Apple Watch Series 8 vs Apple Watch Series 7: Main differences to expect

On Jun 27, 2022

Intro

Apple’s dominance on the smartwatch market has been mostly undisputed in 2021, when Cupertino accounted for more than 30% of all new smartwatch sales, and at this point, there’s little that can stop the momentum. The Galaxy Watch 5 series certainly sounds like it has potential, but truly said, the smartwatch to dethrone the Apple Watch Series 7 will most certainly be… the Apple Watch Series 8!

Indeed, coming hot this autumn, Apple’s next smartwatch is already shaping up to be quite the intriguing update over the previous Apple Watch 7 generation, as it is expected to majorly overhaul the design of the watch and bring it in line with the iPhone 12/iPhone 13 with a flatter design in tow. Aside from that, we also expect Apple to reveal a rugged Apple Watch for the first time.

Apple Watch Series 8 vs Apple Watch Series 7 in a nutshell:

Newer flat design on Apple Watch 8
Skin temperature sensor on Apple Watch 8
Rugged version of Apple Watch 8

Table of Contents:

Design and Display

A big change in design

The Apple Watch Series 8 is shaping up to be the most significant design update in Apple’s wearable history. We anticipate that the Apple Watch 8 will be very different from its predecessors, with a primarily flat design and fewer curves than previously. This would undoubtedly assist with uniformity, since the Apple Watch will finally resemble the most recent iPhones, like the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. Both the panels and the sides will be essentially flat, but one important aspect of the wearable will not change: the bottom half, which actually contacts your arm and housing all the sensors, will undoubtedly stay slightly curved for the best comfort.

Meanwhile, the Apple Watch 7 was the smartwatch has made the most progress this year: the display has about 20% larger screen area than the Apple Watch 6. The larger screen makes engaging with the Apple Watch more enjoyable because text is easier to see. It’s simpler to text on the keyboard or to swiftly check your metrics. Furthermore, the Always-On display is brighter than on the Apple Watch 6, but the overall brightness has not changed by much.

We generally expect that the Apple Watch 8 Series will come with 41mm and 45mm case sizes, just like the Apple Watch 7, giving lots of usable display real estate. And, speaking of the display, we also expect Apple to reuse the Apple Watch 7’s strong and crack-resistant crystal on the front on the Apple Watch 8 as well. IP6X dust protection was a new feature of the Apple Watch Series 7, and naturally, we’d expect the Apple Watch Series 8 to boast this endurance standard as well. The WR50 swim-proof resistance is definitely staying as well.

Now, when it comes to watch bands, we expect Apple to introduce some new designs along with the Apple Watch 8, because the Apple Watch 7 didn’t give us any new watch bands. It’s time, Apple! At least all the previous watch bands were compatible with the Apple Watch Series 7 despite the larger display, and we’d naturally assume that the Apple Watch Series 8 to be compatible with all of these as well.

Battery Life and Charging

Not many changes are expected

Honestly, we don’t really expect any significant improvements in terms of battery life. The Apple Watch Series 7 should usually last you up to 18 hours with regular usage, and we don’t really see how the Apple Watch Series 8 could vastly improve on that number. With the adequate optimizations, we guess Apple could squeeze in an extra hour or two, but for the most part, you’d probably have to charge the watch daily. The same applies to the Apple Watch 7 – you will need to top it up regularly.

Thankfully, with the Apple Watch 7, Apple improved the overall charging experience. Charging fully takes up an hour and 20 minutes, some 33% less time than the Apple Watch Series 6. Meanwhile, a 30% charge gets you 50% of charge on the Apple Watch 7, which is also much faster than before.

Provided that Apple doesn’t greatly improve the charging experience, we should probably expect the same performance out of the Apple Watch Series 8.

Software and features

The Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Series 7 will both be running WatchOS 9 this autumn. The latest software was previewed at Apple’s WWDC’22 dev summit. Some of the highlights are tons of new watch faces, namely Astronomy face, Lunar Calendar, Playtime, and Metropolitan, as well as some additional functionality features. There’s atrial fibrillation (AFib) history now, basically arrhythmia, caused by rapid and irregular beating of the atrial chambers of the heart, which will be available on all Apple Watch models with an ECG on deck.

Apple Watch Series 8 vs Apple Watch Series 7: Main differences to expect

Mark Gurman from Bloomberg has it that the Watch Series 8 will contain a body temperature sensor, a feature featured on many other smartwatches like as the Huawei Watch GT3 and numerous Garmin wearables, as well as being reported to debut on the Galaxy Watch 5 series. Gurman believes that the Apple Watch Series 8 will also have improved atrial fibrillation monitoring, which is corroborated by the aforementioned WatchOS 9 feature.

The wearable might get new watch faces and training modes, as well as a new low-power mode to improve battery life and satellite connectivity. The Series 8 will still detect your heart rate and blood oxygen saturation, but it will lack the rumored temperature, blood sugar, and blood pressure metrics that Apple has been working on.

As we already said, the Apple Watch 7 has the same biometric sensors that the Apple Watch 6 had in tow. This means that it tracks your Blood Oxygen (SpO2), your heart rate, elevation, sleep, and ECG, just as the Series 6 does. The Apple Watch 8 will definitely retain all these, along with the new skin temperature sensor that’s reportedly coming. In the coming years, we’re reportedly getting blood glucose sensor as well as a blood pressure sensor. We’ll live and we’ll see.

Summary and expectations

It seems that the Apple Watch Series 8 will be more than a decent successor to the Apple Watch Series 7. With a new design to show off and a few new tricks up the sleeve, the smartwatch is simply destined to become another bestseller in the line of successful Apple Watch wearables. However, this doesn’t mean that the Apple Watch Series 7 will become obsolete as soon as the new watch arrives, no. On the contrary, the Apple Watch 7 will definitely remain more than a decent and more affordable alternative.

Moreover, content Apple Watch Series 7 probably shouldn’t feel pressured to upgrade to the new smartwatch. Surely, the new design could be a major selling point of the Apple Watch 8, and that new temperature feature sounds intriguing, but let’s be honest, it’s not groundbreaking stuff.

In terms of pricing, we expect the Apple Watch Series 8 to retain the $399 starting price and cost just as much as the Series 7 did at launch. Surely, in these uncertain times, there’s always the chance of an unexpected price hike, but we’d say that’s not very likely.

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