The Apple Watch Series 6 is official as of today and can already be pre-ordered in the United States. A GPS-only configuration of Apple’s sixth-generation wearable will set you back $399, not accounting for any applicable sales tax. Likewise, a variant with cellular connectivity has a $499 MSRP.
Apple will begin fulfilling pre-orders immediately, with first shipments being expected to arrive this Friday, September 18th. We started with the pricing and availability info because on the feature side of things, this is an extremely mundane refresh that is pretty blatantly only targeting consumers who aren’t already using the 2019 Apple Watch Series 5. Sure, a much more powerful SoC is on board here, but it’s not like you can measure your heart rate twice as fast from a practical standpoint if the baseline tracking is already happening in real time – which it is.
The biggest novelty is a blood oxygen sensor with FDA approval, which we have already seen with the last few generations of Samsung’s wearables. And based on those experiences, you can expect this gimmicky gimmick to be… gimmicky. Design-wise, we’re still looking at an in-your-face block of aluminum which may or may not be your cup of tea.
Charging times have been slightly improved and now stand at just under 90 minutes from a fully depleted battery. The Always-On Retina display remains the biggest selling point of the Apple Watch Series 6 as the clock arms displayed on its panel could genuinely pass for an analog timepiece… if not for, you know, the giant rectangular shape surrounding them.