This week Apple unveiled it’s new Apple Watch Series 6 devices. There were a few new features, which is to be expected. But the real surprise was the cheaper price tag.
New Apple Watch Series 6 Australian Pricing
The flagship Apple Watch is actually $50 cheaper across the board this year. While it starts at $599, things get complicated once you start taking the different sizes and material options into account.
So to make it a bit easier, here’s a full list of the prices.
- Apple Watch Series 6 Aluminium GPS (40mm): $599
- Apple Watch Series 6 Aluminium GPS (44mm): $649
- Apple Watch Series 6 Aluminium 4G (40mm): $749
- Apple Watch Series 6 Aluminium 4G (40mm): $799
- Apple Watch Series 6 Stainless Steel (40mm): $1,049
- Apple Watch Series 6 Stainless Steel (44mm): $1,119
- Apple Watch Series 6 Titanium (40mm): $1,199
- Apple Watch Series 6 Titanium (44mm): $1,269
Just keep in mind that certain band options, such as the new Solo Loops, cost extra.
Apple has confirmed with Gizmodo Australia that the ceramic Apple Watch has been removed year. Instead it is focusing on extra colours options for the other variants.
Here’s what the Apple Watch Series 5 pricing looked like last year:
- Apple Watch Series 5 Aluminium GPS (40mm): $649
- Apple Watch Series 5 Aluminium GPS (44mm): $699
- Apple Watch Series 5 Aluminium 4G (40mm): $799
- Apple Watch Series 5 Aluminium 4G (40mm): $849
- Apple Watch Series 5 Stainless Steel (40mm): $1,099
- Apple Watch Series 5 Stainless Steel (44mm): $1,179
- Apple Watch Series 5 Titanium (40mm): $1,259
- Apple Watch Series 5 Titanium (44mm): $1,339
- Apple Watch Series 5 Ceramic (40mm): $1,999
- Apple Watch Series 5 Ceramic (44mm): $2,079
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Apple Watch features
The new Apple Watch has a new S6 processor based on the A13 bionic chip in the iPhone 11. It is apparently 20 per cent faster than then Apple Watch 5. It has the same 18-hour battery life as last year, but with fast-charge capabilities. According to Apple it can go from zero to 100 per cent in 1.5 hours.
In terms of health updates the biggest upgrade is blood oxygen monitoring. Green, red and infrared lights are used to to measure light reflected back from your blood, providing a measurement within 15 seconds. it can also run in the background if you’re a fan of wearing the watch to bed.
Introduced last year, the Apple Watch always-on display is now said to be 2.5 times brighter outside. It also has a new feature — always-on altimeter. This uses a combination of a barometric altimeter, GPS and Wi-Fi networks to provide real-time elevation updates.
And when it comes to aesthetics there are two new colours — blue and Project Red — as well as a new band type. The Solo Loop is a single piece band that can be stretched and comes in two material types — silicon and braided yarn. It’s a little bit pricier than the regular sports bands, though.
There are also a tonne of new watch faces to play around with this year.
Apple Watch SE
If you’re after something even cheaper, the Apple Watch SE is at your service at $429.
It will come in 44mm only and has an S5 chip, which is two times faster than the Apple Watch Series 3. It will also come in both GPS and cellular variants.
On the inclusions front, it has the same accelerometer, gyroscope and altimeter sensors as the Series 6 as well as fall detection, noise level monitoring, Emergency SOS, and international emergency calling.
It also runs WatchOS 7, so it has all the new software and app inclusions as the Apple Watch Series 6.
Availability
The Apple Watch Series 6 will be available in Australia from Friday September 18.
It’s worth noting that the 2020 Apple Watches won’t come with a USB adaptor this time around. It still comes with the cable.
Apple has confirmed that this is partly because many of its customers already have one but also because it is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030. Cutting down on waste is part of this initiative.
Disclosure: the author owns 12 Apple shares.