After owning and using the Series 4 (44 mm SS) for two months, I wanted to post a few thoughts. I upgraded to this watch from a Series 2. Before that, I had an original (Series 0) purchased when the Apple Watch first launched. So I've owned an Apple Watch for three and a half years.
I can definitively say that the Series 4 is a game-changer compared to the earlier generations, mainly because of the power of the CPU. It's just SO much faster than the watches before (disclaimer: I have never owned a Series 3, which did help a lot with speed compared to the 2, but the 4 is still way faster based on what I've read).
I loved the original when I bought it, and the Series 2 improved upon it quite a bit. But unfortunately both were slow and unreliable when it came to doing anything more complex. Core functions were mostly fine, but Siri was sometimes slow and third party apps were rarely worth the trouble. One of the OS updates a year or so back added a "tap when ready" function so that you could drop your wrist after making a request and let the watch think about it for a bit before letting you know it was ready to act. This was sorely needed, because most requests took some time. Not a ton of time, but more than you'd want to spend holding up your wrist like an idiot in Home Depot waiting for the thing to draft your text message.
But the Series 4 is different. It is ALWAYS fast, like an iPhone 7 or better in terms of response time. First and third party apps launch instantly or near instantly. I can launch app after app in quick succession and the watch never lags or makes me wait. Siri responds and confirms my requests quickly enough that I never reach that impatient feeling. I'm getting much more use out of it, doing more complex things, and enjoying it a whole lot more. The great majority of the time, it responds as fast as my finger can tap. I can just fly through things.
In summary, the performance of the Series 4 continues to impress me in a big way several months in.
I can definitively say that the Series 4 is a game-changer compared to the earlier generations, mainly because of the power of the CPU. It's just SO much faster than the watches before (disclaimer: I have never owned a Series 3, which did help a lot with speed compared to the 2, but the 4 is still way faster based on what I've read).
I loved the original when I bought it, and the Series 2 improved upon it quite a bit. But unfortunately both were slow and unreliable when it came to doing anything more complex. Core functions were mostly fine, but Siri was sometimes slow and third party apps were rarely worth the trouble. One of the OS updates a year or so back added a "tap when ready" function so that you could drop your wrist after making a request and let the watch think about it for a bit before letting you know it was ready to act. This was sorely needed, because most requests took some time. Not a ton of time, but more than you'd want to spend holding up your wrist like an idiot in Home Depot waiting for the thing to draft your text message.
But the Series 4 is different. It is ALWAYS fast, like an iPhone 7 or better in terms of response time. First and third party apps launch instantly or near instantly. I can launch app after app in quick succession and the watch never lags or makes me wait. Siri responds and confirms my requests quickly enough that I never reach that impatient feeling. I'm getting much more use out of it, doing more complex things, and enjoying it a whole lot more. The great majority of the time, it responds as fast as my finger can tap. I can just fly through things.
In summary, the performance of the Series 4 continues to impress me in a big way several months in.
