An honest review of the Apple Watch

[Armen]

This is my honest review of the Apple Watch after owning one for 8 months.

Build Quality

- I've seen many smart watches in the wild. I think the Apple watch looks the best for quality and finish.
- Buy AppleCare. Not because of quality issues but for expedited replacement IF there happens to be a defect (mine was replaced 2 times) and just in case you have a Oops! situation and drop your watch in the sink and break the screen.

Apps

- Any app whether native or 3rd party that relies on data being transferred from the iPhone can take 5-20 seconds to load(not very convenient). I do not think this is a CPU/RAM issue but more of a bandwidth issue with Bluetooth. For the time being I do not have any 3rd party apps loaded and if I do it is for their complications (CNN, DarkSky, etc). If Apple can fix the data transfer issue the apps can/will speed up in load times.
- Lack of decent 3rd party Apps is a bit of a disappointment. The apps that are available out there tend to recreate existing native apps. It seems like developers don't have much of an imagination.

Activity Tracking

- The Activity tracking of the Apple watch in my opinion is to bring health/fitness awareness to couch potatoes and office cubicle jockeys.
- If you are looking for constant HR monitoring, GPS and sleep tracking you may be better off with a Fitbit or other dedicated activity tracking devices.

Accessories

This market has endless possibilities. There are tons of stands, chargers, bands and other accessories popping up every day. You will definitely not see the same offering with other smart watches.

Price

Many seem to think the Apple Watch is overpriced. It's actually $100.00 more (in the US) than most other devices yet it packs way more features than most. (There are many $50-$100 off deals being offered by Target and other companies).

What value does the Apple Watch bring?

- Watch Face complications. If you are going to check the time why not get other information at a glance as well besides the date and time?
- Notifications. People love to argue about how they can just reach into their pocket to check their phone and how they don't need it on their wrist. I'm sure people said the same thing about pocket watches when the wrist watch was introduced.

Studies have shown the average user checks their phone 150 times/day. I can tell you I am not one of those people anymore

- It's NOT an iPhone on your wrist.
- It's NOT a replacement for your phone
- It's NOT an entertainment device like a Nintendo DS


TL;DR Go back and read and fight your ADD.

Edit: I'm happy to report that apps load much faster on WatchOS 2.1

 

[telefono]

If I was to write an Honest Review of the Apple Watch it would read just like your review.

This is the reason why I get so much use & enjoyment from it.

I Cycle 3-4 times a week and one of the rides is very long distance on Sunday mornings. I also Kayak 2-3 times a month. Try and walk 1-2 times a week but find it boring AND I have never used the Apple Watch for Exercising......Like you said, use other devices like Garmin etc. I must say I do use the heart rate monitor just to check my resting heart rate and its very accurate. Like you said, Activity Tracking is a great motivator to get people moving.

The few 3rd party Apps that I do use work great, the ones that don't get deleted. The way I see it, anything more than telling the Time is a bonus and the Apple Watch for me does lots of little things that collectively do plenty