> all-day 18-hour battery life.<p>Is there a standard for what "all-day" means? I think most would initially assume 24 hours, but thinking about it more, it seems reasonable to consider "can work from wake up to sleep" or "can work from sunup to sundown"/
Only reason I don’t have an Apple Watch is because you can’t stream Spotify over cellular, you need to have your phone with you. What’s the point? I want to go for a run and stream music with just the watch to my Bluetooth headphones. I don’t need the watch if I have to bring my phone with me.
For me, the single biggest problem with Apple Watch is battery life, and they seem to have done nothing to improve it.<p>Garmin has always-on, reflective screen watches that can last for weeks on a single charge. I shouldn't need to babysit my watch.
While I am looking to upgrade to the Series 5 from a Series 1, I'm disappointed in the lack of native sleep tracking functionality... it's a glaring hole in the concept of overall health tracking.<p>Similarly, I'd hoped they would announce some standardization to weightlifting in HealthKit. The watch and iphone health options are very cardio-centric, and every weightlifting app has implemented their own internal 1RM tracking which should be at an OS-level instead.
Perhaps it's naive of me to think that Apple will ever detach the Watch from the Phone and allow set up and full use cases for users who don't have an iPhone. I'd definitely buy a cellular enabled Apple Watch and ditch my phone if possible.
This is probably off topic for the S5 release, but I keep sort of hoping for a smartwatch I don't have to wear as a watch.<p>Because I wear a nice watch already. It only tells the time, but it's also jewelry. A lot of us still want a mechanical watch on our wrists.<p>So where does that leave us if we also want what the Apple Watch offers, but aren't willing to displace our nice analog timepieces?<p>Sure, I could make an Apple <i>PocketWatch</i> (and it's tempting, since iPhone is now available only in "big" or "huge") but one of the most interesting things is the sensors on your skin and vibration as notification.<p>Maybe you could wear it on your ankle like a convict under house arrest?
Scrolling down there's the Nike and Hermes editions. Maybe this is a cultural difference between here (Frankfurt) and elsewhere - I fail to understand how one would willingly pay extra to advertise a brand. The way I see it is that Nike for example should pay ME to wear their branding.<p>And even then I wouldn't. I'm not a walking billboard.
No sleep tracking, no SpO2 sensor.<p>They must be working on this, it would perfectly well into their health theme, and they bought Beddit.<p>Another year.
Is it just me, or has the surge in popularity of smart watches also caused a surge in the popularity of regular watches too?<p>Speaking of myself, I bought a Pebble watch back in 2013 or so. I quickly realized I liked wearing a watch. Then I also realized I really only needed the time function. I then went from the Pebble to a Seiko mechanical. Now I have no smart watches and about ten different mechanical and quartz watches.<p>The main reasons I prefer conventional watches:
1) They come in a much wider array of styles
2) They don't run out of power on long flights and leave you without your time reference right when you need it the most
3) They are generally cheaper
4) Some of them, like my Casios, have great features that work offline, like a digital compass, thermometer, altimeter ... all powered by solar!
5) To me (and this is a matter of personal preference) they look better
6) There are a lot of closet wristwatch nerds lurking in tech companies. Once you start wearing a Seiko mechanical, for example, you will soon get comments from other undercover watch nerds. I actually enjoy this random camaraderie.
As a frequent traveler the emergency calling feature in so many countries without needing to sign up for another service is pretty dang cool. I was in an apartment in Eastern Europe sleeping when the kitchen caught on fire, luckily I woke up from the crackling of the walls/roof and no alarms went off. Luckily I had memorized the local emergency number and had a local sim (I don't always if I'm not in a place long enough) and was able to call the emergency services but it could have easily gone the wrong way. Sometimes seconds count and you don't want to be googling a local emergency number
I actually hope Apple had a “Watch Lite” version. Because I don’t need all the features Watch provides, I just want a smart watch that track my sports activities and health, I DON’T NEED the retina display, multimedia apps or ability to take phone calls, let my phone do those things and just keep the watch minimal and only act as a brilliant health monitor on my wrist
This is a big let down for me. I love endurance sports and currently use a S3+LTE with bluetooth headphones and it's the perfect running companion. I don't have to carry anything to track to run and listen to my music, podcasts, or audiobooks.<p>But I was really expecting more innovation from the "by innovation only" event. Garmin's flagship watch has a feature that extends the battery life by embedded TWO SOLAR PANELS into the display. That is innovation.<p><a href="https://buy.garmin.com/en-CA/CA/p/641375" rel="nofollow">https://buy.garmin.com/en-CA/CA/p/641375</a>
"International emergency calling also works with fall detection, if enabled, to automatically place an emergency call if Apple Watch senses the user has taken a hard fall and remains motionless for about a minute."<p>I like how they have thought, don't need a sim to make an emergency call, let alone credit, why not add the ability to call emergency services and use the GPS to pick the right local number.<p>Equally the safety feature for older people is great initiative, though I do feel for younger users, this may cause some false positives and produce an unhappy ending when suddenly your watch has called the emergency services because you had a rest after some form of exercise.<p>With that in mind, I'd imagine that during that minute a countdown upon the display starts and audible alert of about to call the emergency services - just to limit false positives taking up emergency services time. Also for legit cases, would offer reassurance to somebody who may be incapacitated but able to hear. Maybe they do have that, not sure, and will find out come an in depth review.
I love my Series 3 Apple Watch, with a data plan.<p>I now usually leave my iPhone at home. I am trying to follow a digital minimalism program, following slow media ideas, and using digital devices for highly productive activities, not to waste time.<p>I find AirPods work really well with my Apple Watch, no iPhone lifestyle.
> it’s easy to see the time and other important information, without raising or tapping the display<p>> the screen intelligently dims when a user’s wrist is down and returns to full brightness with a raise or a tap<p>These two statements seem somewhat contradictory.
Hard to beat the watches Garmin is making. 18 hour battery life isn't great compared to the fenix series with a <i>week</i> of battery life. And the features don't even come close.
This is one of the places where Apple could test new Battery Tech.<p>People seems to value things very differently, so for iPhone, they valued it as a Phone, when it is more like a Pocket Computer with very decent Camera. But they still see it as a Phone, so $1099 is expensive.<p>When it comes to Watches, we are used to seeing Super expensive watches, I don't ever see people ( General Public, not tech nerds ) comparing Apple Watch with what ever Digital Watches, like Gear Watch. And for this reason Apple Watch is affordable to many.<p>And I see it is very much possible for Apple to bump the price and include Solid Battery or some other form of Breakthrough Battery technology along with Super fast Charging.<p>I wouldn't mind spending $1099 if it had 3x Battery Capacity and Super Fast Charging.
They mentioned that the Series 3 will start at $199. What about the Series 4? I hope they don't discontinue it, since this is the model I would plan to get. Bigger screen, but not the top-tier pricing of the Series 5.
I love the watch - but its painfully tied to location - due to the lack of space inside it (US watches - don't work in Europe) - has this watch been updated ?
<a href="https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/can-i-use-apple-watch-lte-in-different-country-where-i-have-bought-it.2104119/" rel="nofollow">https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/can-i-use-apple-watch-l...</a>
Am I correct that if a Watch user goes far away from his/her phone, receives a SMS during that period of time, and then comes back, the notification is never shown on the Watch?<p>If so, how come this is not a #1 issue Apple needs to address? The Watch is then unreliable for notifications and doesn’t eliminate the need to check the phone from time to time. I’m amazed this is not talked about.
The Watch does too much. I love the Fitbit Versa because it helps me get off my phone. Just important notifications and reading texts and that's it. I can't really "do" much on it except glance at notifications and that's exactly what I want. Helped me keep my phone in another room in the house or in my bag at work and not look at it at all.
What about sensitive information on compilations that were hidden in the old tap to wake up screen mode from before?<p>Imagine a calendar event entry on the watch face you didn’t want the world to see but now that it’s always on it will be shown.
The battery issue with smartwatches drives me nuts. My Citizen uses a solar panel, and it's been ticking for years. It should last about 20 without needing a change of battery/capacitor.
"...so it’s easy to see the time and other important information, without raising or tapping the display." Did the whole watch industry for at least 150 + years...truly innovative
So, the LTPO display is not new. It was introduced in the Series 4. What is not clear to me is whether in the low-refresh low-intensity mode it is still subject to burn-in.
I still have 2 Pebbles working perfectly and I will continue to stick with those. I haven't seen much yet that makes me want to replace them. Perhaps I have simple needs but Always On Screen, Notifications (SMS, Email, Calender), Voice Messaging and the Ability to dial calls is all I need a smart watch to do. My Pebbles still do it with 5+ days of battery life. Outside of the bio features some people use I really feel a lot of smart watch features are looking for a problem to solve.
I wish someday Apple Watch can charge itself by harnessing the power of arm swing. I know some mechanical watches do that. Not sure though if it can gather enough power to sustain indefinitely.
I have a Xiaomi Amazfit. Cost me 55€, and the battery lasts 15 days with an always on display. It has included GPS, compass, pressure meter, heart rate monitor and sleep monitoring.<p>Sincerely, other than looks (and I woild still not bring an Apple phone to more formal occasions just like I don't bring my Amazfit) I can't understand why anyone would pay 10x more for an iWatch not can I stand that I would have to charge it everyday.
I find the current generation of smartwatches a complete waste of money. Other than the signaling factor of the iwatch, i found it annoying and utterly useless. Between the wrist-shock vibration (hey my phone is already vibrating in my pocket) to the annoying "breathe" app, this is by far the worst apple product i ve used. But it's not their fault, it's a problem with the genre. Between the daily-recharge hassle, the inability to have an always-on screen, the lack of a killer app and its relative fragility , watches like these are doomed. I much prefer the $30 xiaomi mi band as a sort-of tracker.<p>(this is just my opinion)