These two types of Apple watches of 38mm and 42mm, have a great debate about the most efficient one. The 38mm Apple watch is much lighter, while the other 42mm is much heavier but with more pixels.
They have many standard features, and there are many differences as well.
The 38mm Apple watch has much lesser dimensions, as we can understand by the name itself, but it has lesser weight and more PPI.
It has a weight of 87 grams (3.05 ounces) which is better for those who want watches of lesser importance and has more pixel density.
On the other hand, the 42mm Apple watch has a more significant dimension and is much bulkier than the 38mm watch. But two advantages that we get in this is that it has much more and better pixels and along with the vast screen.
It has 312 × 390 pixels along with 1.54 inches screen.
Key Takeaways
- 38mm Apple Watches are smaller and lighter, making them ideal for individuals with smaller wrists.
- 42mm Apple Watches offer a larger screen, better suited for those with larger wrists or prefer more screen real estate.
- Both 38mm and 42mm Apple Watches provide the same features and functionalities, with size being the primary distinction.
38mm vs 42mm Apple Watch
The 38mm Apple Watch has a case size of 38mm height x 33.3mm width x 10.5mm depth, while the 42mm Apple Watch has a case size of 42mm height x 35.9mm width x 10.5mm depth. This means that the 42mm Apple Watch is slightly larger and has a slightly wider screen than the 38mm Apple Watch.
The 38mm Apple watch has many same features as the other Watch, but the big difference can be a few in which the difference in screen and weight affects the decisions of the buyer the most.
There are around six kinds of models in this 1st generation of 38mm Apple watch of 2015.
The 42mm Apple watch has standard features like depth of the Watch, materials, and water protection, but it is more significant with a dimension of 35.9 × 42 mm and 101 grams of weight.
It also is from the Apple Watch 1st generation of 2015 A1554 Stainless steel, while 38mm watches have a difference in A1553 Stainless steel.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | 38mm Apple Watch | 42mm Apple Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 87gm | 101gm |
| Height | 1.52 inches | 1.65 inches |
| Width | 35.9 millimetre | 35.9 millimeter |
| Screen size | 1.34” inches | 1.54” inches |
| Pixel density | 385 PPI | 384 PPI |
What is a 38mm Apple Watch?
The 38mm Apple watch is from the 1st generation, Series 0, released in April 2015. It comes in an A1553 Box in which, along with the Apple Watch, we get a magnetic charging cable,
one USB power adapter, Band, and a Quick Start guide. This was the first release which was continued with Apple Watch Series 1.
It is rectangular with dimensions of 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5 mm, along with a body of stainless steel case with the option of a replaceable band.
The water resistance is high, with a depth of up to 1 meter, and for around 30 minutes with lots of colours to choose from.
The screen is 1.5 inches with a 385-pixel density. The touch screen is 44% in ratio to the body, with 16 million colours in the display with scratch-resistant glass.
There is no support for SIM cards and cameras. It doesn’t support active noise, radio, or TV, but it supports loudspeakers.
Bluetooth and WiFi are available in this watch, along with sensors like vibrating alerts, ambient light sensors, accelerometers, etc. The battery is of Li-on: Lithium-lon of 205mAh.
It has Standard charging and Magnetic charging, with a standby time of 18hrs and a charging time of 3hrs.
What is a 42mm Apple Watch?
The 42mm Apple Watch is a 38bit – Apple S1 (28nm) chipset with a Single-Core, 1 Processor. It consists of a 520 MHz single-core ARM Cortex- A7 in CPU. It has PowerVR SGX543 in GPU graphical controller.
In RAM, it has 512MB LPDDR and 8GB internal storage. It also has an AMOLED display.
The 42mm Apple watch, just like the 38mm watch, also doesn’t have network support. It has WatchOS 1.0 as its system version, which can be further updated to WatchOS 4.0.
It also has video formats of MP4, H.264 and H.263 and audio formats such as MP3, WAV, eAAC+ and FLAC.
This 42m Apple watch is from 1st generation of the 2015 Apple watch. It has a stainless body and an A1554 box. This doesn’t have an extra card slot for storage.
It has a Glass front of Sapphire crystal and a 3d touch display, which is more extensive, making it an advantage in many places.
Due to the bigger size of the theWatchh, the weight of theWatchh is also more, but it has better resolution or pixel. The option of Bluetooth and WiFi is also available.
This watch also has a lot of colour options. Due to a few more features, this watch’s price varies a little.
Main Differences Between 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch
- 38mmWatchh is smaller, while the 42mm watch is bigger when compared.
- 38mm watches have lesser weight while 42 mm have more weight due to the size.
- 38mm watches have lesser picture quality or pixel, while 42mm watches have better picture resolution.
- 38mm watch due to the small size of the display makes it more difficult to read or text when we compare the comfortability with the 42mm watch.
- 38mm is lesser in price while 42mm is a little costlier when compared
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-1025-3_1
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3123021.3123049
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4842-1281-3_2
- https://publishing.rcseng.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1308/rcsbull.2021.147
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.
The Apple watches are really quite impressive, interesting to learn about the differences and similarities between the two.
I’m not convinced of the value of such minute details, feels excessive.
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Absolutely, I’m impressed by the amount of data in this article, great post.
Frankly, I find the amount of detail overwhelming, it could be more concise.
The relativity of size and weight to cost is a very interesting point. I would see the value of that detailed here.
It is, I enjoy the clear and concise tone throughout this post.