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I feel somewhat similar. I LOVE the idea of the AOD, but in practice have found it to be a bit too dim to see in many settings. I am planning on returning and getting a used Stainless steel 4 instead. If there was just a BIT more battery and a BIT brighter AOD it would be amazing, but it isn’t quite there for me.
Yes I am keeping my S4 for a week or so whilst I trial the S5 and if I don’t like it or have battery issues, back it goes
 
Each to his own but I love the AOD, especially in meetings at work. If you're worried about other people seeing your watch display you can have it hide complications when your screen is dimmed. They'll only see the time.

I get that and i'm happy for you :) but I just don't find value enough to do the series 4>5 upgrade. If I was content with aluminum watches/ion-x glass I'd do it because the financial hit isn't too bad. But for a Stainless model i'm down $500 after selling my SS series 4. It's just not a $500 feature to me when the rest of the watch is exactly the same device as the S4 (32GB storage and a compass are not appealing to me)
 
I get that and i'm happy for you :) but I just don't find value enough to do the series 4>5 upgrade. If I was content with aluminum watches/ion-x glass I'd do it because the financial hit isn't too bad. But for a Stainless model i'm down $500 after selling my SS series 4. It's just not a $500 feature to me when the rest of the watch is exactly the same device as the S4 (32GB storage and a compass are not appealing to me)


Yeah it's definitely a personal decision. Some of the watch faces are really hard to see in the dim mode. I switch to specific ones if I'm going into a meeting.
 
What aspects affirmed your decision? Or do we need to watch the seven and a half minute video and guess? :cool:

yeah. It’s that always on is a great add on, but not the most important feature to me. It is annoying when I turn my wrist and the screen doesn’t come on, but I can live with it until the series 5 is more available on the used market or I hear rumors of what’s on the series 6. The other reason is there’s no processor upgrade...the 5 is just always on, a compass, and more storage (which I don’t need at the moment).

now that always on is here, my next wish is iPhone independence. I feel like it’s coming soon.
 
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I have the gold stainless series 4. Always on is really nice but the resell value sucks on the s4. At this point it’s just not worth it. I’ll get the series 6 but probably aluminum. It’s just crazy to spend that much even after 2 years.

I assumed AOD was coming via a software update, I did not think it would take a hardware change considering other watches have had it for some time now. IMO Apple is withholding AOD from the series 4. It has the same screen , don’t give me that BS about “low power drivers”. Give me a break.
 
Very little features added from Watch 4 to Watch 5. Besides always on.

who is upgrading?

I upgraded this sunday. Here I am setting the new series 5.

My wife had a series 3 and wanted the series 4. The 3 went to a friend.
 

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I'm upgrading from S2 so the whole LTE, redesign thing is a pretty big deal I've been missing out. While I liked my S2 what motivated me to upgrade on S5 was how little it improved over the S4, meaning that AW are starting to get so good Apple doesn't know what else to come up with.

Sure I could see an S6 with HDR display, 24hrs battery, front-facing camera, skin contact unlock, sleep tracking, better water resistance, smart bands, and remote coffee maker but I'm ok with S5 for the next 4-5 years.
 
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I went from S4 to S5. It's a decent upgrade if u like having the latest, greatest.

The always on display is a really nice feature
 
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Sure I could see an S6 with HDR display, 24hrs battery, front-facing camera, skin contact unlock, sleep tracking, better water resistance, smart bands, and remote coffee maker

Sign me up for that!

I have the S4 and I wasn’t planning on upgrading to S5. To those who upgraded from S4... I salute ya! But didn’t think it was a big enough reason to do so. However, S6 is what I’m looking forward to. The S4 is awesome... best AW to date, imo.
 
I get that and i'm happy for you :) but I just don't find value enough to do the series 4>5 upgrade. If I was content with aluminum watches/ion-x glass I'd do it because the financial hit isn't too bad. But for a Stainless model i'm down $500 after selling my SS series 4. It's just not a $500 feature to me when the rest of the watch is exactly the same device as the S4 (32GB storage and a compass are not appealing to me)
and for this reason I could never pay full retail on a stainless model. Its tech that go's fast out of date, with a limited resale market (compared to the iphone)
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and for this reason I could never pay full retail on a stainless model. Its tech that go's fast out of date, with a limited resale market (compared to the iphone)
in other words, I'd rather have an annual upgrade on the aluminium than a stainless upgrade every 2/3 years..
 
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I had a cellular S3 — bought it right when they came out (as an upgrade to a stainless original Apple Watch) and had been planning to keep it until the series 5 were released. It was fast enough in terms of app performance, the cellular worked great and it was still in excellent condition. Even when the S4 was released, it wasn’t quite enough to get me to upgrade...

Until mid July, when I had a cardiac health scare (turned out to be absolutely nothing). My wife suggested I get the S4 because of the ECG function. I expected that the series 5 was going to be coming in the September timeframe, so I was hesitant to do it but I knew my wife would feel better knowing I could monitor my ECG (I’m a physician, so I can see more than just atrial fibrillation).

So I purchased an aluminum GPS-only S4 as the least-expensive stop-gap solution. Currently the owner of a silver stainless S5 and plan to pass on the S4 to my elderly father.

So really it was a series 3 to series 5 upgrade, by way of a temporary series 4. Or at least that’s how I rationalize it.
 
Next year should be a series of significant upgrades with the rumoured iphone redesign and apple watch with micro led technology.

Not sure about Micro Led quite yet. I don’t think Apple even has an aligned suppliers on a production level. But it’s coming. I expect more health advancements for Series 6 at minimum.
 
I will be. I purchased the Space Gray Aluminum Series 4 last fall. I loved the watch itself but I was in constant fear of the display getting scratched or damaged because of the Ion X glass. So I will be selling this one and going Series 5 Stainless Steel.

Same for me. I got the Space gray Aluminium watch last year, because I wanted to save money. I use screen protectors (very high quality thin ones) that wrap around the display. However those peel off eventually and they look terrible.
Really looking forward to not worrying about screen scratches all the time
 
I am, I upgrade every single time Apple releases a new version, whether it’s a worthwhile update or not.....

..... Eh, no. For the same reason as I didn’t go for the Xs last year, I was skipping the S5 this year as it really doesn’t seem like a worthwhile enough improvement to ditch my S4.
But, as my carrier has just thrown one at me to get me to stay with them, I suppose I am upgrading after all.

Had it not been for that though, I definitely wouldn’t have bothered. Unless I decided I wanted a cellular Watch instead of my current GPS model, which is unlikely as I’m very rarely without my iPhone.

It’ll be nice though, my first cellular Apple Watch and first one with an always on display. Two things it’s nice to have I suppose and I can always sell my S4 now and buy another shiny toy to play with.
 
After having spent some time with the S5 I have to say I could never go back to an earlier watch. The AOD is such a nice feature.
 
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Not me. I'm tired of giving Apple my money every year for incremental updates and software that is full of bugs and issues. Standing pat for a while. (phone, tablet, mac, watch)
 
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