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Apple Watch Series 3 Reviews: Freedom From iPhone Held Back by LTE and Battery Life Concerns

Ilikechainrestaurants said:
I don't have it yet, but here is why I bought it:
1) I like notifications on my wrist. FitBit does it, Garmin does it, I assume Apple Watch does it more robustly.
2) Guys in my office keep their phones in their briefcase on the go and monitor things on the watch - I like that.
3) Friends I travel with talk about using the nav in strange cities, thereby not having to stare at a phone walking down the street
4) workout tracking.

As an aside, that Goode article is absolutely obnoxious. That's probably more a critique of the millennial tech blog writing style anyway, but condemning Apple for not explaining why Apple Music streaming won't be out until October, when they tell you that upfront? It's bizarre, and way too much Vox influence is ruining the Verge.
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Seriously one of the best handle's I've ever seen.
 
Watch OS 4 is OK, but the card based Dock.. What a mess.. Its awful. The last dock was clean and crisp. they should have just changed the scroll directions instead of overlapping everything.. Same for Siri watch face.. a total mess..

I would like some more real watch faces instead of the childish crap they are adding.
 
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ILuvEggplant said:
I'll say it again if you are a serious athlete you don't use an apple watch.

You may not have one at all but if you do 9 times out ten it's a reliable Garmin.

Just hit the track my friends. Go to a marathon my buddies. Check out a triathlon guys.

No apple watch .
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There are many many other physical demanding sports/hobbies that are more demanding than a triathlon.
Saying a serious athlete is only that is crap
 
avanpelt said:
The Apple Watch was designed initially as a "companion" device to the iPhone, and I think it should largely remain as such. I can't imagine spending even half a day relying on the watch for anything other than my heartbeat and activity information.

Trying to send a text message on the Series 2 is absolutely maddening if Siri doesn't hear every single word accurately. Unlike on the phone, there's no way to go back and correct some of the stupid things Siri transcribes on the watch. I've pulled out my phone in frustration and typed the text out more times than I can count. Having to repeat a text message three different times so Siri *hopefully* will eventually get it correct is not a time saver.
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Whatever works for you, but I don't really need to know my heart rate at all times. Unless someone has a condition like afib etc. (for which they are probably already on a monitor of some kind, or a pacemaker, etc.) I don't understand this, at all. It seems to be a manufactured "need" that doesn't really exist.

I also know what my activity information is because I was there and I remember what I did.

I never use Siri to send messages, and hardly use it at all anyway because it's unreliable. Try Alexa/Echo sometime and you'll never want to use Siri again. Also, I don't really ever want anyone around me to overhear what messages I'm sending. The only time that would be useful is in the car, but again I don't need a watch for that.

I do not understand this product and it looks like Apple doesn't either.
 
xalea said:
Whatever works for you, but I don't really need to know my heart rate at all times. Unless someone has a condition like afib etc. (for which they are probably already on a monitor of some kind, or a pacemaker, etc.) I don't understand this, at all. It seems to be a manufactured "need" that doesn't really exist.

I also know what my activity information is because I was there and I remember what I did.

I never use Siri to send messages, and hardly use it at all anyway because it's unreliable. Try Alexa/Echo sometime and you'll never want to use Siri again. Also, I don't really ever want anyone around me to overhear what messages I'm sending. The only time that would be useful is in the car, but again I don't need a watch for that.

I do not understand this product and it looks like Apple doesn't either.
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I have four echo dots and Alexa sucks. Especially with smart devices like Philips hue. I only went all in so that I can control the stuff in my house with my voice from all the main rooms. It chimes in even you're not addressing it. It doesn't hear you when you are. And when it does, it misunderstands you.
 
HacKage said:
"In my usual day, that meant by the time my Watch was back on a charger at night, it still had around 70 per cent battery left"

Used 30% in a day? Either his day is 12pm-5pm, or he left it in a drawer for most of the day and didn't use it.
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Not really. I use my Series 2 42mm every day and even with a one hour run using GPS I still have over 50% battery at the end of the day.
 
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Damn looks like I'm still not going to upgrade my Apple Watch O.G.

I've had it almost 2.5 years. Think I'll wait for next year's model too Lol.
 
My Gear 3 LTE works fine while untethered from my Note 8. Battery life is still 80% on my Gear by the time I go to bed at 10 PM. Does Apple not test their products in the real world before launch?
 
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ILuvEggplant said:
I'll say it again if you are a serious athlete you don't use an apple watch.

You may not have one at all but if you do 9 times out ten it's a reliable Garmin.

Just hit the track my friends. Go to a marathon my buddies. Check out a triathlon guys.

No apple watch .
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Don’t know how much you need to work out to be a serious athlete in your book, but running my third marathon in 2017 - all thee with my S2 and it’s been amazing.
 
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To focus on talk time is really dumbfounding. Since when did people start talking on their iPhones all of a sudden? I never viewed the watch as a main device for talking to people, let alone as an all day communications device. I think most people viewed LTE as a nice to have for those times when it's more convenient to be without their iPhones, like jogging, exercising, etc.

That said, Apple should have been more clear about the use case for LTE and battery life in their keynote for those who weren't clear about today's cellular/battery limitations. I'm pretty sure everyone would have understood.
 
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LTE wasn’t why I bought it. It was just an extra to a well needed update from a S0 and I didn’t want to not have the feature if I ever choose to turn it on later. I’m ok waiting for the fix to this, and since I’m on betas most of the time it will come sooner, rather than later.
 
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Blizzardman said:
Stern added that "you're lucky if the battery allows you to roam on cellular for longer than half a day--especially if you're making calls."

Wait a second she is surprised the watch died when she was using LTE for HALF THE DAY? I’m shocked sometimes how these people are able to hold jobs as tech journalists.
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Nowadays, apparently you can simply tout an iPhone and claim that you're a "techie." There are too many "journalists" today that obviously don't know deeply about tech writing articles about tech.

Having said that, I'm still surprised why Apple put LTE on the watch knowing that battery life will be hugely affected. I wonder if there werebpressures from carriers for Apple to release something where the carriers can piggyback for some revenue.
 
LTE on a watch is a nice feature to have but I certainly didn't order mine or the ones for my family with the idea we would be conducting long text or phone conversations or streaming hours of music on them. I expect we will in fact be turning it off until we need it. Most of the time our phones will be with us. For the brief hour or two or even three that we may need to rely on cellular connectivity through the watch alone, the power should suffice.

The Verge article was pretty good at telling me what I wanted to know. It was just the tone and hint of snark that I found unnecessary to a technical review. Just tell me the facts and I'll be the one to decide if the device meets my wants and needs. I don't need to have the information colored with a few choice comments here and there to try and make up my mind for me. But that's how I like my tech reviews to be. Other people may appreciate help making up their minds. It depends on one's level of interest and familiarity with the product type, I guess.
 
Hi xalea!

xalea said:
I really don't understand the point of this product. I never have. I'm perfectly capable of walking/exercising whatever with my phone on me. I can't believe there are that many wave surfers in the world to warrant having the biggest company in the world create a product for that particular market. It's just another device to have to charge, keep up with, fiddle around with, etc.
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I'll try to explain it from my perspective.

If you own a "Plus" size iPhone like I do and you enjoy running for exercise, try running with that big clunky/heavy phone while streaming music to bluetooth headphones and you'll understand the interest.

For now I stick with my Shuffle with wired headphones and my iTunes Library. However, iWatch + Bluetooth headphones + Spotify streaming (or equivalent) will be a massive useability upgrade for me - seeing daily use if it works. Soooo interesting! And that's just my music playback interest, not even including the integrated HRM + GPS stuff! Based on other comments here, there's a lot of us looking at it that way. Phone calls on my watch sound cool, but that's less interesting to my planned use cases.

-Jack
 
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:( First the iPhone 8 & iPhone 8 Plus pre-orders were underwhelming and now the Apple Watch 3 is awful?!

What is going on over at Apple & with Tim Cook??!!
 
Good for emergency communications. So glad Apple are spending time on this rather than a Mac Pro. /s
 
Weird to be relieved they released an inferior product I have no desire to "upgrade to".

I've got a white ceramic Series 2 that lasts 3-4 days even with 100+ notifications/day so trading that for a nearly identical watch that has an altimeter and gets 18 hours if I don't use it seems like a dumb move.
 
OK, Apple, get to working on that car. And it better work without me having to carry my iPhone while driving it.
 
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Unless you're a serious runner, swimmer, rower or biker, the 4G LTE watch is a tremendous waste of $$. You always have your phone on you, so why would you pay $10/mo for an added device to your data plan? You'll pay the value of the watch in monthly charges over the course of 3 years!
 
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Jack Shaftoe said:
Hi xalea!



I'll try to explain it from my perspective.

If you own a "Plus" size iPhone like I do and you enjoy running for exercise, try running with that big clunky/heavy phone while streaming music to bluetooth headphones and you'll understand the interest.

For now I stick with my Shuffle with wired headphones and my iTunes Library. However, iWatch + Bluetooth headphones + Spotify streaming (or equivalent) will be a massive useability upgrade for me - seeing daily use if it works. Soooo interesting! And that's just my music playback interest, not even including the integrated HRM + GPS stuff! Based on other comments here, there's a lot of us looking at it that way. Phone calls on my watch sound cool, but that's less interesting to my planned use cases.

-Jack
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Sounds like a review that evaluates that use case would be useful for a lot of people. I'm sure some will be forthcoming eventually. What kind of battery life are you hoping to get?
 
The verge always gives Apple products bad reviews so I can care less about their videos. Then again what dumbass expects to have LTE in the middle of the ocean? She should of checked to see if she has lte on her phone to see if perhaps lte has issues on watch.
 
I was considering trading in my Series 2 watch as I stupidly bought it before the 3 came out...only considering the GPS version...I can still do calls and not have the extra expense of $10 a month. I am still on the fence of the upgrade...leaning towards just keeping the S2. Any thoughts? The watch is less than a month old.
 
ILuvEggplant said:
I'll say it again if you are a serious athlete you don't use an apple watch.

You may not have one at all but if you do 9 times out ten it's a reliable Garmin.

Just hit the track my friends. Go to a marathon my buddies. Check out a triathlon guys.

No apple watch .
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Well, I agree and disagree (I think we discussed this before on a Watch thread LOL).

I consider myself a pretty serious athlete (just did a half-iron distance triathlon that took 6.5 hours using an Apple Watch).

Though I do agree that at these triathlons or marathons, almost everyone is using a Garmin or TomTom watch of some sort (I used to use those as well before the Apple Watch launched).
 
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