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Picked up my space gray aluminum 5 on Saturday. The always one feature is really nice - no more rocking my wrist several times to get the screen to activate to tell the time. The always on feature does seem to impact battery life. Been wearing it for 8.5 hours and its down to 55% with pretty light usage as compared with my 4. I'll report back after I've had a few days of experience.
 
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It is a watch with one knob, one button, and a screen that takes up 90% of visible area when worn. I'm sure there's only so much they can do with the physical design. They can make it thinner and sleeker, but other than that, it's software and hardware changes, i.e. new interface, complications, ECG, longer battery etc.

The new design will be slimming the bezels down quite a bit and changing the bar of soap design into something much sleeker. I'm very excited for it. Sadly no round version but they're slowly improving the aesthetics of using a square design for a watch face.
 
Titanium more durable than stainless steel? Seems a lot of folks reporting scratches on Ti S5’s for that to be the case...
 
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I upgraded from a Series 3 cellular to a Series 5 cellular, and the battery life is very noticeably worse. I would say I get about an hour or more less use time on the Series 5. HOWEVER, I still don't actually kill the watch and charge it every night anyways so I guess my use case is lucky. For anyone who uses their Watch more than me, it definitely might be a deal breaker. Hopefully they can improve this with more WatchOS optimizations? Wishful thinking?
 
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Also the display always being on is only ok. The watch faces I like most don’t even have an “always on” version such as the Blue vapor or jellyfish animations. The gradient and numerals duo definitely my favorite at the moment.

Does the Modular display work for always on? If not, I might just get a discounted S4.
 
I’ve always charged my s3 every night. It usually needs it, but I’d do it regardless. I have no interest in wearing it to bed. So as long as the s5 makes it from ~6 am - 10 pm, I’m fine with it.
I'm not trying to talk you out of it. It's just a trade-off. It's no great hardship to charge the watch every night, except when I'm traveling, which I do every month or so with my family. We usually share a single charger, so it means I have to remember to switch out the watches on the charger sometime overnight.

It's also no real hardship to turn my wrist to see the time. But having used the S5 for a few days, the convenience of being able to tell the time or see my "rings" without making that deliberate motion with my wrist is something I don't want to live without ever again.
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Does the Modular display work for always on? If not, I might just get a discounted S4.
The Modular Compact display definitely works with AOD.
 
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I upgraded from series 3 to the series 5. Battery life is definitely worse. I could get to end of day on my series 3 and still have 30% left even 2 years in. I'm struggling to get through a whole day so far with the series 5. Right now its at 15%.

I changed from the Siri Watch Face to Infographics which has a bunch more complications. I'm wondering if that's causing some battery drain.
 
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Still torn between whether to get the cellular or not.
Never even activated my Series 3's cellular function because of the ridiculous monthly fee.

One thing I didn't realize is that even if you don't pay the monthly fee you can still call emergency services with just the watch. I might get the cellular model next time.
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I upgraded from series 3 to the series 5. Battery life is definitely worse. I could get to end of day on my series 3 and still have 30% left even 2 years in. I'm struggling to get through a whole day so far with the series 5. Right now its at 15%.

I changed from the Siri Watch Face to Infographics which has a bunch more complications. I'm wondering if that's causing some battery drain.

My battery life was bad yesterday. I turned the watch off this morning before I put it on and it's much better today.
 
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“There were no processor changes in the Series 5, so though Apple says it uses an S5 chip, the processor is identical to the Series 5.”

You mean to say “...the processor is identical to the Series 4.”
 
The Modular Compact display definitely works with AOD.
Nice. Now I just have to figure out the battery life issue. The S3 42 battery has been great for me, but the 44 is too big on my wrist and I think I would move down to the 40mm.
 
Still torn between whether to get the cellular or not.
Never even activated my Series 3's cellular function because of the ridiculous monthly fee.

I think you just answered your own question. I didn't get a cellular S3 because I basically always have my phone on me and other then streaming music when exercising I didn't see much benefit to having cellular on it. Saved money on the watch and not having the plan.

Though it could be handy if your phone dies and you need to contact someone or get directions from a map app?
 
I'm not sure what I'm doing. I want a series5 but my fiancé wants to go from a series1 to a 4. (she wants Fall detection, ECG and the emergency calling features). Trying to figure out a way to make money off our Watches to upgrade us both. Haha.
 
I’ll likely pass on this one, even though I have a Series 2 version. I’m a little miffed at Apple’s ordering model for the stainless watch. There’s no option to buy it without cellular — something I have no need for. I love the look of my stainless Series 2. I can’t imagine why they don’t offer stainless without cellular.

Apple really baffles me sometimes.
 
Personally I disagree that there’s no compelling reason to upgrade from the 4... if the always on display was the ONLY new feature I would upgraded in a heartbeat! It’s the one thing about Apple Watch that has always driven me mad. I have a 4 and I can’t WAIT to upgrade! (waiting for the Nike versions).
 
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updating from S3 to S5. Nike edition. Pretty excited. AW is great for my workouts. Highly recommend. I miss my Omega Seamaster that sits on a drawer but I can't go back. AW is a game changer.
 
Titanium more durable than stainless steel? Seems a lot of folks reporting scratches on Ti S5’s for that to be the case...

Both SS and Ti are very scratch prone. That’s why I ordered the space black Ti with the DLC coating. DLC simply doesn’t get scratched.
 
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PLEASE EDIT THE ARTICLE.

#1 There were no processor changes in the Series 5, so though Apple says it uses an S5 chip, the processor is identical to the Series 5

#2 All in all, while there are some useful features in the Series 4, there's not a compelling reason to update if you already have a Series 4

#3 ...(stainless steel models start at $699)....Apple is still offering the standard stainless steel and aluminum, which starts at $399
#3 is technically correct, but misleading and/or confusing.
 
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Does the Modular display work for always on? If not, I might just get a discounted S4.
Yes it shows everything on the modular watch faces- clocks that are white will become black and lose their second hand though.
 
Upgraded from my series 4. Love it! Much improve speed love the always on display and the microphone seems to work really well in comparison to the s4 did With Siri.
 
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