Apple Watch Series 4 vs. Series 3: Which should you get?
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In September, Apple pulled back the curtain on the latest iteration of its popular smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 4. The Series 3 is already a superb device — as of 2018, it topped our list of the best smartwatches — so what could Apple possibly do to best it? A few things, as it turns out. The Series 4 has a number of new features (some subtle, some astounding), but it’s not a cheap gadget, and if you already own a Series 3, you may wonder whether the upgrade is worth it. Let’s break down the differences between the two models.
SPECS
| | Apple Watch Series 4 | Apple Watch Series 3 |
| Display size | 40mm (44mm w/ cellular) | 38mm (42mm w/ cellular) |
| Resolution | 324 x 394 pixels (368 x 448 w/ cellular) | 272 x 340 pixels (312 x 390 w/ cellular) |
| Touchscreen | LTPO OLED Retina display w/ Force Touch | OLED Retina display w/ Force Touch |
| Wireless interface | Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, LTE and UMTS | Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, LTE and UMTS |
| Depth | 10.7mm | 11.4mm |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Gyroscope | Yes | Yes |
| Altimeter | Yes | Yes |
| Ambient light sensor | Yes | Yes |
| Optical heart rate | Yes | Yes |
| GPS | Yes | Yes |
| Water resistant | Yes | Yes |
| Battery life | 18 hours | 18 hours |
| Price | From $399 | From $279 |
| Availability | Available to order September 14, available September 21 | Now |
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
The Series 3 was a familiar face for anyone who had one of the previous models, with the most notable difference being a colored dot on the crown. It was also just a tiny bit thicker than its predecessors.
The Series 4 sports a seamless edge-to-edge display, and Apple boasts that it is more than 30 percent larger than the Series 3’s. This is in keeping with the trend in mobile devices of purging bezels once and for all, and it makes for a sleek device.
The Series 3 expanded the functionality of the Apple Watch by adding cellular support, and the Series 4 builds on this with an improvement in form: The new watch has a back made of black ceramic and sapphire, which Apple claims will allow radio waves to flow with less resistance, improving reception. The Series 4 also rocks a speaker that is 50 percent louder than the previous generation’s. These factors combine to make a smartwatch that should be much better for making calls on the go — although whether this makes the Apple Watch a legitimate smartphone replacement is still up in the air.
A small but welcome touch is the addition of haptic feedback to the Series 4’s crown. As users scroll through screens, the watch will reward them with a comforting click.
FITNESS AND HEALTH-TRACKING FEATURES
The Series 3 was already a great fitness tracker. In our review, we described it as “clear, concise, informative, and encouraging, and with many different modes to suit the majority of people.” We also noted that “heart-rate monitoring is easy, and there are varied tracking options for walking, running, cycling, swimming, and more.”
The Series 4 pushes the design to new heights with the addition of an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. When a user places their finger on the crown, the watch creates a “closed circuit” and can measure the rhythm of the user’s heart. It’s a major addition for customers worried about their heart health, and according to Apple it is the first ECG sensor available over the counter. Apple has already secured approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the Series 4 to be considered a legitimate medical device.
Another boon to the Series 4’s health tracking is the ability to detect when the user has fallen over. If the user remains on the ground for a minute, the watch can even place a call to emergency services, a miraculous feature for people who live alone and need assistance.
BATTERY LIFE
With all these new features, one may wonder if the battery life has taken a hit. Apple hasn’t extended the battery life, but it has at least maintained it. Like its predecessor, the Series 4 will get 18-hour “all-day” battery life, although Apple did bump the outdoor workout battery life to six hours.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
The circle of wearable life continues, and with the arrival of the Series 4, Apple is dropping the starting price of the Series 3 to $279. The Series 4 will start at $399, or $499 for the cellular version. Customers will be able to place their orders for the Series 4 starting September 14, and the device will be available (in most markets) starting September 21.
CONCLUSION
If you’re strapped for cash, the Series 3 remains a lovely device, and you’d certainly be fine sticking with it (or picking it up at the new, lower price). For those who don’t balk at the Series 4’s price tag, however, it is undoubtedly the smartwatch to get, a bold evolution of what was already the premier device on the market. Its new health-tracking features are unparalleled, and a great addition for anyone concerned about their vitals.
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Apple Watch Series 4 hands-on review
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HIGHS
- Impressive array of heart-tracking features, ECG
- Larger screen that looks great
- Strong performance
- Haptic feedback on crown is a nice touch
- Excellent app support
LOWS
- Longer battery life would have been nice
- Expensive
- No third party watch faces
Last year’s Apple Watch Series 3 cemented its place as the best smartwatch you can buy. This year, Apple has gone a step further to make the Apple Watch Series 4 the only wearable you need. The improvements range from a larger screen to two times better performance over the Series 3, but the spotlight falls on the electrocardiogram (ECG) app, which has been certified by the Food & Drug Administration, making the Apple Watch Series 4 the first over-the-counter ECG alternative for consumers. It’s an impressive feat, and it shows just how much of a lead Apple has over the competition.
We managed to spend some time with the new watch at Apple’s event in Cupertino. The ECG app won’t be available until later this year, but that still left us plenty to explore.
BIGGER SCREEN, SLEEK DESIGN
Like before, the Apple Watch Series 4 comes in 40mm and a 44mm size options. What’s new here is the screen real estate — you get more screen, without having to deal with a significantly bigger watch body.
Slimmer bezels allow a 30 percent larger screen, which means you can see more content than ever before. Will this affect battery life? Apple claims new low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) display technology should improve power efficiency, so we’ll just have to wait and see. The screen looks excellent, as usual, though we’ll need to use it outdoors to see if it’s easy to see in bright sunlight.
We liked the Vapor watch face, which showed off neat, dynamic animations on the watch as it lit up.
The Series 4 watch looks a little curvier than previous Apple Watch devices, but it’s just as elegant and sleek. We tried on the stainless steel 44mm watch, which felt lightweight and supremely comfortable. The leather magnetic strap wrapped around our wrist without much fuss, and the lug design meant there were no gaps between the watch and our wrist.
All this being said, we would have been thrilled to see what Apple would do with a circular watch, but it looks like that may never happen.
Accompanying the larger screen are several new watch faces, and some look better than others. The Infograph watch face, for example, looks a bit too cluttered for our tastes, but it does provide a ton of information at a glance if that’s what you want. It has an air-quality index, ultraviolet index, weather, and access to breathing exercises, heart rate, activity, music, and workout. The complications can be customized to your liking.
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
Other new watch faces have pretty animations that shift to the rhythm of breathing exercises — handy if you constantly find yourself stressed out.
We much preferred the Vapor watch face, which showed off neat, dynamic animations on the watch as it lit up. We do think Apple missed an opportunity here to launch a store for third-party watch faces, but baby steps were made. The Infograph Modular watch face lets you add in a slice of data from any other Apple apps or third-party apps — if developers add support. Baby steps.
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS
One of our favorite features on the Series 4 is the haptic feedback implemented in the Digital Crown. As you rotate the button, you can feel vibrations for every selection you move past. It’s a small but wonderful touch that makes interacting with the watch a little more fun.
The Series 4 Apple Watch can also alert you when it detects a low heart rate or an irregular heartbeat.
The crown is also what you will use for the electrocardiogram app when it’s available later this year — just tap your finger on it, and the electrical heart sensor will do the rest. You’ll be able to download a PDF to share with your doctor.
While we can’t comment on how well it works, the ECG has the potential to make a significant impact in the health community.
Many people wear the Apple Watch all day, but may not do the same with traditional ECG monitors. While the results likely won’t be as accurate as what you may find in the doctor’s office, the ability to take measurements quickly at any moment will be a major boon.
The Series 4 Apple Watch can also alert you when it detects a low heart rate, and recognize an irregular heart rate. If you have any heart-related issues, these features make the Apple Watch the watch you want to have on your wrist at all times.
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
Going a step further, the watch can also detect when you fall, and send out an alert to your emergency contacts if it doesn’t detect movement after a minute. Sure, Life Alert exists, but a stylish watch is a lot more enticing than a clunky pendant.
BETTER PERFORMANCE, LOUDER SPEAKER
The Apple Watch Series 4 is powered by Apple’s new S4 chip, which the company claims delivers two times faster performance. We never ran into a problem with performance on the Series 3, but we’ll happily take any improvements. Moving around the watchOS operating system is fluid and smooth, and we didn’t see any issues here.
Apple has also shifted the placement of the microphone to reduce echo during calls, and the speaker is purportedly 50 percent louder. We weren’t able to tell in the loud environment we were in, but if true that should make using the new Walkie-Talkie feature in watchOS 5 easier. Speaking of watchOS 5, you can check out all the new features available in our handy guide.
APPLE WATCH SERIES 4 COMPARED TO
Garmin Fenix 5X Plus
Casio Pro Trek WSD-F30
Alpina AlpinerX
Fossil Q Venture
Garmin Vivoactive 3
Emporio Armani Connected touchscreen…
Fitbit Ionic
Apple Watch Series 3
Diesel On Full Guard Smartwatch
Huawei Fit
Garmin Vivoactive HR
Apple Watch Series 2
Asus ZenWatch 2
Asus ZenWatch
Garmin fenix 2
We’re not expecting much of a difference with battery life of the Series 4, so expect more than a day, perhaps two, based on our experience with the Series 3.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The Apple Watch Series 4 starts at $400 for the Wi-Fi and GPS model, and $500 for the GPS and cellular model. Prices also vary depending on whether you want the aluminum case or the stainless steel. There are a ton of options to choose from, so it’s easy to find something you’ll like. The two size options are also great for people who want a smaller or larger watch. Pre-orders start September 14, with sales starting September 21.
There’s a lot of technology fitted into the relatively small case of the Series 4 Apple Watch. It’s impressive, but we haven’t really been able to test many of these features, so we’re not ready to recommend it quite yet. Still, considering the FDA certification and the host of new heart-tracking features, this is certainly a smartwatch worth considering for everyone.
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Apple Watch Series 4: Everything you need to know
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At its September hardware event, Apple unveiled it’s highly anticipated next-generation smartwatch — the Apple Watch Series 4. From a larger display to a built-in electrical heart sensor that can measure a variety of health metrics, the latest device brings along some notable new features.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Apple Watch Series 4.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
The Apple Watch Series 4 comes in two sizes — 40mm and 44mm – and also brings along a 30 percent larger display. There’s also a redesigned modular watch face with more detailed and graphic information. Users can see stocks and heart rate, track scores from sports teams, view boarding information, and more. In terms of colors, the Series 4 comes in three aluminum finishes — silver, gold, and space gray. The Series 4 also comes in gold stainless steel with a Milanese band, in addition to the silver and space black stainless steel options. The new bands will also work with any of the Apple Watch predecessors.
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
The Breathe app, which many use for meditation or to lower their heart rate, will now be available as a watch face. That way, you’ll be able to use it by simply raising your wrist to allow the Breathe app to guide you through deep breaths.
For the most part, the Series 4 looks similar to its predecessors, although there’s a new digital crown with haptic feedback. This will allow for a more responsive feel when you flip through items on your watch. The speaker has also been completely redesigned, making it 50 percent louder, and the microphone can now be found on the opposite side — far away from the speaker. This will hopefully help to reduce echo and make phone calls much clearer.
The back of the Series 4 is made of black ceramic and sapphire crystal, allowing radio waves to pass through the front and back. Apple says this is meant to improve cell reception.
SPECS AND BATTERY
Under the hood is Apple’s next-generation S4, 64-bit dual-core processor that’s been designed to perform two times faster. The accelerometer and gyroscope have twice the dynamic range and can sample motion data eight times faster.
Nothing has changed when it comes to battery life, though — the Apple Watch Series 4 has the same 18-hour, all-day battery life. Apple has increased outdoor workout time to six hours, with full GPS tracking for long bike rides.
SOFTWARE AND SPECIAL HEALTH FEATURES
The Apple Watch Series 4 runs Apple’s new WatchOS 5 operating system. It comes along with a variety of improvements, like enhanced fitness and health tracking, walkie-talkie mode, and more.
The Series 4 also has a ton of additional health features. For starters, it can now detect when you fall by analyzing wrist trajectory and impact acceleration. It will then initiate an emergency call. If it senses you’re immobile for 1 minute, it’ll automatically call and send a message to your emergency contacts using the SOS feature.
While older models of the Apple Watch include an optical heart rate sensor to track calories burned, resting heart rate, and more, the Series 4 offers a few new features. You’ll now receive a notification if your heart rate appears to be too low — which could mean that your heart isn’t pumping enough blood to the body.
In addition, the Apple Watch will now be able to screen your heart rhythm in the background. It’ll send a notification to the watch if it detects irregular rhythm, which could point to atrial fibrillation. While the device isn’t able to diagnose the issue, it can detect it for you so you can then consult a doctor.
Perhaps one of the most impressive features on the Series 4 is the built-in electrical heart sensor. Built into the back of the sapphire crystal and digital crown, users can now take an electrocardiogram (ECG) — the first of its kind in a smartwatch. This will measure electrical activity of the heartbeat in order to help diagnose heart disease and other conditions. You’re able to take an ECG anytime, anywhere, straight from your wrist by opening the app and placing your finger on the digital crown. Since all of the information is stored in the health app, you’ll be able to share the ECG with a doctor, who will be able to see a more detailed picture of what’s going on. Apple has also received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The Apple Watch Series 4 starts at $399, while the cellular model starts at $499. The Apple Watch Series 4 is now available for pre-order in the U.S., with availability beginning September 21.
Updated September 14: The Apple Watch Series 4 is now available for pre-order
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APPLE WATCH SERIES 4 REVIEW: THE BEST GETS BETTER
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The greatest Apple product comeback story of the past few years has, without a doubt, been the Apple Watch. Launched with great fanfare four years ago, the initial version tried to do way too much with way too little, and it had confusing software to boot. Worst of all, it was unclear what the original Apple Watch was even for. No single thing stood out.
Then Apple did what Apple often does: iterated, refined, and fixed. But as much as there were software and hardware improvements to the Series 2 and Series 3, the most important refinements were to the Apple Watch’s purpose. It gained clarity. It was for fitness and notifications. Eventually, when it was ready, Apple added better connectivity.
Now, with the Series 4, Apple is iterating again. And, importantly, it’s learned how to iterate the product’s hardware and its purpose at the same time. The Series 4 has finally achieved something like the original goal of the Apple Watch. It’s not quite a do-anything computer on your wrist, but it can be different things to different people now.
With apologies to the new iPhones, the Apple Watch Series 4 was the most impressive thing Apple announced last week. After using it for the past week or so, I think it lives up to the hype.
8.5VERGE SCORE
GOOD STUFF
- Great battery life
- Huge, beautiful screen
- Health-tracking features, not just fitness
BAD STUFF
- Siri is still unreliable
- No always-on screen option
- Complication options can be confusing
Buy for $399.00 from Apple
For the first time since the original Apple Watch, the hardware has been fully redesigned, with a new body and new sizes. But it’s not a major overhaul. These still look like the Apple Watches you’re used to: they have the same rounded-corner lozenge shape, the same glass that curves around to match the body, and the same digital crown and single-button layout.
Before we get too far, we should talk pricing. This Watch is not especially cheap. The smallest, least expensive model comes with GPS and Wi-Fi and costs $399. But if you start piling on the upgrades, you can quickly jack up the price to something that feels exorbitant, especially if you’re upgrading from a Series 2 or Series 3. It’s $29 more for the larger size, $100 for LTE compatibility (plus $10 per month or so from your carrier), and the stainless steel models are $200 more (and only come with LTE). Add in Apple Care, and you can end up spending a lot — though it’s nothing like the wild “Edition” prices of yore. (Don’t even get me started on the Hermès model.)
THE LARGER SIZES DON’T FEEL THAT MUCH BIGGER THAN THE OLDER MODELS
The two new sizes are 40mm and 44mm, but they really don’t feel that much bigger on your wrist than the old sizes. I was using the 42mm Series 3 and the 44mm size is only subtly bigger, but it’s also subtly thinner. To me, it feels about the same, but I think the trade-off of size for thinness is worth it. I suspect the same will be true for people who prefer the smaller size, but my recommendation is to go to a store and try one on before buying.
I’m really happy — and impressed — that Apple managed to make existing Watch bands fully compatible with the new sizes. Even my old third-party bands fit seamlessly into the new Watch body.
Things look different when the screen turns on. The screen on the Series 4 is just incredibly good. Apple says it’s 30 percent bigger, which is one of those specs that’s easy to just sort of pass over when you read it. But 30 percent is a lot, and you absolutely notice it right away.
It’s still OLED so the blacks are truly black and blend into the watchface glass. But if you pick a full-screen watchface, you’ll see that the screen also goes closer to the edges of the Watch than before, including the rounded corners.
The overall effect makes the square display on my Series 3 look dumpy and cramped by comparison — even though, until last week, it was arguably the best smartwatch screen on the market. As John Gruber writes, “The Series 4 displays take up so much more of the face of the watches that the new 40mm watch’s display is larger than the display on the old 42mm models — the new small watch has a larger display than the old large watch.”
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Beyond the size and the screen, there are a few other subtle exterior differences to note about the hardware. The rear of the Watch is now ceramic instead of metal to allow for a better wireless signal. If you spring for the LTE model, the garish red dot on the digital crown has been replaced with a much more subtle red ring.
The microphone has been moved between the two buttons so that it’s further away from the speaker to help reduce echo in calls. The speaker has been boosted to provide more volume. It really is way louder, and I haven’t heard any distortion during phone calls.
Last year’s Apple Watch had some issues with LTE at launch, though Apple fixed it up fairly quickly. This year, I haven’t had any major problems with LTE. In fact, several people I called with the Watch simply didn’t believe I wasn’t on a phone. It sounds good, and the louder speaker means you can hear it without holding the thing next to your ear.
But it does take the Watch a minute (sometimes two) to switch on LTE and get connected. That’s not radically worse than what happens when you pull your phone out of airplane mode, but on the Watch, it’s always a little less clear what’s happening and why when data is not coming in.
On the inside, there’s a faster S4 processor, a W3 chip (which is just Apple’s W2 chip with Bluetooth 5.0 support), and an accelerometer and gyroscope that are able to take samples of your movements more often (which is how Apple was able to add the new fall detection feature). Apple’s also tied haptics to the digital crown, so when you spin it, you feel little ticks that precisely correlate to what’s happening on the screen. It’s completely unnecessary but pretty neat.
BATTERY LIFE HAS BEEN STUPENDOUS
Last but certainly not least: the battery size is about the same. Battery life on the Series 4 is as good or better than on the Series 3 Watch. Apple claims 18 hours of regular use or six hours of outdoor workouts. I haven’t done a six-hour outdoor workout (and I don’t plan to), but my testing shows the battery life far exceeds Apple’s own claims.
I took the Watch off the charger on Saturday morning and wandered around Oakland for four hours while disconnected from my phone. I used LTE for maps, a couple calls, and GPS for tracking my outdoor walk “workout.” I was still at 50 percent at the end of that day, and I didn’t get below 20 percent by the end of my lazy Sunday (which also involved an hour or so of GPS tracking and some LTE data).
The battery life is so good that I wish Apple gave me an option for an always-on ambient screen, maybe by turning off some radios. Alas, you still have to turn your wrist to see the time.
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watchOS 5 is kind of a grab bag of new features, which sounds dismissive, but I don’t mean it to be. It’s a good sign that watchOS is ready to be laden with features instead of rethought from the ground up, as it was in years past. There’s support for podcasts, Walkie Talkie mode, slightly improved (and grouped!) notifications, and a bunch of fitness and health options.
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But the thing people will probably pay the most attention to are the new watchfaces that are available on the Series 4 Watches. They’re designed to show off the new rounded-corner screen. Some are just sort of flashy animations, while others are chock-full of new complications in phantasmagoric colors.
Of the new watchfaces, I am most fond of the animated ones. Apple says that the fire, water, and vapor animations were all created with practical effects. As in: literal fire, vapor, and water were filmed with high-speed cameras as they flowed on custom-welded rigs. They look great; the animations naturally flow right up to the rounded corners.
The watchface that you’ll probably see the most in ads is called “infograph.” It takes the bigger screen of the Series 4 and fills it up with as many as eight complications. There’s a “modular” version as well that shows the digital time and six complications. Like many parts of watchOS 5, they use new, more rounded fonts, too.
The infograph watchface is polarizing. I don’t like it at all, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “design crime.” There are just too many colors doing too many different kinds of work splashed all over the screen in a garish and show-offy way. Too many of Apple’s watchface options are like that. Call me boring, but I prefer a Watch look that’s a little more staid. It makes me a little sad that Apple still doesn’t allow third-party watchfaces.
Even if you like the new watchfaces, you probably won’t like what happens when you try to select a new complication. There are now “old”- and “new”-style complications, which are completely different and incompatible. The newer watchfaces need the new complications, so third-party developers will have to update their apps (and so will Apple). You can’t add the Home app to the new watchfaces, only the old ones. The most annoying part is that there’s no way to know what complications are available on any given watchface without scrolling through and looking for the one you want.
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On the fitness front, the best new feature is automatic workout detection, which can tell if you’ve started or stopped a workout and ask you if that’s the case and if you want to log it. There are now options for yoga, hiking, setting a target pace, and tracking your pace. You can also see your cadence as you run and challenge somebody to a week-long exercise competition. (I didn’t extensively test these features; I’m still at the “fill your damn rings” stage of my exercise goals.)
Maybe the most interesting change, though, is how Apple is more clearly separating out health features from the fitness stuff. There are a few new features in watchOS 5 and the Series 4 that are designed to help you detect health problems, not just encourage you to close those activity rings or run a marathon.
That’s interesting because it more explicitly positions the Apple Watch as a device that can help detect health problems, making it something that people who can’t exercise that much might be more interested in. Apple, as always, is very careful to not cross the line into making actual health claims about its new features. It’s careful to say that the Watch can detect things like irregular heartbeats, not that it will.
THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “TRACKING YOUR FITNESS” AND “MONITORING YOUR HEALTH”
watchOS 5 is able to detect low heart rate now, in addition to high heart rate. Later this year, Apple will add detection for irregular rhythms and provide notifications for them. The big new feature on the Series 4 is that it can take an electrocardiogram (EKG) using electrodes built into the back of the Watch and the digital crown. It can then send a PDF of your results to your doctor. I wasn’t able to test that as it is coming later this year. Both irregular heartbeat detection and the EKG features have been granted “de novo” classification by the FDA, and that distinction is important, as Angela Chen explains:
It’s important to understand that the FDA has “cleared” both apps, but that’s not the same as “approving” them. There are usually three ways to get the FDA involved in a new project, according to Jon Speer, co-founder of Greenlight Guru, a company that makes quality management software for medical device companies. The most advanced is FDA approval, which is done only for Class III products, or technologies that might have higher risk but also a higher benefit. (Think: implantable pacemakers.) Approval is the gold standard, and companies need to do a lot of testing to receive this designation.
The Apple Watch is in Class II. For Class II and Class I, the FDA doesn’t give “approval,” it just gives clearance.
Another new feature exclusive to the Series 4 is hard fall detection, thanks to a new 800Hz accelerometer and gyroscope that can that can measure up to 32 G-forces. The Watch should be able to tell if you’ve had a spill and ask if you’d like to call emergency services. If you don’t move for a full minute after falling, it can do that automatically and also send a message to your emergency contact. Apple is turning it on automatically for users who tell the Watch they’re over age 65, and it’s making it an option for younger users as well.
I’ve tried to trigger it without hurting myself and I haven’t been able to, which I suppose is a point in the Watch’s favor. (My tests were far from scientific; I was just hurling myself at the couch.) Apple says that to build its fall detection algorithms, it used data from a study involving 2,500 participants over several years, and it also worked with assisted living facilities and movement disorder clinics.
So throwing yourself into bed after a long day shouldn’t trigger it, but a fall from a ladder or tripping over a curb and flailing your arms as you hit the ground might. Again, Apple’s health claims are not that the Watch will detect these falls, but simply that it could.
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A lot of people were really excited about Walkie Talkie mode, but after testing it, I don’t think it’s especially compelling. Unlike those classic Nextel Push-to-Talk phones, Walkie Talkie mode on the Apple Watch is essentially just a FaceTime Audio call with a button you press to talk and little beeps and visual indicators to tell you if it’s your turn.
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When you send the first message, you have to wait for a connection to be made, and then it’s just tapping the screen and talking. The connection stays active until a few minutes after the last person finishes speaking. It’s neat, but it doesn’t feel as instant as a true PTT system. I also had connectivity problems with it, but that may have just been OS launch-day overloading.
That said, it’s silly fun to push the big yellow button with your nose when it’s your turn to talk. I strongly recommended it. (If it becomes a thing, I want to make sure I get full credit for coining the term “nose calls.”)
Siri on watchOS 5 is still Siri. There’s a new feature that lets you simply lift your wrist and start taking instead of pushing a button or saying “Hey Siri,” and it works really well. The Siri shortcuts you set up on your iPhone should also work from your Watch, too. Siri still feels super unreliable, though.
Siri gets especially fussy when you have a spotty connection. Too often, when I wanted to ask a question, I’d be met with a “hang on…” message, followed by a “I’ll tap you when I’m ready” message, followed by an interminable wait during which I’d forget whatever it was I needed Siri for.
One last little watchOS 5 thing I must mention: you can open links to webpages now, too, which is kind of fun. Articles you click on get put into readability mode, so you don’t have to worry too much about ads or bad layouts on your Watch. Hooray for the web!
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This year’s Apple Watch is incredibly good. If you use it just for notifications and step counting, it’s probably overkill, but it’s able to handle more advanced features better than any other smartwatch I’ve tested. Mapping, music, workouts, calls, texting, podcasts… most of the stuff I could imagine wanting from a smartwatch works better than ever before. The only real bummer is that I still don’t feel like I can trust Siri to do everything I’d like reliably, and that’s more of an intermittent hassle than a real killer.
If you’re looking at this Watch with an eye toward the health features, I have to admit that they’re difficult to test: the new features could be very compelling to a lot of people. Passive monitoring for heart problems and falls could literally be lifesavers, but they aren’t all available yet, and we’d need to see third-party lab testing to really make a call there.
THE APPLE WATCH HAS EARNED ITS PLACE AS THE BEST-SELLING WATCH
For people who are looking to upgrade an existing Apple Watch, that’s a harder question to answer than usual. Spending four to six hundred bucks for a bigger screen is a luxury I wouldn’t casually recommend to anybody, even though the screen is wonderful. Many of watchOS 5’s best features will work fine on more recent Apple Watches, too. Yes, there are exclusive watchfaces on the Series 4, but that’s also a silly thing to drop so much money for.
What I can tell you is this: the Apple Watch has earned its place as the best-selling watch. It’s at least an order of magnitude better than other smartwatches and fitness trackers. Nearly everything it is designed to do, it does very well. It’s not yet a general purpose computer for your wrist, but, thankfully, Apple isn’t aiming for that anymore. The Watch is for doing little bite-sized versions of phone things like texting and listening to music, it’s for fitness, and it’s for health monitoring.
Now that Apple has figured out what the Apple Watch is for, the Series 4 just makes it better.
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