Used an s1 back in the day then a s4 for a few months (my gfs - she got an ulltra 2).
Got an apple refurbished s9 45mm in silver a few months ago and wanted to share some reflections:
Build quality
is great. The screen is v nice but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of the screen on my gfs u2 which stays bright in the sun. Although as I’m in the uk we don’t see much bright sun, so phew. I guess.
Watch faces
I like just a few of them. Most are a bit meh with lots of pretty old ones from previous versions. I don’t think that a faces store is a solution necessarily but I do think that apple need to redesign these. Especially when in the world of automatic watches there are interesting and innovative face designs coming out every year. Making the faces scalable for the different screen sizes that each of the AWs have would probably be a good idea too. I do love the relatively new solar face though.
Always on display.
I thought I’d love this but I can take or leave it. It’s almost kinda rude to other people when you leave it on as people can’t help but look at it.
Exercise tracking
Seems to be great?
Vitals app & stats.
Are less useful than I thought they’d be. I’m a guy and in reasonable health and I don’t need to check for a cycle. So the temperature is whatever. Ditto respiratory & blood oxygen (I’m in the uk).
The only things I find very useful are sleep tracking and estimated vo2. So if the battery life wasn’t dire, the s4 would’ve been fine for this (or the se2).
Coaching.
Is much the same as early versions of watchOS & is pretty terrible. If oura and other smartwatch manufacturers can have far more useful actionable insights why can’t apple? I presume this coming with the rumoured AI powered health+ service ($ services ker-ching).
Heath and fitness app
Having your stats split between the fitness app and the health app is weird. I don’t know how apple could solve this but they should. Plus two different vo2 estimates in each app is confusing.
Battery life
is great & will last a day and half - sometimes a little longer - depending on how many workouts you do.
Siri
Is terrible. Even on device Siri can only set a timer reliably half the time. It’s ok for sending slightly garbled iMessages to my gf when I’m walking around & the mistakes that Siri makes she finds amusing at least.
Third party apps
Don’t really use them. I think the future of these is via Siri (if / when they can get it to work properly).
Final thoughts
If not for the plastic back and the old processor and rumoured terrible battery life, I probably would’ve been happy with what the se2 offers!
But only because apple doesn’t do anything much useful with the myriad stats it collects and the faces are tired (and I personally find the aod a bit meh).
I don’t know where apple will take the watch. S10 and the ultra are both very nice watches so I think that the hardware design is in v good shape.
The issue is with the software mostly. I kinda think it needs to get better faces, better Siri and way better actionable health, fitness and training insights.
Oh and even better battery life.
Got an apple refurbished s9 45mm in silver a few months ago and wanted to share some reflections:
Build quality
is great. The screen is v nice but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of the screen on my gfs u2 which stays bright in the sun. Although as I’m in the uk we don’t see much bright sun, so phew. I guess.
Watch faces
I like just a few of them. Most are a bit meh with lots of pretty old ones from previous versions. I don’t think that a faces store is a solution necessarily but I do think that apple need to redesign these. Especially when in the world of automatic watches there are interesting and innovative face designs coming out every year. Making the faces scalable for the different screen sizes that each of the AWs have would probably be a good idea too. I do love the relatively new solar face though.
Always on display.
I thought I’d love this but I can take or leave it. It’s almost kinda rude to other people when you leave it on as people can’t help but look at it.
Exercise tracking
Seems to be great?
Vitals app & stats.
Are less useful than I thought they’d be. I’m a guy and in reasonable health and I don’t need to check for a cycle. So the temperature is whatever. Ditto respiratory & blood oxygen (I’m in the uk).
The only things I find very useful are sleep tracking and estimated vo2. So if the battery life wasn’t dire, the s4 would’ve been fine for this (or the se2).
Coaching.
Is much the same as early versions of watchOS & is pretty terrible. If oura and other smartwatch manufacturers can have far more useful actionable insights why can’t apple? I presume this coming with the rumoured AI powered health+ service ($ services ker-ching).
Heath and fitness app
Having your stats split between the fitness app and the health app is weird. I don’t know how apple could solve this but they should. Plus two different vo2 estimates in each app is confusing.
Battery life
is great & will last a day and half - sometimes a little longer - depending on how many workouts you do.
Siri
Is terrible. Even on device Siri can only set a timer reliably half the time. It’s ok for sending slightly garbled iMessages to my gf when I’m walking around & the mistakes that Siri makes she finds amusing at least.
Third party apps
Don’t really use them. I think the future of these is via Siri (if / when they can get it to work properly).
Final thoughts
If not for the plastic back and the old processor and rumoured terrible battery life, I probably would’ve been happy with what the se2 offers!
But only because apple doesn’t do anything much useful with the myriad stats it collects and the faces are tired (and I personally find the aod a bit meh).
I don’t know where apple will take the watch. S10 and the ultra are both very nice watches so I think that the hardware design is in v good shape.
The issue is with the software mostly. I kinda think it needs to get better faces, better Siri and way better actionable health, fitness and training insights.
Oh and even better battery life.
