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Apple Watch Review Roundup: The 'World's Best Smartwatch', But 'Not For Everyone'

I'm glad to see all the people reading the reviews and not buying the watch right away....that means I have a better shot on Friday morning on my preorder.
 
SMIDG3T said:
Ha, funny. Did you read Re/code's review? Here some on battery life:

"One day this past week, I woke up at 5:15 am, exercised for an hour using the Watch, ran Maps during my commute, made phones calls and received notifications throughout the whole day, and by 11:00 pm the Watch was just hitting its Power Reserve point."

Yep. Just rubbish battery life. 18 hours is useless.
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Compared to the Pebble that battery life is pretty bad. Compared to normal watches that battery life is terrible.

I mean we're not going to sit here and say 18 hour battery life is an upgrade over 6 months on a normal watch or 7 days on a pebble are we? Lets be real here, charging is an inconvenience and if you forget to charge your Apple watch even once before you go to bed you will be wearing a dead paperweight the next day at work.
 
Quu said:
Mine too. I'm now questioning the whole device category to be honest. That notification thing was painful to watch in their video. Almost makes me glad I can just leave my phone in my pocket on silent and not be instantly taken out of the moment when new ones come in allowing me to just check all of them at my leisure in one go later on.
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Ever heard of changing settings?
 
OllyW said:
As I remember they were positive with some reservations. A bit like these Watch reviews. :)
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I'm not sure I'll be buying one but I can see the possibilities and I think once the product is more mature it will be really great.
 
I can't get over the "now I don't have to fumble around for my phone!" review. As if using a smartphone was cumbersome.
 
I thought this was a parody video...

All viewers please forward to the 8 minute mark. There begins the most hilarious, unintentional parody of online fashion editors. The "vocal-burn" stylings of these people is insanely funny! I mean, like, OMG! They are like pirates on downers... RRRrrrrrr......
 
This is exactly what I planned on doing, sleeping with the watch on and charging when I wake up. It's not clear if this review was for the 38mm or 42mm. If it's the 38, then I'll have no problem doing it this way even with heavy use.

Rogifan said:
Some more info on battery life from a Kantar review:

http://us.kantar.com/tech/mobile/2015/apple-watch-sneak-peek/
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I use it as my alarm clock, as I did with the Pebble, so I wear the Apple Watch at night. I tend to charge it either before I go to bed, while I'm either reading or watching TV/tablet, or first thing in the morning as I get ready.
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I can see a lot of buyers remorse coming up on this forum in a couple of weeks, it's good that there's always plenty of people ready to part with their cash on the first model so we can hear about all the problems.
 
OllyW said:
Yeah, I'm disappointed Hodinkee and ablogtoWatch haven't posted reviews.
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I wonder if they will fill the traditional AnandTech role of the most thorough and useful reviews, and the last ones out. I'm surprised Apple didn't send them early review units. Most of the reviews so far have been "buy the Sport if you are an Apple fan, but otherwise wait for Gen 2." A watch blog is less likely to be phased by the pricing.
 
Rogifan said:
In what ways exactly is the Verge partial to Apple?
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They're not, but that's one of those reverse psychology plays, "Hey, the most negative review is from the biggest Apple fans, so it must be more ... negative-er" :D


azentropy said:
The Sport version is basically a matte finish
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Yeah, it certainly looks like it and certainly, unpolished aluminum is basically going to look like a MBP surface. That's why I'm kind of starting to dig the silver sport finish :)
 
WrQth said:
Ever heard of changing settings?
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Yeah I'll turn everything off on the watch except the time and then I'll own a £599 version of the £29 Casio I can get down the market.

Very wise advice.
 
Am I the only one that find the UI ugly and confusing judging from the verge video?

It looks nothing like Ios and OSX; which is weird because they have overall been transforming there software to a more flat and clean feel. The watch UI looks black, cartoonish and over all looks like something of a 80's porn shop sign.

Also looks like its hugely slow at the moment.
 
Rogifan said:
I'm not sure I'll be buying one but I can see the possibilities and I think once the product is more mature it will be really great.
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Is that based on the reviews? You've been pretty active on the Watch forums. I'm still planning to get the 38mm space black stainless steel.
 
Nilay's review was a bit of a buzzkill but I'm still going to buy one. I want another fitness tracker to replace my broken Up band and now can't see spending $100+ on JUST a fitness tracker when I get an Apple Watch that has more potential with apps and such.

Plus, I like the way it looks. 38mm Sport please :cool:
 
Does anyone feel that smartwatches will be more appealing when they can stand on there one without needing to be tethered (albiet wirelessly) to your phone. If i happen to forget my phone at home but have my watch on i can atleast get through the day. They are cool extensions, but it gets brought up always that why have this when my phone already does this. Smartwatches should be extensions in the sense that if the phone isnt present its okay i can do most of what i would anyway. From a business standpoint it makes sense to keep them limited from being fully standalone because it may create a market where a standalone smartwatch maybe enough for people and cut into what would otherwise be a phone sale aswell which comes with alot of tiein to other purchases (apps and other accessories). But if smartwatches are to be a category and be for apple be the next big product line it needs to stand on its own and the requirement of the phone be it the apple watch or watch from other manufacturers is a heavy con for many i feel.
 
And once again I find myself depressed. Oh not by the Apple Watch, the reviews show it does pretty much what Apple said it would do and that's enough for me to plonk down my cash. No, it's the state of tech review web sites that depresses me.

Look through these reviews and the vast majority are desperately trying to create a wider narrative around the Watch rather than reviewing the product. "First device under Tim Cook", "First with both hardware and software designed by Ive", "Apple rumored to be entering the car market" (uh... nope, no idea how that's relevant) and so on. There's a focus on what it can't do which is fair enough... if it's relevant to the device.

The Verge review comes off particularly poorly in that regard. Nilay complaining about a lack of customization of the taptic engine and listing it as a one of the three bad points. Really? I mean, I get that you may want that feature but if that's one of the three big problems you can find I'd suggest you're struggling slightly. For that matter not reviewing the milanese loop purely because you didn't like the look seems a bit... childish somehow? Of course all reviews are nothing more than personal opinion but surely an attempt should be made to at least slightly reach beyond your own preferences?

Which, of course, is the main issue with Apple Watch (and, indeed, most wearables). They're personal devices and bought based on personal preference. They're not 'necessary' in the same way a smartphone is to the majority of users and likely never will be as the screen size is a limitation that'll be hard to get around. For most people considering Apple's offering you just need to know if it works... and the answer seems to be yes. A few glitches, nothing showstopping which you'd expect from a gen 1 product and which will likely get ironed out. If you find that to be a problem then hang on for a while and see what happens. Of course that doesn't generate those vital hits so you get overblown, self-important pieces that seem to exist solely to generate page hits in the comment section... ah well, nothing new there then.
 
KPOM said:
Is that based on the reviews? You've been pretty active on the Watch forums. I'm still planning to get the 38mm space black stainless steel.
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Nope not based on reviews. Based on priorities. But hey I might get swayed when I see one in an Apple store. :)

Ben Bajarin has been very positive about the Watch on Twitter this morning. He is typically pro-Apple of course. But that's what Apple needs to be out there in terms of PR. Seems like right now The Verge review is getting all the attention.
 
gnipgnop said:
Saying that "you don't need one" is a cop out in terms of a criticism. You could truthfully say that about 99% of the consumer products on the market.
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This.

I'm still going to get one at some point. People maybe wouldn't try this hugely painstakingly put together product because it's not an absolute complete must-have that you just can't live without at all according to some people? Ok....
 
Narcaz said:
I don't know if you can get passed the setup screen without a compatible iPhone. You certainly won't be able to install apps and music, because this requires the Apple Watch App from the iPhone.
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You are correct. I spoke to an Apple Store employee, who just completed training, and you can not use the watch at all without setting it up with an iPhone 5 or newer. It won't even tell time.
 
Quu said:
Yeah I'll turn everything off on the watch except the time and then I'll own a £599 version of the £29 Casio I can get down the market.

Very wise advice.
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It's not Windows UAC where it is either on or off, you can change it so certain people defined as VIP will notify you but all the other junk won't.
 
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