Apple Watch Series 7 Teardown Reveals Battery Capacity, Display Updates and More

A whole 1.6 % better battery? Holy crap. Why didn’t Apple talk about this?!

Sometimes, it is the little things that can make the biggest difference. I am happy with my Series 7.

Looking at the internals, it’s understandable why Apple has shied away from making a round Watch. It’s tough enough to get everything into the rectangular Watch as is.

Had a close look today and compared the Series 7 to the Series 5 on my wrist. Result: Absolutely no need to spend >500€ for something that looks exactly the same, despite a little bit bigger display. Furthermore I like the space grey of my watch and this color seems to be no longer available for Aluminium watches.

Erm, "congratulations" ??

I love iFixit's teardowns - it is always interesting to see what makes our devices tick.

I got a 45mm Series 7 GPS/WiFi Nike Watch in Midnight color to replace my Space Grey Series 4. I was nervous about the color but the color is awesome. I own some black bands that would have gone better with the black stainless steel from years past and those bands look perfect with the aluminum midnight color.

I much prefer this color over space grey now that I see it in person. The website makes it look blueish but I really can’t even see the blue hue at all. It just looks black.

And the watch is a big improvement over series 4. I felt every upgrade since series 4 has been very incremental (very S-like) — especially the series 5 and 6. The only reason I would not call series 7 an S upgrade is because Apple has never increased the display size in an iPhone S upgrade. But when you upgrade 3 versions in one shot those S-like upgrades add up:

- 20% bigger display
- virtually bezel-less display
- always-on display
- O2 sensor
- always-on altimeter
- compass for maps
- better heart rate sensor
- faster charging (S6 and S7 again)
- better battery life
- faster processor
- more durable

The new design with the bigger bezel-less display was the biggest upgrade to me, but the O2 sensor is nice to have though I own a more accurate SpO2 sensor that goes on my fingertip. It’s nice to always have it on my watch (like how we have better cameras than iPhone but having the camera always with you is the best). I almost got the Series 5 just for the always on display but I’m glad to have it now especially since they fixed the power draw issue by adding battery life in the series 6.

All-in-all I would call this a big upgrade for anybody wearing a series 4 or even a series 5. I would hold out for a few more incremental upgrades in the series 8 if you have a series 6 since that is only a year old. The display is better in series 7, but that’s a lot of money to spend for a more enjoyable display on your wrist.