As pretty much anyone who knows me would have expected, I was one of those people who was completely entranced by the Apple Watch announcement. I immediately knew I wanted one. After months of waiting, it’s finally on my wrist. I thought I’d share my impressions of Apple’s first foray into the wearable tech market after using it for 10 days.
But first, some things you should know about me:
- My opinion does have a certain bias towards Apple. I’ve never owned a computer that wasn’t a Mac (which isn’t to say that I’m not comfortable with PCs—I’ve just always had Macs at home).
- My entire technological ecosystem is Apple-centric. At home, my boyfriend and I both have the latest iPhone, and we also have MacBooks, iPads, and use Apple TV.
- I love gadgets. I always have, and always will. I also really love trying new products.
- I didn’t have any unreasonable expectations towards the Apple Watch.
That last point is pretty important when you consider how many people ask me to “sell” them the Apple Watch. I bought it because it was a new type of product that I wanted to experience; not because I expected it to revolutionize my daily life.
Choosing an Apple Watch
Although I was itching to pre-order my watch the minute it was possible, I reasoned myself that if I was going to drop so much money on something I’d wear every day, I’d better choose the right one. So the day after pre-orders started, I spent an hour manipulating and trying on the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport in both the 38 mm and 42 mm versions, with all the different straps I had been gawking at online over the past few weeks.
I opted for the 38 mm stainless steel Apple Watch with a black sport band. Although the 42 mm case would have been fine on my wrist, I went for the smaller one so that I could really wear it all the time, including in more formal situations. As for the strap, the one I had my sights set on was the modern buckle; but once I saw it in person, it took me all of five seconds to decide it was not worth $329 to me. I surprised myself by falling in love with the Milanese loop, but again, decided that the financial investment was too much at the moment, and that the black sport band would be better suited to my fairly active lifestyle. At least, until third parties start churning out straps of their own. Hopefully by my next trip to Japan, BIC CAMERA will have rows of them to peruse!
First impressions on launch day
Now, because I waited a full day after pre-orders started, my delivery date was supposed to be mid-May. But I got an unexpected notification the day before launch saying my watch was on its way! The UPS guy showed up at around 10:30 a.m. and looked surprised when I greeted him with “I was waiting for you!” The box doesn’t say it was from Apple… so he had no idea what he was delivering.
What went through my head during the first minutes of using it:
- It took a little while for the watch to start up.
- The screen is beautiful.
- It was easy to pair with my iPhone 6 and pretty intuitive to set up.
- There were not so many apps available on the Canadian app store for the Apple Watch.
- The watch was not as reactive as I had expected it to be. I found it lagged a little bit. This was remedied after I restarted it and restarted my iPhone, though.
- The screen is quite prone to finger smudges. I can also see a rectangle in the middle of the screen: I assume it’s one of the screen components, which reveals itself when it’s not 100% clean, which is most of the time.
- The sport band is super soft and very comfortable. So far, it’s never come off by itself, but at first I was extremely nervous that it would.
After using it for 10 days
The good
- Although I wore it together with my Nike FuelBand for the first week or so, I’ve finally progressed to wearing just the watch and trusting it to track my calories and progress towards my daily fitness goals.
- The exercise app is well done, and I’ve been enjoying the reminders to stand up at least once an hour.
- I appreciate how when I get a text message, it notifies me on just my watch, rather than on my watch and phone.
- I’ve really had fun customizing the watch faces and changing them every day. It’s great to be able to change the colours, layout, and information displayed. I really wish I could use my own background on at least one of them, though. (Hopefully, this will come eventually with an update of the OS.)
- The digital crown works well as a scrolling mechanism, making it easy to zip through notifications, email, and messages.
- The dictation function works well in both English and French. I also liked that the watch adapts to the language of the message I’m receiving and offers canned responses and dictation in the appropriate tongue. I haven’t tried it with Japanese yet.
- I like being able to answer phone calls from my wrist when I don’t have my phone near me at home. No more rushing to find my phone when I hear it ring!
- It’s cool to be able to take better selfies by using my iPhone’s main camera and setting up the shot from my wrist.
- The cover to mute function works well. I found this out when my watch started ringing during ballet class. Luckily, it stopped as soon as I put my hand over the screen. That’s also when I realized I should have put it on silent mode rather than Do Not Disturb. Oops.
The not-so-good
- I really wish the Apple Watch came with Bluetooth earphones. Without them, it’s not convenient to answer phone calls from your wrist in public.
- My stainless steel case is already scratched, and I’d say I’m pretty careful with my watch. I’ve never broken an iPhone screen, and I like to take care of my devices.
- I often find myself taking screen caps by inadvertently pressing the side button with the side of my finger while pressing the digital crown.
- As mentioned previously, my screen is always full of finger prints, and I constantly see a rectangle in the middle of the screen, which is a bit annoying.
- The screen wakes up by itself when you bring your wrist up, but sometimes it flashes and then goes back to sleep. It’s kind of as though it wasn’t sure you wanted to use it.
The not-yet-tried
- I haven’t yet had the chance to try the digital touch features that can be used only between Apple Watch users because, well, I don’t know any others. I’ve been able to send the special emoji to iPhone users: they show up as little animations. Haven’t been able to send sketches to anyone, tap them to get their attention, or send them my heartbeat. Although I’m not sure how useful that last function will be.
- Apple Pay isn’t available in Canada yet, so I guess I’ll have to wait to try that, too.
- I haven’t boarded a plane since I got it, but I hope to launch my boarding pass from Passbook on my wrist next time I do.
Overall, I’m happy with my purchase, although I’m really looking forward to there being more apps available to use it with on the Canadian app store. I’m also anxious to try the digital touch features, which really appealed to me when Apple first introduced it. Apple calls it their most “personal device yet”, but I think how personal and unique it feels in the long run will depend a lot on the apps and accessories third-parties come up with to customize each person’s experience. Can’t wait to see what’s to come! As for what it’s changed about my daily life, after fine-tuning which notifications make it to my wrist, I find that I don’t have my iPhone glued to my hand as much as I used to. The Apple Watch allows me to see that I have notifications waiting for me, and get the important information (messages, emails), but without necessarily stopping what I’m doing to deal with them right away. This means I don’t drop what I’m doing to interact with my phone as often, and to be honest, it’s kind of nice. I can leave my phone in my purse for hours at a time during a dinner, a movie, or when I’m just doing my thing at home, without feeling I’ll miss something important if my phone isn’t by my side or in my pocket. And for someone as technologically dependent as I am, that’s pretty refreshing.
