Category: Apple

Apple watch – review after a year

I got the Apple Watch last year and I have been using it for every day ever since and I love it. Below is a brief review after using the watch for over an year.

tl:dr I love it and it is totally the best smart watch you can get.  (You may want to wait a few months as apple watch 2 might launch in Oct 2016)

Pros:

  • Works great as fitness tracker. It has tracking for most common workout needs you may have.
  • Notifications on the watch have been a huge time saver. Huge time saver while driving or in meetings. Some times you can take a step forward and acknowledge messsages (A quick reply is just a tap away).
  • A plethora of apps have evolved. They help  with tracking productivity and reminders etc
  • Siri works well.
  • Bling aspect is still true as was when it launched.
  • Watch faces and the interchangeable bands help suit the mood/trend/fashion.

Cons:

  • Was too slow. (Not any more, watchOS 3 fixes it and the speed increase is phenomenal).
  • Battery life wasn’t  great. I8 hours wasn’t great in comparison to the fitbits and Garmins that last for a week. Not much of a deal breaker for me.
  • Sleep tracking isn’t part of the watch at all. The pillow app fixes this. I wish the watch had native tracking like the Fitbits do.

Watch OS 3:  It is a phenomal update that would be coming to the watch soon. I am testing it on my watch, it isn’t stable yet, but it opens up the watch in a multitude of ways and adressess most of the complaints and restrictiveness it had.

You may think, I am just an apple fan boy and hence my fanatcism with it. Actually I have tested the Fitbit Surge (still own one),  Fitbit  Flex  and  a Garmin Vivofit as my daily activity trackers/ smart watches. So far, the most satisfying experience has been from the Apple watch and hence my recommendation above.

My Apple Watch- First thoughts

My apple watch (42mm space grey sports) got delivered yesterday and am still excited about it. It still isn’t launched in India though. I picked one on Ebay.

Unboxing the watch was a delight and I doubt any company would be able to get someone excited about the unboxing this much.

Its just over 18 hours with the watch am loving the watch so far. I am still exploring how things work in the watch ecosystem. This is the first apple device that got me looking into the online manual as things weren’t obvious at certain places. But so far so good, the small device has a ton of complexity that I would give the benefit of doubt to the UX guys and give them kudos for the job they’ve done. Any ways this is version 1.0.1

The force touch and the haptic feedback is the best thing that has happened since the launch of the iPhone with the touch screen. It’s mindblowing, especially the haptic feedback.

I will write more about it in the coming days, as I learn new things about the watch.

Till then, thanks for reading.

 

Apple watch review

Gruber seems to have an astute take on all apple products and that is why I like his product reviews. He has the apple watch review up already and am now contemplating buying one when it launches in India. Only time will tell if I will buy one as soon as it launches or if I will wait for the second generation. But I am very tempted buy one even gift one for that matter.  

 

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