Apple Watch SE vs Apple Watch Series 6 comparison
The Apple Watch SE is essentially a revamped Apple Watch 4 or 5 with some compromises. Let’s discuss what those compromises are and how the Apple Watch SE compares to the Apple Watch Series 6 and also answer the question if you should get the Apple Watch Series 6 for $399 or save some money and get the Apple Watch SE for $279.
Internals
The Apple Watch Series 6 has the latest S6 chip from Apple that is up to 20% faster than the S5 chip on the Apple Watch SE. This means that the Apple Watch Series 6 may perform slightly better while browsing through different elements of the UI but the difference may not be very apparent. In fact, the S5 chip on the Apple Watch SE is itself 2 times faster than the one chip found on the Series 3 Apple Watch.
Display
The Apple Watch SE gets the bigger, curved display from the Apple Watch Series 4 and 5 unlike the smaller display on the Series 3. The display on the Apple Watch SE is on par with the one on the Apple Watch Series 6 except for one feature that the Series 6 gets – Always-on display. If you are not bothered about the always-on display, the display on the Apple Watch SE should perform equally good as the Series 6.
Blood Oxygen Health Sensor
One of the key highlights of the new Apple Watch Series 6 is that it has a SpO2 sensor that is used to measure the level of oxygen in your blood and is a key parameter to be alert about especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Apple Watch SE, however, does not get the new Blood Oxygen sensor.
Similarities
Other than these key differences, not a lot is different from the Apple Watch SE when compared to the Apple Watch Series 6. Both watches are available with GPS and cellular options, both of them get all the new features of WatchOS 7, heart rate monitoring and fall detection is present on both watches, the Apple Watch SE even has an altimeter along with an accelerometer and a gyroscope, and both the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE will be compatible with Apple’s new Fitness+ subscription service. Both of them support the new Family Setup feature of Apple WatchOS 7.
For $279, the Apple Watch SE seems like a good deal if the abovementioned differences are something you can deal with. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, Apple has still retained the Series 3 Apple Watch which you can get for $199. In India, the Apple Watch SE starts at Rs 29,900 for the GPS version and Rs 33,900 for the GPS+cellular version.
