Apple’s latest addition to its smartwatch lineup, the Apple Watch SE 3, is here, and it’s looking to shake up the mid-range wearable market with a compelling blend of features and value. The new smartwatch brings several key upgrades that trickle down from the more expensive models, making them more accessible to a wider audience. It’s a calculated move by Apple to further solidify its dominance in the wearables space, offering a device that is as much a health and fitness companion as it is a stylish accessory.
This isn’t a radical reinvention of the Apple Watch, but rather a focused evolution. Apple has taken the most impactful features and integrated them into a device that’s both modern and familiar. The Apple Watch SE 3’s design remains a classic, but the technical underpinnings are where the real story lies.
At its heart, the Apple Watch SE 3 is powered by the new S10 chip. This marks a significant performance leap, enabling a host of new features that were previously reserved for the flagship models. The most notable of these is the Always-On display, a feature many have been waiting for on a more affordable model. This allows users to see the time and glance at notifications without having to raise their wrist or tap the screen. The new chip also powers advanced gestures like double tap and wrist flick, providing a new layer of one-handed interaction that’s both intuitive and efficient. On-device Siri and fast charging are also enabled by the S10 chip, with Apple claiming the watch can charge up to two times faster than its predecessor, getting to about 80% in just 45 minutes.
On the health and fitness front, the Apple Watch SE 3 is more capable than ever. It introduces wrist temperature sensing, a feature that provides valuable insights into overall well-being and is used for retrospective ovulation estimates. For those looking to monitor their sleep, the new model offers a sleep score and can even provide notifications for consistent signs of sleep apnea over a 30-day period. These health features, combined with the standard set of heart health notifications, Fall Detection, Crash Detection, and Emergency SOS, make the Apple Watch SE 3 a comprehensive health and safety device.
The new model runs on watchOS 26, which introduces a new software design with “Liquid Glass” for a more vibrant experience, as well as new watch faces and smarter widgets that provide proactive suggestions based on a user’s routine. The watch’s build is also more durable, with a cover glass that is four times more resistant to cracks than the previous generation. For connectivity, the Apple Watch SE 3 offers 5G cellular capabilities, making it a truly standalone device for calls, messages, and streaming.
Pricing & Availability
The Apple Watch SE 3 is available in a variety of popular colorways, including a midnight finish and a new Starlight made from 100% recycled aluminum.
It starts at a price of RM1,049 in Malaysia. In the US, the starting price is $249 (~RM1,047). Pre-orders begin today, with the device becoming available in stores starting Friday, September 19.
