AW3 to AW4, but why?

[ivanwi11iams]

Back in June/July, I purchased an AW3.

According to reports, the AW4 is slightly larger, with better battery life, and more options of icons and such on the watch face.

But, as an AW3 user, am I really losing out on anything else?

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Back in June/July, I purchased an AW3.

According to reports, the AW4 is slightly larger, with better battery life, and more options of icons and such on the watch face.

But, as an AW3 user, am I really losing out on anything else?

Not at the moment. If you're in the US, you'll have an ECG app later in the year but if that's not important to you then no, you really don't have much to gain outside aesthetics.

 

[pedregosa]

Better cellular reception if you are an LTE user according to Apple and some early user reports.

 

[Rangers94]

Larger display and faster processor on top of a noticeably thinner casing imo are reason enough to upgrade. Coming from the Series 3 and I find it a huge upgrade.

 

[ivanwi11iams]

Ah, nice to know others have gone from a AW3 to AW4.

In August, I tried the cellular option on my AW3. It was okay, but, I cancelled it after 5 days. To me, it was not really needed (I don't go running - albeit, I should - or do exercise stuff). And to top it off, ATT charged me $30 for connecting the thing. Had I known this at the time, I would have left it on. Only noticed when the bill came a few weeks later. Oh, the pain, and financial pain for 'trying' things.

Larger display and faster processor on top of a noticeably thinner casing imo are reason enough to upgrade. Coming from the Series 3 and I find it a huge upgrade.

 

[nburwell]

Like the OP, I purchased my S3 AW around the same time. For me, the S3 does everything I need it to do. I have the cellular version, but I don't have cellular activated. Battery life has and still is fantastic.

I certainly was tempted when Apple announced the S4. But for me, the S4 doesn't really offer me anything substantial over my S3. Thus, I'll probably wait until the S5 comes out to upgrade. Just my opinion. YMMV.

 

[3460169]

Larger display and faster processor on top of a noticeably thinner casing imo are reason enough to upgrade. Coming from the Series 3 and I find it a huge upgrade.

+1 for this. I just received a series 4 w/ cellular two days ago and the processor and display changes are quite noticeable to justify the upgrade from series 3 w/ cellular for me. (My near-sight is kind of crap and I appreciate the display change in particular.).

 

[akidokraja]

S4 improvements over S3:
Much louder speaker for phone calls
Significantly larger display area
New complications (watch faces) with much more info presented
Much faster cellular handof to watch after iPhone leaves the perimeter
Slightly more fluid/faster
Battery life about the same now on 5.0.1 as it was on S3. Prior to 5.0.1 battery life was 20-30% less than S3

 

[magbarn]

The pic below shows why I upgraded. The screen is much better

 

[dictoresno]

I upgraded to the LTE/GPS series 4 from the series 0. the larger screen, speed and the ability to actually use apps is more than enough for me.

 

[richard371]

I made the jump
1. bigger screen
2. Better optical heart sensor.
3. BT5 make a big deference in communicating with the phone etc
4. Louder speaker
5. Better LTE reception
6. Over all feels faster
7. EKG is pretty cool once its activated
8. Like the new faces but they do need to add the message icon and now playing to them.

 

[gsucyclist]

I also had an AW3. I upgraded mostly for the increased screen size and couldn't be happier. If not for the large screen I would probably have stayed with the Series 3

 

[44267547]

I think the Series 3 and below is fairly dated in terms of the design and it needed a refresh with the Series 4, it’s thinner, the stainless is actually 10% lighter, the display obviously is 30% larger, louder speaker, overall it’s just a much more aesthetically better looking watch in my opinion. The Larger display alone makes everything seem _so_ much more vibrant and alive, especially with the new watch faces, the OLED display looks fantastic.

 

[ivanwi11iams]

I totally understand an upgrade from an AW0, to a AW4...

I upgraded to the LTE/GPS series 4 from the series 0. the larger screen, speed and the ability to actually use apps is more than enough for me.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

It’s better all around, plus you can flash it around so people see you have the latest stuff.

 

[ReardenMetal]

I made the jump
1. bigger screen
2. Better optical heart sensor.
3. BT5 make a big deference in communicating with the phone etc
4. Louder speaker
5. Better LTE reception
6. Over all feels faster
7. EKG is pretty cool once its activated
8. Like the new faces but they do need to add the message icon and now playing to them.

I find it strange that Bluetooth 5 hasn’t gotten more notoriety in reviews. I don’t have it, but my guess is it does dramatically improve communication between the iPhone and watch, which is a source of frustration sometimes on Bluetooth 4.2. Have you noticed a range boost from Bluetooth 5 too?

 

[richard371]

Yes I have noticed a little more range compared to my LTE 3 but the main advantage is the speed. Messages, Maps, everything just flies with BT5.

I find it strange that Bluetooth 5 hasn’t gotten more notoriety in reviews. I don’t have it, but my guess is it does dramatically improve communication between the iPhone and watch, which is a source of frustration sometimes on Bluetooth 4.2. Have you noticed a range boost from Bluetooth 5 too?

 

[urkel]

Back in June/July, I purchased an AW3.

According to reports, the AW4 is slightly larger, with better battery life, and more options of icons and such on the watch face.

But, as an AW3 user, am I really losing out on anything else?

I went from an S1 to an S4.

The screen size is the biggest reason to upgrade. Not because its a bigger screen, but aesthetically the watch details fills the screen better.

That said, everything else has been overblown by the media. The speed is noticeably faster than my S1 but not much faster than the S3. The sound is very loud which is great, but the use scenarios for speakers on a watch is limited. The health features are aimed at the elderly or hypochondriacs. And the watch faces are... busy. They look great as a demo but in practical use then its information overload and (for most) secondary small screen should be more about simplicity.


But still, despite my seemingly negative opinion, the S4 is a great watch. But for me then I think the higher price (and the awesomeness of the S3) make it tough to recommend a $500 watch that does 98% of the same stuff as the last one.

 

[Otflyer]

Larger display and faster processor on top of a noticeably thinner casing imo are reason enough to upgrade. Coming from the Series 3 and I find it a huge upgrade.

This and louder speaker.
[doublepost=1538191369][/doublepost]

Like the OP, I purchased my S3 AW around the same time. For me, the S3 does everything I need it to do. I have the cellular version, but I don't have cellular activated. Battery life has and still is fantastic.

I certainly was tempted when Apple announced the S4. But for me, the S4 doesn't really offer me anything substantial over my S3. Thus, I'll probably wait until the S5 comes out to upgrade. Just my opinion. YMMV.

I upgraded from S3 to S4 and am thrilled. The aesthetic alone are worth the upgrade.

 

[iFan83]

I think the Series 3 and below is fairly dated in terms of the design and it needed a refresh with the Series 4, it’s thinner, the stainless is actually 10% lighter, the display obviously is 30% larger, louder speaker, overall it’s just a much more aesthetically better looking watch in my opinion. The Larger display alone makes everything seem _so_ much more vibrant and alive, especially with the new watch faces, the OLED display looks fantastic.

Let’s be honest.... the Series 4 isn’t that big of a look difference... day to day if someone walked by with an AW it would be very hard to tell what series it is. I get how in use the bigger screen may be of use for people, but really how much work are people doing on an AW? Maybe I’m using it wrong but I use it mostly for health, sleep and fitness tracking as well as for notifications. Don’t get me wrong I think the series 4 is a great update but it’s not a redesign.

 

[edhchoe]

haptic crown is why I am upgrading.




j/k.


the new face with 8 complications is why. I currently use multiple Modular faces and nothing else.

 

[mavis]

Larger display and faster processor on top of a noticeably thinner casing imo are reason enough to upgrade. Coming from the Series 3 and I find it a huge upgrade.

Same here. My S3 (purchased last December) was a massive upgrade from my launch-day S0; I'm not expecting as drastic a performance improvement this time, but the larger screen, complication options, and louder speaker are worth it, to me. Waiting on Apple to send my 44 SS (ordered on the 14th, 20 minutes after the store opened for pre-orders, but still frickin waiting) ...

 

[DougFNJ]

Series 3 cellular to Series 4 convert here. I would probably compare this upgrade to iPhone 5 to iPhone 6.

The screen was the primary reason for me to upgrade. It is much brighter, I find a very noticeable difference.

I am still blown away about how they managed to keep just about the same form factor and add this screen to it.

Processor is just about the same.

Battery life is just about the same.

Speaker is much louder, calls are loud and clear.

Older watch faces look so much better on this display. I like how they curved the information. They fill the screen so much better.

No more full red dot. It didn’t torture me, but I prefer the line over the full red.

 

[batting1000]

Reserved a silver aluminum Series 4 40mm today and picked it up several hours ago. Traded in my 6 month old Series 3 refurb and applied the money to the 4. Well worth it, the design is so clean and the screen is great.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Not a necessary upgrade, but really enjoyable one. The larger display makes a much bigger difference then I thought it would. Speed is a bit faster but the series 3 was fine there, all about the larger display to me.