Left the Apple Ecosystem, now having second thoughts.

[jamezr]

Plenty of things I use my Apple Watch for, like Apple Pay, notifications, alarms at night when I’m at work and can’t use my phone or when I want to get up to feed my newborn in the night but don’t want to disturb others by using my phone. For fitness tracking. For triaging my notifications without having to get out my phone, for quick replies to messages. As a remote for my Apple TV when I don’t have my phone to hand remote. Quick glances at my schedule. Checking the weather without opening my phone. Answering phone calls at home when I don’t have my phone on me. Controlling audio playback on my phone without having to take my phone out of my bag. Instant notifications. For asking Siri quick questions when not in possession of my iPhone or out of range of my phone.

Can't you also control your iphone camera with your AW? I mean set your iphone down with a perfect shot lined up then use your AW to snap the picture?

 

[sunking101]

Can't you also control your iphone camera with your AW? I mean set your iphone down with a perfect shot lined up then use your AW to snap the picture?

Well there's a must have feature if ever I saw one.

 

[tbayrgs]

Well there's a must have feature if ever I saw one.

Of course not but it's adding some value for some users. I've used it just a few occasions but it's come in handy when a good alternative wasn't available. For instance, my family and I were hiking in a park, nobody else around and wanted a photo. I had my iPhone in a small flexible tripod, mounted it on a tree, then was able to use the watch from a distance to position us in frame with the background we wanted and snapped the pic.

Again, not a feature everyone will need or use but it only adds value.

 

[Oohara]

Of course not but it's adding some value for some users. I've used it just a few occasions but it's come in handy when a good alternative wasn't available. For instance, my family and I were hiking in a park, nobody else around and wanted a photo. I had my iPhone in a small flexible tripod, mounted it on a tree, then was able to use the watch from a distance to position us in frame with the background we wanted and snapped the pic.

Again, not a feature everyone will need or use but it only adds value.

I don't find myself getting a lot of use out of my AW these days but that is one function I actually use a lot. I often teach group classes and using the AW I can always pull off very good group photos after a workshop without positioning trouble or anyone having to not be in the photo.

Asking Siri quick questions though...not so much. I mean, sure you can ask her, but the answers... So I don't bother anymore unless to poke fun at my own AW in front of friends who don't have one.

 

[jamezr]

Well there's a must have feature if ever I saw one.

I'm not sure smartphones in general are must have to be honest. So not sure why you have toi put down everything you don't agree with or might not use personally.
It makes it hard to have an intelligent back and forth conversation with you.

 

[Dodgeman]

I like both the Galaxy series & the apple series. I do think I like the way certain things work a bit better on Apple though.
One issue I have is that I noticed if I am on a call on my Note 8 and I get a text message I get no notification on my phone no sound or vibrate.
When I had the iPhone I remember me getting notifications when I had a call, I am pretty sure the iPhone buzzed or beeped...

 

[sunking101]

I'm not sure smartphones in general are must have to be honest. So not sure why you have toi put down everything you don't agree with or might not use personally.
It makes it hard to have an intelligent back and forth conversation with you.

Well it's kinda obvious that those who think smartphones are worthless aren't going to convince those who find them indispensible, and vice versa. Live and let live. Mine remains in the drawer.
[doublepost=1529423467][/doublepost]

I like both the Galaxy series & the apple series. I do think I like the way certain things work a bit better on Apple though.
One issue I have is that I noticed if I am on a call on my Note 8 and I get a text message I get no notification on my phone no sound or vibrate.
When I had the iPhone I remember me getting notifications when I had a call, I am pretty sure the iPhone buzzed or beeped...

My Sony beeped and I'm not so sure that my Samsung does. Perhaps there's a setting for it.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I don't find myself getting a lot of use out of my AW these days but that is one function I actually use a lot. I often teach group classes and using the AW I can always pull off very good group photos after a workshop without positioning trouble or anyone having to not be in the photo.

Asking Siri quick questions though...not so much. I mean, sure you can ask her, but the answers... So I don't bother anymore unless to poke fun at my own AW in front of friends who don't have one.

Well I keep it simple, things like asking the weather and asking about upcoming appointments etc.

 

[jamezr]

Well it's kinda obvious that those who think smartphones are worthless aren't going to convince those who find them indispensible, and vice versa. Live and let live. Mine remains in the drawer.

hmmmm then you're on a forum talking about them why again?

 

[tbayrgs]

Well I keep it simple, things like asking the weather and asking about upcoming appointments etc.

Yeah, my inquires to Siri are generally limited to actions I need to take--send a message, call so-and-so, start a timer or set and alarm, smart home commands, reminders (this one I use a lot) and even directions (CarPlay use only here so right now only can use Apple Maps, which hasn't been terrible, surprisingly). In those situations, she generally does just fine. I am admittedly cautiously excited about the added 'Shortcuts' functionality coming in iOS 12.

Now if I need some information, I'm asking Google Assistant.

 

[sunking101]

hmmmm then you're on a forum talking about them why again?

I'm on a forum talking about phones and in this particular thread, ecosystems. I have no wish to debate the worth of smartwatches. I do think that their minimal uptake proves my point but there are of course exceptions to every rule. I can see a use for smartwatches but it's an extremely niche one.

 

[convergent]

The Gear 3 is the nicest looking smartwatch by far. Seriously though, who needs a smartwatch? I bought one and since the two month old mark I have regretted it. I just find it utterly pointless. It's slow and cumbersome to reply to messages using the watch and who on earth cares about sleep tracking?? You use it for a week out of curiosity and that's that. The only thing they're good for is fitness. The heartrate monitor is kinda useful but even then...

There are lots of things you could say, "who needs a @@@@?".

I bought my first smartwatch (an AW), when I bought a plus sized phone, precisely because the phone let me retire having a separate tablet, and the smartwatch let me avoid having to pull out a giant phone all the time for checking a notification. That was my initial reason for buying one, and it serves that purpose.

The things I really enjoy on a smartwatch, most of which are better on the Gear S3 in my opinion:
- Fitness - being able to leave my big smartphone in the car when I go to the gym, or at home when I go for a run. I can stream Spotify music while I'm doing my run, I can respond to a text or answer a phone call if needed while I'm working out, and I can track my workout or run.
- Time/Date/Weather - its a watch... it tells time. And when I'm traveling it can easily show me the time in my home timezone along with my current timezone. It also changes automatically so I don't need to wonder if I got the time right. And, it gives me the weather and forecast which is handy
- Notifications - As I said before, its much less subtle to check a notification on a watch during a meeting, vs. whipping out a plus sized phone. I also find that I don't notice my phone vibrating, but I always notice the watch.
- Alarms - I like having my alarm clock on my wrist. I set alarms on my phone and I can hit snooze from my watch... love it.
- Sleep tracking - this helps me see how badly I'm sleeping and helps me be more conscious of getting good sleep.
- Customization - I like being able to mix it up on my watch face with different styles from time to time.

So you'll notice that all of this stuff, with the exception of Spotify, is out of the box function. I don't see great value in the other apps I played with on the AW, because most were just as easy to do on my phone.

Agreed. My S3 Gear Classic, that I just sold when I went back to the X, was a bit slow. I would lift my hand to see what the vibration was about, and it's slow to show it, where I have to hold my arm for a bit up to finally show it where the Apple Watch is instant. I wasn't happy with how slow it was. It also rebooted on it's own on occasion.

I had this slowness as well, it was really annoying. This might have been fixed with a software update later on, but it was an issue when the opportunity to trade the S3 for an Apple Watch Series 3 turned up and I took it.

If you are getting slowness, then a hard reset would almost certainly fix it. After I did an OS update, mine got a lot slower. A hard reset is not all that hard to do on a Gear S3, and that would fix it. I've done it once in the year I've had mine and it performs nearly instantly all the time. On the rare occasion that it doesn't, I just do a quick reboot. Probably I've done that once a month.

 

[4RunnerHeaven]

I had this slowness as well, it was really annoying. This might have been fixed with a software update later on, but it was an issue when the opportunity to trade the S3 for an Apple Watch Series 3 turned up and I took it.

It wasn't. I just sold mine last week.
[doublepost=1529449741][/doublepost]

I like both the Galaxy series & the apple series. I do think I like the way certain things work a bit better on Apple though.
One issue I have is that I noticed if I am on a call on my Note 8 and I get a text message I get no notification on my phone no sound or vibrate.
When I had the iPhone I remember me getting notifications when I had a call, I am pretty sure the iPhone buzzed or beeped...

Download Textra. You can get notifications while you are on the call still with it.
[doublepost=1529449873][/doublepost]

There are lots of things you could say, "who needs a @@@@?".

I bought my first smartwatch (an AW), when I bought a plus sized phone, precisely because the phone let me retire having a separate tablet, and the smartwatch let me avoid having to pull out a giant phone all the time for checking a notification. That was my initial reason for buying one, and it serves that purpose.

The things I really enjoy on a smartwatch, most of which are better on the Gear S3 in my opinion:
- Fitness - being able to leave my big smartphone in the car when I go to the gym, or at home when I go for a run. I can stream Spotify music while I'm doing my run, I can respond to a text or answer a phone call if needed while I'm working out, and I can track my workout or run.
- Time/Date/Weather - its a watch... it tells time. And when I'm traveling it can easily show me the time in my home timezone along with my current timezone. It also changes automatically so I don't need to wonder if I got the time right. And, it gives me the weather and forecast which is handy
- Notifications - As I said before, its much less subtle to check a notification on a watch during a meeting, vs. whipping out a plus sized phone. I also find that I don't notice my phone vibrating, but I always notice the watch.
- Alarms - I like having my alarm clock on my wrist. I set alarms on my phone and I can hit snooze from my watch... love it.
- Sleep tracking - this helps me see how badly I'm sleeping and helps me be more conscious of getting good sleep.
- Customization - I like being able to mix it up on my watch face with different styles from time to time.

So you'll notice that all of this stuff, with the exception of Spotify, is out of the box function. I don't see great value in the other apps I played with on the AW, because most were just as easy to do on my phone.





If you are getting slowness, then a hard reset would almost certainly fix it. After I did an OS update, mine got a lot slower. A hard reset is not all that hard to do on a Gear S3, and that would fix it. I've done it once in the year I've had mine and it performs nearly instantly all the time. On the rare occasion that it doesn't, I just do a quick reboot. Probably I've done that once a month.

Everything you said the AW3 can do and honestly does better except the faces.

 

[Dodgeman]

It wasn't. I just sold mine last week.
[doublepost=1529449741][/doublepost]

Download Textra. You can get notifications while you are on the call still with it.
[doublepost=1529449873][/doublepost]

Everything you said the AW3 can do and honestly does better except the faces.

Thanks for that tip, I will probably have to do without because I am not switching to a 3rd party app for something that should be integrated form the start.

 

[Wildo6882]

Thanks for that tip, I will probably have to do without because I am not switching to a 3rd party app for something that should be integrated form the start.

Textra is a great SMS/MMS app. Don’t knock switching until you try it.

 

[convergent]

Everything you said the AW3 can do and honestly does better except the faces.

Will agree to disagree. I have 2 years using AW and 1 year using S3... I pick S3. The main things that I love are the user interface with rotating bezel, and the fact that it looks and feels like a real watch. When I'm working out or running, the user interface on AW with swiping and the turning the crown with sweaty hands is a frustrating experience. A rotating bezel with a well thought out UI is worlds better. But maybe you prefer swiping and turning that little crown.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Will agree to disagree. I have 2 years using AW and 1 year using S3... I pick S3. The main things that I love are the user interface with rotating bezel, and the fact that it looks and feels like a real watch. When I'm working out or running, the user interface on AW with swiping and the turning the crown with sweaty hands is a frustrating experience. A rotating bezel with a well thought out UI is worlds better. But maybe you prefer swiping and turning that little crown.

I don’t know much about the functionality of the gear watches VS the Apple Watch but I have to admit the rotating bezel is really nice.

 

[The_Interloper]

Will agree to disagree. I have 2 years using AW and 1 year using S3... I pick S3. The main things that I love are the user interface with rotating bezel, and the fact that it looks and feels like a real watch. When I'm working out or running, the user interface on AW with swiping and the turning the crown with sweaty hands is a frustrating experience. A rotating bezel with a well thought out UI is worlds better. But maybe you prefer swiping and turning that little crown.

I really like the Gear S3 design (I had a Frontier briefly). For a start, it looks like a real watch, not a piece of tech on your wrist, and a nice-looking one at that. But it just fell short for me in a few areas.

Firstly, as I mentioned before, Samsung Pay is a dead-end here in the UK. There's no point paying premium prices for something with functionality you cannot use.

Secondly - and this was the deal breaker for me - I found the Bluetooth range awful. I could literally walk a couple of rooms away from my phone and it would lose connection. Go upstairs - lose connection. Step outside - lose connection. Awful. That killed a lot of functionality, especially the ability to answer a call when your phone is in another room.

And having to use S Voice instead of Google Asistant? Don't get me started. S Voice is just atrocious. It makes Siri look like the world's most advanced AI.

The one other area where all smartwatches seem to have dropped the ball is the ability to quickly change bands. Apple nailed this - press a button, slide, done. The S3 at least uses standard 22mm bands, but it's still fiddly. It becomes a pain quickly switching to a fitness-oriented band when you've been wearing something more formal, for example. Fitbit's new Versa has really screwed this up - they've gone for a proprietary design that is even more awkward than standard bands. Stupid.

In short, when talking about being deep in an ecosystem, I think a watch is now a major part of it. For anyone fitness-oriented, these things are just indispensable, especially as all your data is synced to the phone. For me, Apple is the only company that has managed to get every single piece of the puzzle working flawlessly together, with no missing functionality. It may not always be the best, but it is the most complete.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I really like the Gear S3 design (I had a Frontier briefly). For a start, it looks like a real watch, not a piece of tech on your wrist, and a nice-looking one at that. But it just fell short for me in a few areas.

Firstly, as I mentioned before, Samsung Pay is a dead-end here in the UK. There's no point paying premium prices for something with functionality you cannot use.

Secondly - and this was the deal breaker for me - I found the Bluetooth range awful. I could literally walk a couple of rooms away from my phone and it would lose connection. Go upstairs - lose connection. Step outside - lose connection. Awful. That killed a lot of functionality, especially the ability to answer a call when your phone is in another room.

And having to use S Voice instead of Google Asistant? Don't get me started. S Voice is just atrocious. It makes Siri look like the world's most advanced AI.

The one other area where all smartwatches seem to have dropped the ball is the ability to quickly change bands. Apple nailed this - press a button, slide, done. The S3 at least uses standard 22mm bands, but it's still fiddly. It becomes a pain quickly switching to a fitness-oriented band when you've been wearing something more formal, for example. Fitbit's new Versa has really screwed this up - they've gone for a proprietary design that is even more awkward than standard bands. Stupid.

In short, when talking about being deep in an ecosystem, I think a watch is now a major part of it. For anyone fitness-oriented, these things are just indispensable, especially as all your data is synced to the phone. For me, Apple is the only company that has managed to get every single piece of the puzzle working flawlessly together, with no missing functionality. It may not always be the best, but it is the most complete.

I guess it depends on your bank. My bank (nationwide) supports Apple, Samsung and google pay. They all use the same technology so wherever contactless works, they will all work.

 

[bkrbyndr]

Samsung pay should work almost everywhere because it have also MTS payment. %99 everywhere you can pay with that.

 

[convergent]

I really like the Gear S3 design (I had a Frontier briefly). For a start, it looks like a real watch, not a piece of tech on your wrist, and a nice-looking one at that. But it just fell short for me in a few areas.

Firstly, as I mentioned before, Samsung Pay is a dead-end here in the UK. There's no point paying premium prices for something with functionality you cannot use.

Secondly - and this was the deal breaker for me - I found the Bluetooth range awful. I could literally walk a couple of rooms away from my phone and it would lose connection. Go upstairs - lose connection. Step outside - lose connection. Awful. That killed a lot of functionality, especially the ability to answer a call when your phone is in another room.

And having to use S Voice instead of Google Asistant? Don't get me started. S Voice is just atrocious. It makes Siri look like the world's most advanced AI.

The one other area where all smartwatches seem to have dropped the ball is the ability to quickly change bands. Apple nailed this - press a button, slide, done. The S3 at least uses standard 22mm bands, but it's still fiddly. It becomes a pain quickly switching to a fitness-oriented band when you've been wearing something more formal, for example. Fitbit's new Versa has really screwed this up - they've gone for a proprietary design that is even more awkward than standard bands. Stupid.

In short, when talking about being deep in an ecosystem, I think a watch is now a major part of it. For anyone fitness-oriented, these things are just indispensable, especially as all your data is synced to the phone. For me, Apple is the only company that has managed to get every single piece of the puzzle working flawlessly together, with no missing functionality. It may not always be the best, but it is the most complete.

Agree with you on bands, but I rarely changed mine on the AW, so the "fiddly" nature of it which I agree with isn't really that big of a deal. Apple designed a good interlock.

On the Bluetooth range, I've not seen it to be much different from any other Bluetooth device. My S3 is LTE so if I do go out of range it first goes to WiFi if available and then to LTE.

I don't care about S Voice... never used it. Since I have an on screen keyboard and an easier UI, I just use those controls. I never used an assistant on the AW either.

But back to your statement on fitness that I put in bold. I found when working out the AW swipe and crown controls to be incredibly frustrating with sweaty hands and fingers. This is where the S3 really sets itself apart with the rotating bezel and simple UI. This is what won me over.

 

[The_Interloper]

Samsung pay should work almost everywhere because it have also MTS payment. %99 everywhere you can pay with that.

Not if it doesn’t accept your bank’s cards in the first place. Also, the MTS functionality is currently US-only.

Samsung Pay launched over a year ago here in the UK and has been pretty stagnant. Many of our major banks - NatWest, Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, RBS etc - still haven’t signed up and show no signs of doing so. That’s tens of millions of debit and credit cards that can’t use it. No PayPal either, unlike the US. Seems DOA at present.

I know Samsung are trying to control and grow their own ecosystem, but it’s almost nonsensical right now. They’re producing Android phones with duplicate apps (Messages, Email, Gallery, Bixby etc) and Tizen watches with even more fragmented services - S Voice, Samsung Pay etc - and virtually no third party apps. It’s a mess.
[doublepost=1530190622][/doublepost]

I found when working out the AW swipe and crown controls to be incredibly frustrating with sweaty hands and fingers. This is where the S3 really sets itself apart with the rotating bezel and simple UI. This is what won me over.

You can also adjust the S3 touch sensitivity, allowing use when wearing gloves. Pretty neat.

 

[jamezr]

I know Samsung are trying to control and grow their own ecosystem, but it’s almost nonsensical right now. They’re producing Android phones with duplicate apps (Messages, Email, Gallery, Bixby etc) and Tizen watches with even more fragmented services - S Voice, Samsung Pay etc - and virtually no third party apps. It’s a mess.
[doublepost=1530190622][/doublepost]
You can also adjust the watch touch sensitivity, allowing use when wearing gloves. Pretty neat.

Agree with you on the duplicate apps. Wish they would let people make a choice to keep or delete them.

BUT....most of those duplicate apps offer a better user experience than stock Android apps. They have more functionality and features than stocks apps do.

 

[bkrbyndr]

Samsung pay works better here in Sweden than Apple pay. We don't even have a google pay so. But Samsung pay works almost everywhere for me.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Samsung pay works better here in Sweden than Apple pay. We don't even have a google pay so. But Samsung pay works almost everywhere for me.

Do you still have magnetic stip readers in Sweden?