An extension to your iPhone or an expensive watch, we're really not sure and we are Apple Fanboys!
- 7/10
- 299.00
- Buy Apple Watch on Amazon
What we love...
- Quality Feel
- Bright Screen
- Bedside Table Mode
What we don't love...
- Strap prices are scary
- Limited Apps at the Mo
- Slow to respond
I have a few downfalls in my life, one is getting the latest gadgets and the 2nd is watches. Now I’m not as bad as I used to on the latter, I’ve had the same Seiko Chronograph for the last 10 years now, it was definately a WANT and not a NEED!
But thing thing is, it kept staring me in the face everytime I looked in Stuff or T3 Magazine. Then one day I was on holiday and stumbled across it in a small jewellers in Gibraltar, that was it, my credit card got flexed and it was mine. As I say, I didn’t need it, just a few months prior I had spent a couple of hundred pounds on another Seiko watch, and before that, another one.
I like watches, that’s the traditionalist in me, I like to look at my watch for dates and times. I rarely use a stopwatch and because the Seiko is powered from movement, I’ve never needed a new battery in it. Even last year I took it to a watch makers who pressure tested it, she said that over the years it would have lost some, it hadn’t, and it was described as “Like New”
When the Apple Watch was announced, I really wasn’t bothered. My phone/s are on my desk day in and day out, its rarely away from my arm. But being sent a free one to try, I couldn’t say no.
The first few days it remained in the box, after day 3 I took the plastic bits off it and put it on charge. After day 5 I had a go at pairing it to my watch, it did take a few attempts but I realise that my iPhone was tethered to my macbook and was causing issues.
Now I’m almost 3 weeks in, I wear it Monday to Friday, with my Seiko replacing it for the weekend. I even managed to upset one of the staff members at the Apple Shop in Meadowhall, as I said I didn’t like it. Yet its still now become part of my daily working life. Anyway, on with the review.
Build and Design...
The Apple Sport Watch, its made out of cheaper materials than the standard Watch and the Edition version, yet it contains the same internals. The Sport has an aluminum outer, whereas the others are stainless steel or even gold. The strap is rubber, which sounds disappointing but is actually a really nice fit, once you get the hang of it.
The watch itself is touch screen and has a rotating crown and one push button. Everything is controlled from these 3 functions and is pretty easy, yet small. The version we have is the 42mm, any smaller and we would struggle with our fat fingers.
Display and screen info...
The display is Retina, why wouldn’t it be as Apple fit them to most other gadgets. The layout of the screen shows all of the apps in one place, using the digital crown you can zoom in and out and use a finger to move them around.
Operating System and Apps...
We read up on the watch before we went in for the plunge. We didn’t sync all apps, just the ones that we thought we would use. That way we didn’t clutter the watch.
We found the watch to be quite slow in loading things up and a few apps like Stocard don’t seem to work at all on the watch, even after installing and reinstalling.
Few useful ones for me include Maps, TheTrainline and Nationwide banking, apart from that the only other useful bits are the fact that I can read and dismiss notifications on my watch, whilst my phone stays in my pocket. My wife however says that this does distract me from conversations…. oops!…
Battery Life Thru The Day...
Apple suggests that their watches last 18 hours before needing a charge, with a gadget like this, it will need a nightly charge just like your iPhone.
I found it to last all day and when I do put it on charge, it has 30% left. I do check notifications and I use the brilliant activity app with the heart rate monitor. I can see it going down a bit more when Apple Pay launches in the UK on the 14th July 2015.
Would I Buy One...
I’m not sure, it has opened my eyes a little and I use it much more than I thought I would. But I’m still a big watch lover and until I can do something with it that blows me away. I believe the 2nd version of the Apple Watch software will work much better, until then I will keep working with it and let you guys know how it is.
Would It Go With Anything Else...
There are a few third party straps available on the market, I wouldn’t mind touching them before I ordered one. Also the HiRise stand! I’d love one of these!
Disclaimer
This Apple Watch was a demo unit supplied by Keep Schtum marketing who supplied the unit for us to review and apply a link, FREE OF CHARGE. Since this review, we have gone on to buy one for ourselves. Clicking some of the links on this page may result us getting a few pennies. You don’t have to click any of them and we purely do it for the pleasure of writing the gadget reviews.
