The Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ Experience

[jiyeon]

 

Hi guys, welcome to my review of the Apple Watche Series 3, specifically my 38mm silver Nike+ edition Watch with GPS + Cellular.  I bought this Series 3 over the Series 4 as I didn't see much advantages choosing the Series 4 over the Series 3, and so shelled out £190 for a used Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ GPS & Cellular.

 

This review is fairly image-heavy as I had many software screenshots to show, which I guess is thanks to how easy it is to take screenshots on the Apple Watch!

 

I hope you enjoy reading what I have to say about the Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ edition!

 

 

 

The Watch looks simply beautiful, it's my first square-design watch so I was adamant that it would look awkward but as a person with slender wrists, the 38mm case Series 3 Watch fits nicely on my hand, and the square case begins to feel naturally iconic on my wrist.

As I bought the Nike+ version, I was greeted by a sport band, which is both eye-catching and extremely comfortable as it allows my wrist to breathe and mould nicely to my wrist throughout the day. Additionally, the strap comes in white which is a welcome feature as it now matches my iPhone 8 Plus wrapped in a white dbrand skin as well as my white Jaybird X3 Bluetooth earbuds.

The 'real' screen area is about 80% of the entire watch face which is by no means bad as long as a black watch face is used. As I have the 38mm casing, I can barely see the bezels so it's not an issue for me.

 

The strap is quite easy to get on as the perforated holes make for some nice strap latches. I also have some additional straps which are easy to take off and strap some more on thanks to the buttons on the back of the watch that allow for easy strap slide switching.

 

I rate the design highly on the Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ edition, it's a beautiful iteration of the Apple Watch which very closely follows the design cues of Apple's iPhone down to the curves, and because of this, unifies it with the iPhone and other Apple products perfectly.

 

 

 

Now onto the software, which will be the meat of this review. There is a lot to talk about, and watchOS is the primary reason I sought after an Apple Watch, for that seamless integration to the Apple iPhone.

 

The main screen is a beautiful watch face of your choice, and for me, this multi-widget face is the one for me. It's concise in showing information and is accurate in all departments. I like the raise-to-wake feature on the watch, I can just raise my wrist to view the clock for a couple of seconds to see what time it is and see if I've got any missed notifications - which is what the red dot at the top is - as well as navigate to wherever I want to go from here with smooth animations.

 

 

I love this mini control center thing that the watch has, it's essentially a carbon copy of iPhone's control center in a smaller format but with all the familiar icons, such as Wi-Fi, cellular, battery, do not disturb, AirDrop, and many more. I also like the neat little phone icon in the top left to indicate that my Watch is now connected to my iPhone. For context, the icon will change to my Wi-Fi's name if my Watch were disconnected from my phone and connected to battery instead. It's a small but neat feature to tell what my watch is connected to.

 

 

A feature that roped me into getting an Apple Watch for myself was the instant notification signals to my Watch from my iPhone. I can get a notification on my phone and it will be sent to my Watch, which makes it super easy to view any notifications that I might want to see but don't want to pull out my phone for whatever reason, for example in a mature setting such as dinner, where pulling out my phone, even to check notifications, might be considered rude.

The push notifications to my watch avoid that awkward moment of pulling out my phone by just simply showing me on my watch, and this reason alone is worth the price of admission for an Apple Watch to me. Additionally, I can action the notifications as well, such as below with an Instagram notification, I can instantly 'Like' it if I choose to. (And with the notification being from Eunji, of course I'll instant like it!)

 

   

 

 

Just as a disclaimer, the seller I bought my particular Apple Watch Series 3 Nike+ from advised that she used it for 1.5 years aka since the release of the Apple Watch Series 3. She seller also advised that she used the watch as a casual fitness tracker and notification messenger on the daily, so no extreme use cases.

 

 

With that taken into account, the watch takes anywhere from 8-12 hours depending on how often I use it and whether it's connected to my phone or not. That is exceptional battery especially when you remember that the seller I bought this watch from had it since the release date of the Series 3 Apple Watch back in September of 2017.

 

 

As a whole, I very much love this watch, and it's evident from all the good things I've had to say about the software in particular. There haven't been any bad things I've had to say about the Apple Watch Series 3 as it's just been seamless to use alongside my iPhone 8 Plus.

 

Despite my watch having Cellular capabilities, I haven't set up Cellular on my watch as I always have my phone with me, and I haven't enquired with my carrier with whether I will need to pay more to add a plan to my watch. Perhaps I could update my review once/if I get a chance to use cellular on my watch?

 

So, in summary:

• Amazing battery life
• Seamless integration with my iPhone 8 Plus
• Accurate updates to widgets such as weather, time, and fitness tracking
• Super smooth watchOS animations
• Absolutely beautiful design

It is a watch that I will keep for as long as I can, and would definitely recommend as a sidepiece to anyone that owns an iPhone and wants a little more integration into the Apple ecosystem.

[Guest]

You're using the same watch face as me with the same charge, temp, and activity locations!

[jiyeon]

2 minutes ago, Den-Fi said:

You're using the same watch face as me with the same charge, temp, and activity locations!

Watch face buddies!  To be honest, I either use that watch face, or have my own custom photos one of Jeong Eunji if I'm feeling in the mood for some smiles. Either watch face is a swipe away which is amazing.

 

I love that the photos one shows three sets, so I can just do clock, battery, and date.