(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Over the next month, many people will evaluate a smartwatch for a potential gift or personal splurge. I’ve been wearing the
I’m going to skip over the litany of watch features and focus this review on my experiences as a person who’s worn the Apple Watch. If you’re interested in learning more about the Apple Watch, this guide provides a comprehensive view of its features. In my opinion, it took more than a month of wearing the watch to truly understand it’s benefits. The watch offers:
- the value added convenience of phone,
SMS , maps and application notifications on your wrist. - fitness tracker features including heart rate. In my opinion, it's as good as other fitness trackers at this function.
- an easy to use alarm clock, stopwatch and timer. These features are more useful feature than I had expected.
- payment from your wrist. There’s no fumbling with your smartphone or credit card to pay for that cup of coffee and bag of groceries.
- watch functions. Lest we forget, it’s also a watch which can displays multiple time zones in a combination of customizable faces.
My perspective on the pros and cons
After wearing the smartwatch for more than a month, I liked it. However, I wasn’t sure it had changed my life. Yet, I was wrong. When I stopped wearing it for several days, I realized how much I missed the subtle conveniences the watch provided. Below are a few of my personal observations.
Notifications and glances are well executed. Smartwatches are largely smartphone companions. Notifications are one of the main functions of any smartwatch. I grew accustomed to the tap on my wrist to alert me of an incoming text or phone call from my VIP list. In fact, I'm shocked at how this one item changes your behavior. Notifications mean you don't have to check your phone every few minutes to see if anything important happened. If it's important, it will tap your wrist. (For this to work, you need to set up your VIP list. If not, every email, text and phone call will tap your wrist.)
I enjoyed checking the time without unlocking my smartphone and paying for my coffee or groceries with a tap or a scan. I can now envision a world where any check in (airline, hotel, transit system) is as simple as scanning a barcode on my watch or tapping the watch face to send my information. The watch also offers what it calls Glances. The Glances feature provides the option for you to to review important data from your apps such as weather, calendar, task manager and activity. Glances are accessed by swiping up from the bottom and then swiping left to right through the apps. These make you
It's a great fitness tracker. It offers step tracking, a heart rate monitor, an activity app and a workout app to track activities such as running and outdoor walking. I wore the Fitbit and the Apple Watch together for a week. I discovered the figures were different, but close enough. Since I had used a fitness tracker in the past, this behavior was already well established for me, but the watch made it easier. I’ve spoken to others where the ease of using this as a fitness tracker has revolutionized their lives.
It’s a fashionable smartwatch. It isn't bulky, ugly or dorky. The bands offer options for personalization. While I primarily use it as a fitness tracker, it doesn’t have the cheap feel of most fitness bands. Surprisingly, I’ve rediscovered the joy of wearing at watch. It turns out its much easier to look at my watch than to dig out my cell phone when I want to know the time.
The band matters. It’s comfortable. I wear it all day, every day. I’ve worn it overnight and it's comfortable to sleep in. I’ve also tried it with several bands. In order for this to look and feel like a watch, you need a good band. I have the Milanese band and a sports band. The sports band, while more comfortable than other sports bands I’ve worn, looks similar to many other smartwatch band. Apple named it a sports band for a reason, it looks great when you’re working out. On the other hand, the Milanese band can be worn with a dress, suit or jeans.
Women, in particular, love this band because it's easy to put on and fits almost any wrist perfectly. The band is also extraordinarily easy to change, regardless of the size of your fingers or the length of your nails. If you’re accustomed to changing a luxury watch band where you need a special screwdriver to change bands, you’ll be incredibly pleased with the simplicity and speed of changing bands. Returning to the discussion of style, the Milanese band adds a certain wow factor to the watch, making it approachable to people that don’t want to look like they’re wearing a miniature calculator on their wrist.
The alarm functions are useful. I’ve set alarms to wake me up and to remind me when it’s time to leave a meeting. I've used the timer to remind me to add money to a parking meter and to take the cookies out of the oven. The stopwatch is great at the gym. The subtle tap on the wrist is much easier to integrate into your life than an audible timer on your smart phone.
App vendors are supporting the platform. Whether it’s BMW, America Airlines or
The cons
Battery life could be an issue. I’ve met plenty of Apple Watch owners that feel the 15-hour battery life is adequate. After wearing several versions of the Fitbit, I personally found the Apple Watch battery life wanting. The Fitbit lasts for days. You may be thinking why is this any different than charging a smartphone every evening? For some, it isn’t, but it is for me. I’ve found several uses cases that would require longer battery life, such as using the phone to track how well I’ve slept and as a silent alarm that gently wakes me up by tapping my wrist. This may sound trivial, but I assure you that your significant other would rather sleep than wake up to a 4:00 am smartphone alarm.
The workout app leaves much to be desired. While the watch can track your activity without requiring a person to carry the iPhone, the options for tracking are limited to cardio activity such as walking and running. If you’re a weight trainer or yogi, the tracking falls into an “other’ category. Also, it has an accelerometer but lacks contextual feedback. For example, if I’ve stopped moving for a long period of time during my outdoor walk, the watch should ask me if I want to pause my workout. Instead, it just keeps tracking time.
It’s expensive. Similar to any Apple product, the Apple Watch is expensive if you add a nice band or a stainless face. However, fashion comes at a price. If you want to look like you’re wearing a fitness tracker, there are many cheaper smartwatches and fitness bands. If you want it to look like a watch, there are only a few options that achieve this. The Withings Activité Pop with it’s round face and leather strap come to mind.
It requires a separate charger. While the charger is brilliant design, I was loathe to buy yet another set of cables and accessories such as charging stands.
Should you buy it?
While the watch can be worn by anyone, it’s not a universally good gift for everyone. I think it’s important to understand the person's tech optimism profile before purchasing the product. Please note, this profile isn’t about age, but how a person embraces technology. For example, I’m a person that is addicted to my phone. I like to track my fitness (e.g. steps per day, heart rate, log exercise etc.) I also like stylish accessories. I'm not a super techie person but more than the average. For someone like me, the Apple Watch offers many conveniences.
However, if you aren’t a heavy phone user nor interested in tracking your fitness, this probably isn’t the best product for you. For example, I have many friends that own smartphones but use very few apps. And while the Watch is stylish, people that love mechanical luxury watches such as a Piaget, Patek Phillippe and Panerai are unlikely to replace one of those timepieces with any smartwatch. It's also a pretty expensive accessory, which means you have to have at least one function that you truly value. In my case, it's a fitness tracker. Other people it's the notifications. People always ask me what's the killer app or reason for owning the smartwatch. For awhile, I was also looking for that big bang. What I've discovered is that the watch is wonderful because it integrates into your life in a seamless way, changing your behavior in subtle ways. If you're an moderate to heavy iPhone user, it's a great gift.
