Apple Watch is the Wearables King

[LAwLz]

3 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

With the display off I get three days of battery life, which is perfectly acceptable. Two days is the critical point in my opinion as then I can easily forget to charge it and it will still work. 

Doesn't that highly depend on usage though?
Apple rates it at 18 hours, assuming 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app usage and 30 minutes of music playback, with the rest being idle.

Assuming Apple are truthful with their own ratings, I would probably not get through two days so I'd have to recharge it every night, just like my phone. That's not good battery life.

But all that is besides the point, relying on gestures means that it is inherently not good at telling time. Even my phone can always show the time.

 

Even if the 95% accuracy claim is true (considering how often I see people have to tap the screen or do the gesture again, my guess is that it's lower than that), that's still quite inaccurate. Apple's battery estimate is based on people checking their watches over 100 times a day. That means you get 5-10 missed gestures every day. That would drive me nuts considering the entire point of the watch is suppose to be convenience.

 

 

3 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

The watch has a pretty loud speaker in it and the mic can pick you up from a comfortable resting position. 

Maybe that's a big deal for you, but I don't see the appeal compared to just taking my phone out and doing the same thing, except my phone most likely has a better speaker and microphone than the watch.

Or just use a Bluetooth headset...

 

 

Smartwatches to me, even after all the examples given, sounds like a solution looking for a problem.

[79wjd]

18 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Doesn't that highly depend on usage though?
Apple rates it at 18 hours, assuming 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app usage and 30 minutes of music playback, with the rest being idle.

Assuming Apple are truthful with their own ratings, I would probably not get through two days so I'd have to recharge it every night, just like my phone. That's not good battery life.

Apple is pretty gernerous with their estimate from what I've been able to gather. Most reviewers get 2-3 (maybe 4) days. I'd say I have a pretty heavy usage and I still get around 3 days of battery life out of the non-LTE version. Even the Series 2 supposedly gets much better battery life than Apple's rated 18 hours, so it's surprising that Apple is listing the battery life at 18 hours. I don't listen the music directly from the watch though, so I can't say how that would affect battery life, nor do I heavily use GPS on the watch. 

Quote

But all that is besides the point, relying on gestures means that it is inherently not good at telling time. Even my phone can always show the time.

Your phone also can't tell you the time without interacting with it in some way. The gesture on the Apple watch works 95% of the time. That's reliable enough for the vast majority of use cases and people. I fully accept that there are people who would benefit from an always on display and I think it should be an option for that reason, but the gesture is still more than good enough. 

Quote

Even if the 95% accuracy claim is true (considering how often I see people have to tap the screen or do the gesture again, my guess is that it's lower than that), that's still quite inaccurate. Apple's battery estimate is based on people checking their watches over 100 times a day. That means you get 5-10 missed gestures every day. That would drive me nuts considering the entire point of the watch is suppose to be convenience.

It's a lot better than that for most use cases. It misses maybe once or twice a day and then I just have to turn my wrist again and then it works. Try using it before saying that gestures are universally bad. 

Quote

 

Maybe that's a big deal for you, but I don't see the appeal compared to just taking my phone out and doing the same thing, except my phone most likely has a better speaker and microphone than the watch.

Because I don't always have my phone on me. A lot of times I leave my in my room and I can still take a call while not in my room, same goes for when I'm at work. On top of that, it's a lot easier to press "accept" on my watch than take out my phone if I happen to be driving. 

Quote

Or just use a Bluetooth headset...

That's great for when I have my bluetooth headphones with me, but I don't always have them; my watch however is always on my wrist -- even when swimming. 

Quote

Smartwatches to me, even after all the examples given, sounds like a solution looking for an answer.

There are a lot of benefits to having a smartwatch and you've clearly never given it half a second because you just assume it's stupid and pointless, but that doesn't change the fact that tons of people have them and use them everyday. Not only that, you clearly haven't even bothered to pay attention to any recent reviews (as evidenced by the fact that you think the apple watch series 2/3 only get 18 hours of battery life), so again, you're arguing how stupid of a product they are, and yet you've put in absolutely zero effort. 

 

I easily could have not bought a new smartwatch after my Pebble died. I could even still return my Apple Watch if I wanted to, but I'd rather have the benefits that I get from the watch than the $300~ that I spent on the watch. 

 

It's fine to not think it's worth the money to test out, or even to have tried it and decided you didn't like it, but you've come to the conclusion that it's stupid and that it's a product that shouldn't exist without even giving it the time of day.

[Commodus]

6 hours ago, mr moose said:

As near as I can tell there are 5 other major options for smartwatches and 40% of the market is made up of lots of other brands.   It seems choice is not an issue.  I still don't see how market share evidences low quality on the other products on the market? 

Yes, there are definitely options out there, but look at the distribution and where the companies are trending.  They not only tend to have far fewer sales, but tend to struggle.  And that has me worried, because it's all too easy for a company in that position to simply back out rather than stick it out and try to improve.

 

I'm not saying the market share and quality are inextricably linked, but Google is doing things that are hurting Android Wear partners' chances.  The sluggish, not particularly inspired development of Android Wear itself is part of it, but there's also not doing enough to get Wear-friendly chips on a regular basis.

 

Think about it: the Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip, arguably the best processor Android Wear devices have to use, was announced in 2016.  Apple already tends to kick Qualcomm's ass in smartphone processors as of late; how is Android Wear supposed to match the Apple Watch in features when its best chip is two years old, and there's no hint of a replacement?  It's like Qualcomm decided that the smartwatch market was like the MP3 player market and decided to cede control to Apple, and Google seems oddly fine with that.

[Keg Ops]

I got mine for Christmas and I love it. There's a surprisingly big difference between having something portable and having something constantly on you. I mainly use mine for siri and messaging, but the health features are a nice addition. Not to mention I have a bad habit of not charging my phone at night so when it dies during the day I can still answer calls and texts from my watch. 

[D13H4RD]

That's good and all but I personally wouldn't own one, even if I wanted to. 

 

Main reason is I don't own an iPhone myself, at least not yet. The Apple Watch works best with an iPhone, or even with just an iPhone. I use a Note as my daily, so an Apple Watch likely wouldn't be of much use in that case. 

 

Another reason is that I personally don't care for smartwatches. There are very few good options out there, and they have their own caveats. Samsung's Tizen watches work very well but they are severely limited if I decide to switch to an iPhone. On that note, if I were to decide to get an Apple Watch as a result, it is also pared down if I decide to go back to Android. Plus, Android Wear honestly still sucks. Google just doesn't seem interested in making it better. 

 

I'm personally still fine with my Fitbit Blaze. It's not super smart but it does what I want it to do and it doesn't care too much whether I use an iPhone or an Android device. I'm a multi ecosystem guy, so having that sort of freedom is a big deal for me. 

[mr moose]

24 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Yes, there are definitely options out there, but look at the distribution and where the companies are trending.  They not only tend to have far fewer sales, but tend to struggle.  And that has me worried, because it's all too easy for a company in that position to simply back out rather than stick it out and try to improve.

 

I'm not saying the market share and quality are inextricably linked, but Google is doing things that are hurting Android Wear partners' chances.  The sluggish, not particularly inspired development of Android Wear itself is part of it, but there's also not doing enough to get Wear-friendly chips on a regular basis.

 

Think about it: the Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip, arguably the best processor Android Wear devices have to use, was announced in 2016.  Apple already tends to kick Qualcomm's ass in smartphone processors as of late; how is Android Wear supposed to match the Apple Watch in features when its best chip is two years old, and there's no hint of a replacement?  It's like Qualcomm decided that the smartwatch market was like the MP3 player market and decided to cede control to Apple, and Google seems oddly fine with that.

 

Apples market share has only shot up in the last quarter.  I still don't see how any of these appraisals regarding the performance and quality can be determined from such a small data set.   I see a short sudden success in applewear, which seems clearly explained in the IDC article, so not sure where all the rest of the market analysis is founded on, personal opinion maybe?

 

[Commodus]

12 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

What else should Samsung have done with the Sport?

 

The Gear Sport saw the addition of waterproofing, a faster SoC, and a different form factor; the negatives being that they dropped the LTE option and Samsung Pay MST. On the other hand, the Watch Series 3 added an LTE option, faster SoC, more storage/RAM, bluetooth LE,  and a barometer. The S3/Sport already has a barometer and Bluetooth LE. So, there really isn't anything lacking about the Gears compared to the Apple Watch. So I don't really know what else they should have done.

True, there were some advancements, but like you said... Samsung actually dropped features on the Sport, so it was more of a sidestep than a step forward.  Series 3 was an unequivocal step forward (it already had Bluetooth LE, on that note -- the difference is that it went from BT 4.0 to 4.2), and the processor was massively faster, to the point where you noticed the improvement at virtually every level.  Whether or not Samsung had feature advantages (and it certainly did), it's not moving all that aggressively.

 

We should see what the Apple and Samsung smartwatch lineups look like by the end of 2018.  If Apple has a significantly upgraded Series 4 and Samsung is either still coasting on the S3/Sport or makes a small tweak for the S4, then we'll know Samsung's smartwatch future is in trouble.

[Commodus]

54 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

Apples market share has only shot up in the last quarter.  I still don't see how any of these appraisals regarding the performance and quality can be determined from such a small data set.   I see a short sudden success in applewear, which seems clearly explained in the IDC article, so not sure where all the rest of the market analysis is founded on, personal opinion maybe?

 

Apple saw a significant growth in Watch sales during the Series 2 era, as well... basically, the long-term trend for its device has been positive.

 

And it's not that the quality and market share are inherently connected, it's that I've seen both the shipment estimates for other brands and the pattern in the past year or two.  It doesn't look great if your name isn't Apple or Samsung, and even for Samsung it's not all that hot.  And it's not going to get better if Google and Qualcomm keep twiddling their thumbs expecting Android Wear to take off with little effort on their parts.

[maartendc]

Never felt the need to get a smartwatch. It is just such a weird nonsensical device to me. Reaching for my phone is not that hard for me. And I don't need another device that I need to charge daily!

 

Also never felt the need to get a tablet thus far, but that is a different story.

[bcredeur97]

one thing is clear here guys: Apple people have infinite money

[DrMacintosh]

2 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

one thing is clear here guys: Apple people have infinite money

The Apple Watch isn’t even that expensive.....

[mr moose]

4 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

The Apple Watch isn’t even that expensive.....

It can't be that expensive, it appears everyone who owns one bought a back up as well. 

[mynameisjuan]

16 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

The Apple Watch isn’t even that expensive.....

Glad you think $399 is not that expensive. Like holy fuck dude. There are a lot of people who struggle to buy phones cheaper than the watch. 

[Guest The Viking]

1 hour ago, mynameisjuan said:

Glad you think $399 is not that expensive. Like holy fuck dude. There are a lot of people who struggle to buy phones cheaper than the watch. 

*compared to other apple crap it is much cheaper. You can buy 3 watches for the price of 1 iphone x 

[suicidalfranco]

11 hours ago, The Viking said:

*compared to other apple crap it is much cheaper. You can buy 3 watches for the price of 1 iphone x 

You can also buy a Mac mini, an lte Apple watch and iPod for the price of an iPhone. Only missing a monitor and don't remember if the Mac mini comes with the magic mouse and keyword (but given the price of the mini and knowing Apple, I'm 99% sure it doesn't come with them)

[mr moose]

11 hours ago, The Viking said:

*compared to other apple crap it is much cheaper. You can buy 3 watches for the price of 1 iphone x 

At that price anyone who upgrades their iphone for every new model can probably justify upgrading every generation watch too.