S3 sports owner, downgraded to S2 Staineless steel and loving it!

[Htsi]

I bought 2018 iPad Pro because the 2020 would have taken an extra 25 days. Everything on the Internet said minor update/ useless and it’s better to buy the 2018.

but I regret the 2018 due to lack of ram. Ram problems were solved in the 12Pro & 2020 iPad Pro. Minor changes that make a huge day to day difference.

 

[Htsi]

I disagree for iPhone performance.
I use every day an iPhone 7, an X, an XR and a 12mini.
All are very usable, and for me the only difference is for screen size and photo capabilities.
There is nothing slow on the iPhone 7 when I use it, all the apps work smoothly.
It's better on younger models, but it's powerful enough for an all day usage without limitations.
Apple Watch are "newer" devices, and there are huge differences between generations as it's just becoming to be a mature device.
S0 was like a POC.
S1/S2 were almost twice faster and were usable, but WatchOS4 make them laggy and less smooth.
It hasn't improved with WOS 5 and 6
Series 3 was really faster and feels really smoother for most of the tasks, but storage is very low and it's a nightmare to update withe WOS7.
Series 4 came with a better screen, a 64bit SOC. It's a very good watch, with all we need to be comfortable.
Series 5 and AOD is for me the maturity watch. S6 is not a big upgrade.
I think the next step is about battery life, but from the performance point of view, there are 3 families:
- S0/1/2 : very slow (terribly slow for S0)
- S3 : minimum step
- S4 and + : big performance and always smooth

Dad has s5. I have s6.
big changes:
Fast charge
Newer CPU after 2 generations
Better haptics
Brighter AOD

even the series 5 had the compass which is a must have if you navigate with Watch to me.
There are little things that improve the experience. Sure if you have $700 to drop every year you’re Golden, but don’t diss new products as having nothing better, that is simply not true.

between phones, I’m not even comparing the 6-7-8 that are in my house, straight up comparing the XS—11P—-12P.
huge day to day differences that I notice. Widgets are not black at boot up (11vs12)
Keyboard is fast (XS vs 11)
No ram nonsense (12 vs 11)

 

[rbart]

...

It's ok Apple adding lots of features, the main one should be better battery life. I still don't understand how it lasts so little.

Because the SOC is powerful to perform complex tasks, not just showing hour and weather.
You have an high quality screen with big refresh rate that eats a lot, and Apple has decided to have a small case, so a small battery.

 

[honglong1976]

Try to justify all you want, differences are worth it. Old tech is old.
even if you’re a casual user, don’t dismiss technological advances.
best of all, try it out for yourself. Return windows are beautiful in the states.

Your current comparison is a bit flawed, I’ll tell you why.
Series 3 would work best -1 OS version, same as iPhone 4. They don’t have the horsepower to run the latest OS, but it’s still compatible. Therefore you like the older series 2 that is working fine on the max. OS supported by them.

Make no mistake, a series 5/6 will blow you away, no matter what your use case. A new flagship will do the same.
there’s minor leaps year on year, but using 5 year old tech nah.

I agree, new tech is great. For myself personally, there is nothing that stands out to make the upgrade to something else. I am not upgrading for the sake of upgrading. Sure, Apple products look great on paper, 200% GPU performance, 100% faster CPU! etc. In reality I use the S2 and it's virtually the same as the S3 (which was perfectly fine). I wait a millisecond or second, big deal! Someone says, hey that's an S2, I'm rocking the S6! Congratulations!

I can afford one, but there is not enough difference to warrant the purchase. I don't get excited about fall detection. If I lived on my own, had a particular health condition it would be brilliant, so those who need it should buy one.

Larger screen size? The screen size is more than adequate, however, if I had poor eye sight, a great upgrade.

A compass? Flights of stairs? (altimeter) my phone does both of those things already. I never once found flights of stairs useful or even accurate on the Apple Watch. I walk up and down stairs at work.

Screen brightness? Again, the S2 is perfectly fine. For my needs perfect. But, everyone has different needs and Apple cater to them, which is great!

There is a difference between needing something and wanting something. Lot's of Apple fan's upgrade for the sake of upgrading to say, hey, I have the latest iPhone.

Scenario: Shows latest iPhone to someone with an older iPhone, does pretty much the same thing, looks pretty much the same. But, it has an ultra mega Retina display, yours is only a mega Retina display (looks the same). This speaker is 4 times louder, plays a song, sounds pretty much the same. It launches apps 10 times faster, launches an app, opens pretty much the same. Loads a game 1 second faster! Sold, I will spend £800 to buy it now!

See my point? I see it all the time. Not at the beginning of iPhones (iPhone, 3G, 3GS). But since iPhone 4, nothing really changes much, but everyone needs the latest iPhone (or watch) for the sake of having one, rather than actually needing one.

 

[rbart]

I partially agree (for the iPhone part).
But for Apple Watch, I still disagree. For me the S2 is now completely outdated.
It's not a question of 1s or 1ms. The difference is really more important.
Open settings ... spinning wheel. Open mail ... spinning wheel...
Use Siri ... wait... wait...
Open music ... spinning wheel ...
The watch works perfectly if you never interact with. But if you don't do anything on it.
In this case, it's better to buy a Withings or a low cost smartwatch (an Apple Watch is not really beautiful if you just consider it as a "dumb watch")

 

[JW313]

I see both sides and benefits of both sides. Ultimately I think it comes down to what you choose to spend your money on.
For instance, I’d never buy a year over year MacBook Air update each year, or the latest Sony TV every year, but it’s been ingrained in our thinking that you must get a new phone each year, or two years or it will be worthless.

then again, the phone gets the most use and abuse on a daily basis so I can see investing your money on the phone each year.

 

[SisterBlue22]

My watch 0 still is in use. I gave it to my sister. 5 years going strong. Battery in perfect condition.
I bought the AW6 mainly because of the blood oxygen thing only to find out, that is the most ******** implementation. It rarley meassures it (I thought it is important to have a continuous reading when sleeping to assess sleep apnea etc.) A total gimmick.

My S0 is still alive and in use as well. I gave it to my friend as his first Apple Watch when I bought my S3. When I bought my S5, the same friend bought my S4 and gave the S0 to his teenage daughter, and it's still in use.

 

[Deliro]

My S0 still runs pretty much everything (time, calendar, notifications, heart rate) I need, however I did update to the S6. Sure it's "snappier" and runs the latest OS, but there's really nothing I *need*. I think the poster has a good sense of what he needs and is happy. So I don't understand the "uh dude you need new tech!!" opinions on here.

I tend to keep devices for a long while, and have extra disposal income as a result, without sacrificing really anything day to day.

I update only if there's a killer feature or my device is just failing. My iPhone XS Max will probably with me for another 2-3 years. It takes great photos, runs everything I need out of a *mobile* device, so I'm happy (omgawd but haven't you seen the low light performance of the 12?? blah.. ). I do think opening that white box with pretty packaging every year is an addiction for some.

What's my point? Everyone has different use cases, and "old tech" isn't bad tech.

 

[perezr10]

My current main watch is a SS Series 5 but I still have an Hermès Series 2 which I use on some days to change up the look. I agree with Honglong76, it’s still a great watch if you just want a watch that tells you the time and passes along notifications. I forget it’s 4 years old sometimes. Especially since it has a sapphire screen which looks flawless.

If you’re a heavy Siri user or like to use special watch apps you’d want a newer watch. But most people don’t really use many watch apps. Macrumors tends to attract lots of tech super users who are early adopters. This group sees the Series 2 as garbage now. But if you look at the Apple Watches you see around town, there are still a huge group of people wearing Series 2 and even Series 0 watches.

And can you believe this watch is almost 5 years old? If you wanna keep a watch long term, these stainless steel watches are the way to go.