Apple Watch SE opinions thread!

[Floof]

Obviously the Series 6 is a big star of the show but I think the SE is a great option too.

I got one a few days ago and love it so far! The battery is great, most features are there and it’s all around a solid watch! I didn’t care for the always on display and I didn’t need an ECG and Blood Oxygen meter personally and I was surprised how nice the watch is.

Anyone else got one? Do you guys love it too? What do you guys think of your experience with the SE?

 

[mgscheue]

My first Apple Watch. I was on the fence about getting one because I questioned the utility and very much like “real” watches, of which I have quite a few, but I’m liking it. The best thing so far is not needing to take my phone out of my pocket so often.
I’m glad I got it.

 

[Floof]

My first Apple Watch. I was on the fence about getting one because I questioned the utility and very much like “real” watches, of which I have quite a few, but I’m liking it. The best thing so far is not needing to take my phone out of my pocket so often.
I’m glad I got it.

Glad you like it! Which colour and strap did you go for?

 

[mgscheue]

Glad you like it! Which colour and strap did you go for?

Thank you! It’s a 40 mm Space Gray with the Cyprus green sport band. Thinking about getting a solo loop, too. You?

 

[Floof]

Thank you! It’s a 40 mm Space Gray with the Cyprus green sport band. Thinking about getting a solo loop, too. You?

The Cyprus green sport band looks lovely! Gives me forest vibes, perfect for autumn!
I heard a lot of good things about the solo loop which one would you go for?

I got the 40mm Gold with a Pink Sand sport band! I’m thinking of getting the braided solo loop, but I’ve also ordered some bands off eBay to give them a go. They were cheap enough to take the risk I heard some having really good experiences!

 

[mgscheue]

Yours sounds really nice! Great color combo.

I just ordered the deep navy solo loop!

 

[Floof]

Yours sounds really nice! Great color combo.

I just ordered the deep navy solo loop!

Glad to hear that! I hope you enjoy it! Make sure to give your thoughts on it! I believe there is a thread around for talking about the solo loops for when you get one! Link

 

[Secubia]

I got the SE yesterday and so far I'm happy about it. My previous watch was the S3 but I haven't used it in a year or so because I switched to Android phone and Fitbit. I still have my old iPhone SE 1st gen, and I wanted the watch so bad I decided to start using the iPhone again.

I wanted to have it the same day so picked a model that was in stock near me - Silver 40mm GPS only with white sport band. I'm likely to get the sport loop eventually as I remember it being very comfortable to wear. I gave the S3 and my old bands to my sister so unfortunately I no longer have them.

My first impressions of the SE (I'm comparing to my old S3 as well as the Fitbit that I've been using lately):

Amazing display, and the watch is so snappy and ui feels smooth compared to the S3 on earlier watchOS.
Siri has gotten a lot better also, I find it very useful.
Battery life is still not good though. I charged it to 92% before bedtime and woke up with 63%.
Sleep tracking didn't provide much detail.
Love the mp3 music storage feature - the new Fitbits (Versa 3 and Sense) don't have that. That feature alone + the GPS very much affected my decision to go Apple Watch again since I already had an iPhone lying around.

It's very reasonably priced, you get a lot of features, it feels modern and not "budget" at all. I'm happy about my purchase!

 

[Floof]

I got the SE yesterday and so far I'm happy about it. My previous watch was the S3 but I haven't used it in a year or so because I switched to Android phone and Fitbit. I still have my old iPhone SE 1st gen, and I wanted the watch so bad I decided to start using the iPhone again.

I wanted to have it the same day so picked a model that was in stock near me - Silver 40mm GPS only with white sport band. I'm likely to get the sport loop eventually as I remember it being very comfortable to wear. I gave the S3 and my old bands to my sister so unfortunately I no longer have them.

My first impressions of the SE (I'm comparing to my old S3 as well as the Fitbit that I've been using lately):

Amazing display, and the watch is so snappy and ui feels smooth compared to the S3 on earlier watchOS.
Siri has gotten a lot better also, I find it very useful.
Battery life is still not good though. I charged it to 92% before bedtime and woke up with 63%.
Sleep tracking didn't provide much detail.
Love the mp3 music storage feature - the new Fitbits (Versa 3 and Sense) don't have that. That feature alone + the GPS very much affected my decision to go Apple Watch again since I already had an iPhone lying around.

It's very reasonably priced, you get a lot of features, it feels modern and not "budget" at all. I'm happy about my purchase!

I am glad you are enjoying the watch!
On the battery, I think you should troubleshoot it as it doesn't seem like normal battery usage, my SE only goes down 10-15% in my sleep, without flight mode turned on. It is also really possible you might be turning it on accidentally in your sleep, happens to some. Have you tried auto sleep? That is what I use, it costs £3.99 for one time only and provides a lot of good insight into your sleep. It also doesn't drain battery because you don't even need the watch app installed! The iPhone uses data the watch sends to it, and then the app uses it on the phone.
I agree the watch definitely feels smooth especially for how tiny it is haha I also find the workout feature really useful, it's helped me a lot with pushing myself in my workouts.

 

[Secubia]

I am glad you are enjoying the watch!
On the battery, I think you should troubleshoot it as it doesn't seem like normal battery usage, my SE only goes down 10-15% in my sleep, without flight mode turned on. It is also really possible you might be turning it on accidentally in your sleep, happens to some. Have you tried auto sleep? That is what I use, it costs £3.99 for one time only and provides a lot of good insight into your sleep. It also doesn't drain battery because you don't even need the watch app installed! The iPhone uses data the watch sends to it, and then the app uses it on the phone.
I agree the watch definitely feels smooth especially for how tiny it is haha I also find the workout feature really useful, it's helped me a lot with pushing myself in my workouts.

Thanks a lot for the tips, I'll definitely look into it! Regarding the battery issue, maybe I didn't turn on the sleep mode properly, or I have an app updating something in the night. Maybe it was just because it was its first night on my wrist. I'll see if it sorts itself out tonight, otherwise I'll do some more troubleshooting tomorrow. 🙂

 

[satinsilverem2]

I upgraded from S3 42mm, here are my thoughts so far

1. I love the display. the size increase is definitely noticeable and I love the new complications.
2. battery life has been about the same for me as my S3 but that was great so no complaints.
3. its much faster than the S3 was so im finding myself using apps on the watch much more often than I used to.
4. im not missing the s6 features (ECG, blood pressure) as I have health anxiety as is so I dont need any more metrics adding to that haha

All in all it is a great upgrade for me. I was getting frustrated with the slowness of the S3. The main reason I upgraded was because of the S3 storage bug and I was tired of having to unpair to update the software.

 

[zemacs]

Was asked about the SE vs the Series 3, so the main takeaways from this thread seems to be
- amazing display
- more storage (32Gb vs 8Gb)
- speed (processor upgrade + watchos 7 factor)


What about GPS tracking / accuracy? Heard that the SE may have some accuracy issues whilst running.

 

[satinsilverem2]

Was asked about the SE vs the Series 3, so the main takeaways from this thread seems to be
- amazing display
- more storage (32Gb vs 8Gb)
- speed (processor upgrade + watchos 7 factor)


What about GPS tracking / accuracy? Heard that the SE may have some accuracy issues whilst running.

I went for a run last night and I found it to be on par or slightly better than the S3.

 

[Secubia]

I got the SE yesterday and so far I'm happy about it. My previous watch was the S3 but I haven't used it in a year or so because I switched to Android phone and Fitbit. I still have my old iPhone SE 1st gen, and I wanted the watch so bad I decided to start using the iPhone again.

I wanted to have it the same day so picked a model that was in stock near me - Silver 40mm GPS only with white sport band. I'm likely to get the sport loop eventually as I remember it being very comfortable to wear. I gave the S3 and my old bands to my sister so unfortunately I no longer have them.

My first impressions of the SE (I'm comparing to my old S3 as well as the Fitbit that I've been using lately):

Amazing display, and the watch is so snappy and ui feels smooth compared to the S3 on earlier watchOS.
Siri has gotten a lot better also, I find it very useful.
Battery life is still not good though. I charged it to 92% before bedtime and woke up with 63%.
Sleep tracking didn't provide much detail.
Love the mp3 music storage feature - the new Fitbits (Versa 3 and Sense) don't have that. That feature alone + the GPS very much affected my decision to go Apple Watch again since I already had an iPhone lying around.

It's very reasonably priced, you get a lot of features, it feels modern and not "budget" at all. I'm happy about my purchase!

Just thought I'd mention that my battery life did improve. Starting the second night the battery has consistently dropped about 15% charge during sleep tracking which I find acceptable. I charge it in the evening before bedtime and don't have to charge at all during the morning which fits my routine just fine. It has now been 20 hours since I took it off the charger and my battery is currently at 49%.

 

[MacAndMic]

I bought an SE yesterday. 44, Space Grey, Black Sport Band. I am coming from a Fitbit Versa 2. The Fitbit was my "cheap" way into health and exercise monitoring and I was not sure if I'd like it as I do not like wearing watches. Fast forward, well, I've lost 20 lbs. the last 3 months and I feel great! I even bought an Echelon Exercise Bike, so I guess it has become part of my routine.

There is a small pattern here, I bought what I felt was the bang for the buck health monitoring watch and the best bang for the buck exercise bike and not the top of the line models, ie, AW & Peloton. While the Versa 2 was a great device, since wearing a watch has become part of my daily life, I wanted a little more out of it and create a complete Apple integration so that led me to taking the AW plunge. I did not have a budget so to speak but I felt the SE was the best bang for the buck as well. I knew my needs as I was coming from the Versa 2 and while that did have SP02 ability for sleep purposes, I just didn't get any value out of that metric nor see value in the ECG app at my age and health. Of course from there, did I need cellular? After thinking about it, I'm never without my phone. I suppose if I was a runner, there could definitely be value in that but I went with the non-cellular option.

I am really enjoying it so far. The screen is so much nicer and I don't know how this is possible but the AW is much more comfortable to wear than my Fitibit. I even bought a new band for the Fitbit that I considered comfortable, I guess ignorance is bliss. Once again, coming from a different brand, I'd have to sum it up like this. Fitbit is great device for the person who wants to monitor health and exercise and to track that data, oh, and it has a clock. AW on the other hand is a device that has all kinds of bells and whistles and also tracks health and fitness although I do give Fitbit the nod for having better out of the box and ready to go software that doesn't require buying separate apps for complete function like sleep and calorie tracking.

On the bright side, I gave my daughter the Versa 2. My wife was the first one in the family to buy a Fitbit. Guess what? she started exercising. Intrigued, I followed her lead, you read my results. My son then bought one and now he is exercising and losing some weight so my daughter with my now old Versa 2 I am sure will provide similar results, if not, will provide simple health recognition. Who would think an electronic device would propel someone to get healthier? but they really do work.

 

[davidholliday]

I recently got my wife the 40mm SE and she is loving it, her first Apple Watch.

She isn’t a power user but is enjoying the activities app and the messages over LTE.

I think this model does everything she needs and I’m glad we got it.

 

[Acronyc]

I got a 44mm LTE Apple Watch SE a few weeks ago. It's my first Apple Watch and I got it because I wanted LTE but didn't want to spend too much on my first Apple Watch in case I didn't like it. I'm coming from using Garmin watches for over the past 10 years, and I wanted to have a good month or so with the Apple Watch to see if it could replace my Garmin.

So far I really like it and the pros of the smartwatch features outweigh some of the cons in terms of fitness tracking. The only time I find myself really missing the AOD is while I'm running. I'm not able to run as much as I used to (only about 30km per week), though, so I can deal with this because the Apple Watch is a superior smartwatch to my Garmin vivoactive 3.

It's also so liberating to run without a phone. I love my iPhone 11, but never liked carrying it on my runs. With my AW SE, I have access to my notifications, maps, music, wallet, and I can share my location with my family all without my phone.

I miss some other things from Garmin, like continuous heart rate monitoring, stress level, and sleep tracking, but those are all small things. For sleep tracking I would also recommend AutoSleep as it's pretty good at providing a lot of data.