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MiniApple

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Sep 3, 2020
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Anyone tried or knows how to get by with just an Apple Watch as the one and only phone device?

I'm interested in an phone device for the arm which I could use (to be contacted) in emergencies thus the Apple Watch is a candidate.

I would like to go smartphone free and could use my Apple Watch for Apple Pay and (emergency) phone calls + the iPad Mini (Camera, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams calls, web browsing, podcasts) if needed.

My understanding is that the Apple Watch has to be paired to an iPhone but can't be paired to an iPad or am I understanding that wrong?
and If so why?

TLDR: Does one or both of these combos work for cellular phone calls?
  • cellular Apple Watch and a WiFi iPad with no iPhone
  • Apple Watch paired to a cellular iPad with no iPhone
 
Neither of your proposed combinations work. As of now, the Watch must be paired with a phone. Someday that could change I suppose.

Thank you for the clarification. Hope it's someday soon then ;)

If you got a cellular watch, you could pair the watch with the iPhone and leave the phone home.

I'd preferer not buy a new iPhone (when my 1. Gen iPhone SE no longer gets security updates in the not too distant future) just to leave it at home.
 
Apple Watch cellular won’t even last half of a day if you don’t carry an iPhone with you, which is enough of a dealbreaker of almost everybody.

Maybe until battery technology changes and size of an Apple Watch battery could easily last us months if not years. Before then, you simply cannot use Apple Watch as ur only phone device. It’s not feasible.

On the side note, I also wish iPad could control and manage Apple Watch too. :(
 
Thank you for the clarification. Hope it's someday soon then ;)



I'd preferer not buy a new iPhone (when my 1. Gen iPhone SE no longer gets security updates in the not too distant future) just to leave it at home.
You can use your gen 1 Se to control the watch, you wouldn't have to buy a new one.
 
Apple Watch cellular won’t even last half of a day if you don’t carry an iPhone with you, which is enough of a dealbreaker of almost everybody.

Maybe until battery technology changes and size of an Apple Watch battery could easily last us months if not years. Before then, you simply cannot use Apple Watch as ur only phone device. It’s not feasible.

On the side note, I also wish iPad could control and manage Apple Watch too. :(
In my experience, that only holds true if you can't connect to a phone OR wifi. If you are connected to wifi, the watch will last a decent amount of time. If you're on cellular, specially with a weaker signal, yah, the watch won't last very long
 
I'd love to get an apple watch for my 10 year old son, right now he has a Verizon Gizmo watch for kids, he can call me on it and send limited text messages but the watch is horrible. I know if I bought him a phone he'd lose it in no time.
 
Thank you each and everyone of you. Really informative and helpful!

Apple Watch cellular won’t even last half of a day if you don’t carry an iPhone with you, which is enough of a dealbreaker of almost everybody.

Maybe until battery technology changes and size of an Apple Watch battery could easily last us months if not years. Before then, you simply cannot use Apple Watch as ur only phone device. It’s not feasible.

On the side note, I also wish iPad could control and manage Apple Watch too. :(

Does that hold true also, if you’re connected to WiFi (home/office) to most of the day?
say I’m out and about 6 hours without WiFi and it would be primarily on “standby“.

You can use your gen 1 Se to control the watch, you wouldn't have to buy a new one.

Yeah, right now and for probably 1 more year I could.
However I don’t expect the SE 1st Gen to be supported for iOS 15 (with the 2nd Gen out) or security updates afterwards and pairing minimum requirements might change too.

In my experience, that only holds true if you can't connect to a phone OR wifi. If you are connected to wifi, the watch will last a decent amount of time. If you're on cellular, specially with a weaker signal, yah, the watch won't last very long

Do you have personal experience with this


Unless you don't use your phone much the Apple Watch isn't an iPhone replacement. If the only reason you have your phone is for emergency calls and texting OMW then it would work.

I‘m only looking for a cellular call and Apple Pay replacement, for the rest I have an iPad.

speaking of, a 3rd option came to my mind:
Can I use the iPad Mini 5 cellular with a (e)SIM somehow for Apple Pay at kiosks/grocery stores (NFC) and with a work around for cellular phone calls?
 
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Does that hold true also, if you’re connected to WiFi (home/office) to most of the day?
say I’m out and about 6 hours without WiFi and it would be primarily on “standby“.
When my Apple Watch is away from iPhone, sometimes I get nothing around, while other times iPad is around. I can notice some Pretty obvious power drain when connecting to cellular while modest power drain when connecting to iPad hotspot (Cellular iPad).
So, I think power drain ranking is 1. cellular, 2. Wifi, 3. iPhone. (High to low)
 
Thank you each and everyone of you. Really informative and helpful!



Does that hold true also, if you’re connected to WiFi (home/office) to most of the day?
say I’m out and about 6 hours without WiFi and it would be primarily on “standby“.



Yeah, right now and for probably 1 more year I could.
However I don’t expect the SE 1st Gen to be supported for iOS 15 (with the 2nd Gen out) or security updates afterwards and pairing minimum requirements might change too.



Do you have personal experience with this




I‘m only looking for a cellular call and Apple Pay replacement, for the rest I have an iPad.

speaking of, a 3rd option came to my mind:
Can I use the iPad Mini 5 cellular with a (e)SIM somehow for Apple Pay at kiosks/grocery stores (NFC) and with a work around for cellular phone calls?
If you are out with your watch and have a fairly consistent cellular connection, your watch may last the entire day.
 
Apple Watch cellular won’t even last half of a day if you don’t carry an iPhone with you, which is enough of a dealbreaker of almost everybody.

Maybe until battery technology changes and size of an Apple Watch battery could easily last us months if not years. Before then, you simply cannot use Apple Watch as ur only phone device. It’s not feasible.

On the side note, I also wish iPad could control and manage Apple Watch too. :(
I use my watch 4 on cellular and it lasts almost all day, even when I go for a 40k bike ride with the cycle app working with GPS, speed and heartbeat all the time. Sometimes have to do a 20 minute top up in the evening but that's all. I hardly ever carry my iPhone with me but then I don't get many text messages or phone calls during the day, so maybe that's it!
 
I use my watch 4 on cellular and it lasts almost all day, even when I go for a 40k bike ride with the cycle app working with GPS, speed and heartbeat all the time. Sometimes have to do a 20 minute top up in the evening but that's all. I hardly ever carry my iPhone with me but then I don't get many text messages or phone calls during the day, so maybe that's it!
Well, my watch wont even last a whole morning with cellular connected and after a few phone calls, without using GPS. Even in idle, the watch drains power very quickly unless I connect my watch to my iPhone.
 
Thank you each and everyone of you. Really informative and helpful!



Does that hold true also, if you’re connected to WiFi (home/office) to most of the day?
say I’m out and about 6 hours without WiFi and it would be primarily on “standby“.



Yeah, right now and for probably 1 more year I could.
However I don’t expect the SE 1st Gen to be supported for iOS 15 (with the 2nd Gen out) or security updates afterwards and pairing minimum requirements might change too.



Do you have personal experience with this




I‘m only looking for a cellular call and Apple Pay replacement, for the rest I have an iPad.

speaking of, a 3rd option came to my mind:
Can I use the iPad Mini 5 cellular with a (e)SIM somehow for Apple Pay at kiosks/grocery stores (NFC) and with a work around for cellular phone calls?
I believe the iPad works for Apple Pay but you can’t make cellular phone calls on the cellular iPad. I’m not sure why that is but I couldn’t on my iPad mini 4. There might be some apps you could use like Skype to call numbers. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do though. Are you just not wanting to carry a phone just to say that you’re not carrying a phone? Carrying around an iPad mini wouldn’t be any easier than carrying around a phone. If you’re trying to be minimalist I would look at the iPhone SE 2. It’s the same price as the Wi-Fi only Apple Watch and is pretty small.

If you’re just trying to lose your phone bill then you could get the cellular Apple Watch and pair it with your existing iPhone. You wouldn’t need to keep the iPhone cellular service turned on because you could use Wi-Fi to do updates on the watch and keep it in a desk drawer for those rare occasions. I don’t know if cell service providers have watch only cell phone plan though. From what I’ve seen it’s in addition to the regular cell phone plan. My Apple Watch is only Wi-Fi so I haven’t looked into that yet.
 
Well, my watch wont even last a whole morning with cellular connected and after a few phone calls, without using GPS. Even in idle, the watch drains power very quickly unless I connect my watch to my iPhone.
I bet the reason why different people are saying different things on battery life is because they are on different networks and live in different areas. With my iPhone now that I’m on T-Mobile my battery life is significantly less than when I was on Verizon. This is because it has to search harder for cell phone signals. Verizon has complete coverage where I live but T-Mobile not so much.
 
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So, I think power drain ranking is 1. cellular, 2. Wifi, 3. iPhone. (High to low)
Yes and while on cellular it is still looking for WiFi and BT, so all three modems must be active. That is not the case the other way around. It is possible to manually turn of WiFi in controlcenter, but not sure how much that will matter.
 
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I use my watch 4 on cellular and it lasts almost all day, even when I go for a 40k bike ride with the cycle app working with GPS, speed and heartbeat all the time. Sometimes have to do a 20 minute top up in the evening but that's all. I hardly ever carry my iPhone with me but then I don't get many text messages or phone calls during the day, so maybe that's it!

That's sounds pretty similar to what I'd use it for at most if I'm not just out somewhere having a bite/drink with friends (in normal times).

I believe the iPad works for Apple Pay but you can’t make cellular phone calls on the cellular iPad. I’m not sure why that is but I couldn’t on my iPad mini 4. There might be some apps you could use like Skype to call numbers. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do though. Are you just not wanting to carry a phone just to say that you’re not carrying a phone? Carrying around an iPad mini wouldn’t be any easier than carrying around a phone. If you’re trying to be minimalist I would look at the iPhone SE 2. It’s the same price as the Wi-Fi only Apple Watch and is pretty small.

If you’re just trying to lose your phone bill then you could get the cellular Apple Watch and pair it with your existing iPhone. You wouldn’t need to keep the iPhone cellular service turned on because you could use Wi-Fi to do updates on the watch and keep it in a desk drawer for those rare occasions. I don’t know if cell service providers have watch only cell phone plan though. From what I’ve seen it’s in addition to the regular cell phone plan. My Apple Watch is only Wi-Fi so I haven’t looked into that yet.

According to https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/ the iPad Mini offers Apple Pay in within apps and on the web + send and receive money in iMessage (US only) but it does not have NFC capability it seems (at least I found no result in full text search) to pay in stores like for example the iPhone SE 2. Gen https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/specs/.

Guess Apple wants us to buy iPhones.
I don't know if there is a technical reason for them not offering cellular call functionality.

I only use my iPhone for Apple Pay, as a quick shot Camera and for a handful of cellular calls a month.
The first two things I could cover with an Apple Watch and iPad, the cellular call thing without an iPhone is the stumbling block.

So I basically would pair a cellular Apple Watch to my iPhone and then switch off my iPhone, thus it wouldn't matter how "old" or "security supported" it would be? Would the Apple Watch then always "search" for the paired iPhone, thus draining battery even much faster?

As far as I know they don't have standalone data plans, but I could use the SIM from my iPhone for the iPad.

Yes and while on cellular it is still looking for WiFi and BT, so all three modems must be active. That is not the case the other way around. It is possible to manually turn of WiFi in controlcenter, but not sure how much that will matter.
Didn't know, thanks, very useful.
 
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Anyone tried or knows how to get by with just an Apple Watch as the one and only phone device?

I'm interested in an phone device for the arm which I could use (to be contacted) in emergencies thus the Apple Watch is a candidate.

I would like to go smartphone free and could use my Apple Watch for Apple Pay and (emergency) phone calls + the iPad Mini (Camera, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams calls, web browsing, podcasts) if needed.

My understanding is that the Apple Watch has to be paired to an iPhone but can't be paired to an iPad or am I understanding that wrong?
and If so why?

TLDR: Does one or both of these combos work for cellular phone calls?
  • cellular Apple Watch and a WiFi iPad with no iPhone
  • Apple Watch paired to a cellular iPad with no iPhone
I'm srsly hoping that the 'Time Flies' moniker in the latest Apple Event notification means that the AW will finally be uncoupled from the iPhone, maybe not to be stand-alone, but at least paired to an iPad. My ideal scenario is a cellular iPad Mini (iPP form factor, same 8" screen size, but smaller overall dimensions) that can make phone calls + a cellular AW + AirPods.
 
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If you are out with your watch and have a fairly consistent cellular connection, your watch may last the entire day.

Not if you actually use it as a phone, assuming he actually wants to make and get calls. then it uses a lot of power regardless. not to mention, the tiny speaker is not helpful for long calls, you would want to use bluetooth to pair with AirPods. more power.
 
Anyone tried or knows how to get by with just an Apple Watch as the one and only phone device?

I'm interested in an phone device for the arm which I could use (to be contacted) in emergencies thus the Apple Watch is a candidate.

I would like to go smartphone free and could use my Apple Watch for Apple Pay and (emergency) phone calls + the iPad Mini (Camera, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams calls, web browsing, podcasts) if needed.

My understanding is that the Apple Watch has to be paired to an iPhone but can't be paired to an iPad or am I understanding that wrong?
and If so why?

TLDR: Does one or both of these combos work for cellular phone calls?
  • cellular Apple Watch and a WiFi iPad with no iPhone
  • Apple Watch paired to a cellular iPad with no iPhone

Do you actually want to use it as a phone? i.e. make and receive numerous calls a day? I have one and its fine for those odd one off occasions, but I would hate to use it as my only phone. To really use for any length of time you will want to be paired to a headset for example. And its just not as easy and intuitive to use as an iPhone. Not to mention the apps are barely that, just minimal function. You would be throwing a way a lot of the other advantages of a smart phone. Not to mention not sure if the phone companies would accept it, pretty sure it is considered an add on device.. not the primary service.
 
Not if you actually use it as a phone, assuming he actually wants to make and get calls. then it uses a lot of power regardless. not to mention, the tiny speaker is not helpful for long calls, you would want to use bluetooth to pair with AirPods. more power.

Pretty much would only use the "phone capability" for emergencies or at most a short 2min when I'm out and about with my bike for example. No meetings or the like.

Do you actually want to use it as a phone? i.e. make and receive numerous calls a day? I have one and its fine for those odd one off occasions, but I would hate to use it as my only phone. To really use for any length of time you will want to be paired to a headset for example. And its just not as easy and intuitive to use as an iPhone. Not to mention the apps are barely that, just minimal function. You would be throwing a way a lot of the other advantages of a smart phone. Not to mention not sure if the phone companies would accept it, pretty sure it is considered an add on device.. not the primary service.

Not really, see above.
I don't do many cellular phone calls as it is. About 2 a month in and outbound (a company calls to schedule a delivery or call a service (doctor, dentist).

For family and friends I have iMessage + FaceTime, as well as another platform neutral app that allows audio/video calls and messages over WiFi + cellular iPad.
For work, we only use Microsoft Teams anyway.
the phone companies don't allow an Apple Watch only data plan as far as I know, that's why I'm hoping eventually we'll be able to "link" it with an (e)SIM iPad (and data plan)
 
I have a AW5 LTE, and would like to be able to use it without a phone. I got a hand-me-down Iphone SE 2016 from my kid to use with my Apple Watch. The phone stays at home on a charger and rarely ventures out.

I was able to use the watch for a full day with some exercise tracking, some texting using voice to text, and limited phone calls. But, after 8 months, the battery does not last all day.

The simple solutions was to turn off Always On Display. After turning that feature off, I am now able to finish the day with 40% battery.

Yes, I would love to be able to just use an LTE watch with an LTE iPad Pro, with maybe an iPad mini on the side for gaming and reading.
 
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