APPLE WATCH 3

Smarter way to do everyday things

apple_watch

Does a smartwatch truly change your life? Almost four years and a dozen watches later, I still can’t say I have a definitive answer. There are moments where I miss those compliments that usually follow you when you’re wearing a funky fashion watch. Then there are those frustrating times when I’m hunting for an extra charging point at the end of a long day in a hotel that hasn’t kept up with the times. It’s bad enough having to charge your phone every night, most smartwatches need to be juiced up almost as frequently too. But the wow moments do make up. Like waving your watch to make a digital payment or getting email alerts so you don’t have to keep fishing out your phone especially when you’re busy at work.

I’ll say this though, the Apple Watch has probably been the watch that has come closest to living up to all those things that we expected our smart watches would do. Agreed, it hasn’t changed much from a design perspective since the debut of the first Apple Watch in 2015. But just like the iPhone 6, this could be case of not fixing a design if it ain’t broken.

The second iteration of the Apple Watch that debuted last year brought in two key changes greatly improving the product’s appeal with fitness enthusiasts. Fitbit has been the ‘go to’ brand for fitness enthusiasts with a slew of models that mostly focus on one thing – fitness tracking. While the brand launched the Blaze – positioned as a smartwatch, in India last year, it was still primarily a tracker dressed up as a watch with a large screen. Fitbit’s Ionic - expected anytime now in India, could be the first product from its stable to truly challenge the Apple Watch and Samsung’s Gear watches. While GPS tracking and a waterproof function made the Apple Watch 2, a better workout accessory, it was still hampered by some of the other challenges that weighed the first Apple watch down.

Apple’s 2017 watch line-up featured two approaches – one (the GPS version) that continues in the same vein as the first two generations and a second LTE version where the watch becomes a mirror device of your iPhone. The jury is still out on the LTE version with quite a few users experiencing the occasional connectivity issues. Indian consumers don’t have to make the choice between the GPS and LTE versions; the LTE version will not go on sale here. I’ve used the 38mm GPS version for a month now; I didn’t want to jump into any conclusions about a product category I’m still making up mind about.

The fact that the Apple Watch as we know it has been around for over two years means that you’re unlikely to be awestruck when you first unbox the latest version of the watch. Apple fanboys will tell you that they experienced this ‘awesomeness’ when they first laid their hands on the iPhone X. My journey with the Apple Watch 3 has been similar to my iPhone 8 experience. It grows on you and does that by doing the everyday things more efficiently. In a few days I began to notice how the new Watch OS4 teams up with the new S3 processor to deliver a faster, smoother watch experience. It’s reminiscent of the new A11 bionic processor combining with iOS11 in the iPhone 8.

Battery life has been one of the biggest deal breakers for the entire smartwatch category. It’s why many users have chosen to cast their lot with fitness trackers that offer week-long battery life. This is an area where the new Apple watch goes one up on its predecessors. I managed two days with a single charge but that dipped occasionally (when my watch kept buzzing with alerts all day). The first two Apple watches usually lasted just 24 hours on every charge.

There are quite a few subtle changes that watchOS 4 has brought including additional navigational options with the hot key. But just like iOS 11, watchOS4 is available for the all generations of Apple Watches. If you’re an iPhone user who is already sold on a smartwatch, the Apple Watch 3 is a no brainer. You will eventually get used to running into people on flights and in malls wearing a watch that looks just like yours or just like me you might start spending a mini fortune on straps in a bid to stand out in that same crowd. But the big question is – are you sold on a smartwatch yet?

The Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS) starts at Rs 29,900/ in India 

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.
The Week

Topics : #gadgets | #review

Related Reading