This post will be kind of different for me since I am not that good in reviewing any tech. To be completely honest, I own a tech blog before, but due to the high level of competition on this market I had to close it after two years of service (rest in peace, soldier). To be more exact, I’d say that now I won’t do any specific review, I will share my thoughts and experience of using the latest Apple Watch Series 4 for two weeks. I hope this “review” will help you understand if you need this product for yourself or not.
Same box, different interior
I used to own Series 2 watch previously, and even thus I liked it (beautiful gold case with brown sport band), I got rid of it after approximately 2 months, selling it to some banking guy who as well passed me his business card in case if I will decide to get a loan for a new iPhone.
This September, I decided to give apple watch another shot since I was impressed with the WWDC 2018 and Apple watch presentation. Below is keynote part if you want to recheck it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UJPxSxMF8
After my work, I went away straight to the Apple reseller store located in a mall near my house. To be completely honest, I expected to see a massive line of people waiting for their watches, but in reality, it was almost empty, only with some an elderly couple roaming around new MacBook Pro and a young couple checking their newly purchased HomePod.
Anyway, after briefly trying both: 40mm and 44mm version, I decided to go with the black aluminum version with 44mm case and new sports loop. I specifically wanted to get sports loop since I got frustrated with my series two rubber band, which kept tilting towards the left side of my wrist. New “Sports Loop” as they call it, basically has a sticky end, which can be firmly fixed on your wrist without any tilting. Breathable as well.
Once I came home, I quickly took off the film from the watch box, and I was impressed by the presentation compared to the last year’s models.
Pic by Gizmodo
The box itself was adorable, with “birthday present” like carton wrapping around two main boxes, one of which contained the band, and another one – the case itself along with all the cables and papers.
Pic by iJustine
And God, that microfiber “bag” for the casing looks excellent! Every detail considered up ahead. Bravo Apple!
From the visual perspective, watch itself didn’t change a lot visually. I mean, rumor had it that hey will change the form factor to circle this year and so on, but none of it happened. In reality, we received the same watch, with a slightly bigger screen and rounded corners. Still good enough.
Once you turn on the device, you will notice the screen light up with the excellent pixel density. From afar, it seems like there are no visible pixels at all, which is incredible.
The connection is fast and straightforward: open “Watch” app on your iPhone and point your camera to the watch face, couple of mins – and you are good to go. And man, that thing is speedy! Everything is snappy, no lags or hangs, any app is opened in a snap of an eye.
After loading some of my apps (water balance, Nike training club, Pillow), I was good to go.
General Usage
After a couple of days and nights, I still liked that thing. I mean I didn’t have the initial WOW factor, but I still thought it’s a good little thing. It reminded me to drink water, to go to sleep, stand up every hour, move more and so on. Something I needed, but not something I couldn’t remind myself. Still, I went to sleep and woke up with the watch on my wrist, and I completely trusted the sleep analysis it provided me every morning. I tracked my calories, walking distance and standing stats during the day, adding a couple of minutes outside walk when I didn’t have my rings closed. Soon after I started to get bored of it.
The problem with my personality is that I cannot keep up for a long time with something new. If I like the thing initially, but not after a couple of days – I will immediately sell it and move on with my life with no regrets or second thought.
Yes, heartbeat tracker is great, and desire to move more and close the rings is awesome as well, but keeping the thing “just because” was stupid.
I soon realized that if I want to keep up with the trend, I will have to buy changeable bands to match with my clothes or shoes. I started googling around for the screen protector to prevent scratches. Imagine, screen protector for the watch!
After even more days, I caught myself on the moments where I was aimlessly checking my watch during the day not pursuing any aim or expecting to see something extraordinary.
The same day I placed an ad to sell the thing finally. Although, this time i took a second glance and realized that its pretty cool to have all notifications coming to my watch, which is very convenient when your phone is on silent mode, or you are on the kitchen or bathroom (by the way, watch is also waterproof), but it is definitely not worth 480$ I paid for it 2 weeks ago.
This evening, I sold the watch with a small loss of 30$ from the initial price, which I believe is completely fine. This is an experience, and its good to use something new to keep up with the trends and tech. I still think its unusual when I check my left hand and see no watch, but my budget now is +450$ which is good enough for me.
Conclusion
Now the main point of this article was not to review the device itself. I didn’t make any photos of it, neither did I dig deep into the characteristics itself. My point was to give you my experience and opinion on the watch while staying in the neutral, non-biased side.
Therefore here I see two scenarios:
- If you like wearables, enjoy exercise and need a small push to be more active and healthy during the day, as well as if you have a couple of hundred dollars to spend – you should get the watch. Hey, you can sell it anytime with the small loss at a price. Even today, series 2 and three are sold for solid 300$, which is excellent;
- If you have a good regime yourself if you don’t need a push to perform any activity, if you don’t like wearables and rely on your phone – spare yourself those couple of hundred dollars and save them for something other than the watch.
Also, from my point of view, if you are getting the watch for yourself and expect to keep it for at least 3-4 years, I’d suggest to invest a little bit more and get yourself a Stainless steel or Hermes versions. Stainless steel is much more durable than aluminum, and additionally, looks much more like a stylish, luxury accessory, than slightly “toyish,” cheaper, aluminum version.
