The new Apple Watch SE (and its $249 price) renders the legacy Apple Watch 3 completely unnecessary.

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

Apple just announced a trio of new smartwatches, including an updated Apple Watch SE with more features and a lower price than the previous model. The new Apple Watch SE starts at $249 and has virtually everything the new Apple Watch Series 8 does, minus some of its more advanced health tracking features. This leaves a big question regarding Apple's smartwatch lineup: What about the Series 3?

The Apple Watch Series 3 has been the company's most affordable model for years, coming in at $79 less than the previous Apple Watch SE thanks to its smaller screen, less powerful specs, and the fact that it's five years old. After maintaining a spot in Apple's watch lineup since 2017, it looks like the Series 3 is finally being retired, as it's no longer available in the Apple Store.

At $249 for the GPS model (or $299 for GPE and cellular), the 2022 Apple Watch SE isn't quite as cheap as the outgoing $199 Series 3, but it's still less than the $279 starting price for the previous SE model, and that makes it one of the more affordable big-name smartwatches out there. It also adds ECG and blood oxygen monitoring to the mix, putting it on closer footing with the Apple Watch Series 7 than the original SE model.

These upgrades make the Series 3 feel even more outdated, especially since it lacks a cellular connectivity option. With the new high-end Apple Watch Ultra ringing in at $799, it looks like Apple is settling into a $249/$399/$799 price range for its smartwatches. That leaves little room for a $199 model that's literally half a decade behind its peers.

The Series 3 being discontinued has been hinted at for several months, since Apple confirmed that it wouldn't receive the watchOS 9 update. Considering how compelling the new Apple Watch SE appears to be for the price, sunsetting the Series 3 doesn't feel like a major loss.

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I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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