Apple Watch Fulfills Promise of All-Day Battery Life in Early Reviews

[cdm283813]

Just what I expected from the reviews; overly complicated and it tries to do too much. It took one reviewer 3 days to get comfortable with the watch. So I can only imagine a non-geek trying to use it. I knew when I first saw the interface that it was un-Apple like. It also tries so hard to do so much which is pointless when you have a capable phone in your pocket. But what surprised me the most was that the watch was underpowered and the time it took to transmit information from phone apps to the watch was slow with waiting screens. And the other issue was the unreliable way of trying to activate the screen to tell time in the first place.
To add insult to injury theverge only recommends the cheap version (if you must have it) because they know that any more money spent is a waste. They also mentioned that this was the first product post Steve Jobs basically putting all the blame on Tim Cook for this product disaster.

 

[RJCP]

These video reviews are stupid. They all try to come across as really clever and sarcastic and fail to objectively evaluate or offer any advice about the product.

Get yourself an entry level Apple Watch Sport. Try it for 2 weeks and review it yourself. If you don't like it, return it and get your cash back. Easy.

 

[Antares]

I love MacRumors... but it seemingly becoming more and more pro-Apple. Headlines like "Apple Watch Fulfills Promise of All-Day Battery Life in Early Reviews" and "Apple Watch Review Roundup: The 'World's Best Smartwatch" ... makes the site feel more like a 'fanboy community', not an impartial news source.

MR is still the best for Mac news, but I just fear things may start looking a bit 'bias', and I may go elsewhere.

If you consider MR posting the truth as bias, then I will happily take that "bias." Those headlines are all true.

But this is a Mac/Apple site. Most of us, here, are fans of Apple and the company's products. This isn't some generic news site. A lot of us come here, specifically, because there is a pro-Apple environment on this site. We don't necessarily come here to be impartial or read impartial news stories.

 

[robot5studios]

All day battery life. That's going to plenty for almost everyone since most people charge their phones at least once a day. And Apple Watch games like ours that are short and sweet won't affect battery life much.

 

[BlueMoon63]

All Apple devices start off with great battery life. Then after hundreds of re-chargings and 2-3 years of use, your battery life expectency slips.

I'd hate to spend big bucks on one of these and have crappy battery life after 1-2 years of daily use.

The battery is replaceable.

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Let's not forget that the Apple Watch will most likely be charged DAILY, which may degrade battery performance in a shorter amount of time.

It's replaceable...

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wonder how many apps are out now before the launch

As of a few days ago, Apple reported that there were over 1000 apps already submitted and growing fast each day. That's a good start even if 10% are worthy to use.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Aren't you going to get longer battery life from your iPhone from not constantly checking it throughout the day?

That seems like the biggest benefit of the Apple Watch

.

 

[GrumpyOldMac]

Just finished watching the Verge review. In a nutshell....it's useless and nothing more than a toy.

Perhaps unlike you, what with your allowance and all not being raised even though you graduated from the 10th grade with mostly As and Bs, some of us can actually afford a $500 or $1000 toy. In fact, maybe I have a $35,000 toy in my driveway too, only used on weekends in nice weather. And really, an iPhone is mostly a toy for most people as they actually use it. Who is to say a "toy" is not worth its price? Only someone who can't afford it. Why do you care what I pay for my toys? (OK, hypothetical, since I don't plan to by an Apple Watch at the moment, but if I wanted one I'd buy it and not care that much about it being more than a Pebble or costing nearly what a base iPhone costs).

 

[Lepton]

I'm waiting for iFixIt to crack this baby open!

 

[CurvedParker]

MR is still the best for Mac news, but I just fear things may start looking a bit 'bias', and I may go elsewhere.

Try 9to5mac.com. Far superior for news and they have actual sources instead of regurgitating what other sites have reported like MacRumors does.

 

[Lepton]

I'll hold off as these are most of the comments from the reviews.

"The Apple Watch ... is kind of slow." [software problem]

"Sometimes apps take forever to load, and sometimes third-party apps never really load at all. Sometimes it’s just unresponsive for a few seconds while it thinks and then it comes back." [software]

"It’s also surprisingly heavy."

"[The] side button is extraordinarily confusing." [software]

"In the first of many moments where the Watch felt underpowered, I found that the screen lit up a couple of ticks too slowly: I’d raise my wrist, wait a beat, and then the screen would turn on." [software]

"Having a screen that constantly flips on and off is definitely behind the curve." [opinion]

"There’s no particularly great digital face, and there’s no ability to load up your own watch faces or buy new ones from the store." [software]

"There’s no master switch to turn all notifications on and off, which is a huge pain." [it has a Do Not Disturb setting]

"By the end of each day, I was hyper-aware of how low the Apple Watch battery had gotten."

"You only get a charging cable, which is lame. For $700, you should a nice charging stand, like you get with the $249 Moto 360."

"There’s virtually nothing I can’t do faster or better with access to a laptop or a phone except perhaps check the time."

So a lot of these concerns are about software, and I'm positive the software will be updated very frequently. I'm going for it.

 

[AliMacs]

I still do not understand the point of this iwatch?

I mean I still need to have my iPhone with me at all time. I need to use it to respond/reply with a lot of text. It seems slow from reviewers. It's expensive.

They just need to stop playing it up as a luxury item and make one that is 360 degrees all around screen on the wrist and make it solely a tech item not some luxury watch.

This is gonna not fail but it will be like an apple TV where you don't have mass adoption.

 

[bawbac]

The battery is replaceable.

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It's replaceable...

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As of a few days ago, Apple reported that there were over 1000 apps already submitted and growing fast each day. That's a good start even if 10% are worthy to use.

If a battery is worth $100(one third the cost of the device) to you, then you are Apple's ideal consumer.

 

[MrXiro]

Aren't you going to get longer life from your iPhone from not constantly checking it throughout the day?

That seems like the biggest benefit of the Apple Watch

Why do you need a longer life for your phone? Doesn't everyone just buy the newest one every year anyway?

 

[cdm283813]

I’ve been real hard on this watch from the beginning and after looking at the initial reviews I’m even more certain that I would not buy this 1st gen device. But don’t let people stop you from buying one if you have your heart set out on it. My only advice is let Apple know of issues or features that are not working correctly so that revision 2 will be better. Don’t sugarcoat problems just because of the Apple logo. You guys are basically testers for a first gen product. The watch will only get better when you guys speak up.

 

[laurim]

Sorry, but that is one hell of a giant thick chunky lump strapped to her wrist.
Do women today really want something that big strapped onto their wrists?

So BIG and heavy, it's even hanging down on her arm.

Looks horrid, way too BIG:

Image

Not that you really care about a real answer to this but the 38mm is only a couple mm taller than my current watch and since it isn't round, it's smaller sideways:

 

[Michael Scrip]

Why do you need a longer life for your phone? Doesn't everyone just buy the newest one every year anyway?

Crap... I meant *battery* life.

I will edit...

 

[Brittany246]

/

 

[cdm283813]

All day battery life. That's going to plenty for almost everyone since most people charge their phones at least once a day. And Apple Watch games like ours that are short and sweet won't affect battery life much.

Right out the gate the primary concern is battery life. Even CNET said that it gets worst battery life than many Android Wear, Samsung and definitely pebble watches. The more the watch is used and with all the apps being updated to support the watch the battery life will get worst as time goes on.
You might have to actively disable notifications from apps to conserve battery life. Not only do you have to monitor your phone battery but now you have to worry about the watch battery.

 

[Piggie]

Not that you really care about a real answer to this but the 38mm is only a couple mm taller than my current watch and since it isn't round, it's smaller sideways:

Image

Image

For some reason, that looks far far nicer on a her wrist.

And FAR more femanine.

Perhaps because it's circular or just the design/colour?
The Apple watch is a bit/lot of an ugly slab of a thing.

 

[laurim]

For some reason, that looks far far nicer on a her wrist.

And FAR more femanine.

Perhaps because it's circular or just the design/colour?
The Apple watch is a bit/lot of an ugly slab of a thing.

Yeah, it's pretty but it makes my skin break out in a rash and it only tells the time and doesn't adjust itself when I fly to another time zone so it's nearly useless to me. That's why I'm getting an Apple Watch.

 

[MrXiro]

I still do not understand the point of this iwatch?

I mean I still need to have my iPhone with me at all time. I need to use it to respond/reply with a lot of text. It seems slow from reviewers. It's expensive.

They just need to stop playing it up as a luxury item and make one that is 360 degrees all around screen on the wrist and make it solely a tech item not some luxury watch.

This is gonna not fail but it will be like an apple TV where you don't have mass adoption.

They stated a few times in the reviews that you don't need to have the phone with you "at all times". You basically need your phone with you when you want notifications and GPS. You can still use the watch as a fitness device and an independent music player.
Slow might be subjective. I'm betting it's faster than Pebble and any Android device and transferring apps from the iPhone to the Watch will be slow. But that's how they all currently are.
You forget this is the first gen product. The first iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone HAD to be plugged into your computer to be activated for a few years and could not work without being tethered to your computer for data transfers for your content (no wireless sync). As with every first gen product this is really just the first step even in a market that is already saturated. The next gen will certainly be better.

That said... I do agree that this device is severely over priced.

This is the first new Apple device that feels elitist since the original iPod ($400 in an era when mp3 players were in the $200 range). When the iPad came out at $500 it was considered a bargain since most people predicted it to sell for closer to $1000. The iPod Touch starting at $300 was on par and the Original iPhone was also $500 and seems downright reasonable these days actually. I'm talking point of entry prices.

So at $350-$400 this watch is certainly a fair bit on the hefty side for the entry level models. Pricing them to start at $299-$350 would honestly be the more reasonable starting point based on previous pricing history.

 

[terrapinjess]

The statement "I never once charged the watch other than while I slept" concerns me since the device is marketed as being able to track sleeping patterns as well.
Yeah you can use it for naps but I would've loved at least a 2-3 day life. This is exactly why I'm waiting for gen 2 or 3 because I know it will get better. For now, I'm currently enjoying the crap out of my Pebble with 5 day life. JUST SAYIN'.

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These video reviews are stupid. They all try to come across as really clever and sarcastic and fail to objectively evaluate or offer any advice about the product.

Get yourself an entry level Apple Watch Sport. Try it for 2 weeks and review it yourself. If you don't like it, return it and get your cash back. Easy.

Very well said. I hate "critics." I get so mad when reading iTunes movie reviews too -- they're full of bad attempts at being witty and clever. They say NOTHING about the movie.

 

[laurim]

The statement "I never once charged the watch other than while I slept" concerns me since the device is marketed as being able to track sleeping patterns as well.
Yeah you can use it for naps but I would've loved at least a 2-3 day life. This is exactly why I'm waiting for gen 2 or 3 because I know it will get better. For now, I'm currently enjoying the crap out of my Pebble with 5 day life. JUST SAYIN'.

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Very well said. I hate "critics." I get so mad when reading iTunes movie reviews too -- they're full of bad attempts at being witty and clever. They say NOTHING about the movie.

I haven't seen anything related to sleep tracking with the AppleWatch.

 

[Piggie]

Yeah, it's pretty but it makes my skin break out in a rash and it only tells the time and doesn't adjust itself when I fly to another time zone so it's nearly useless to me. That's why I'm getting an Apple Watch.

My worry is what it says about you.

If I saw you wearing THAT watch I'd think positive things, nice to talk to.

If I saw you with the Apple watch, I'd probably instantly think. God I bet she's an utter pain, needing to keep updated on her social media every few seconds, can't stand to have any nice quiet time.

Perhaps wrongly, but that's the initial impression.

 

[laurim]

My worry is what it says about you.

If I saw you wearing THAT watch I'd think positive things, nice to talk to.

If I saw you with the Apple watch, I'd probably instantly think. God I bet she's an utter pain, needing to keep updated on her social media every few seconds, can't stand to have any nice quiet time.

Perhaps wrongly, but that's the initial impression.

If you are that shallow and judgmental, I don't have a problem with you not talking to me