Congrats on the weight loss. I hope the Apple Watch inspires you to continue reaching your goals.
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24 Hours in, I want to know... Worth it? Only adults answer please...
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Congrats on the weight loss. I hope the Apple Watch inspires you to continue reaching your goals.
Thanks for your detailed first-day review. I've heard complaints about the maps app in glances taking a while to load; I'll probably disable it all together. How quickly do the other stock Apple apps load? I'm particularly curious about weather and stocks. What about load time for third-party apps in glances?
On further testing it seems Glances refresh data from the source app occasionally, not every time. When they do refresh it can be a few seconds for the data to appear, but once its refreshed and you glance again it is instant. I guess its down to how frequently the data needs to refresh and how the Watch manages its cache. The refresh time seems to depend on the app, Maps can be >5 seconds. Weather is about 3. I have not tried Stocks as i don't have it enabled.
Yes, definitely. My wife and I both got SS classic buckles and we feel it was well worth it.
The UI takes a little bit to get used to. I wouldn't suggest this for your Grandmother, you need to be a little tech savvy to get the most out of it.
Apps load slowly the first time, but I've found faster and more responsive after that (and after a restart of both watch and phone).
The battery life is exceeding my expectations. After 12 hours of normal to high use during the day (lots of showing it off), I still had 49% remaining. That's good enough for me!
There are tons of apps. The usability of any given app is up to the developer. There are some that are spectacular, and some that are lame. Same as iOS anything.
But the best part is that I don't need to look at or use my phone as much. As iPhones have grown in size they've become more difficult to take out for a quick look, especially if a jeans pocket is where you carry it. Today was cool and I wore a coat with my phone safely tucked in my jeans pocket. I didn't have to take it out, I could accomplish the core stuff: messages, scan the news, maps, countdown timer for parking, all from the watch.
I found Siri to work reasonably well for dictating messages.
The drawing, and heartbeats, and animated emoji were just ok.
Tapping on stuff is sometimes hit or miss. I assume I will get better at managing my fat fingers as time goes on.
Overall I am very happy with it, and my wife is thrilled with hers.
The UI takes a little bit to get used to. I wouldn't suggest this for your Grandmother, you need to be a little tech savvy to get the most out of it.
Apps load slowly the first time, but I've found faster and more responsive after that (and after a restart of both watch and phone).
The battery life is exceeding my expectations. After 12 hours of normal to high use during the day (lots of showing it off), I still had 49% remaining. That's good enough for me!
There are tons of apps. The usability of any given app is up to the developer. There are some that are spectacular, and some that are lame. Same as iOS anything.
But the best part is that I don't need to look at or use my phone as much. As iPhones have grown in size they've become more difficult to take out for a quick look, especially if a jeans pocket is where you carry it. Today was cool and I wore a coat with my phone safely tucked in my jeans pocket. I didn't have to take it out, I could accomplish the core stuff: messages, scan the news, maps, countdown timer for parking, all from the watch.
I found Siri to work reasonably well for dictating messages.
The drawing, and heartbeats, and animated emoji were just ok.
Tapping on stuff is sometimes hit or miss. I assume I will get better at managing my fat fingers as time goes on.
Overall I am very happy with it, and my wife is thrilled with hers.
I love it, and I also love watches so it's not an adjustment for me to start wearing it, and I really love the design of this one. I love the messages, being able to see what they are so I know whether I want to respond to them or not. If I'm with other people, I don't want to be rude and take my phone out all the time, so this lets me see if a message is important or just see what someone's saying without having to respond unless I need/want to. And I love the activity, the prompts to get up and move, and my desire to fill those rings! I have kept it on silent so far since getting it yesterday morning, and prefer the taptic taps to sounds. And I don't use it at all for mail. I only want to see my mail when I want to see it (if someone wants me right away, they need to call or text), and so I have no plans to use the watch for mail. Other points,
Felt natural on my wrist right from the start
38 mm is the perfect size for me
No problems or errors entering the passcode or selecting apps, I haven't feel like my fingers were too big or the icons too small
Activity rings have encouraged me to move more since I got it, which is always good!
Love the milanese strap, very comfortable and I love the look on my wrist
Battery so far seems good, though does suck the iPhone battery a bit
Display is so bright and colorful, looks so clean
Setup and customization has made sense and hasn't been difficult, I haven't felt a steep learning curve at all
All in all, I love it. I'm happy with my purchase and can see myself enjoying it for a long time.
Felt natural on my wrist right from the start
38 mm is the perfect size for me
No problems or errors entering the passcode or selecting apps, I haven't feel like my fingers were too big or the icons too small
Activity rings have encouraged me to move more since I got it, which is always good!
Love the milanese strap, very comfortable and I love the look on my wrist
Battery so far seems good, though does suck the iPhone battery a bit
Display is so bright and colorful, looks so clean
Setup and customization has made sense and hasn't been difficult, I haven't felt a steep learning curve at all
All in all, I love it. I'm happy with my purchase and can see myself enjoying it for a long time.
With only 36 hours I'm not going to write a definitive review, but the one thing I have noticed is that it has changed my mindset in a very significant way. Instead of feeling like I always have to check my phone to see if there's a notification, I know they will come to me. My phone stays in my pocket and I don't feel the FOMO (fear of missing out) on notifs.
Overall, I feel like I'm living my life and enjoying things more.
Overall, I feel like I'm living my life and enjoying things more.
Winner.
The notifications are excellent, the fitness tracking is decent, the ability to text on your wrist by dictation is awesome, the music controls are good, and it blows my old Pebble out of the water (although still have a Pebble Time on order).
That makes the case for an Apple Watch Sport easy. Now, is the full-on Apple Watch worth it? Not sure. I got the 42mm Stainless Steel with Milanese Loop. Is it worth the 700US/919CDN I paid? I'm on the fence.
So the device itself is great and I'd recommend it to all friends who have a use for its use cases. But I'd probably recommend the Sport to them rather than the model I bought, as much as I like it.
The notifications are excellent, the fitness tracking is decent, the ability to text on your wrist by dictation is awesome, the music controls are good, and it blows my old Pebble out of the water (although still have a Pebble Time on order).
That makes the case for an Apple Watch Sport easy. Now, is the full-on Apple Watch worth it? Not sure. I got the 42mm Stainless Steel with Milanese Loop. Is it worth the 700US/919CDN I paid? I'm on the fence.
So the device itself is great and I'd recommend it to all friends who have a use for its use cases. But I'd probably recommend the Sport to them rather than the model I bought, as much as I like it.
Just started day 3 - loving it more and more as a replacement for Fitbit and SS GShock.
27.5 hours in since last full charge and battery is at 15%.
Can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow and test out the workouts.
It might have been hyped more than what it should have been.
Non-watch wearers who think they're getting a mini iPhone on their wrist will possibly have some remorse.
Day one you realize it's a watch with notifications and fitness tracking - and yeah, paying $1100 (Australian) for the 42mm SS Milanese with AppleCare - it's a biggie.. But I've held off 6 months buying a HRM that was going to cost $500-$600 anyway, add in notifications / synced health and fitness / messaging / mail / maps / Siri / ability to work with my phone etc. PLUS the 'fashion' aspect - the Milanese is bloody beautiful. I think it's worth it, but I'm a watch wearer and a gym junkie who was looking to take the next step into wearables. That 'market' will praise it more than others (IMO).
It's certainly made me more excited for future generation AW's. It's a great gen 1 device.
27.5 hours in since last full charge and battery is at 15%.
Can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow and test out the workouts.
It might have been hyped more than what it should have been.
Non-watch wearers who think they're getting a mini iPhone on their wrist will possibly have some remorse.
Day one you realize it's a watch with notifications and fitness tracking - and yeah, paying $1100 (Australian) for the 42mm SS Milanese with AppleCare - it's a biggie.. But I've held off 6 months buying a HRM that was going to cost $500-$600 anyway, add in notifications / synced health and fitness / messaging / mail / maps / Siri / ability to work with my phone etc. PLUS the 'fashion' aspect - the Milanese is bloody beautiful. I think it's worth it, but I'm a watch wearer and a gym junkie who was looking to take the next step into wearables. That 'market' will praise it more than others (IMO).
It's certainly made me more excited for future generation AW's. It's a great gen 1 device.
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Not bad at all. The UI doesn't always run at a constant 60fps, but it very rarely lags if ever (switching really, really really fast through tons of glances makes it dip below 30fps).
Third party apps are pretty great for what was being said about them. Philips Hue loads quickly and is instantly able to adjust my room lights, Yelp is fairly fast (it took exactly 4 seconds of the loading screen before it was ready just now, and another 4 to load the restaunts after tapping "restaurants"), Instagram takes three seconds to load, etc. Not a concern of mine.
My favorite things about the Watch after 24 hours:
- Maps on your wrist. Walking to a new restaurant, the Taptic patterns for left and right are amazing. In the car, same thing. I've quickly navigated somewhere in the car and the watch taps you when you need to turn, and displays a glance of the street name in your direct eyeline since your hand is on the wheel. Some may think this is unsafe, but honestly if you're looking at a GPS display/phone, it's usually down below you.
- Very accurate voice recognition. More so than my phone. Texting is great, asking for directions to an address or the name of a store immediately gave me directions with no fuss or extra step identifying what I really meant.
- How comfortable and sleek it is. I bought mine at Maxfield in LA (42mm SG Sport), but I have an 42 stainless in the mail as well, but the sport band and overall watch is unbelievably comfortable.
My biggest concerns so far after 24 hours of ownership are the below:
- Lack of real third party apps to allow Google Maps and Waze to do what Apple Maps does on the phone. It's given me reliable directions the 4-5 times i've used it on the watch now, but I'd love to be able to do the same thing with Waze and use its generally quicker routes and traffic avoidance.
- Mail issues, again a problem alleviated whenever third party apps are allowed. Gmail and Google Apps-managed email addresses are slow to receive new mail on-the-fly with Apple's iOS mail app. This is because of the fact that Gmail apparently doesn't support Push or Fetch or whatever makes emails come in immediately that literally every other service supports on iOS. Gmail's iOS app can send notifications to the watch, but you can only read the ~3 lines that are on the push notification, and can never click in to read the full message on your watch like you can with the stock Mail notifications. This is huge, and really annoying, because it's either you pick mail notifications that come very late but you can read them, or on time but you can't read them.
...That's it. I can't think of anything else.
A day in, what do we think? Worth it? Does Apple got a winner on their hands? Is it as amazing as the first 24h with the iPhone back in ´07? Please share your insight. Fanboys and kids with one sentence answers please ignore this thread.
It's awesome, and definitely worth it... But nothing will ever be like going from a Nokia to the original iPhone.
Extremely pleased after 2 days. Has exceeded my expectations for a v1.0 new Apple product.
Highs:
1) Beautifully made. Both my wife and I normally wear watches; love the craftsmanship and attention to detail.
2) Surprised how often just glancing at the watch is all we need. Was shopping at Costco today. Great amount of info exchange via the watch; we setup our own custom replies for the message app.
3) Applepay. Another game changer for my wife. Doesn't have to get cards out of her purse. Double-click the friend button, wave your watch over the terminal. Couldn't be easier. My wife loves the fact she can keep her wallet in her purse, feels much safer this way, not to mention the lack of digital skimming and ID theft.
4) Phone calls around the house. My wife is always in the garden or around the house; she doesn't carry her phone with her. Can leave her phone in her purse, and gets messages and calls on the watch. 2/3 of the time I call her, she didn't answer before (didn't have her phone; didn't hear it). Hasn't missed a call or text yet with the watch. Brilliant, and is apparently using our home wifi of all this, with great range between watch and phone.
5) Weather on the watch face. Great custom options on the watch face. Lovely getting outside temperature at a glance when you check time, and a mini-forecast. Speaking of which, the watch faces are beautiful.
6) Siri. "Hey Siri". Works great, activates automatically when you raise your wrist. Very fast, and seems more accurate than with the iphone.
7) Charger. Genius design. It's not a flat surface, it has a slight curve. The watch fits this perfect with the magnet, and can only rotate, not slide around. The wire can rotate to any position, so easy to attach and unattach. Much, much simpler than the lighting connector.
8) Battery life. Full use today, on at 6am. Now 8pm, and watch shows 45% remaining. Very impressive.
9) Gestures/interface. The digital crown works extremely well. How nice to have a classic watch feature (crown) that integrates so well with the watch OS. So easy to just roll the top of the crown with your finger. The buttons feel great, too. The force-press and touchscreen feel of great quality, too.
Areas for improvement:
1) Screen timeout. This seems to be 4 seconds, and isn't adjustable. Clearly, Apple needs to make this an adjustable option, and let users decide between screen time and battery life. 4sec is just a bit too short. 6 or 8s would be better.
2) Haptic feedback. It's just ok. Even the "prominent feedback" setting is just powerful enough. This could be increased.
3) Lag in some apps initial loading. There can be a bit of lag for some apps on initial load (like Maps). Nothing excessive, but the watch really is a "glance at" device, and it holds your attention for longer than a glance in these cases. May take hardware v2 to speed this up, or perhaps some refined apps/programming. Not a killer, but something to be improved upon.
4) Adding cards to Apple Pay. Non-intuitive. Took quite a bit of trying to get our cards into the watch. One-time issue, but you'll see complaints from folks having problems here.
5) Unlock code keypad. The unlock code screen has some pretty small buttons on the 38mm watch. I have big fingers, and I'm not always accurate in entering the code. We ended up changing codes to something more compatible with my big fingers. Ideally, we'd have a version of Touch ID on the watch screen for this, that would be awesome. Another future upgrade, no doubt.
There you go! Hope this was a fair and balanced review. Very, very happy with this watch, and can't wait for our 2nd one to arrive, 42mm SS Black.
Highs:
1) Beautifully made. Both my wife and I normally wear watches; love the craftsmanship and attention to detail.
2) Surprised how often just glancing at the watch is all we need. Was shopping at Costco today. Great amount of info exchange via the watch; we setup our own custom replies for the message app.
3) Applepay. Another game changer for my wife. Doesn't have to get cards out of her purse. Double-click the friend button, wave your watch over the terminal. Couldn't be easier. My wife loves the fact she can keep her wallet in her purse, feels much safer this way, not to mention the lack of digital skimming and ID theft.
4) Phone calls around the house. My wife is always in the garden or around the house; she doesn't carry her phone with her. Can leave her phone in her purse, and gets messages and calls on the watch. 2/3 of the time I call her, she didn't answer before (didn't have her phone; didn't hear it). Hasn't missed a call or text yet with the watch. Brilliant, and is apparently using our home wifi of all this, with great range between watch and phone.
5) Weather on the watch face. Great custom options on the watch face. Lovely getting outside temperature at a glance when you check time, and a mini-forecast. Speaking of which, the watch faces are beautiful.
6) Siri. "Hey Siri". Works great, activates automatically when you raise your wrist. Very fast, and seems more accurate than with the iphone.
7) Charger. Genius design. It's not a flat surface, it has a slight curve. The watch fits this perfect with the magnet, and can only rotate, not slide around. The wire can rotate to any position, so easy to attach and unattach. Much, much simpler than the lighting connector.
8) Battery life. Full use today, on at 6am. Now 8pm, and watch shows 45% remaining. Very impressive.
9) Gestures/interface. The digital crown works extremely well. How nice to have a classic watch feature (crown) that integrates so well with the watch OS. So easy to just roll the top of the crown with your finger. The buttons feel great, too. The force-press and touchscreen feel of great quality, too.
Areas for improvement:
1) Screen timeout. This seems to be 4 seconds, and isn't adjustable. Clearly, Apple needs to make this an adjustable option, and let users decide between screen time and battery life. 4sec is just a bit too short. 6 or 8s would be better.
2) Haptic feedback. It's just ok. Even the "prominent feedback" setting is just powerful enough. This could be increased.
3) Lag in some apps initial loading. There can be a bit of lag for some apps on initial load (like Maps). Nothing excessive, but the watch really is a "glance at" device, and it holds your attention for longer than a glance in these cases. May take hardware v2 to speed this up, or perhaps some refined apps/programming. Not a killer, but something to be improved upon.
4) Adding cards to Apple Pay. Non-intuitive. Took quite a bit of trying to get our cards into the watch. One-time issue, but you'll see complaints from folks having problems here.
5) Unlock code keypad. The unlock code screen has some pretty small buttons on the 38mm watch. I have big fingers, and I'm not always accurate in entering the code. We ended up changing codes to something more compatible with my big fingers. Ideally, we'd have a version of Touch ID on the watch screen for this, that would be awesome. Another future upgrade, no doubt.
There you go! Hope this was a fair and balanced review. Very, very happy with this watch, and can't wait for our 2nd one to arrive, 42mm SS Black.
I'm finding texting from the watch faster than grabbing my phone. The dictation has been spot on and fast. Dictation just keeps getting faster and better.
Is it worth $400? That's pushing it, but MAYBE yes if you're big into fitness
A penny more? No way since in one year it will be outdated technology
A penny more? No way since in one year it will be outdated technology
Yes. I am considering buying a second AW towards the holidays when the supply eases up. My wife, who is NOT a gadget person, is having a ball too. "24 Hours in", it's great. Talk to me in November for long term opinions. But I bet by then, you'll have your own take on things 
Not at all.
I actually GOT the first iPhone at launch.
And I didn't even have to stay up late to pre-order it!
Nice job, Apple!
Prime example right here why is says adult in the thread title. Ancedontal answers...
I for one am a big fan. Here's a few scenarios that kinda blew my mind today (first full day)
Early in the day, I had to drive to the grocery store, I decided to test out driving directions with the watch. With both hands on the steering wheel, I could flick my wrist and get updates on distance to turns without my eyes leaving the road. The haptic pattern for right and left is different. I haven't memorized it yet, but I can see this being a 100% less distracting way to drive than using an iPhone mounted on your windshield, blocking your view. In fact tomorrow, I'm probably not going to even mount my iPhone when I get in my car, I'm going to leave it in my pocket and I suspect I can get away with music, podcasts (using overcast), managing any phone calls, and directions with no issues.
Later, I took the kid to the park, was pushing him on the swing, he loves the swing but 30 minutes is enough. I finally say 5 minutes more! Without missing a single loving push of the swing, I raise my arm and say "Hey Siri, set the timer for 5 minutes". 5 minutes later off the swing he goes. (Yes it's sad that he'll respond to an electronic alarm over my voice, but sometime you've got to go with what works.)
After we get back home, it's time to eat and relax. He loves Daniel Tiger (Mr. Rogers knockoff for us children of the 70s) and we're in the family room, my phone is somewhere in the kitchen. Pop up the watch, open the remote app, get PBS Kids up on Apple TV, navigate to Daniel Tiger and hit play. Never left the room or even cared where my iPhone was and I've lost the ATV actual remote a long time ago.
End of the day, I had about 40% life left. 42MM SG Sport. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon period, but it feels pretty transformative to me. It's like my iPhone is now a little portable server and the watch "client" doesn't get in my way of my life or my family. Feels like Star Trek where the tech is disappearing instead of taking over my life.
Early in the day, I had to drive to the grocery store, I decided to test out driving directions with the watch. With both hands on the steering wheel, I could flick my wrist and get updates on distance to turns without my eyes leaving the road. The haptic pattern for right and left is different. I haven't memorized it yet, but I can see this being a 100% less distracting way to drive than using an iPhone mounted on your windshield, blocking your view. In fact tomorrow, I'm probably not going to even mount my iPhone when I get in my car, I'm going to leave it in my pocket and I suspect I can get away with music, podcasts (using overcast), managing any phone calls, and directions with no issues.
Later, I took the kid to the park, was pushing him on the swing, he loves the swing but 30 minutes is enough. I finally say 5 minutes more! Without missing a single loving push of the swing, I raise my arm and say "Hey Siri, set the timer for 5 minutes". 5 minutes later off the swing he goes. (Yes it's sad that he'll respond to an electronic alarm over my voice, but sometime you've got to go with what works.)
After we get back home, it's time to eat and relax. He loves Daniel Tiger (Mr. Rogers knockoff for us children of the 70s) and we're in the family room, my phone is somewhere in the kitchen. Pop up the watch, open the remote app, get PBS Kids up on Apple TV, navigate to Daniel Tiger and hit play. Never left the room or even cared where my iPhone was and I've lost the ATV actual remote a long time ago.
End of the day, I had about 40% life left. 42MM SG Sport. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon period, but it feels pretty transformative to me. It's like my iPhone is now a little portable server and the watch "client" doesn't get in my way of my life or my family. Feels like Star Trek where the tech is disappearing instead of taking over my life.
I'm already wondering how I lived without it, it's the perfect tool for notification triage, the ideal acompanyment for the iPhone.
No regrets at all.
No regrets at all.
I like it for what I planned on using it for. I have alarm.com and it's great for when I am cycling. I can easily bring up the app when I am cycling and open my garage door as I am approaching my house. Before the Apple watch, I would have to pull the phone out of my bag and Either disarm or open the garage door. So in other words, I don't have to stop. It's also nice to have Cyclemeter on my wrist to get speed and heart rate measurements.
In addition, I really like the remote playback controls. I use an app called Airfoil to play audio throughout the house. It's neat, but if I wanted to pause audio, I had to fetch my phone. But no more with the watch.
And one thing that I discovered is an app called Knock. It is an iPhone app that can unlock your Mac whenever you are In range. It works great with my Apple Watch. Just in case I don't have it.
A nice touch is the find my phone feature. I'm constantly misplacing my phone in the house, whether it's in another room or in the seat cushions. I used to either use my iPad or laptop to launch Find my Phone. But that's built in to the iPad.
There were other things that I wanted to try, but never had the chance as I had the rare occasion of working this weekend. I want to look at using the Apple remote App. Plus looking forward to using it with Omnifocus next week. This watch looks like it's going to be great with travelers.
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In addition, I really like the remote playback controls. I use an app called Airfoil to play audio throughout the house. It's neat, but if I wanted to pause audio, I had to fetch my phone. But no more with the watch.
And one thing that I discovered is an app called Knock. It is an iPhone app that can unlock your Mac whenever you are In range. It works great with my Apple Watch. Just in case I don't have it.
A nice touch is the find my phone feature. I'm constantly misplacing my phone in the house, whether it's in another room or in the seat cushions. I used to either use my iPad or laptop to launch Find my Phone. But that's built in to the iPad.
There were other things that I wanted to try, but never had the chance as I had the rare occasion of working this weekend. I want to look at using the Apple remote App. Plus looking forward to using it with Omnifocus next week. This watch looks like it's going to be great with travelers.
.
Apple has another hit on their hands. What an amazing device. My favorite part is how it fades into the background. It just does the little things that makes your life easier.
I will be selling the one I bought after a day with it. I find it pretty much useless. Can't read most my emails, it tells me to check my phone, useless. I have to speak a text to someone, not practical unless by myself. Everyone will hear my conversation when taking a call, again have to be alone. ESPN app just shows scores, no real info. My 6 plus battery life has been miserable with Bluetooth always on too. So I glance at my watch and then have to use my phone anyways to really do anything. It's adding another useless step, not simplifying things. It feels like a slow, gimped iPhone. Maybe for $200 it might be worth it but nowhere near the price it costs. It will be the only major Apple device I don't own.