too hard.

apple watch series 5 - you can easily swap the bands on the apple watch to match the...
You can easily swap the bands on the Apple Watch to match the occasion.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

You can also take screenshots of the display if you want to preserve any information on the watch by tapping both buttons, though this might be turned off by default and require you to go into the settings menu to enable it.

apple watch series 5 - the apple watch has a very comprehensive set of smart features and...
The Apple Watch has a very comprehensive set of smart features and functions, including plenty of standalone ones.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Smart Functions


The watch has pretty much the most app compatibility, with an extensive library of standalone apps to choose from, such as Uber, Messenger, Spotify, Strava, or IFTTT. However, this changes very frequently, so you should always double-check right before you buy if there is a specific app that you are interested in. This watch lets you make calls with a built-in speaker and microphone, and the audio quality sounded surprisingly good.


You also have basic control over your music from the Series 5 and can skip tracks, adjust the volume, or play/pause the song right from your wrist. You can also use your watch as a payment method at NFC kiosks with Apple Pay, and there is an integrated GPS unit as well. This provides additional data for fitness tracking or certain location-based apps if you aren't using the watch when it is paired to your phone.

apple watch series 5 - the series 5 has a stunning display.
The Series 5 has a stunning display.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Display


The Series 5 comes in both a 40mm and 44mm variety, which have a resolution of 324x394 and 368x448, respectively. They are both LTPO OLED Retina display with Force Touch that looks great.


The backlight is exceptionally bright and is easy to read even in bright sunlight. The Series 5 still can't automatically adjust the brightness of its backlight, but you — finally — can set the display to be always on.

apple watch series 5 - the series 5 apple watch has a very extensive set of health and...
The Series 5 Apple Watch has a very extensive set of health and fitness monitoring abilities.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Fitness Impact


The Series 5 did a fantastic job of tracking steps in our tests, only having an average discrepancy of 10 steps or less from the manual count in each of our mile-long walks. To test the heart rate sensor, we compared it against a chest strap monitor with both a resting and active heart rate. The Series 5 impressed us again by being within 1-2 bpm of the chest strap with the resting heart rate and only a bit more off with the active one.


It also has an “ECG” feature that can measure your heart's rhythm and can even notify if it detects an irregularity, like atrial fibrillation (Afib). However, the Series 5 can't replace talking to your doctor if you have any concerns about your heart health.

apple watch series 5 - the series 5 can alert you if you are going into atrial fibrillation...
The Series 5 can alert you if you are going into atrial fibrillation (AFib).
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

You also have a ton of different workouts that you can track, including yoga, HIIT, hiking, swimming, biking, elliptical, rowing machine, and many more. It has automatic workout detection for starting and stopping and will track things like the distance, duration, active & total calories, pace, heart rate, and weather conditions for your workouts. It can even detect compatible gym equipment for even more comprehensive fitness tracking details. Unfortunately, we didn't find the stairs climbed tracker to be the most accurate, only registering about half of the staircases we climbed in our tests.

apple watch series 5 - unfortunately, we found the battery life of the series 5 to be...
Unfortunately, we found the battery life of the Series 5 to be somewhat mediocre.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman

Battery Life


We sent a series of calls and texts to each watch, as well as made sure it showed periodic notifications to simulate normal use and found it lasted for 30-36 hours. Setting the display to “Always On” or using the internal GPS will deplete your battery even faster, getting to the point where you would just barely make it through your day. It took about 48 minutes to recharge a completely dead watch to 50% and two hours to reach full charge.


Value


The Series 5 isn't a great value option, pairing a premium performance with a premium price.

Conclusion


If you want all the features you can get in a smartwatch to go with your iOS phone, then Series 5 is your best option. It has tons of standalone capabilities and an impressive suite of health and fitness tracking, all while looking sleek and stylish with a great display.

Austin Palmer, David Wise, and Jenna Ammerman