Apple Watch Series 5 Hands On: Always-On Display is Great, but Otherwise Not Much of an Upgrade

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I see no reason to upgrade from a 3 to this. What's the big deal about the always-on display? Yeah it's nice, I guess, but is it really that difficult to move your wrist to make the screen come on? This is the amazing innovation from Apple now? Geesh.

Plus, what about if I don't want info popping up for everyone to see, if my wrist/arm is pointed away from my face but toward people sitting next to me, in a meeting, etc.? So now we have to turn alerts off or will it not show until you.. move your wrist?

From my experience with Always On Display with Samsung watches, it doesn't work that that. Apple has most likely implemented it in a similar or better fashion. You will not have to worry about you're notifications being visible to the world.

 

[centauratlas]

I would trade AOD in a heartbeat for the ability to go 48 hrs without recharging the watch.

I will be interested in seeing if there is a way to turn the AOD off in order to do that.

 

[^^BIGMac]

So you're going to always have to actually tap the watch face to have it go fully on? That seems strange and adds another step.

If you raise your arm it won't go completely bright?

 

[bunnicula]

This was a surprise. I’d love to get this!

Sometimes my 3 doesn’t turn on when I twist my wrist. It happens enough that it becomes annoying.

My 4 sometimes doesn't do it, either. It's gotten worse over time and it's damned annoying.

I'm upgrading my watch because I've wanted it not to look like an empty, black face for a long time now.

 

[manu chao]

Keeping my S4. I don't want a AOD, I'd look like a Christmas tree when in bars or walking in the dark.

There is always theater mode.

 

[Jeremy1026]

Surely there will be—and imagine the battery life with the display off.

According to Apple the screen refresh rate can drop to 1HZ, which is likely when it’s in idle-on display mode. With the backlight dimmed, and the screen refreshing 1/60th of the time it usually does turning off always on probably doesn’t add a ton of battery life, maybe an hour or two (~2%-4% of actual battery life of the 44mm model).

 

[FamVR]

They are reasonably well hidden. Scroll down until you see what’s shown in the screen cap below.

https://www.apple.com/watch/compare/

When you expand the categories Features, Chip, Display etc. the specs are there....

Cool. Thank you!

Hmm. No Bluetooth 5.1 support. Oh well. Next year I guess.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Cool. Thank you!

Hmm. No Bluetooth 5.1 support. Oh well. Next year I guess.

Yeah I noticed that as well. The rumored trackers would have to be UWB.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

Unless there is a hardware reason I see little reason why AOD could not extend to the Series 4 except $$$$.

I find forced software features that could easily extend to previous hardware generation a little anti-consumer IMO.

 

[gnipgnop]

The "not much of an upgrade" take will inevitably be followed by the "more of an upgrade than first thought" take a couple of months from now.

 

[j_in_tx]

Unless there is a hardware reason I see little reason why AOD could not extend to the Series 4 except $$$$.

I find forced software features that could easily extend to previous hardware generation a little anti-consumer IMO.

but series 5 is a hardware change????

 

[Davelfc]

I'm sticking with my AW4 cellular, even before I saw the insulting £70 trade in offer.

 

[Brenzo]

Got my daily driver S0 at release. Looking forward to the S5 I just ordered.

Same boat over here... I almost pulled trigger last year with Series 4 but ended up buying my wife her first watch instead.

Got tired of running out of battery life on my Series 0 towards end of day, especially if working out, and it's beyond sluggish. Looking forward to new watch faces and WatchOS 6 as well.

 

[Jmausmuc]

I’m sticking with the S4 because I don’t want to spend money every year but this is a bigger upgrade than some make it out to be.

I would even argue it’s the second biggest upgrade ever to the Apple Watch (S4 being the biggest).

instead of everyone running around with a black square on their wrist, now each and every watch will be customized and everyone can see it.

looking forward to the S6 with hopefully a thinner design + always on display.

 

[J.Gallardo]

Finally! I don’t even use an Apple Watch but I was tired of seeing douchey blank black squares on people’s wrists. At least now it will look like a freaking watch!

Very happy with my PebbleTime: always on display since 2017.
I don't understand why the "color e-paper" is not used anymore. Perhaps Apple implements it again, so watch battery could last for days.
It's the feeling, the aspect, the look, the use... By the way, notifications and info is presented in a much more discreet way.
Also, the "natural" behaviour of the e-paper (or e-ink, can't remember) is quite nice; at least, e-book users (& reviewers) used to remark it...

 

[switz]

Started with an aluminum iWatch v3 and stainless steel Melanese band that is infinitely adjustable as my wrist size changes during the day. Jumped on the bandwagon for v4 when I found I could reuse my existing watch band. May do so again with v5 as I would expect the form factor might change next year. I do travel internationally and having the SOS feature would be nice. However, I will let the early adopters find out all about the constant on screen and displaying personal details like the activity or exercise icons.

This morning I burned thru 47% of my battery in two hours and forty minutes while seated at my desk. So back on the charger it goes before I leave the house.

 

[ZeuSGoKiL]

I will be interested in seeing if there is a way to turn the AOD off in order to do that.

you mean it. cant be turn off ??
Whammm

 

[Vincebus-Maximus]

It's a big deal when I'm on the treadmill. And the larger screen size, too. I'm farsighted. Not going to wear reading glasses during activities. I can just barely see my watch when I'm running. Always on + bigger screen = big deal for me.

I see no reason to upgrade from a 3 to this. What's the big deal about the always-on display? Yeah it's nice, I guess, but is it really that difficult to move your wrist to make the screen come on? This is the amazing innovation from Apple now? Geesh.

Plus, what about if I don't want info popping up for everyone to see, if my wrist/arm is pointed away from my face but toward people sitting next to me, in a meeting, etc.? So now we have to turn alerts off or will it not show until you.. move your wrist?

 

[techno-Zen]

I personally don't get the charm behind AOD. I like the raise to wake feature.

I mean you technically need to raise it to light up the screen anyways. So what's the point?

I don't find the S4 screen wake to be slow in any way

 

[ABHolt]

I've been wearing traditional, analog watches for years and my hold off for the Apple Watch is looking at a blank black square on my wrist. Now with the AOD it looks more like a traditional watch. i'll bite on this watch

 

[nburwell]

The always on display is definitely nice. But I'm keeping my Series 4. The Series 5 is probably a good upgrade for those with Series 3 and earlier AW's.

 

[rjbruce]

I see no reason to upgrade from a 3 to this. What's the big deal about the always-on display? Yeah it's nice, I guess, but is it really that difficult to move your wrist to make the screen come on? This is the amazing innovation from Apple now? Geesh.

Plus, what about if I don't want info popping up for everyone to see, if my wrist/arm is pointed away from my face but toward people sitting next to me, in a meeting, etc.? So now we have to turn alerts off or will it not show until you.. move your wrist?

If I had a 3, I probably wouldn't upgrade either, but coming from a 1, it's well overdue. I had considered picking up a S4 at a discount, but the AOD is well worth paying full price. I hate to agree with the advertising, but I've wished my face was on in every one of those scenarios they mentioned, a quick glance in a meeting or during a workout. Of course I may also be put off by the fact my S1 sometimes takes 2-3 seconds for the screen to wake and I feel like I have to exaggerate the wrist movement.

Anyway, it's probably one of the main features I am interested in. That and I'm moving to GPS + LTE, so it's a big upgrade in my case. Hopefully, I'll get another 3 years out of it.

 

[recoil80]

I'll stick with my series 4, that was the biggest jump so far as it changed the screen size. Always on is nice to have but I can live without it for another year or two. I'd upgrade from a series 3 or older models without a doubt

 

[dohspc]

Jumped on the bandwagon for v4 when I found I could reuse my existing watch band.

This morning I burned thru 47% of my battery in two hours and forty minutes while seated at my desk. So back on the charger it goes before I leave the house.

Something is wrong if you are loosing that much power. The watch may be disconnecting from the phone on and off again.
[doublepost=1568217936][/doublepost]

I'm sticking with my AW4 cellular, even before I saw the insulting £70 trade in offer.

The trade in values are horrible this year but I want the latest one so I guess I will take their $100 offer. I don't know what is going on? Are low trade in values possibly related tariffs on the Apple Watch or is the market is just saturated with smart watches?

 

[russell_314]

Something is wrong if you are loosing that much power. The watch may be disconnecting from the phone on and off again.
[doublepost=1568217936][/doublepost]

The trade in values are horrible this year but I want the latest one so I guess I will take their $100 offer. I don't know what is going on? Are low trade in values possibly related tariffs on the Apple Watch or is the market is just saturated with smart watches?

Are you streaming music through its cellular connection? I have the Wifi version but I hear when the cellular model has an active connection it burns battery quickly.