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Apple Watch Sport's Display With Ion-X Glass Outperforms Sapphire Models in Bright Lighting
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My SS is very easy to read in the direct sunlight. Maybe they accidentally released a few defective one.
The way I like to see it is that the sapphire is more reflective in the sunlight, but shows off how perfect it still looks after some use and abuse
on weight -- while heavier, you really cannot tell that the Watch is 20g heavier than the Sport. once you put it on and wear, it vanishes from thought. and i havent worn a watch in 20 years.
define "better"? the glass model scratches much more easily than the sapphire model.
Thing I've noticed about all those videos is they rand to focus on hardness and tell you "x is harder than y, therefore y cannot scratch x". Y doesn't have to be harder than x to scratch it, you may have noticed this with water and stone.
That said, I think most fine scratches are in the coatings, not the glass itself.
I have the Sport and I live in the UK, a land not known for its blinding sun, and the screen is difficult to read outside on sunny days. This is the main area for improvement with the Apple Watch I think, though I doubt it's an area that will see significant improvement.
no need to redefine physics, use of anti-reflective coatings on sapphire watch glasses is hardly a new technique and it is very effective
ar coatings are not as hard as sapphire, but they are hard enough that my navitimer is still unscratched after many years of daily wear and plenty of knocks and bumps
How is this surprising at all? It should be clear to anyone with a basic understanding of optics that this happens with Sapphire.
thought so as well, just before i had my lumbago and crawled around on all fours and somehow made a big, fat scratch in my iphone 5s screen. it was probably in the same pocket as a cigarette lighter. on my old iphone 4, dropping it through a hole in my pocket while running and having it slide display down for a couple of meters on a gravel road did the trick. lots of parallel micro-scratches (but still only visible in bright light). with the watch - just play a bit with a toddler on the beach or in a sandbox, wearing the watch.
You seriously put all that stuff in a single pocket?
So let me aid in your "understanding" with a question: Do you wear your iPhone on your wrist, where it sticks out and is exposed to all sorts of trauma?
There's zero mystery here. I've never, ever had a scratch or ding on the screen of any of my iPods, iPhones or iPads. But I had my sport watch for two weeks before a significant scratch appeared out of nowhere. I guess I should have stuck the watch in my pocket instead of my wrist.
I guess none of those watches had an OLED (or LCD) screen beneath the sapphire crystal:
Displaymate said:
Also, this is a) a photographic picture (vs. real world appearance) that has b) been severely overexposed to (more clearly) show the difference between the two surfaces.
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Washed out like what? I've read the report, and nowhere does it say anything was "washed out".
On all those Sapphire crystal watches, did you happen to compare them with the same model that had ion glass? Did you do it in -DIRECT SUNLIGHT-?
There are always trade-offs between competing products. For a watch, where it's generally glance-based viewing, screen reflectance is likely going to be less of an issue. Especially compared to screen scratches, where the sapphire will survive significantly more abuse than the ion-x glass ever could. My sapphire faced watch, 10+ years old, has no visible scratches, even though the stainless body is about as abused as it could be. At one point a few years ago, I was working on my car and had a huge mark across the front of the watch (along with a nice cut on my hand and arm). I thought I totally gouged the glass, but I was able to just scrape the "scratch" off using a straight edge razor. I do notice some glare with my watch, but it's driven mostly by the fact that the face of the dial is stainless, so there isn't any color difference between body and face.
I have to say I don't have a hard time reading my Apple Watch in the sunlight (or other well-lit areas)... At least no more than I do on my Omegas. Nor do I have a hard time reading my Apple Watch Sport I bought for dev purposes in the sunlight either. If they are side by side I'm sure I'd notice... but not during actual use.
I was surprised that my Apple Watch Sport doesn't have a single scratch on it (glass or case) after taking down three trees damaged in a storm a few weeks ago. Wore my Sport the whole day and I thought "for sure I finally scratch this thing all up and it was worth it to get the Watch for daily use". Nope. I didn't go out of my way to try and damage it, but with all the dust, dirt, flying limbs, etc that was kicked up I thought I would have put at least 1 or 2 scratches on it. I could pass it off as new to even the most eagle-eyed scratch spotter.
I'm slowly finding out that I could have saved myself the money and just got two Sports... and invested the savings in a trim saw instead of using a machete to take off the smaller limbs
I will also wear my Sport when I split the wood in the fall. I'm interested seeing if the sport band can take a weekend of ax swinging. (I don't know why but I just love splitting wood with a quality ax. I have to bring an egg timer out with me so I know when to take breaks.)
I was surprised that my Apple Watch Sport doesn't have a single scratch on it (glass or case) after taking down three trees damaged in a storm a few weeks ago. Wore my Sport the whole day and I thought "for sure I finally scratch this thing all up and it was worth it to get the Watch for daily use". Nope. I didn't go out of my way to try and damage it, but with all the dust, dirt, flying limbs, etc that was kicked up I thought I would have put at least 1 or 2 scratches on it. I could pass it off as new to even the most eagle-eyed scratch spotter.
I'm slowly finding out that I could have saved myself the money and just got two Sports... and invested the savings in a trim saw instead of using a machete to take off the smaller limbs
I will also wear my Sport when I split the wood in the fall. I'm interested seeing if the sport band can take a weekend of ax swinging. (I don't know why but I just love splitting wood with a quality ax. I have to bring an egg timer out with me so I know when to take breaks.)
This difference is of no practical significance. I've had mild difficulty seeing the screen in bright sunlight once or twice, and it would have hardly made a difference with the Sport model.