Speaker 1: You have your heart set on an Apple watch, but trying to decide between the SE and series eight is kind of tricky, right? Well, I'm here to help because there is more to it than just the price difference. In this video, we are gonna look at all of the key differences in things like screens, health sensors, battery life, and overall performance. Chapters are linked in the description, so feel free to jump around if you know what you wanna get to, but let's not waste any more time with the preamble. It's series [00:00:30] eight versus the se.
Speaker 1: The first thing you're immediately looking at is of course the price. The series eight retails for around $400 in the US but you can often find it a little bit cheaper at certain times of the year, whereas the SE starts at around $250. Both of these watches were released in 2022 at the same time, so they have lots of similar features, but don't be fooled by the name. There's actually two versions of the se, the first generation one from 2020 and this newer one. [00:01:00] It's always good to double check that you're looking at the newest version, which we are covering today, the 2022 edition. And the best way to spot the difference is of course the price. The original SE is generally a lot cheaper. Also, don't forget the souped up Apple Watch called the Apple Watch Ultra that you might also be interested in. And of course I have a whole breakout video reviewing that plus comparing it to the series eight, which you can watch right up here.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into [00:01:30] the overall design and display because you might be looking at these side by sides going, I can't really spot the difference. Well, there are a couple of obvious giveaways. This series eight has more rounded corners and a display that definitely goes more edge to edge than the se. The screen also cascades down the side so you don't get as much visible bezel like you do on the se. Now really, you are only gonna notice this if you have a watch face with a bright or a colored background. If you do tend to keep it to the black background watch faces, the bezels definitely do kind of fade away. [00:02:00] And there's the question of size. Both have two size options, the SE in a 40 or 44 millimeter case size while the series eight is 41 or 45 millimeters. Now your wrist is probably gonna dictate which one looks and feels best to you, but here's a visual of the smaller 40 millimeter SE versus the 41 millimeter series eight and the 45 millimeter series eight thrown in just for good measure.
Speaker 1: The one thing you might wanna take into consideration beyond your wrist size is how much text you can actually see on the screen. The [00:02:30] series eight does have two additional font size options over the se, and if you do go the bigger case size as well, it might be better for you if you do lots of things like typing out messages on your wrist or you just wanna see everything a little bit bigger. And the series eight has a full size query keyboard for text input, while the SE only has the option to use voice to text scribble or quick responses. Now if you're curious about the weight difference between them, here's the 40 and 41 millimeter versions of both on a scale so you can see for yourself and the [00:03:00] 45 millimeter version, cuz it's a little heftier. Now as for the screens, well both get just as bright as the other to a maximum of 1000 nets.
Speaker 1: You'll have no issues seeing either of these in the direct sun or out on the snowfields, but let's not bury the lead here. The biggest difference in screens between these two is that the series eight hasn't always on display. While the SE does not do you care, well, it's actually a really nice feature to have so you don't have to worry about raising a wrist constantly to see [00:03:30] the time or tapping on the screen to see your stats during a workout with a series eight, you can choose to have the screen stay on all the time and that's the default setting. And let's talk about watch bands because good news, they're all backwards compatible. So even if you buy a newer 41 millimeter band size designed for the series eight, you can put it on the SE and it works just fine. On the 40 millimeter version though, it's gotta look a bit weird if you put it on the larger size, both are water resistance so you can track swims or wear [00:04:00] them while you're jamming out to your favorite tunes in the shower.
Speaker 1: Even though I do not officially recommend doing that, unless you can somehow take a shower without using soap, I don't know, I'm not gonna judge. Now as for the case construction itself, it is aluminum or aluminum only on the se. You also get the option of stainless steel on the series eight and that of course does bump up the cost a little bit. Now both are pretty durable, but if you want the screen that should withstand the most rough and tumble, that will be the stainless steel version of the series eight as [00:04:30] it has sapphire glass. Moving to the actual features and functionality that isn't health and fitness, but don't worry that's coming later. They both run the latest version of Watch Os. Use Apple Pay for contactless payments. They have a wide selection of watch faces with complications and pretty much the same selection of apps.
Speaker 1: So you definitely don't miss out on anything here if you're going for the cheaper option. But I must warn you, if you are a watch face fan, there are two exclusive watch faces only available on the [00:05:00] series eight. That is the contour and modular watch face. Now I wanna prepare you ahead of time so you're not shocked when you can't get these ones on the se. What's that? No one cares. Oh, okay. Call and microphone quality is also pretty much the same on both. Now I've had no difficulty hearing people on quick calls on my wrist or even them hearing me on both of these watches, even in pretty windy outdoor situations. They also share the same chip inside and performance is just as snappy as [00:05:30] each other. Opening apps side by side or starting a workout. You'll see there's hardly any difference at all in performance here and both have the option to also connect to a cellular network without your phone in Bluetooth range.
Speaker 1: That's if you buy the LTE option of either of these two watches. Now of course that is an extra cost both in terms of a monthly fee to your wireless provider and the extra initial cost in hardware, it's about a hundred dollars more for the LTE series eight and $50 more for the LTE e se the series eight [00:06:00] has an extra chip inside an ultra wide band or U one chip. Now that's for finding things using apples, find my or if you have a car, say with an ultra wide band chip inside, you can use the watch to unlock it as you get close. Nice to have. Sure. I mean, I don't know about you, but my car is old so oh, it's no big deal for me. Let me tell you, if your main focus is tracking activities and workouts, well you are going to get an almost identical experience on both of these watches.
Speaker 1: Are you kind of tired of me [00:06:30] saying that yet? Well, it's gonna get worse. They both track your overall calorie accounts, your exercise and stand goals. With apple's ring based system, you can track a seemingly endless list of workout types from walking to running to outdoor cycling to even curling. Both have built in gps, so that means they can track your route and distance information when you're on an outdoor workout, even if you don't take your phone with you. They both have a Compass app. They also both have 24 7 heart rate monitoring and of course can monitor your heart rate [00:07:00] during your workouts. Now technically the series eight does use a slightly newer optical based sensor, but I've really not noticed a huge difference between the two when it comes to accuracy compared to a chest strap, which is the gold standard for keeping an eye on your heart rate during your workouts if you are not wearing a wrist worn wearable.
Speaker 1: Now, both also have high and low heart rate alerts, fall detection and SOS features that can call emergency services and notify your emergency contacts. They also both [00:07:30] have the latest car crash detection two, hopefully you never need to find out in person how this works, but it is a nice safety feature you get regardless of price. So you're thinking, well Lexi, I'm just gonna get the SE and save some cash, right? I mean that's what I would do. But maybe you want features that the series eight has exclusively including a blood oxygen sensor that Lex, you take spot readings or track oxygen fluctuations during sleep that's only on the series eight or maybe [00:08:00] you want an ECG or electrocardiogram app that can help detect signs of atrial fibrillation. Also exclusive to the series eight. Now again, these art and must have features for me, but they definitely could be for you.
Speaker 1: And the series eight also has one more exclusive sensor. Now that's to detect skin temperature as you sleep. So what's this used for? Well, primarily ovulation tracking at the moment, but everybody can actually see this data on a granular level in the app or on the watch itself. If you know where to look, I don't [00:08:30] know if this is necessarily worth it on its own right now because that temperature data doesn't really tell you much on its own if you don't know how to interpret it. But later on down the track, I'm really hoping there is gonna be an additional way that Apple's gonna present this data. So it's going to be really helpful and usable for you time for battery life. And hey, are you sensing a theme here? The SE and series eight are pretty much the same in terms of of overall battery life, at least from apple's ratings.
Speaker 1: Now in practice this is [00:09:00] of course gonna depend on how you use your watch as far as how long you can stretch them. The official rating is 18 hours on both, but these models, I can actually stretch them to one and a half full days. If I'm not doing things like sleep tracking at night and I go easy on GPS workouts and have a bit of a rest day. In the case of the series eight, I can sometimes also turn off the always on display to get a little bit more. Now runtime on the smaller versus bigger versions of the watch is definitely also comparable too in case you're somehow thinking the [00:09:30] larger case size nets you more battery life, which makes total sense, doesn't really now both also have a low power mode that can stretch the battery even further. Expect a maximum of 36 hours on both.
Speaker 1: With that on now, this is going to turn off certain features like heart rate notifications and the always on display on the series eight, and you might notice that things are kind of slowed down a little bit and you can even squeeze out more battery life if you're doing say, a long extended workout by turning on the feature that reduces heart rate and GPS workouts. When you say like doing a marathon [00:10:00] or an extended hike session, charging is faster on the series eight as well, both from flat to full. And for those quick top ups you need say like at the end of the day if you want to put a little bit more on your watch to track your sleep, but you will of course need to get a 20 wat charging brick to achieve those speeds. They're not included in the box and here is a side-by-side to show you how fast they go from flat to full on their respective charges with the 20 watt charging brick on each.
Speaker 1: [00:10:30] So there you have it, series eight versus se, which one wins your vote. For me, it's hard to pass up the value in the se, especially now it's running the same chip as the series eight. And if you don't need the extra health tracking features in the series eight, don't mind missing out on an always on display and that slightly sleeker design. It's hard to pass up for the price. But as always, I hope this has helped you make a decision about which one is best for your own use case and your budget. [00:11:00] If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and of course make sure to check out all of my other watch and wearable reviews too on this channel. I will see you later.
