Meh, I have no desire whatsoever to wear my watch to bed, and the Apple Watch always gets me through the day so it's really no big deal to throw it on a charger on my nightstand every night.
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Apple Watch Series 8 and SE 2 Reviews: Very Incremental Upgrades
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People with the Series 4 would at least be gaining the AOD, which was a pretty great upgrade IMO, but agree that those with a Series 5 or newer don't have much reason to upgrade to a Series 8. I don't think that makes Apple Nokia though, the fact that Apple is making devices that remain relevant and functional for years is actually a good thing...
Really getting tired of these dorky reviews. Of course the new models are all incremental, barring new technology, the watches, phones, Macs, PCs, etc all do what they do pretty darn well, irregardless of the vendor. So what exactly would knock peoples socks off??
- lower tech display to last longer?
Probably next Thursday. They seem to be releasing the reviews the day before the product is available.
Yea, this is what I'm trying to avoid. I have a series 4 black stainless steel and every year I decide "this time I'm updating!" Then they release something that underwhelms. My S4 still gets me through a day and looks amazing. I feel like next year will be the year though hahah. Seriously though, if they update the watch with some trickle down features from Ultra, It would probably make me upgrade. The extra button that you can program would be nice. Dark mode too!
Chiba
I ordered a AW8 as my AW5 battery isn’t lasting me the day anymore. It is still above 80% and even if it wasn’t Apple wouldn’t do a battery replacement (which is really just a swap) because I have a deep scratch and nick on my screen. Not worth the $299. I probably would have gone for the AW7 when they were clearing them out, but none of the AW7 Aluminum colors go well with my collection of bands. With AW8 they brought back Classic Silver. My plan is basically to use the AW8 during the day and the AW5 at night, at least for a while to get some sleep numbers. Wish there was more to the update, but at least I'll get a slightly larger screen without scratches in it and will hopefully not be bothers with it wanting to go into low power mode around 7pm each day.
same boat, my broken S4 seems will still last until S9. S9 might inherit the ultra’s design. Hopefully ultra will be a 2 year cycle.
Apple has stopped innovating. They're in the same boat as Rolex now, who still ships the same dang spinning hands after 100 years.
/s
Seriously, though--if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do agree about the battery life woes though. Apple deserves all the flak they get for that.
/s
Seriously, though--if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do agree about the battery life woes though. Apple deserves all the flak they get for that.
If my series 4 was a stainless steel, I would definitely be sticking with that for normal use and ordering the ultra for when I am running/workouts/outdoors because battery life throughout the day is my biggest issue.
As it is, I’ve gone with a refurbished Series 7 SS Graphite, to have a nicer everyday watch, but still have those battery concerns. Will see how I feel it compares when it arrives today, but still considering whether the ultra makes more sense.
The ultra is a really big watch. I've had large watches before and they're great at first. After a while I tend to gravitate towards more reasonably sized watches. The other problem I have with the Ultra is Titanium retains heat much more than stainless steel. Much lighter sure, but for an every day watch it feels warmer and not as comfortable as a result.
So I hope a lot of it's features trickle down to regular AW next year but who knows..
Just the yearly improvements. Don't think it is worth upgrading from Series 7 to 8.
The AW8/SE were not really on Apple`s radar, they just gave first time purchasers a better AW7, for anyone upgrading from a S0,1,2,3,4 and perhaps for some with a S5 it is still a nice upgrade but still pretty incremental.
I go from the AW4 to the Ultra reasons are simple,
PS i am only upgrading to the Ultra because work will pay for it (first 2 year 60% of the value, so basically i initially spend the same amount of a AW SE myself spread over a 2 year period) Which is also big financial benefit i have with this particular purchase.
Otherwise i would never ever spend 1000 euro on a smartwatch.
I go from the AW4 to the Ultra reasons are simple,
- 79% more battery capacity,
- fast charging (LTE standalone requirement from my end)
PS i am only upgrading to the Ultra because work will pay for it (first 2 year 60% of the value, so basically i initially spend the same amount of a AW SE myself spread over a 2 year period) Which is also big financial benefit i have with this particular purchase.
Otherwise i would never ever spend 1000 euro on a smartwatch.
Do you know that AW Ultra wasn‘t made to give the AW8 customer s little bit more battery life. It was made for the people e.g. going for a hike over the weekend, made for sport emthusiasts doing crazy ultra marathons and challenges - maybe sailing for several days in a race?
Those people always use different brands for their smartwatch. But Apple failed in a terrible way. It made a watch with a big butt packed with batteries and only delivers hours - not even days or a week.
I was going to get a new AW8 to replace my AW3 but I can't really justify it based on the feature set. The AW3 works fine and I'm not exaclty sure what the upgrade would do for me. Despite not being able to get watch OS 9 that doesn't seem to actually to be an issue.
Time, calendar for meetings, siri timers, taking calls, sending texts, temperature, my CGM data, strava all work fine. I get the impression that Apple doesn't really know what to do with it since after five generations all we have is some additional pretty useless health sensors.
Seems that I'm just going to be on the sidelines until it breaks.
Time, calendar for meetings, siri timers, taking calls, sending texts, temperature, my CGM data, strava all work fine. I get the impression that Apple doesn't really know what to do with it since after five generations all we have is some additional pretty useless health sensors.
Seems that I'm just going to be on the sidelines until it breaks.
If you are a woman i think it may be a useful upgrade, but i dont know anything about that subject.
I very recently bought the previous SE on sale and with additional discounts for just under £150 and I'm glad I went for it because I don't think the upgrades to the newer SE (now £270 here in the UK), or even the previous S7 on sale, would have justified the additional expense (although I do slightly regret not having the bigger screen -- oh well). At this point I'm just waiting for a massively better battery life or another change in utility to really justify an upgrade.
I'd been resisting an AW for a long time and mainly wanted to try it out. So far the experience is pretty, I don't know, underwhelming for anything other than fitness and health tracking. I wasn't expecting too much, to be honest, but I find the actual smart features of the watch not as useful as I was hoping. The navigation on public transport and inner-city walking is quite nifty and definitely useful, but other than that I found the watch faces and complications too limited, too few and too static. For example, why can't the AW dynamically adjust the information it presents anywhere other than the Siri watch face, which is absolutely hideous.
Anyway, it's a nice new toy but I'm not yet convinced I will actually use it long-term or just go back to trusted analogue watches and just use the phone for all the content.
EDIT: I generally think the next big upgrades for the AW must be a significantly better battery life at the normal form factor, but other than that I think it needs software rather than hardware improvements -- generally driven by a clear vision what the watch should actually do. Other than be a fitness and health companion I just don't see it right now.
Edit 2: typos
I'd been resisting an AW for a long time and mainly wanted to try it out. So far the experience is pretty, I don't know, underwhelming for anything other than fitness and health tracking. I wasn't expecting too much, to be honest, but I find the actual smart features of the watch not as useful as I was hoping. The navigation on public transport and inner-city walking is quite nifty and definitely useful, but other than that I found the watch faces and complications too limited, too few and too static. For example, why can't the AW dynamically adjust the information it presents anywhere other than the Siri watch face, which is absolutely hideous.
Anyway, it's a nice new toy but I'm not yet convinced I will actually use it long-term or just go back to trusted analogue watches and just use the phone for all the content.
EDIT: I generally think the next big upgrades for the AW must be a significantly better battery life at the normal form factor, but other than that I think it needs software rather than hardware improvements -- generally driven by a clear vision what the watch should actually do. Other than be a fitness and health companion I just don't see it right now.
Edit 2: typos
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The watch is exactly for that, motivate to go start sporting or log your activities if you already sporting.
But i agree i wish the AW gets a boost in artificial intelligence that keeps all data on the watch only but learns you and helps you by coaching tailored made excersizes, coping with stress, or other health related potential/issues you may develop or have.
There is so much more that can be done on the software side alone without the requirement of additional sensors etc, but Apple is extremely lackluster on this department unfortunately, so it remains a fitness recording watch and acts as a terminal for your phone for notifications etc unless you use LTE.
Which in my opinion makes the AW more as it suppose to be a standalone device.
But the truth is most people using the AW are not the frequent sporting types, the use the AW as a external display for their iphone to show messages etc and then the device experience is super lackluster.
It really must become a personal health/organiser coach instead of a device with pre-loaded metrics that it will measure once you start a exercise.
Examples:
AW tells you to stand up every hour, why not make it smart and gives you a goal to walk, it knows your location, it knows your rings, your goals etc, why not tell you to walk 100 meters or something like that, to get the blood flowing etc.
Why Fitness+ is behind a paywall, why not part of the product, give us tailored training based on age, weight and all other metrics you fill out in the health app, tailored to give you a training schedule to slowely become healthier/more cardio including stretch/rest days etc.
Make the AW make actual use of the GPS location, it knows where you are, why not make it smart to detect you are either doing a daily commute to work, or walk your dog in the same park etc etc etc.
The software is still so super lackluster. I do believe 10 AW versions from now will actually have a lot smarter ways to track our behaviours etc for personal gain.
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