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Watch 4 first impressions - ask me anything.
- Thread starter Smurphy Gherkin
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My apologies. Yes it did. Got a reading same time as end of Breathe.
Timer only shows last time and the bar when on outer corners. When on modular or inner ring just has timer icon.
Stopwatch only available on outer corners or inner top (where it is just a number), but that loses the date and calendar which is a two for one.
Siri has always bad for me; haven’t tested it much yet.
But it is incredibly faster than S2. Bonkers speed improvement, I will use it more now.
I turned off raise to speak after it responded when talking to my wife. Wasn’t talking to you Siri.
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This is why I need to stay off macrumors. I have ZERO intention from upgrading my S2. But reading about the new S4 being thinner, faster and larger screen. Tempting!
I know AMEX would be happy!
I know AMEX would be happy!
Not that I can find. Would be great wouldn't it?
I got it becuase of extra complications and I actually do have afib. So the speed and big screen and speed are just very exciting extras. Im happy with my XS MAX, but the Watch is really something. I had the original, and series 2, and this is a very big jump from that, despite a few frustrations with complications.
XS Max, haven't tried anything yet, will investigate.
You'll have to try and filter all those opinions though. Here, pretty much everywhere is a fan and thus even the tiniest new feature or improvement is going to be exaggerated. I mean I've seen people trying to convince others that the XS is a big improvement to the X.
I'm personally buying the S4 but that's because I'm coming from an S0 which is objectively extremely slow.
I’ve been on macrumors long enough to know this place doesn’t operate by real world standards
. It’s a world in itself. I most likely am not going to upgrade to the S4. I’ve already bought a MacBook Pro and the new XS max in the last week or so, so my bank account is giving me the side eye right now. But it’s good to know if and when I finally do, it’ll be a worthwhile one.
You can change the colour of the tick marks of the watch face, but not the complications, they will be colourful.
It’s definitely an art to place them to feel balanced and not too busy.
But at the end of the day, I’ll take a busy face with heaps of detailed glanceable information every time.
Yes I agree, the old faces have been weirded out. But honestly the new faces are where it’s at.
I will coming from an S0 not the S2 you had. Do you find the heart rate readings to be consistent when checking your bpm. On my S0 they fluctuate a lot "during" the reading with Cardiogram. And always seem to get spikes when it first starts to read you pulse. I don't have AFIB yet. But, PVC's, and SVT's. Low Ef. 2 heart attacks. So, would like the S4 to be more consistent for me.
more thoughts from me (space grey Alu 44mm LTE):
- Haptics feel a little 'fuzzy' - like they don't drop off quickly enough so for double tap its more like tap-pfbrttt
- screen is great and large, but isn't really used to the full advantage, and it actually causes issue from how they've changed designs because of it
- eg the new fancy animated faces like vapour/fire etc look amazing in full screen, right to the curved edges. But if you do that you get *no* complication support - why not overlay them or something? If you want complications you have to restrict the animation to a circle in the middle which just looks a bit crappy.
- The new infographic faces need real work. The digital one only supports a handful of things on the center display, and I can't figure out any way to have an alarm complication on it anywhere. The analog one has a bunch of weird design quirks: some similar looking complications seem to limit what you can put in them - like you can't have an alarm clock in one of the round ones. There is text where it isn't needed which makes it feel unnecessarily cluttered. I know its presenting a lot of information but it goes too far IMO.
- Very limted third party complication support on the new faces. Maybe they can be easily updated but eg I can't have Dark Sky on the infographic face at all, I have to use the default weather one.
- I hate the changes to make everything bendy - there is curved text *everywhere*. even on the simple watch face which just had small complications tucked into the corners. Now there is a bigger screen but it almost feels small because the text curves away from the corners like its scared of them. And on the infographic analog face if you have an alarm complication in the corner, it has 'no alarm set' text curving round. If you have no alarm, just don't put any text on such a crowded face, thats unnecessary clutter.
I'm sure some of those will be addressed with future updates, or third party complications will update to support the new shapes/sizes. But right now it feels a bit underbaked.
- Haptics feel a little 'fuzzy' - like they don't drop off quickly enough so for double tap its more like tap-pfbrttt
- screen is great and large, but isn't really used to the full advantage, and it actually causes issue from how they've changed designs because of it
- eg the new fancy animated faces like vapour/fire etc look amazing in full screen, right to the curved edges. But if you do that you get *no* complication support - why not overlay them or something? If you want complications you have to restrict the animation to a circle in the middle which just looks a bit crappy.
- The new infographic faces need real work. The digital one only supports a handful of things on the center display, and I can't figure out any way to have an alarm complication on it anywhere. The analog one has a bunch of weird design quirks: some similar looking complications seem to limit what you can put in them - like you can't have an alarm clock in one of the round ones. There is text where it isn't needed which makes it feel unnecessarily cluttered. I know its presenting a lot of information but it goes too far IMO.
- Very limted third party complication support on the new faces. Maybe they can be easily updated but eg I can't have Dark Sky on the infographic face at all, I have to use the default weather one.
- I hate the changes to make everything bendy - there is curved text *everywhere*. even on the simple watch face which just had small complications tucked into the corners. Now there is a bigger screen but it almost feels small because the text curves away from the corners like its scared of them. And on the infographic analog face if you have an alarm complication in the corner, it has 'no alarm set' text curving round. If you have no alarm, just don't put any text on such a crowded face, thats unnecessary clutter.
I'm sure some of those will be addressed with future updates, or third party complications will update to support the new shapes/sizes. But right now it feels a bit underbaked.
Haha I hear ya. I don’t come to t
Not a fan of what they’ve done to the simple face which was my favourite on S3
The corner complications used to be discreet and tucked into the corners bit now they’re all bendy and a bit in your face
That arrangement looks like it would look better with a round watch face.
Is Apple preparing us for a round watch for series 5 or 6. I think it’s in the works.What complications (at least for the stock apps) don't (yet?) work on the new watch faces? So far I know Messages, Mail, Timer...
I walked into a reseller at 9am here in Toronto before work and picked up my second choice- the 40mm gps+lte space grey since they didn't have the regular gps version in stock. It's my first apple watch. I had a feeling that the 40mm would be fine since the others were too big and 38 was too small in the last gen for my wrist.
So far - its a new experience on this watch. Heart rate tracker is interesting and also the meditation app that comes on to make u do a minute of breathing is fun. Not sure what other apps r benefiting the watch as not into the health, running, tracking calories type of guy. I have nothing to compare this watch to before so its all new to me.
I like that its not bulky on my skinny wrist. Now to spend on bands to customize it. PS: kijiji is flooded with older apple watches right now here.
So far - its a new experience on this watch. Heart rate tracker is interesting and also the meditation app that comes on to make u do a minute of breathing is fun. Not sure what other apps r benefiting the watch as not into the health, running, tracking calories type of guy. I have nothing to compare this watch to before so its all new to me.
I like that its not bulky on my skinny wrist.
Now to spend on bands to customize it. PS: kijiji is flooded with older apple watches right now here.Not the OP, but if your phone is within range it will call through your watch even without cellular. Even before LTE watches were introduced we could make/receive calls from our watches (hence the ability to get and respond to call notifications from our watches), but the phone had to be within range.
Many complications don't work on the new info faces. A shame. Home, Alarm, Mail, Podcasts and so on...
Thanks. That is a shame. I wonder if and when those complications will be available for the new watch faces. You'd think having complications for commonly used stock apps would have been a priority.
I absolutely agree...cannot understand who thought...a good idea, lets throw all these apps out from the new watch face...WTF
Well that is a move in the right direction, though I am still at a loss as to why you can't get the seconds on any of the digital faces (apart from activity).
Is there no way to change the display of tick marks on the infographic dial - it doesn't make sense to have them at half-minute intervals? It just makes it harder to read.
Heart rate readings for me are much more stable, they will only jump around by 1-5 bpm during the first 3 readings. On S2 they were always starting high then going lower usually by 10-15 bpm but occasionally nearly double.
But given the reading is now showing every 3-4 seconds instead of about 5 it’s perceived as jumping around more.
But my confidence in the heart rate monitor is growing.
Yes, apple will always underdo options for simplicity leading to three versions later the “finally” moment.
But tick marks at half minutes is another looks great but confusing as hell decision.
Despite the frustrations I’m just grateful for the major breakthrough. Eight or nine complications on the face wasn’t something I ever expected them to do, and it will only get better. Let’s be positive, this is just the start.