It has been 5 days with my 42mm Space Grey Apple Watch Sport and I'm really amazed with what this watch could do. As an ex-Pebble Watch user, I'm used to the larger screen environment and the Apple Watch is pretty comfortable for me. I would have regretted badly if I went ahead with the 38mm. The screen on the Apple Watch is a high pixel-per-inch display that produces sharp texts and images. The user experience of switching between apps is seamless, by using a field of bubbles that represent apps that allows easy rearranging and appropriate for small screen sizes like that Apple Watch. Allowing users to make phone calls and speech to text messages on the watch are also great features to have as they are definitely useful when driving.
Furthermore, what makes this watch unique from Pebble is the ability of tracking your heart rate on the go. This allows more accurate health and workout measurements. With the Activity app, it motivates me to do my daily workout to reach my goal such as standing for a period of time or doing some activities to burn off calories. Everyday, I would get several notifications to remind the remaining time to reach my workout goals.
However, there are a fews things that I disliked about the Apple Watch. On the software side being OS version 1.0.1, the Apple Watch lacks many functionality. I can hardly find anything useful to do on the Apple Watch aside from doing quick messaging and phone calls. Using 3rd party apps such as Instagram and Twitter is unnatural on the watch as the screen is too small for such purpose. The app performance on the Apple Watch is very slow. Launching apps takes time to fetch data from the iPhone and most of the time on the watch, you would be seeing a spinning icon. Technically speaking, it would be faster to reach your phone from your pocket to view the app than to wait for it load on the watch.
On the hardware side, the battery life on the Apple Watch is decent for normal use, but not for intense use. Having used the Pebble Watch, I'm very used to charging my watch once a week, but with the Apple Watch, I have to charge it once a day. It is also true that the Apple Watch relies heavily on the iPhone for communication. For example, the built-in running app that allows you to track your progress relies on the GPS on the iPhone to work accurately. However, when I'm jogging, I don't enjoy bringing my phone along. I simply want a wearable that can track how far I ran and track my progress without needing my phone. I really wanted an Apple Watch with a built-in GPS.
However, with most of the cons mentioned in this review, it could be simply be solved with the next version of the OS. During WWDC, Apple has announced the Apple Watch OS2 that brings new and greater features to the watch, and I look forward to the update that could bring a huge performance boost to the watch.
