HAHAHAHA exactly. The apple watch is reviewed by someone who is self-concious enough to shave their arm hair. This explains why the review is so positive. Some people find self-esteem in odd places...
This entire article (photos and content) has been 'photoshopped' by apple PR. Hair and skin smoothed, bokeh added....look at how the watch is posed in the shots, it is amateur photography heavily post processed....in a lame viral marketing attempt.
ANANDTECH STOP TRYING TO SELL US SH*T.
APPLE SAMSUNG CORSAIR WHATEVER
IF I WANT A COMMERCIAL, ILL GO TO THE MFG WEBSITE.
PS.
EVERYTONE IN INTERNET LAND THE REVIEWERS FORGOT TO TELL YOU THAT THIS WATCH DOES
NOTHING. ZIP. ZILCH. NADA.
WITHOUT AN IPHONE.
IT COSTS $400 + AN IPHONE EASILY PUSHING THE PRICE OVER 1K.
PS
GO SEE IT IN THE STORE, ITS CHUNKY AND PRETTY CHEAP LOOKING, NOT LIKE APPLE'S WEBSITE PHOTOS AT ALL.
GO SEE FOR YOURSELF.
12K FOR THE 'EDITION' ?????????????
LOOKS LIKE IT BELONGS RIGHT AT HOME IN THE WALMART ELECTRONICS SECTION!
"This entire article (photos and content) has been 'photoshopped' by apple PR. Hair and skin smoothed, bokeh added....look at how the watch is posed in the shots, it is amateur photography heavily post processed....in a lame viral marketing attempt."
While we do use Photoshop for editing (once you get past basic cropping, you probably want Photoshop), to be clear here these photos haven't received any significant processing. The only work we do on our photos is lens/sensor correction and auto toning.
The fact of the matter is that Josh is an excellent photographer (the best one among us, in fact), which is how he's able to pull off these amazing shots. So the fact that you think it has been heavily edited is flattering in a sense; we didn't have to edit them, we were able to take those photos naturally in the first place.
And no, no one from Apple PR has touched the photos. Or the article.
The apple way, selling over expensive crap to stupid consumers that like to get robbed.
This has been a disastrous launch in every respect. The iwatch is such an ugly piece of crap, it is truly unbelievable how a company, formerly known for its remarkable design, dares to put out such a crap ton of shit. Some characteristics are glaringly obvious and inherent to it: over expensive, hardly innovative, limited functionality and usability (need of an iPhone to make it work), looks exactly like a toy watch and so on.
There are of course way better smart watches out there, especially from the likes of Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Asus, LG, simply put, there is no need for another piece of over expensive junk.
Regardless of what the casing and strap are, it's still maybe $8 worth of electronics at best, a painfully tiny screen, awful battery life, absolute dependence on an iPhone for proper function, and in reality adding extra time to decide if the message your phone just pinged your wrist with is worth pulling the phone out for to reply with. The smart watch is a dumb idea in its current form. The Apple icrapWatch (tm) with its "Wealthy - Rich - Look how obscenely rich I am" case material tiers (seriously, the upgrade from plastic to red leather band is $7k? Not even a gold band available to justify that $17k price?) is the ultimate expression of that. Maybe in 5 years or so a transparent OLED screen over a traditional watch with these sensors to pop-up notifications long enough to be noticed but not need to be charged every two hours is when it'll make sense, but for now it's a useless gimmick that nobody really needs.
Let's face it, the Apple Watch is a total and utter failure. The one called Sport edition doesn’t even has a dust, shock and water resistant exterior and thus fails in nearly every "sports" related usage scenario, albeit still costing nearly as much as an iPad, or, you know, a real watch, which works for years to come. And the luxury one? Oh god, 17k+ for this utter crapicious experience. If you’re a millionaire, donate that 17k+ to the EFF, the communist party, an union or consider that such an amount of money could save lives in many third world countries or help to preserve nature. Besides that, it doesn’t even look that luxurious compared face to face to Rolex standards, more like some sort of ugly, chubby toy enclosed in a thin, and tiny gold case. The functionality provided, if one even dares to call it that way, are utter crap too, nothing new, nothing exciting here, nothing Samsung, LG, Pebbles haven't been offering for years on a far superior basis. For example the Pebbles watch which costs less than 79$ and has 8 days of battery life, shows many of the notifications and info someone might need, all the while being water and dust proof, with changeable wristbands. Seriously, fuck this overpriced, environmentally obscene, eco terroristic icrapWatch (TM).
Yet another fine addition to the long list of "Terrible Products Apple Makes to Gouge Money out of People".
The new icrapWatch (tm) is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports providing no cable based connectivity at all? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore, since it now is the most widespread commercial NSA gathering tool available, closely followed by Android, iOS and OS X.
It's a sad day for people who need real smartwatches. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired and shot on the spot (or torn apart by a horde of rabid dogs) for introducing crippling regressions like this one.
Look at this POS: No USB port, which won’t require an adapter to do anything. So if you aren’t going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that nonexistent port a modern port one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which would be hugely important when the icrapWatch (tm) would have ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing in not making its nonexistant port into a thunderbolt port?
And again, are you kidding me? No thunderbolt connector? Now every sorry user of this pos doesn’t have to find a thunderbolt to USB C, a USB C to USB to HDMI, a USB to USB 3.0 period, a USB C to USB connector for apple’s time machine and also does not manage to don't short circuit all that with the AC/DC to USB C connectors, seriously ? Not worth 200$ new pile of hairy connectors for the brand new icrapWatch (tm), and that is called a revolution nowadays? No ********** way, the Pebbles is way superior, period.
By the way, they're perpetrating no connectors at all. Thunderbolt is a much-needed step to a modern I/O standard. No connector is an outdated, abused standard that was designed primarily for Rolex watches. It's not suitable for external storage, video, or anything else requiring bulk data transfer with minimal CPU overhead. A nonexistant connector at all is a regression, a major step BACKWARD.
Starting at $349.00----Less than $8.00 worth of hardware = ~$341.00 premium to use icrapWatch OS instead of windows. (Honestly the most expensive component of this icrapWatch (tm) is probably the screen.) Anyone with real work to do will not even be able to buy this thing. My friend’s last Air was neat in that it was small and lasted all day, but it was so under-powered, it was frustrating. I can only imagine how limited this machine will be.
Who cares about price, weight and size, when this product is crippled by a hopelessly defective design? You can't hook up a power adapter and external storage at the same time. You can't hook up an external display and external storage. Hell, you can't even plug in a thumb drive!
This product is the most asinine piece of shit Apple has produced, and that includes the (thankfully) short-lived Shuffle that could only be controlled by a gimped Morse code.
$270 less gets you the new Pebbles which will eat the crapWatch's lunch.
If you need to do a lot of processor intensive work, than you would not even go near this thing. It would be useless to you. If you need to crunch spreadsheets or are heavy in corporate analysis, this icrapWatch (tm) would also be useless to you.
This is the kind of icrapWatch (tm) that Apple sells a lot of. This icrapWatch (tm) is largely useless for anything other than email and facebook. It cannot store many files, it cannot process much information, and it has no external port. There is nothing wrong with using this icrapWatch (tm) for casual tasks, but it is CERTAINLY not a productivity machine.
It is what it is. A status symbol/statement. Or some other statement. A statement that you just bought a $349 or icrapWatch(tm) with a $341 or more case so you can show off in front of your hipster isheep friends.
I hate to stick to Apple only facts here, but Apple said that the current Samsung Smatwatch is 24% thicker than this new icrapWatch (tm). That does NOT mean that the new icrapWatch (tm) is 24% thinner than the current Samsung Smatwatch , it means that it is ~20% thinner than the current Samsung Smatwatch. They clearly phrased it that way to make it sound more impressive and hence dupe the consumer, aka stupid isheep.
So, it's a toy watch plus with a display and no over expensive dongle so you can’t do everything a Pebbles can do, at more than four times the price while looking posh. And here I thought technology was about function over form. I get it, functional art; art I can do things my phone does, but in a space that anyone can see me doing it, stylishly. Crippled and non standard in-house branded "business" software does great, can't do anything really artistic on it except maybe GarageBand or stock filter photo edits to my innumerable selfies, but it's got that partially eaten fruit on the back that screams "money I'm too stupid to keep or invest wisely."
Take my money! I wouldn't hold my breath.
This is apple's marketing strategy: mind-numbing markup on dirt-cheap, mediocre icrapWare (tm). They throw together a cheap little toy like icrapWatch (tm), pretty it up with silver or gold paint, and ride the wave of ignorance, outrageous markup, and marketing that they've been using as a business model for many, many years now. The only thing Apple has ever made that's less worthless than all the other crap their conspirators like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd excrete all day and night by taking advantage of child labour are iOS and OS X which, besides being notoriously crippled and constrained walled gardens, aren’t even worth the hassle unless you also dumped thousands of dollars into other apple products.
Many apple owners I’ve encountered never stop trying to belittle and demean others because they don’t have a Macbook or an iPhone (or an icrapWatch (tm) for that matter) and then try to act like their overpriced apple products are overall better when they are certainly not, by any standard.
Luxury cars, while still worthless crash grabs, usually offer some quality and features that are actually somewhat superior to cheaper competing vehicles and models. icrapWatch (tm) such as this start already expensive as hell with little performance to warrant such outrageous costs. Apple isn’t the luxury car of anything. It’s the luxury car DESIGN with a 4-cylinder under the hood and a tape-deck in the sound system, all with the price tag of "luxury". They sell laptops made cheap in china, using child labour and the same hardware you can find in SO many other laptops, slap their OS on it, put it in a thin case, and then markup the price by 300% to 600%. These are the facts. This icrapWatch (tm) in question is nowhere NEAR worth that kind of money. I mean, smartwatches in general are overpriced, but apple has made their entire business model out of extreme markups backed by clever marketing with little actual technological superiority of any kind. Every single apple product on the market can be outperformed in every way by comparable products. Apple icrapWatches (tm) can be outperformed by smartwatches that are FAR FAR cheaper while relying on older tech. The only thing that apple has that nobody else does is OSX and iOS, their operating systems. These are mediocre operating systems, but they are literally designed to be limited on anything it determines to be "non-apple hardware". Other operating systems can be installed on just about any computer you can slap together, whereas OSX is specifically and deliberately designed to be non-functional on ANYTHING that isn’t made by apple. It’s nothing but a cash-grab.
Apple is indeed playing run-of-the-mill capitalism, they try to capitalize on the ignorance of the average consumer with marketing campaigns designed to make you assume you're getting your money's worth.
There are millions of consumers who are on the fence, who are actually interested in buying something that's worth the money they spend. Those people deserve factual information and do not deserve to be exploited for their ignorance on the topic. So excuse me if I have a problem with it. College students especially, who don’t have a lot to spend in the first place, are being taken advantage of in every area of their life. Buying a smartwatch should be one less area of exploitation. This is why I have a problem with apple and with many other companies and services that attempt to capitalize on ignorance.
Years down the road when the batteries in this model are dead and you have to keep it plugged in just to use then you'll have no way to plug in a flash drive or an external hard drive. I don't care how sexy it looks: sometimes and more often than not less means a serious lack of functionality.
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of diabolic garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
The Apple Iphone 1 and Ipad 1 might have been innovative at their time, but since then, the bitten apple has been continuously rotting from the inside outwards, always swarmed by millions of Iworms which regale themselves with its rotten flesh, not forgetting all other Americans who support apple by means of their tax dollars to finance its bought US Treasury/Government bond interest rates.
Last but not least, every Apple product includes a direct hotlink to the NSA, free of charge, something that might make it a good value, after all.
"There is nothing wrong with using this icrapWatch (tm) for casual tasks, but it is CERTAINLY not a productivity machine." I was really hoping it could handle some spreadsheets and a bit of 3D rendering, but I guess not.
This post was either satire or the greatest literary achievement by someone with a bonus chromosome 21.
You're so right! Use the watch for what it's intended for. It's not a computer. According to the guys at http://www.watchtimely.com it was originally meant to have a slightly larger screen to be able to do more complicated things, but the developers realized nobody would do them on their watch anyway.
It is turning out exactly as we said – sales of Apple's latest cure for cancer have slumped to a shadow of their initial "glory."
While the Tame Apple Press and a big chunk of analysts sung praises for the iWatch, claiming it would sell 70 million in its first year. We pointed out that the gizmo was nearly two years out of date and lacked most of the software which would make it moderately useful and if it succeed it was a triumph of user stupidity and marketing.
Lately analysts have been slowly withdrawing the enthusiastic sales figures they gave the watch, and now a new survey has shown that sales have fallen by 90 per cent.
Apple is selling fewer than 20,000 watches a day in the US since the initial surge in April, and on some days fewer than 10,000. This is not too bad, but it does suggest that most people who wanted an iWatch have one, and existing users are not managing to win many converts amongst their friends to make it take off. For the record to make the 70 million figure apple would have to sell 195,000 a day.
Data collected by Slice Intelligence show that Two-thirds of the watches sold so far have been the lower-profit "Sport" version, whose price starts at $349, according to Slice, rather than the costlier and more advanced models that start at $549. Apple's gold "Edition" model priced at $10,000 or more has only sold 2,000 of them have been sold in the US.
The figures are based on the electronic receipts sent to millions of email addresses following purchases. The company conducts market research on behalf of consumer-goods companies, among others, many of them in the Fortune 500.
All up though these figures are not bad, but they are not the sort of numbers which Apple needs to convince its investors that it can make mega sales any more. With sales drying up in China, Jobs mob will not have a good bottom line this year.
Apple mysteriously has enough iWatches on hand to start putting them in its own stores.
The iWatch went on sale six weeks ago and at the time Apple did not think it would ever have enough to put it in its own shops. The original plan was to flog them online and in fashion stores, however and Jobs' Mob thought it would never have enough to meet the crushing demand for an out-of-date wearable which was more expensive than anything else on the market.
So it appears that suddenly Apple has enough. Of course the Tame Apple Press is trying to keep the story about a shortage going. Potential buyers must first reserve their device online, and some models are still out of stock.
But the sport models, which are most popular and the cheapest, are available across the country, while others can be bought in Apple's flagship shops, such as those in London and Manchester.
In order to reserve your device, you must pick the Watch you want to buy, choose a store to pick the device up and then choose a time to go and buy it. You can also order the home delivery, but it's not recommended as it takes more than three weeks for the shipment to be delivered.
The most expensive models, such as the 38mm yellow gold model with red modern Buckle strap, are still unavailable. As Apple said last week, the 42mm Watch in Space Black with the metal link bracelet is unavailable at all stores for now.
In the interest of transparency, BittenRottenApple has been banned from AnandTech. We have since identified him as a sockpuppet having used multiple accounts here, and while we afford our readers a great deal of liberty to discuss products and articles, we will not put up with people who are dishonest in their actions.
Thanks for that Ryan, on the internet it's easy to say "you need to get some kind of help" in jest, but in this case I think it may actually be true. Presumably iWatchHogwash is the same person?
Whoa. Chill bro. You realise these are comments right? You should go start a blog and let no one read your thoughts there instead of clogging up these ones.
@bittenrottenapple: You just don't get it. Seriously, a thumb drive for a watch? External ports? External memory? A spreadsheet? Just walk away, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.
You know what Ryan, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Whether it was apple PR or not is irrelevant. I'll even admit I didn't even finish the entire article because it read like a kid getting a new toy for christmas explaining how magical it was.
Can you explain to my why the author(s) felt the need to photograph and post not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE neatly arranged unboxing shots... on the very first page of the article.
The shots were deliberately arranged on a cleaned, attractive, ironed cloth that tied into the watch's color scheme.
Some questions about the opening sequence of photos :
- Do you think that these shots reveal any info to your readers? Tech specs, warranty info, durability? - Why does the EXIF info read adoble lightroom. Like gimme a break. They were enhanced. - If we remove all verbiage, does the watch look attractive, or unattractive in any way shape or form? - Do people generally wear a timepiece nicely draped over their fingers in front of a sunny picturesque tree? - Is it just a coincidence that not only I but others, thought the photo's looked 'funny'?
The author(s) deliberately took time and significant effort to make the product to look as attractive as possible. The opening page, it's photographs and presentation instantly clue the reader that this piece is obviously written with heavy marketing bias and the overall tone and conclusion will be a positive one.
Is my original post inflammatory? Sure. Beligerent? yes.
100% True?
YES.
You know why this watch isn't selling? Apple's customers are thinking this:
"Cool! New apple watch! What does it do?" "Hmm, it doesnt really do that much. I was kind of expecting more." "You know what, it's kinda chunky and why does it stutter?...OMG, 400 bucks? pffff totally not worth it."
I know this because I am an apple customer, and this thing pretty much just sucks.
Some more questions:
- Do you think it would be good for your publication to write a scathing review of an apple product that went viral? Isn't that kind of sad? - Would you recommend this product for a single mother, your grandma, or anyone else close to you? - Have you thought about purchasing this product for ANYONE as a gift? - Had this review not taken place would you have gone out and purchased this item for yourself? LOL!!!! - Can you link me an article written on anandtech that portrayed any apple product in a negative light, ever?
I'm sorry RyanI know you are jsut doing your job but the 'general consumer' is getting smarter and the internet is getting clogged up with this kind editorial crap.
The only way to stop it is to speak up, LOUD, and be heard.
Didn't Ellen Pao just say it best?
"The trolls are winning"
By trolls, she meant the general public tha ist sick of being lied to and manipulated.
Lied to by presidents, company reps, journalists, law enforcement, intelligence agencies....right down to silly little amazon reviews.
2 weeks later he files a patent to provide an advertisement based on your bank account balance!
Call a turd a turd.
Dont photoshop it then, sprinkle whipcream and cherries on top.
"You know what Ryan, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."
Thank you. I appreciate it.
"Whether it was apple PR or not is irrelevant. I'll even admit I didn't even finish the entire article because it read like a kid getting a new toy for christmas explaining how magical it was. Can you explain to my why the author(s) felt the need to photograph and post not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE neatly arranged unboxing shots... on the very first page of the article."
The short answer is that our Apple reviews have a wider reach than our standard technical articles. The range of readers that will show up to AnandTech for a MacBook or iPhone review has a much more distinctive consumer shift than say an SSD or CPU review. And while we still have a large number of technical readers (who are our heart and soul), it's also good for us to be visible to less technical consumers, as it helps them learn that we exist and, hopefully, come back to learn things that no other site can offer.
In any case, when you're working to reach a broader audience, you need to focus on more than just words. Less technical consumers aren't going to care about the S1 analysis for example, and that's okay, because we reach these users in other ways. And one of the ways we do that is in photography. Broader audiences like pictures - they like good pictures - and that means we step up our game on photography for these reviews in order to accommodate those users. There are a number of other sites out there reviewing the Watch, and there is a segment of the broader audience that will write us off in favor of another review if we show up with poor photography, so we need to make sure that not only is our analysis top notch, but our prose and imagery is competitive as well.
At the end of the day we won't make any compromises on the technical side for our regular technical readers, but if we can also bring wider consumers into the fold through materials such as improved photography, we will do that as well. This way both techies and non-techies alike can enjoy our articles and learn something from them.
It's sad, Ryan, that you actually had to explain this to someone. I thought your core readers would understand that an Apple Watch review isn't in the same category as a NVMe PCIe SSD. Guess not.
Ryan, just wanted to observe that this approach has had the opposite effect on me. I used to come to AnandTech as my absolute goto first tech site, and these Apple puff pieces made me question your other reviews. So instead of improving your reach, at least for me, you reduced your reach because I feel that I cannot trust you as much as I did.
The fact that Anand himself also left to go to Apple would strongly suggest you be wary of running Apple stuff that is fluffy.
I only read the summary, because the out-of-box first page showed me it was going to be a puff piece not a technical review.
I think you do yourself a disservice and have damaged your brand by trying to reach a larger market.
They clearly haven't paid attention to the high production value of ALL Anandtech articles over the past decade. You guys use top notch photography and lightboxes all the time. These comments are ridiculous.
The Reddit fallout must have sent trolls to every corner of the internet.
Ryan, I do respect Anandtech coverage a lot and Josh has done some great research articles that I'm still digesting. However, I have to agree with others: this review just reads strangely lacking in perspective. It is choke-full of weird claims about watchOS being the iOS in the watch world, and about all that first-gen BS that gets throw around. Why is it that every tech reviewer would gladly slam a device for its poor functionality, but once we start talking about Apple, suddenly you guys chicken out and rather than saying that it's shit, you say that 'well, it lags like hell, but that's okay, because it's a first gen product.' And how about commenting on the lack of any actual useful functionality on the watch that would make users spend a ludicrous $700 for a single-core 500MHz processor running a 1.5" display? Don't get me started on forgetting to mention that other competitors have always-on screen (the WatchOS is a sore disappointment) AND come with two days of battery life. AND half the price! But no, rather than giving us some insightful comments on that, we get the 'I'm definitely convinced in the smartwatch now'. Thanks, very useful! /s
Still, if you had reproached the Apple Watch with anything, you wouldn't be able to get your hand on any Apple product anymore.
You've not even compared the Apple Watch with Samsung's smartwatches, which have a better display, way better battery life, and so on.
Keep worshipping Apple, you're the only website which finds the Apple iPhone 6 has a better battery life than the Galaxy S5, which is obviously not true...
Another idiot who knows nothing about photography. They didn't take these photos with an iPhone..... some people still buy real cameras with real lenses, no surprise here: IT'S A TECHNOLOGY WEBSITE!
Ayup, that's totally what it is. Definitely not because close-up photos have less depth-of-field than distant ones(as a loose rule). It's totally 'shopped to add the cool word for out-of-focus backgrounds.
Actually bud i am an accomplished photographer myself, Mr. Ho was using a d7000 shooting the 35mm dx prime wide open. I own a d7100 and same lens, i recognized it right away....i used the phrase 'bokeh added' to troll a reaction and it worked.
The bottome line is that the photos are enhanced, the only way to prove otherwise would be to post the original RAW files, not jpegs. There is nothing wrong with enhancing photos for your article, but claiming you didn't when you did just proves how far you are willing to go to lie about the silliest detail.
Heres the bottom line: - they presented the product in question in the most positive light possible - the article was meandering and incoherent and 100% opinion based - but overall positive - can someone link me a negative apple product review written by anandtech, ever? - has every apple product, 100% of the time, been perfect? - if the apple watch is so awesome, why did the reviewers never own one until this review? - how many people wear a watch perfectly draped over thier wrist - why were there so many unboxing shots? - Mr. Smith did not answer my questions of whether or not scathing apple product review that went viral would be good for his website and career as a whole.
Ill tell yah why, apple wouldnt be very happy with mr smith writing a crappy review of thier product, and there would be repurcussions to his career because of it,
And that my friends is exactly the problem.
This website has become a huge commercial, as with a large majority o the internet and i will continue to embarass and troll authors of this kind of junk whenever possible,
Like i said, just call a turd a turd..
...the watch sucks dudes, its not a maybe, it sucks...go look for yourself.
I'm not an Apple person, but the iPhone 4S just happened to be the best smartphone I ever owned (except perhaps my HP\Palm Veer...I like small gadgets)
Just like the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch I've ever had. The Pebble will always have a place in my heart as the first smartwatch I owned (unless my 1996 Timex Datalink counts?) but it is clearly outclassed by even competitively priced smartwatches (a LG G watch is $80 refurbished, the same price as a new Pebble, and the Pebble Time Steel is nearly as expensive as the Apple Watch)
I'll wait till iWatch 3 or 4 thats has integrated LTE modem and actually allows me to jog without a phone.
Like i said, this one still sucks, I've seen it, tried it, and it's overpriced (unsuprising from apple) and slow. Literally the only cool thing i can think of that it does is the wrist tap navigation, or the the tapping u get from sms ... would be good for unobtrusive communication in a meeting, or flirting with your girlfriend.
Jobs wouldn't have allowed this.
He would have waited another generation for the required technology, or engineered it himself.
Even the most die hard apple lover has to admit that.
I guess you've never experienced a watch band pulling out hairs on your wrist then. I had one that would do that. I never wear it. Arm hair does matter.
thing is apple owns all gadget websites by bribing.. so apple just told sites like this ''YOU DARE TAKL/WRITE NEGATIVELY ABOUT US N OUR PRODUCTS'' we bought you so ...
"In every phone I’ve ever used, the only time I use manual brightness is when the auto brightness system is clearly programmed wrong in some shape or form. Common cases where this would happen include auto brightness that didn’t actually set the display to maximum brightness in daytime or wouldn’t set the display to minimum brightness in absolute darkness."
My iPhone's auto brightness setting doesn't do these things -- at least, it certainly doesn't set brightness to minimum in darkness. I frequently need to make manual adjustments. Could something be wrong with auto brightness on my phone?
You can calibrate the auto brightness on the iPhone. Search google for how to calibrate iPhone auto brightness and you can find instructions on how to do it. It's not very difficult.
It only becomes necessary after you start to adjust it just for the sake of adjusting it. Leave it alone and you'll never need to even touch it (as most people do, really).
First Apple watch has been largely a market failure so far. Outside of initial orders sales have been poor.
Second your review is definitely tinted in "Rose colored" apple glasses.
The design is bulky, thick, and look absolutely stupid on a wrist. Even owners of it will admit its too big. The UI interface sucks and the using the wheel to scroll thorough dozens of tiny circles on screen is retarded and not user friendly. You fail to mention the watch practically does d!ck without the phone which makes it pointless. The freaking $400 Apple watch cannot fulfill the same level of functionality that a fitbit can unless its tethered to a damn iPhone. That reminds me the watch only works with iPhones!! The battery life is terrible. It TOO EXPENSIVE.
I have a few watches and some of which I'll probably never wear them again because I prefer my favorite ones. Let's not talk about Rolex, instead take one from my bunch - a Movado that I paid $2200 around 15 years ago. Surely it had cost me a lot more than the $400 Apple watch but its value today is not much different from 15 years ago. Carbide band and housing, sapphire glass - a fine and stylish quality time piece unlike the Apple watch which will be obsolete soon in a few years. Apple watch may be a good watch NOW but for $400, it's very unattractive not to mention I'll probably feel like an idiot right after I pay for it.
Some people just doesn't understand that it's not about the price, it's about the value of the product they're paying for. If people keeps paying high price for craps, them companies will continue making craps thinking they've produced masterpieces. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $40 for this ugly ToyRUs looking watch. And NO, Apple isn't doomed but sale figures can certainly tell how good or bad the product they're selling. Feel free to support Apple if you like but I'll only support my wallet.
A smartphone should not be compared to a phone and a smartwatch should not be compared to a watch. Even though I still can't see any use for a smartwatch... But comparing Apple watch to a Movado or Rolex is just silly, this is not what a smartwatch is meant to be.
the watch can actually do work outs/steps without the phone. The battery life on the watch is insane im usually at 70-80 % by the time I got to bed. Also you don't "use the wheel to scroll through dozens of tiny circles".... its a touch screen.. you scroll with you finger..
meh...I have a 42mm version of the sport and will burn the battery in < a day in use. for now, it's a good notifier of things i need to do but otherwise, it's nothing special.
May I ask what you do with your watch on a day to day basis that makes it so that you have no battery life left? I use mine from 7 am - 10-11 pm, most days with a workout recorded, and worst case scenario, I'm at 30% by the end of the day.
your experience is unusual, as most who respond to these articles report eod average battery remaining to be about 40-60%.... my day starts at 0500, ends around 1130 with typically 45% battery remaining, I sleep with it on, awake @ 0430 with about 40% remaining, charge about 35 minutes to 100% while showering and shaving. What's not to like!?
Sorry, I call bullshit. My own experience, as well as the experience of everyone I know who has one, as well as every SINGLE impression and review I've read, is so far off from that. My Watch typically has 50% left after 12 hrs. If you really can't get through a day, then take it in, it's defective.
A lot of smart watches are kind of thick and bulky and look stupid on the wrist. Nobody else has an interface that works miles better from what I hear Most smart watches do "d!ck" anyway without a phone to attach to. Fitbit still needs something to attach to for it to be useful. Well, unless I get the uber high-end one, but that's $250 for a dedicated device. And iProducts only work with other iProducts, did you not see that coming? Battery life is terrible on everything but Pebble. Honestly, all smart watches are too expensive for what they supposedly try to do.
It won't NEED to be upgraded. It will continue to perform the functions it had when you purchased it, as well as alot more (with software updates) for quite a while. Stop pretending like the Watch is going to explode exactly a year after it's purchased, or that upgrading is a requirement.
What is your complaint? How are smartwatches "seriously flawed devices"? They do (or at least Apple Watch does) what it promises to do. It's a good watch, a good notification screen, a good fitness tracker, and it helps with minor short communications. It can even be useful when you are just lying in bed and want to know a fact without bother to get up to go to your phone or PC. (eg "Hey Siri, when is sunset tonight?")
Being more expensive than you want to pay is not a "flaw" and calling it shut is pissing in the well of intelligent informed debate. People likewise complained that the iPhone was supposedly more expensive than it "should be", a complain that they still continue to repeat every year. Doesn't seem to have hurt Apple any, and doesn't actually have anything to do with the usefulness of the device.
No, it deserved a good review because the author had extensive experience with it, and genuinely liked it. Mind blowing concept, eh? You didn't even read the damn review, did you? What an insightful comment yours is.
That may be true for all the others, but the Apple Watch is not overly thick... in fact it is the same thickness of the Commander/day/date automatic I've worn for years.... less than twice the thickness of my Tags, thinner than my Bulovas, and half the thickness of my Omega, I don't own a Rolex, but those I've seen are quite bulky.
Hey cknobman, your ignorance about the subject matter is on display. Do yourself a favor and at a minimum, research the subject before blithely regurgitating the negative review points of other idiots, none of which is true in my experience, nor in the experience of 99% of actual users.
In regards to its features, please discredit my claims. It is big, its user interface sucks (not only in my limited use but the actual users who have it have explained to me why they think it sucks), it does not do squat without an iphone tethered to it, and it is expensive.
This is all speculation, not proof. We won't know anything official until/if Apple start announcing Watch sales separately from their 'other' category.
I hear that argument a lot from people and this is little Timmy's comments about that “We don’t intend to provide insight that could help our competitors,”
Yet they seem to provide a lot of insight that could help their competitors by releasing iphone and ipad sales figures. Why is that? Is itbecause iphones are selling like hot cakes and it makes the company look good? They don't release watch numbers because sales have been dismal. Had they sold 20 million units, you bet your ass little Timmy would separate smartwatches into their own category rather than lumping them in with ipods. This way they can blame the lackluster sales on declining ipods instead the flopping watch.
Looks like all the fanboys bought their i-toy in April, now what Timmy?
It's so sad that you need to disrespect Tim Cook by calling him "little Timmy" in order to make yourself feel better, as well as your no doubt empty life. So very sad.
Oh, and ignore the fact that Apple announced that they would not break out Watch figures MONTHS ago, it's not a decision they made after they found out sales. Your entire argument is moot.
Uh, Tim Cook stated as a fact that Watch sales were higher in May than April, and higher in June than May. Another rabid Apple hating lying troll caught in their lies. But this is the internet, so cowards like you will never admit they're wrong.
Nobody but Apple knows what Apple watch sales have been like and you sure don't The Slice report has already been widely discredited. Battery life is not terrible at all further indication you have no idea what you are talking about.
First off, sales haven't been announced so none of us really know how successful or not it really has been but the last estimates I heard put sales close to 3 million. In comparison, only about 720,000 smartwatches sold in 2014 total. So if more than tripling smartwatch sales in 3 months is a failure, then I need to start failing at things more like Apple. Second, design taste is completely opinion but I think I'll trust Vogue and Beyonce for fashion advice over some neck beard commenting on a tech article. Don't know what "owners" you've talked but anecdotal evidence is still anecdotal evidence. I could tell you about how all Android phones suck because me and my 4 friends each had a Galaxy S3 and our battery life was terrible and the UI was buggy and laggy. But that wouldn't matter because there are many other people who loved their S3s regardless of my anecdotal evidence to the contrary. In my opinion, I don't find the watch to be bulky or thick at all. To the contrary actually. I find it to be a lot smaller than most other smartwatches. Lastly, it will do plenty without the phone. You can go on a run and it will still track calories, time/pace, and heart rate. You can still use all the watch functions without the phone. When Watch OS 2 comes out, you'll be able to update all your apps via wifi independent of the phone. You can listen to music independent of the phone as well. Really the only thing you can't do without the phone is get notifications. And battery life is great. I have yet to make it through a whole day with less than 45% battery by the time I go to bed and my 6 Plus has been pushed to 3 days without a charge. Granted those are my experiences so I can't speak to everyone else's experience but I haven't had a single battery issue or any trouble getting my watch and phone to last me at least a day and half at minimum.
Also, expensive is a relative term based off of your own income. I'm not trying to sound elitist (although this is going to sound really elitist so I'm sorry) but I have no issues spending $400 on a smartwatch. I have enough disposable income that spending a few hundred bucks on a watch isn't going to set me back in any significant amount what so ever. Maybe you have a hard time coming up with an extra $400 but some of us have money and don't really look at $400 as a large amount. Again, I know it sounds elitist and I'm not judging you if $400 is too much, I'm just trying to get the point across that a lot of people don't look at $400 as a lot of money.
"Apple watch has been largely a market failure so far" What do you define as a market failure? Especially in a new market? Apple have apparently sold around 4x as many watches as the entire Android Wear sales. That would seem to indicate a success. They have apparently matched the internal Apple sales targets. Again indicates success. Almost everyone who actually OWNS and has USED an Apple watch (as opposed to simply bitching about it) loves it. You see this both in reviews and in the most recent customer survey from Wristly research.
They quote the price for the sport, yet the review is of the $300 more expensive version with the stainless steel case and loop band. In my opinion, the lack of included the "as tested" price shows the reviewer's biased opinion. The watch in question is nearly double the only quoted price in the article.
Except said jewelery cost $2 to make and doesn't have the metalic value of gold. Gold jewelry can always be sold and recover it's value if not make you a profit.
What are you trying to say? Are you claiming that there is some secret difference between the models that nobody knows about? So when he talks about the performance or battery life of the steel model that's different from the sports model? Don't be stupid.
I mean I see the cheaper models, but who would put ephemeral electronics parts in pricy metals and design. Except if they do not have precious metals on them, in which case?
I know what you mean. If I forget my Apple watch I suffer mild anxiety the whole day knowing that i'm not recording my activity ;p I've had it since April, and with the udpates so far, it's pretty indispensible. I can't wait to see where Apple takes it next.
Wow Anandtech selling out in a huge way again. Ugly, beyond stupid navigation and software, a lack of a basic understanding of what the product is, faked screen resolution , huge bezels to accommodate an insufficient battery and an oversized vibration "motor" . And then there is the price, 400$ for the kids version and 600 for the adult version- if you had any trace of decency you would "murder" them in this article just for the price. Or maybe you guys just have the vision of a potato and can't quite grasp the concept of money either. Or maybe you are just cowards and , like any other American publication, you can't even imagine saying anything negative about Apple.
I agree. In addition it's probably one of the most unnecessarily wordy articles I've read in a long time. Who's the "I" in the article, Joshua or Brandon?
jjj, you might have emotional issues, but for many of us, the Apple Watch is a wonderful version 1.0. I do enjoy mine and as for the $600 price tag... no big deal. I spend more than that on weekend fun. The article is fine. I find my own experience with the watch very solid and quite fun to wear.
I'm glad that you were able to manufacture an opportunity to brag, but the reality is that price is an important factor. In absolute terms, you correctly touch on the fact that everyone sees a different value proposition based upon many things, personal finance being one of the major factors. What you completely neglect is the price relative to the market.
Well, what's the market? Some people will compare it to other smart watches out there at 1/2 the price (or sometimes significantly less). Other people will compare is as a jewelry piece, in which case all bets are off (frankly, I don't think that it has much appeal here, as it has the potential to become too common to be remarkable, possibly even delving in to the cliche). Others will compare it to the convenience of pulling their (necessary) phone out of their pocket. In all of these regards, I think that it's hard to argue a solid value proposition to most people.
If you SERIOUSLY consider the price to be an issue, then just wait. Commenters seem to have utterly no sense of history, even history they have lived through. For example - the first iPhones were strongly tethered to iTunes. Over the years, that tether has become weaker and weaker. Why do you imagine the same thing will not happen with the watch?
- the first model costs what it costs. That's life. But next year there will be a new model, and you'll be able to buy this model on eBay for $150. Or maybe Apple will continue to sell these models (maybe just Sport, maybe Sport and Steel) at $100 cheaper, like they do with iPhones and iPads?
Complaining that something sucks because it costs more than you want to pay is a childish way of looking at the world. Hell, I want an apartment in One57 and sadly I don't have $90 million to pay for it. That doesn't mean the apartment sucks...
If the apartment sucks I will complain about the apartment too. In a world where the concept of money is rapidly losing any trace of meaning, people that have to suffer needlessly from its scarcity, will inadvertently criticise a price. And complaining about the price of a gadget is nothing compared to the price of essential drugs for our health or other basic needs. A watch that doesn't sport pricy materials with a so so design and a tiny cpu because of space limitations cannot demand the price of a full pc. I would say that 50 to 100 dollars is closer to reality, not taking into account the jewellery factor. I think the computer industry got carried away by the success of the smartphones and the tablets. The next step probably is close to incorporated chips into our body, or an advanced version of google glasses if you like
First, there are LOTS of watches that cost well over $600, and all they do is tell time. Companies have no issues selling them. And yes, its a 1.0 product, it will undoubtedly be improved in the next iteration.
But saying Anandtech "sold out" in this article is a bit far fetched. Especially without any evidence to support your theory.
The watch market north of $600 is that of jewelry; a large part of the appeal is a uniqueness that appeals to the individual wearer. Do you really think that changing the wristband and switching the default display is going to provide enough differentiation for the iWatch to appeal in that regard? I have a hard time seeing it; further, the more popular the watch becomes, the less it appeals to this market.
The other issue, of course, is the "companies have no issues selling them" statement. First, yes, they do have issues. There's still market competition, they don't operate in a vacuum, they're not completely exempt from it. Second is the size of that market. If Apple were to move the same number of units as the luxury watch market, the iWatch would be an abysmal failure.
Go price a Movado or Tissot stainless steel watch. These aren't heirlooms. They are made from the same $12 quartz watch movements as a Timex, yet sell for hundreds of dollars, even more than $1000 in some cases.
"Selling out"? Yes, the reviewer states that the AW is the best wearable to date, but he still "finds it hard to recommend this first generation Apple Watch". Seems fair to me, but please don't let that muddy your "OMG ANYTHING APPLE IS TEH SUCK!!1!1!11!" bias.
Given that they received both the sport band and the Milanese loop (note "received" and not "bought"), you know they had to give a positive review. Anything less would have Apple PR threatening to block Anandtech from future press events or review samples.
Pretty much every reviewer, including Nilay Patel, got the Sport plus one band of his or her choice, usually the Milanese, Link, or Leather Loop band. Also, this review is out about 3 months after the other major sites, so it isn't like they got priority or anything like that.
My point is that it was a review unit that it appears they got to keep (they've had the watch for months).
Sorry, but it simply reads like a love letter to Apple, and while some flaws are mentioned, pretty much any other wearable would have been slammed for it. Here, it's a "version 1.0 thing"
Congratulations for a comment filled with nothing but absolute and complete horse-shit, and for making yourself look like a complete moron to anyone who isn't an insane troll like you.
Faked screen resolution? Huge bezels? Insufficient battery? Oversized vibration motor? Kids version? This is the first time I ever hear a single of these creative "complaints", probably cause you pulled them straight out of your ass.
The aspect I'd like to see further discussed is the price. Is there enough functionality in this to justify it costing more than your smartphone in many cases? The functionality/price ratio has been an issue for the existing android wearables, and those generally cost 1/3 as much, or less (while offering strikingly similar functionality).
I can't help but think that the high price point Apple picked was partly to address the abandonment issue you mentioned. If you pay $600 for something you're much more likely to make a point of using it than if you paid $100 for the same item. Even still, after everyone was spotted wearing Apple watches the first week or so they were out, it seems like if anything there are fewer in the public eye now than then. Slow adoption is OK, but declining adoption is a bad thing.
The functionality/price ratio is pretty much meaningless if we don't perceive this as a pure tech device, but rather a tech/fashion hybrid. Fashion is pretty much the opposite of cost-effectiveness, but it's also something most people value (to different extent).
Maximizing that ratio would most likely mean making the device not fashionable at all, and therefore not appealing to the non-nerdy demographic. The key is finding the right balance to please most people. Most people are totally willing to sacrifice some of the functionality/price ratio for fashionability.
If what Apple wanted was to provide a good functionality/price ratio, the current aluminum (low-end) model would probably be the high-end model, and they'd offer a plastic model as the low-end. They don't because then people would perceive it more as a gadget and less as fashion accessory/jewel.
While the functionality/price ratio could definitely be discussed, I don't think it should be measured like maximizing is objectively good. Making it pretty low is actually likely what will contribute to the Apple Watch's success. Beats by Dre probably wouldn't be the best-selling high-end headphones either if they targeted a high functionality/price ratio.
My iPhone cost $950, the Apple Watch costs $350. I didn't buy an Apple Watch, but it wasn't because of the price. It was because the first-gen product seemed like it needed a few more revisions.
That said, the sport should have a sapphire screen, and the bands should be much more affordable, but still, cost wasn't the reason I didn't buy.
OMG it taps your wrist when you get a notification. I will never ever have to miss an important txt ever again. I am going to rush out right now and plunk down $600 for this, and another $800 for an iphone so I can use it.
Just kidding. Who are you frickin kidding? $1400 for a wrist tap. lol. How about this? If I'm expecting an important call or message, I will look at my phone more often. And NOT spend $1400 doing it.
If you don't want to live in the 21st century, but all means, don't. Smart phones are used by the majority of the population on earth, but nobody is forcing you to use one. Feel free to spend your money elsewhere.
But it should be noted, VERY few smart phone owners pay the retail price.
What?? Almost all smartphone owners pay Full retail price for unlocked phones throughout the World, not everyone is a Slave to the carriers like in the USA.
In most markets these days these 'subsidies' are finance constructs. You repay the loan through the higher subscription fee. Evidence of that is many of these markets offer 'sim only' contracts significantly cheaper than bundled deals.
What's the difference? They try to gussy them up and give them fancy names like "tabs", but they're just contracts by another name. THe only difference is they don't have a fixed length.
The government (CRTC) didn't buy it either, and in the wireless code that sets the maximum amount of time before the balance owing (after which the ETF/ECF must reach zero) after 24 months, they simply defined these "tabs" as "contracts of indeterminate length", and applied the same 24-month restriction to them.
But are they subsidising the phone, or the service? I bought my HTC on contract, and however you look at it, I've now paid out more than the retail cost of the phone. In my mind it is the service that they are subsidising, not the phone.
That doesnt even make sense, how could the carrier subsidize the service? They are subsidizing the phone by charging you extra for wireless service. The thing is that they never drop the price of your contract, so even after you have repaid the cost of the phone, you are still paying that higher price.
Imagine if you bought the phone at TMobile who DOES have a lower service price when you do not get a subsidized phone. Say you also get a small loan to pay for the phone (T-Mo does this) -- once that 'loan' is paid off -- your monthly bill effectively goes down as you are just paying for the service.
I bought my AppleWatch out of curiosity though I was dubious about functionality, unenthusiastic about the physical design and unsure if I'd find it comfortable to wear as I hadn't worn a watch in decades and since getting a smartphone I saw no particular need to wear a device for telling time. I bought a space grey sport and bought a green plastic band.
Almost immediately I liked wearing the watch as a fashion item. YMMV but once I was wearing it I liked how it looked. As I work out a lot on a rowing machine I hoped the heart rate monitor could replace my Polar HRM. To an extent it has. When comparing the read outs from both in a steady state situation my readings are within 1-2 bpm. The watch does take 15 seconds or so to get a reading while the Polar Band seems instantaneous. The band of the AppleWatch has to be worn tighter than normal to get a good reading. Occasionally the AppleWatch gives a totally false reading for awhile then jumps back to accurate readings. Calorie burn comes out almost identical to Concept2 readings plugged into their calorie counter.
ApplePay has just come to the UK and I'm eager to try that out when my bank joins at the end of the month. Some of the inbuilt functionality does minimise friction of my use of my iPhone reducing the number of times I have to pull my phone out of my pocket. Agree that's a first world problem but I do live a first world hectic lifestyle.
Despite the rant of JJJ below I like my watch and I'm happy I bought it. I don't think it's a must buy for most people, it's a convenience at the moment not a necessity. I do think that wearables have a strong future. Biometric sensors are bound to become more sophisticated, GPS receivers smaller, and a range of use cases unimagined today likely to arise.
"Although we don't have an objective battery life test, the Apple Watch never failed to last a full day, and charge time is acceptable although nowhere as fast as something with wired fast charging. This sounds like a relatively short comment, and it's because I sincerely never worried about battery life. Range anxiety just isn't a problem like it is on smartphones."
That's precisely why this is a very poor watch -- and even smart watch, for that matter. Battery life should be roughly a week and not a single day.
Up until a year ago, I never wore a watch. Now I can't go without it. I left the house without it on once and felt like I wasn't wearing any underpants. The only reason I began wearing one was due to work, and more succinctly because I couldn't pull out my cell phone whenever I felt like (hospital setting). A smart watch would be perfect for me, as I could potentially use it as a regular watch, and also access/read messages beaming from my phone... except 'dat battery. The apple watch turns off the display *way* too quickly and still suffers from very poor battery life. Further, as an independent device it's practically useless.
I really dislike this review. It's not so much that the technical aspects aren't discussed, and done so well, it's just that the practicality is practically ignored. And that ultimately is why this is a pointless device. My use case isn't a corner case either but rather the epitome of a perfect scenario for this device: a phone-away-from-phone that could offer a "smart" device while still maintaining the practicality of a watch. This isn't it. It does neither. And for other use cases, one can make the argument of why not just use your phone in the first place?
With no offense, I find your expectations unrealistic. If you want a smartphone strapped to your wrist - particularly one lasting a week as few phones do - it's going to have the weight and volume too. I actually expected it to be more like a smartphone wrist accessory like a bluetooth headset, not less. If they want this to work better, they should do more to make the smartphone the "cell tower" and the watch the "cell phone" part of the relationship as another 50g in my pocket would be fine if I need to drag it out less. Maybe have less ambition about performance and concentrate on simple 2D graphics for notifications at a lower cost. But in the end, their primary customers are those who are saying "Watch? WTF do I need a watch for, that's so 20th century." Because it's going to be a sucky "normal" watch even if they do all that and more.
I don't want a smartphone strapped to my wrist. It's a watch first, and should therefore handle being a watch first and foremost with no troubles. The additional functionality should come without compromising the fact that this is a watch. The Apple Watch doesn't do that, and I fear it's going to be more than a single generation to get there.
Kjella, this is a separate device from your phone. It should add functionality while still being a watch. This doesn't do 'watch' well at all. In fact, it's a horrendous watch. It's stylish, and it can fetch messages from your phone, sure. But it lacks the ease of use and the battery life is horrendous. It doesn't need to last a month, but roughly a week and shouldn't require a dumb hand motion or click of a button to do its main job. Remember: it's a watch.
Rember is a SMART watch. If I wanted just a watch i could buy a $2 watch. I get filtered notifications on my wrist. I want to seen when the next bus is coming before heading to the bus stop. I want to see where I am on a topo map while kayaking or hiking with my phone in a safe place. I want track my workouts, my heart rate, how many calories i'm burning. I want to be able to quickly reply to a Txt I actually see on my watch and not miss it because i never feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I want to be-able to pick up a phone call from my wife when I am in my house and do not have the phone next to be because I'm paying attention to my daughter instead of staring at a Dam phone screen all day.
Just don't expect to do that throughout the day and then also tell the time on the way home, because it'll be dead. And during your daily routine, the "watch" will tell you the time provided you only need to look at it for a fraction of a second.
See the problem? Watch first, then the rest. Instead, Apple did a smartphone accessory under the guise of being a watch.
Kind of agree. The thing is that there are a lot of tradeoffs to make when designing something this small. The less "smart" it is, the less you can charge for it. The more "smart" it is, the harder it is to achieve any kind of reasonable battery life. I think they picked a point on the smart vs battery life curve that I am not interested in, but I that doesn't mean it is a wrong choice. It just isn't what I want. Especially not at that price tag, but that is kind of a separate issue to me.
I should probably note that I am including screen capabilities in my definition of smart.
A Fraction of the second? have you actually used the watch?
When looking you tilt the watch to check the time, the screen stays on for 7 seconds before the screen turns off. 7 seconds is long enough for me to read the time, check my next appointment and see if any notifications have arrived. If I need more time I can touch the screen.
Also, I use my Apple watch all day and have not had any issue with the battery. It's has always over 40% at the end of the day when I place it in the charger.
do you own one? I think not. I do those all the time and it easily lasts a day. An ifs a GREAT Watch. its fine if you dont "like" it or think its practical, but i get allot of real world use out of it and love it. just like the anand reviewer.
I've only read reviews, no personal experience, but I believe the LG G Watch is supposed to have an always on display while also lasting 1+ days. If the Apple can only do one day while having it's display off 95% of the time, Apple failed there.
The LG watch is bigger and has a bigger battery. I haven't seen it live, but I did see a Moto 360 in person on Friday. It looks like a hockey puck strapped to your wrist. I couldn't wear one. But I like my 38mm Apple Watch. It's a good size.
Battery life has not (for the most part) been an issue for me. It lasts a day most of the time including using the heart rate monitor during workouts (around 1 hour a day) I just plop it on the charger when I plug my phone in at night. Its really no issue at all. Only time it cant last is when i'm going on a 4-8 hour hike. at that point i just charge it when i get home or if its a multi day hike I have a small, very light battery pack that can charge my phone and watch 2 times. You are not going to find a heart rate monitor that lasts much more then a day or 2 that is also a smart watch. I use the watch to look @ topo's while I'm hiking so I know where I am.. I know this is hard to believe for allot of andad readers, but the Watch has been great and very useful device for me.
Getting information (compass, grid ref etc) while walking non trivial distances definitely seems to be one of the things where smart watches have a fairly clear cut use case. Or even normal watches come to that :) (Even the Apple watches seem to start slightly cheaper than the dedicated GPS watches which will actually give you a grid ref.).
The Fitbit Charge HR reads heart rate continuously and counts steps and floors climbed continuously. It also tracks sleep.
The battery lasts 3 - 4 days. A week would be better. But 3-4 days is acceptable. A watch that dies in few hours if you turn on heart rate monitor is just not useful. You certainly can't track your sleep patterns if you have to charge it over night.
Fitbit Charge HR is an activity tracker and cant do the myriad of things of things my apple watch can. for some people that will be fine, for me i want a smart watch
If you're walking the sorts of distances that keen walkers are, you really don't need an activity tracker because you already know its much more than enough :)
"That's precisely why this is a very poor watch -- and even smart watch"
Your comment is as idiotic as when RIM's CEO was claiming that the iPhone sucked because it was a lousy phone...
The iPhone is a POCKET COMPUTER that was initially marketed (but not DESIGNED) as a cell phone so that people would understand the value proposition. Once people DID understand the value proposition, it was allowed to blossom into its full computer-hood.
The Apple Watch is a WRIST COMPUTER that is marketed (but not designed) as a watch, once again to show people the value proposition. And within a year or two, once agains as the value proposition is understood, the watch part will recede into the background and it will be allowed to blossom into its full computer-hood. Apple seems to be running the schedule faster with aWatch than with iPhone (WatchOS2 is already exposing more of the computer-hood) but this may be limited to the geek sector --- the real turning point will be when they change the focus of the advertising from watch issues to more general things, and we may still be a year or so from that.
Technology isn't there yet. If Apple wanted it to last a week, they could make a Pebble, but then everyone would complain that it doesn't do anything. It easily lasts 24 hours for me (it could probably go 30 hours most of the time). I charge it less often than my iPhone or iPad.
For the sake of transparency, two comments have been deleted.
I need to be very clear here: in our comments section we do not allow profanity, and we do not allow threats of violence (even if they are exaggerated for effect). Please be civil.
I thought the same until using it. It would not be worth it if you receive fewer than 3 or 4 msgs per day, or don't care about fitness tracking. I use both and am a convert.
I have it set so only email from VIP contact show up on the Watch. It's actually super useful. I can read the first bit of the email and decide if I need to read the rest right now or can get to it later.
Same with message. It is surprisingly handy to get them without pulling out my phone.
What I took from the review: Blahblah watches are terrible UNTIL NOW! yaddayadda Apple makes the watch something you can love instead of something you simply cannot abide! Also: Proprietary watch straps! But it's a good thing! We swear!
Really? Proprietary WATCH STRAPS? And straps that slide in from the side at that... I can't wait for the droves of people whose strap keeps backing out. And the further droves of people explaining how it's a user failure and not a serious design flaw.
The straps lock in place, they can't slide out accidentally. It's actually a very nice design.
You can also buy third party adapters that allow you to use any standard 22mm watch strap with the Apple Watch. I use a nice leather strap most of the time, but the Apple sports strap during workouts. Switching straps takes just seconds.
Ah. That makes a huge difference, and I retract the complaint. As near as I could tell, it was a simple spring-latch rig, and you can understand where I was curious what people were going to say when the latch springs started sagging.
are you really trying to tell me, that Apple has gotten right what nobody in the whole watch making industry (including the likes of Breitling, Rolex, Tag Heuer, ....etc) hasn´t succeded in doing? "The ergonomic annoyances involved with wearing a wristwatch" have always been a nuisance to you, but Apple "on the other hand doesn’t suffer from discomfort issues at all, and in this regard, Apple has arguably pushed the industry forward"??? the whole watch making industry? are you serious??????
That stuck out in my mind as well: an admitted non-wearer of watches commenting on how the watch industry has been pushed forward. Yikes. It's like someone with a bus pass making declarative statements on the third car they've driven.
All the while using the same band that reviewers have pointed out has a tendency to detach if it gets caught while pulling/putting your hands into/from your pockets.
This really is one of the worst reviews I've ever read on AnandTech.
I think it's pretty hard (or at least not standard) to find straps as good as these below $500 (and assuming you value the smart technology as worth more than $0, that means the Apple watch is indeed pushing the industry). I've owned a few $300 to $500 watches and have found them uncomfortable.
"There is nothing that comes close to the fluidity, attention to detail, or simple build quality found on the Apple Watch in this price bracket."
"[...] the attention to detail on the straps and bracelets themselves is downright incredible, and when I mentioned above that nothing comes close in this price range, it is very visible when talking about straps."
"It is much nicer than any leather strap I've ever felt on a $350 analog watch."
"This "loop" style bracelet is just fantastic, and unlike the bracelet on my Omega, it just works. It's magnetized and you can close it at any size. It is light to wear, but substantial, and feels fantastic on the wrist. How does it compare to this nice Tissot with a similar bracelet? Switzerland, you don't want to know."
"In many cases, its offerings make what is coming out of Switzerland (or Asia) look amateurish."
I think you guys shouldn't underestimate Apple's ability to make good watches based on the fact other guys have been making them for longer. Remember what was said about the original iPhone?
Joschka77 above sounds a lot like Ed Colligan (Palm's CEO) in 2006: "We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
I've worn watches since I was 7 (I'm 39). The band mechanism on the Apple Watch definitely has the "why didn't anyone think of this before" feel to it.
Donald Norman write a book in 1988 called the Design of Everyday Things which is one long rant about how badly designed is almost everything we encounter every day, from doors to faucets to toasters. It's fascinating reading it today, 25 years later, to see (a) how aggressively Apple has followed most of what he says. (Obviously he does not talk about specifically smartphones or smart watches, but he discusses general usability principles) (b) how little the rest of the market has been affected by his insights. Doors still suck Faucets still suck. Toasters still suck (and are dangerous as hell).
So why is it at all startling that Apple is the one company that can design a watch strap that doesn't suck? Hell it's not just the watch strap. The crown on these $15,000 and higher watches ALSO sucks. I know someone with one of those fancy watches, with 7 diamonds floating in it and all that, and it is an utter freaking pain every daylight savings change because trying to reset the time with the crown is such a hassle --- trying to pull out this tiny little bobble on the side of the watch, then rotate it the precise amount. When Apple first showed us the digital crown I was terrified of the implications, because EVERY analog crown I have ever dealt with sucked. Fortunately I didn't need to worry --- Apple adopted the appearance of the crown, but (like the strap) actually put some freaking thought into how to make it pleasant to use.
Yes. I swap out my Apple Watch bands several times a week with ease. I replaced my bands in my regular watches with lots of difficulty every year or so.
You can't post a non-committally positive review about Apple Watch, you must be selling out. I decided way in advance that the whole watch idea was stupid, and it is still stupid, so this review is stupid. Who would pay this price just to read time on a tiny little screen?
Joanna Stern gave a "not now but later" recommendation for the Apple Watch. Since it seems to have more appeal to non-techie buyers, they may be less concerned about obsolescence. The original iPod was $399. I can see someone buying it now under the assumption that there will be a better version in a year or two. The bands will likely be interchangeable.
The steel one always looks pretty scuffed up in the short time reviewers have it. Seems just like the steel iPod backs that would gain scratches if you breathed on them wrong.
316L stainless steel scratches. I've worn stainless steel watches for years and they are all scuffed up after a few years. You can buff them out once in a while.
And leather distresses. And printing fades. And copper tarnishes.
You will never be happy in life if you insist on fighting the natural behavior of materials. Sane people delight in the wear of their jeans, they don't cry over the fact that the denim is fading (and worse, fading unevenly)...
Anandtech has put their Apple buttkissing into overdrive now that Anand works for them.Where is the objectivity Anandtech was once famous for? Why does Anandtech feel the need to make excuses for Apples shortcomings? They only do this for Apple products. Here are two examples, the watch is slow, but we know Apple will improve this. The apps aren't very good but they'll get better over time. You suck Appletech.
So I see the anti-Apple crowd is out in force here. It's interesting to see a tech reviewer with a mostly positive view. A Wristly survey seems to show that non-techie people like the Watch better than techie people. Perhaps it's because they see the Watch for what it is, and aren't judging it solely as a tech product.
At the same time, it's good to get an AnandTech view, since they are very good at addressing the limitations of the technology and giving us a sense of what we can reasonably expect for the future. Move this to a 14nm process, or even a 10nm process in a few years, and the Watch may be a lot more fluid and last even longer.
I appreciate having an AT review of the Watch, regardless of tone, if nothing else because they'll be more meticulous than almost any other site so it'll actually be worth reading even if I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion.
My only quibble is that there seems to be multiple allusions to other wearables but they're never directly compared or even mentioned. I realize that the iOS buyer that's thinking of getting an Apple Watch is probably not cross shopping much but still...
Any other wearable review will surely feature plenty of direct comparison to the Watch. There's things that work very differently across the field, but even when it comes to highly subjective things like fit there ARE points of comparison.
For instance, something like the distance from strap lug to lug can vary greatly independently of actual watch size and it's something casual blog reviews don't really pay attention to.
I think the anit-AppleWatch vibe is strong with how many posts are phrased here but still there is some truth in it. The reviewer only mentioned the rather old Moto 360 as a state of the art comparison. Nothing about the 42mm diameter Huawei watch that looks really good and much better than the moto 360 which was first to market but is old tech today. G watch R and what they are all called. I love AT reviews about chip architectures and stuff, but where Apple is concerned they always had quite bit lacking in objectivity I feel. Maybe a Huawei Watch review will balance the scales.
Personally I still don't see this device really taking root outside of the die hard Fanboys and tech geek crowd. I have read a few reviews but a wrist watch is still a bother (I never found one uncomfortable just annoying), the Apple one is especially expensive and they seem to solve little that needs solving. It is nonessential, a bit of a techy toy and expensive, I don't see it taking off. iPhones are subsidiced, ipads are family devices, that justifies the cost. For the watch I don't see the big market that whole smartwatch industry is hoping for.
Data says non-techies are happier than techies. My experience backs it up. My girlfriend loves hers. It has taken longer for it to grow on me. It isn't an iPad that entertains. Apple Watch reduces your time consumed with technology. As for the review, my disagreement is with the statement that heart rate doesn't belong on a glance. My girlfriend had a heart issue and loves having heart rate easily accessible.
The Huawei Watch hasn't been released yet. "According to He Gang, an executive from Huawei’s smartphone division, it’s the Android Wear platform that’s causing problems. The company is adapting Android Wear to work without Google’s services in China, where they aren’t available, and to adopt Huawei’s suite of apps instead. It’s a time-consuming and highly technical operation, and has forced Huawei to push the release date until September at the earliest."
Haters are gonna hate it, but Apple has nailed it once again and is already dominating this new market.
To not have the fragmentation problems, Google from the start did not allow any skinning of Android Wear. I see how that might be an issue for Huawei. But from a pure hardware perspective it is the prettiest device I have seen.
> So I see the anti-Apple crowd is out in force here. It's interesting to see a tech reviewer with a mostly positive view. A Wristly survey seems to show that non-techie people like the Watch better than techie people. Perhaps it's because they see the Watch for what it is, and aren't judging it solely as a tech product.
That's exactly what I don't understand: The Apple Watch is a horrible watch (actually not much different from pretty much any other smartwatch on the market...). Two items are essential for *any* item which wants to be coined a watch: Decent battery life and permanent readability. The Pebble gets very close to that; anything else is simply a complete failure.
Call the Apple Watch a status symbol, a geek tool, a toy, jewelry ... but please not a watch.
"I’ve never really used a fitness tracker that keeps track of something as simple as standing time, which seems like an obvious metric to track as soon as you start using the fitness functions of the watch because sitting for extended periods of time can have significant effects on health regardless of how much exercise you do. "
I don't really get this aspect of the Apple Watch's fitness part. It makes you stand for a total of minutes more per day, you could fill that entire bar while still sitting most of the time, like I suspect most people would still be doing in office jobs and such. Would that really make a difference? Everyone knows sitting too much is bad, but how can standing for a minute per hour or whatever make any difference?
I use the stand alert as a reminder to get up from my desk for a few minutes, not just stand up and sit back down. I usually walk over and get a drink, visit a coworker, etc.
It's surprising how without the reminder, I can easily go for 4-5 hours without getting up from my desk.
I own a couple of watches. I have a Zenith El Primero Striking Tenth Edition, a Rolex Submariner, a Suunto Core Brushed Steel, a Casio ProTrek PRW2500 and PRX7000 Mansulu, and old GShock I've had since I was 12 (I'm 24 now) which probably started my love affair with watches.
Until a smart watch can replace any of the above in terms of functionality, durability, usability and style, I'll stay clear of them. Especially at these ridiculous prices.
Take it from a watch aficionado, stay away from these until they're actually capable enough to be a standalone smartphone replacement and get a real watch (and no, Panerais don't count).
The funny thing is that no-one was trying to make watches until three or four years ago when the first rumours floated around of Apple making a watch. Apple is known as a company that will design things until they work, instead of throwing out half-baked products. In the last couple years, we saw some really horrible products, and last year there were some okay products with weird drawbacks. There's a reason all of those hastily-released watches were flawed. In three years, we'll look back and realize that modern on-wrist computing only really started with the Apple Watch.
Note the date --- Sept 2011. Further evidence that Apple plans these things a LONG time in advance, (Relative to which, it is interesting to note that over the past month there has been a flurry of activity by Apple people on working LLVM targeting M-class processors. Maybe Apple are planning more IoT peripherals in a few years, or maybe they want to stick a small MPU in every Beats headset for some reason? Or maybe they are moving from whatever they use today for PMU and sensor fusion on iOS/Watch to an M-class core?)
First, thanks for a great review. Excellent to have such detail.
I don't wear a watch so won't be getting one. However I know 4 owners who are all very happy. They all previously owned smart watches, Garmin, Pebble, Fitbiz, etc. and universally prefer the Apple Watch. The tap thing sounds like a gimmick, but just try it - it's really well done.
Gripe: If you hate Apple so much that you can't be rational just leave Anandtech. There are plenty of places were you can have a mutual we hate Apple session. You are spoiling the site for others who want to discuss tech. If you prefer some other product just buy it, don't sling insults at others that disagree with you. Get real the reviewers said they wouldn't recommend the 1st gen device and you go off saying they have sold out etc. Totally unfair to them.
While investigating the CPU details in interesting (and thanks!!! for doing this) I think it's important to appreciate that the CPU is probably the least important thing about aWatch performance as it matters to the average person.
There are IMHO three primary performance problems with aWatch today: (a) There is far too little caching (in a very generic sense) so that third party apps (and some interactions with Apple apps) require communicating with iPhone. Much of this will disappear with WatchOS2; some of it may be an inevitable fact of life regarding how BT LE works and, in particular, the minimum possible latency when one side wants to talk to the other. But it's also possible that this latency could be reduced in future versions of BT by changing the rendezvous algorithm?
(b) The touch screen controller (I assume to save power) only seems to take initial sensor reading at around twice a second. The result is that the first time you touch the screen to scroll, there is an obvious halting until the system sort of "gets it" and starts smoothly scrolling. This is obviously a touch screen issue because using the digital crown (when that is feasible, so for vertical rather than horizontal scrolling) acts immediately and smoothly. The fix, presumably, is to ramp up the rate at which the touch screen controller does its initial sensing, but who knows what the power implications of that are.
(c) The heart rate sensor is on "full-time" (which means, I don't know, sensing once every 10 seconds?) when you are in the Workout app, but otherwise runs at a really low rate (once every ten minutes?) At least the way I use my aWatch, I'd prefer a higher rate.
I'm guessing that Apple was overly cautious about battery life in WatchOS1, and now that most people understand what to expect, and have about 40% battery at the end of the day, they can afford to bump up the sampling rates for all these different things (touch screen, heart rate, maybe even BT LE) and if that moves the battery life down to 20% battery at the end of the day, that's a pretty good tradeoff.
But nowhere in any of this is CPU performance actually an issue. I can't think of anywhere where CPU or GPU performance affect the experience.
A few comments about fitness: The primary thing using the Workout app does, as far as I can tell, is switch to ongoing (rather than coarse) monitoring of heart rate and position, which is useful but not essential. However it DOES also give you a nice display of whatever you consider important. My Pebble used to kinda sorta track steps and thus calories, but the fact that the watch tracks and displays heart rate on the Workout app screen is actually really useful. With the Pebble I'd kinda slack off when doing a run or step climbing being that's only natural, but when your heart rate is displayed you have more incentive to keep pushing.
The workout app is also nice if you're trying to hit your calorie burn goal every day. If you get to say 10pm or so and are 150 calories short, you can set a calorie goal (rather than say a time goal or a distance goal) and then just start stepping while watching TV or whatever.
Two useful facts to know (which I don;t think you mention). You can launch Workout (or any app) through "Hey Siri launch workout" rather than navigating to the app screen. (It's also useful to know that Hey Siri as a way to start speech ONLY works when the screen is lit up. If you don't know this, it's maddening at first as half the time it seems to work and half the time it doesn't. Also double-clicking the digital crown toggles between the most recent app and the watch face. I use it a lot to toggle between watch and workout.
Finally most readers are probably young and think the stand up stuff is dumb or pointless. It really isn't, at least for older people. I've got to the stage where, when I stand up I can feel a kind of stiffness in the muscles, you know that old person sigh when you get up. And I've found that since getting the watch and heeding the stand notices, that has pretty much disappeared --- it really does help older muscles to not get locked into no motion for two or more hours. (Also if you find the standing irritating, it's worth noting that the watch wants you to stand for a full minute, with some motion. At first I just used to stand then pretty much immediately sit down. That's not good enough and it won;t give you credit for that. But if you stand and pace for a minute or so, it will always give a little ding and reward you with credit for the stand.)
The one thing I wish (there is so much we can all want them to add to WatchOS2 and then WatchOS3) is a data broadcast mechanism. In particular, if the workout data could be displayed simultaneously on a phone (placed near a TV or on a step machine control panel) that would be much more comfortable than having to flick the wrist every minute or so to check one's heartbeat. Oh well, in time...
I've never seen such a butthurt bunch of people. Almost every review on the internet give the apple watch a favorable review. Maybe you guys should stop letting you hate consume you. Anandtech has done one of the most indepth review of the apple watch. Which they do with most products. If you don't like apple products don't read the reviews. Your pathetic for even comments such ignorant things like "Watch under 9 days of battery life is unacceptable" Like please name a watch device with this much capability that runs longer then a couple days. oh wait you cant. I've had the watch for about 2 months and this review is spot on weather you like apple or not. Anandtech is a good review site. So just look in the mirror and say "Why do I hate them so much" Let me answer that for you. You don't like paying for what you get. Wait let me rephrase that. you do like paying for what you get your just to cheap to pay for quality. so p1ss of and buy yours self a Samsung smart watch for 149$ and let it collect dust lol I'm done
"Glances are well-executed and a useful feature, but I don’t really get the point of integrating heart rate monitoring into a glance or similar cases of app information"
The authors appear unaware that you can customize glances. Go to the Watch app on iPhone and look around. You can both hide glances you find unimportant, and rearrange those that you want to use. Once you've done this, you can basically prioritize so that the most important stuff is in complications, while second tier stuff lives in glances, and third tier stuff requires an app launch.
"Moving on to the saturation test, we can see that Apple has put a huge amount of effort into calibrating these displays, which is somewhat surprising given that one might expect wearables to not be all that critical when it comes to color accuracy."
A persistent (and STILL not fixed) problem with the Apple ecosystem is that the faces of contacts display slightly differently on OSX vs iOS. There are outright bugs in the system (.psd photoshop files get incorrectly cropped on iOS, and different gamma is applied on OSX and iOS) but these may be fixed with the new Contacts framework of iOS9/OSX 10.11. Point is --- your eye is actually remarkable sensitive to these apparently very slight deviations, at least when it comes to faces. So it makes sense for Apple to line up their hardware so that when they (at LONG FREAKING LAST!) get their software act together, the face photos do look identical across the line.
(And BTW how long will we have to keep typing in triples like iOS10/OSX 10.12/WatchOS3? At some point, and I think we're reaching that point, it's time to just refer to AppleOS 2015 followed by AppleOS 2016 followed by ...)
I am not an Apple hater, and I am very curious in the Apple Watch and the whole wearables category. However I agree with those who say that this review was below Anandtech's standards. Overly wordy, with too little information. I don't think I have ever said this about an Anandtech review before, but after reading this, I really don't think I learned a single thing that I didn't know going into the review.
Without wanting to "pile on," I agree that this review could have been 1/3 the length, and 3x as helpful. I usually look to AT for the "best" review of any mobile device, but I would not say that is the case with this particular review. Most other Apple Watch reviews I've read have been more useful. (I think it comes down to editing.)
+1 on that. I think you nailed the fact that Anandtech's succes is after reading an article, you always come out at the end a bit (or a lot in some cases) smarter. This review breaks the trend.
It would be great to get specific instances of overly wordy areas, and information that you have learned elsewhere that is redundant in the review to improve our wearable reviews going forward.
As an iPhone user I think the notifications aspect of the AW would be very appealing, but Apple is asking for too much money for such a luxury. And I'm talking about the Sport models. The SS models are ridiculously expensive. It's no surprise that roughly 3/4 of all AW sales have been the Sport models. Seriously you are nuts IMO to buy the SS model unless you have money to burn. Plus I think the Sport models are just nicer looking in general. And lighter to boot.
Anyways, this review highlights a current glaring weakness which is the inability to respond to IM 3rd party apps directly on the AW. If you use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger often as I do you are SOL if you want to respond with your AW right now. Perhaps this will change with the 2.0 update come fall, but still, right now this is really only ideal if you main communication is the messages app. Email is another story as there are several 3rd party email clients that offer voice dictation.
I'm waffling between an AW and the Vivosmart. The Vivosmart won't let me reply to any notifications from my wrist however it's a third of the price of the 38mm AW and feels awesome on your wrist.
I do believe in the future of the AW, but right now its got a lot of glaring holes to fill.
The worst article I've ever read on this site by miles. Too many words for nothing insightful. What I find here is a desperate struggle to justify what cannot be justified. As a person who loves the site's content I'm stumped by the horrible mess I have just read just a few points:
- Apple has "solved" how a watch has to fit like no other company, traditional (ie. Rolex) or tech focused. That is a simply mindboggling statement.
- The UI/UX is great. The Apple mouse and the iPhone have just one primary button for interacting. The crown, side button and force touch trilogy are the work of a comitee which couldn't settle for a simple means of interacting with a piece of technology. What Apple is best known for is how great they are at removing complexity -"just works" and "boom" come to mind- the reviewers were far to forgiving to all the usabily issues (ie. force touch discoverability). These would have been major issues on any other piece of technology.
- Understanding what it is you get for your money: If you own a jewel like a watch or ring its timeless and has an intangible value. The watch can cost a pretty penny for something that has no better hardware than whats out there. There is no inherent intangible value in the watch because as has been stated in the review there will be future iterations of it, killing the timeles argument. As such, this watch is a piece of technology not jewelery and thus, its way overpriced. Lets just see how many dads give their sons Apple Watches and how those sons give them to theirr own.
- Battery life of a single day for a timepiece is not even remotely acceptable. The Basis Peak, Fitbits and Pebbles may not be as smart but they nail the basic concept of a a time keeping device must do.
- Nowhere was there a real argument of how the current incarnation of the watch is mostly useless without being tethered. Basis Peak comes to mind as how useful a device can be with our without tether.
I could go on, given the amount of sheer nonsense of this review. I'm really dissapointed that this came from Anandtech.
Awesome Review... and right on target. I've had an Apple Watch for 2 months, and it continues to be an important and non-intrusive assistant in my life. I seem to learn something new that is helpful all the time.
The only thing I ask the author to consider are these words from your review: "Finally, "Hey Siri" works well in terms of activation, but it's really kind of disappointing that the hotword detection doesn't work with the display off. I suspect this is due to power requirements as I haven't seen any other wearable have screen-off hotword detection, but it would definitely be great to see such a feature in the future."
It is actually a feature to have the watch only listen for the "Hey Siri" hotword when the arm is lifted. Otherwise, if listening all the time, the system would have false triggers. Think about it; this way of operation is by design.
Gotta admit: I didn't get past the second page of this review. This is dripping with the feel of an Apple shill piece. Am I really to believe that no other watch in history, including recent smartwatches, properly fit the author's wrist but the Apple Watch, with its amazing Milanese band, magically did? Statements like that completely destroy legitimacy and credibility. Come on man...
-- Their failure is sticking to the old, physical idea of a watch.
Yeah, and what would GUIs be without radio buttons, menus, and all of the other analog clones they're built on? Face it: it's just pixels made to look "physical".
Honestly, I love that Apple is successful. The sound of PC-worshiping heads exploding all over the Internet is amusing. It lifts my spirits on a regular basis.
Seriously, people... Apple didn't run over your mother, kill your dog, or beat your sister.
The level of nerd rage over Apple's success really is misplaced. There are far worse things to cry over than yet another big tech firm that dodges taxes and overprices stuff. It's not like Apple is the only one and it's not like society in general doesn't reward that behavior.
I've seen the anti-Apple zealotry for decades. It never changes. It always comes down to whinging about how much Apple charges, along with accusations that only gays, girls, and social-climbing superficial people use the products. In reality, despite their flaws, Apple products have been dependable workhorses for people for a long time, and some of them have been pretty innovative.
The Lisa was a thousand times more innovative than the IBM PC. Apple didn't execute because of some poor management and the sudden spike in DRAM cost (caused by Japanese firms pushing US firms out of the market with price dumping and then colluding to raise prices, as far as I have read). Yes, it was expensive but the platform was a very solid foundation for line of machines. Apple had an office suite, multitasking, protected memory, tool-less design, a bootloader that made it easy to boot from multiple operating systems, and a plethora of other modern features back in '83.
Unfortunately, the Mac was botched because it was turned from what was envisioned to be a $500 computer into a $1000 computer and then into a $2400 computer -- without making the underlying OS robust enough to justify that price or the hardware expandable enough. But, despite that, it had a very efficient GUI and people were willing to put up with bombs and freezes because that GUI was miles nicer to work with than Windows (up until 95 when things almost became as good on Windows, but not quite).
If you think Apple is so fraudulent then start your own company or get a job running one already out there and out-compete them. Then let us know about your success. Until then, find something more productive to do with your time than rant ineffectually on Internet forums.
As for this product specifically, my advice is to wait for the next iteration that comes with a shrunken process. Apple's first iPad had a relatively short lifespan, rapidly orphaned. I wouldn't want to be stuck with this device if the same thing were to happen. It has generally been the same advice for quite some time: when Apple comes out with a new form factor, wait until version 2.
This even applied to the Mac, come to think of it. Jobs demoed (without telling the audience or the press, of course) a 512k prototype in order to run speech synthesis when he was unveiling the first Mac (128K, not expandable) to the press.
Josh, if possible I think it's better if you listed all the smartwatches that you have used in the conclusion. "For those still deciding on whether the first Apple Watch makes sense, I have no reservations in saying that it’s the best wearable I’ve ever used." This line, although if thought logically people would understand that you have used a limited number of devices out of the many, but upon first impression it can be a bit misleading given that there is no clear comparison that you are giving here. So I say if you want to clear things up more, you can list all or some smartwatches that you used in that sentence for a better expression. Just my 2 cents :D
Unfortunately this review follows the very familiar pattern of the reviews for sub-par Apple products. When Apple device falls short on technical merits (no GPS, no 3/4G, mediocre battery life, nothing that would differentiate it from the cheaper - and in some cases better - competitors) the reviewers resort to praising the "experience" an "ecosystem". OK got it. The chore of charging you iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch daily now qualifies as a "great experience". And it's not like Apple makes your life easier offering wireless charging for iPhones and iPads. Other than that (or, sorry, as our beloved leader used to say: one more thing - no fast charging either) the experience is really great. Admittedly some people complained that with Apple Watch it was impossible to stand in lines over night but they will get used to it.
Surely you can do better than that, lilo777! For example, not only is the Apple Watch missing GPS, 3/4G, but what about a USB port, a video port for an external monitor, and a floppy disc slot! Yes, missing so much…
Apple apologists have a long history of denying usefulness of features that Apple devices lack only to be laughed at later when Apple eventually implements them: USB 3.0 in computers, barometers in smart phones, NFC, phablets, 7" tablets, ANT+, multi core processor for smart phones/tablets, 2GB RAM in smart pnones etc.
But I can do better indeed. Here is an additional list of missing features in Apple Watch: Wi-Fi direct, blood oxygen censor.
If that were true Apple would never add a new feature but they do. They do deny the usefulness of the features their devices lack at first (remember the infamous Steve Jobs' statement about 7" tablets: "It's meaningless unless your tablet includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size." ) then they implement them. I understand why many people get fooled by Apple PR but I do expect better from AT readers.
i've owned several Android watch phones over the years and all of them have longer battery life, micro sd, and are FULL functional phones costing hundreds less.
the reviewer is simply naive of whats been going on in the watch phone industry.
Thanks for the review. Things I learned here exclusively were details on the chip and on the display. Things you added valuable details to were App integration and watch face customization. The valuable thing I learned elsewhere was the annoying lag when the watch wakes up. I also learned valuable stuff from the comments of Watch Owners, so I'd really appreciate the possibility of downrating trolls. All in all I'll wait for another iteration - but then I'll buy it. By then I expect it to have, apart from the obvious: - fluent IoT / smart home commander functionality - medical condition alert escalation - bio & sleep cycle based alarm clock functionality - a lot more contextual awareness (my major reason to buy Apple over Google/Android is their design, a close second is that they are the only one that I trust not to barter my data to NSA, Insurance, Bank, Employer)
I'm already looking forward to the next big thing: AR !
Is anyone going to talk about that fact that these devices need 2 hands to operate. Doesn't that make the entire platform functionally irrelevant as anything other than a simple sensor? Am I completely crazy or is any smartphone, that can be operated with one hand for basic functionality, superior in every single way?
Too bad one of the biggest features separating it from other smartwatches - the digital crown - becomes literally unusable if you decide to wear it on right hand. Yeah, some people do that...
You mean the scheme Apple devised for this purpose doesn't work? Forgive me if I trust the opinions of various reviewers who have actually tried it over the opinion of someone who's never even touched an Apple watch...
I'm sort of on the anti-Apple hype train too, where reviewers are seem really expected to give Apple products overly positive reviews. However, I don't expect most people to share my opinions. The polish and appeal is so intense that I would bet most people would prefer their products over others. This review, as Ryan said, is going to be read by more than the core community, and I'm SO happy that Ryan responded in such a positive and discussion-oriented way. You're a great part of this community even when people are jerks about this sort of "obvious Apple bias."
Nothing that draws 200 comments on Anandtech can be really pointless... As soon as reviews of Apple products will fizzle out here with five comments or so Apple will have lost it. But not sooner.
Really, all you guys seem to be really obsessed with Apple. Even if you hate it, but you do care very much. Most reviews of smart watches draw much fewer comments...
A day for a smartwatch is just about bearable, just as it is a smartphone. More battery runtime is always better, but two to three days at moderate usage is the point at which I would be happy (basically, the ability to last a weekend away, where power is not easy to come by). One thing to take into account though, is that the smartphone takes priority. If there is only one charging point, the smartwatch gets left out, and therefore becomes useless.
As for the review, I have some issues:
You haven't tried many watches, and by the sounds of it, none to the same extent as the Apple Watch. If that is the case, then I don't think you are qualified to make a comparison to them, as a professional reviewer. Further, you didn't even mention the Alcatel OneTouch Watch; the most apt comparison, as it also works with iPhones. As you clearly spent so much time of this review, you could have at least picked one up. They are cheap, but you also work for the well respected technology site; they might have even sent you one for free!
"The Apple Watch on the other hand doesn’t suffer from discomfort issues at all, and in this regard, Apple has arguably pushed the industry forward."
You do know that there are smartwatches out there that take standard watch straps? You do know that there are countless different designs of standard watch straps?
Finally, two specific points that really grated my gears (especially coming from someone who I expect to technologically knowledgeable):
"The ergonomic annoyances involved with wearing a wristwatch strongly outweighed whatever functionality it provided."
What ergonomic annoyances? The watch goes on your wrist, and in many cases never needs to come off. In return watches tell the time, often the date and day, and sometimes more. How is glancing at a watch less ergonomic than getting your phone out of wherever it is and checking it?
"wireless charging behaves differently from wired charging" - Total fluff, and no shit Sherlock.
So, to summarise. I think that while this was a good technical review of the Apple Watch, as a product review in general, it was very poor. The author let their personal view cloud his judgement too much, and comparisons were, well basically non-existent. If you didn't intend it to be a product review, then remove the product review sections. I expect much better from AnandTech.
While this is essentially a piece of jewellery, it is also a throw away commodity. The battery will degrade quickly with it's intended use, and as far as I know is not replaceable. This is more acceptable for a base piece of technology, so prices can be high. For an accessory though? The price is far too high.
It can't really be compared to jewellery though. Jewellery lasts a long time, and is often handed down. What it lacks in features, it makes up for in longevity.
"You haven't tried many watches, and by the sounds of it, none to the same extent as the Apple Watch. If that is the case, then I don't think you are qualified to make a comparison to them, as a professional reviewer. "
Bizarre point. The reviewer doesn't make any comparisons, other than to those he has tried.
"You do know that there are smartwatches out there that take standard watch straps? You do know that there are countless different designs of standard watch straps?"
Bad point. Where did he mention just the strap? He's talking about the discomfort of the wearable as a whole.
"What ergonomic annoyances? The watch goes on your wrist, and in many cases never needs to come off. In return watches tell the time, often the date and day, and sometimes more. How is glancing at a watch less ergonomic than getting your phone out of wherever it is and checking it?"
Bad point. The ergonomic annoyances of watches are clear and obvious to most people. ie. they catch on things, add bulk to the arm, and require care to avoid damage in certain situations. Its a question of whether these annoyances are outweighed by the advantages of the watch in question.
"Total fluff, and no shit Sherlock"
? This is a non-point which only serves to underline the commenter's bizarre stance.
The first proper, in-depth review of any wearable that I am aware of. Thank you for taking the time to do it right, the end result is a very valuable (in many respects) piece of work. This, in my opinion, is the most 'AnandTech' article since Anand left and it's very welcome -- I've now read one too many articles here where the reviewer explains himself and tries to justify his opinion in a manner as if to ward off the expected flamers in the comments. I believe that loyal and regular AnandTech reader values your opinion as it is, unbiased and as objective as possible; do not be deterred by fanboys and haters -- there's no need to cater to them.
search for android watch phone. there are android watch phones that are FULL phones with dual core/ quad core cpu that has 3 day battery life, along with waterproof , micro sd, etc etc and the price is between $100-300
What has to happen in someone's life, that they become such a hateful and shitty human being like yourself? Do you have evidence that this author was paid off? If not, shut the fuck up and spare us your attempts at slander and character assassination.
Also, I hope you're not older than 5 yrs old, which is the only thing that would excuse the sheer stupidity of the using the word "Crapple". It's sad that comment sections have been flooded with absolute trash posts like yours.
Wow, Anandtech Comments used to be filled with smart people. Sadly, most of the comments seems to come from trolls. And I have a sneaky feeling that most of it are from a few. Unfortunately, instead of reading anything constructive, all I read is haters hating, and defenders defending. And most of it has no objective, or constructive content. I have been an Anadtech visitor for the last 15 or so years. I never once had to question the integrity of this website. Its sad that other commentators do not share the same sentiment. Folks, best way to shut a troll, is by ignoring them. Anandtech, can we have Comment Votes (Like Arstechnica) ?
It is sad to see so many negative people commenting on every tech site. I guess people just need to prove they have some superior intellect or knowledge that makes them better than others to be happy. I sometimes feel bad for these talented individuals doing these reviews who put their knowledge to the web only for it to be dissected and misconstrued by the masses every single time. The truth is if these commenters were happy with their lives they wouldn't feel the need to constantly challenge or put others down. It's a huge problem with the world today, rather than work together and bring each other up so we can reach higher existence we choose to be selfish and think about ourselves and drag each other down. I for one love Anandtech and visit it because these people know stuff about tech I never will so I value their opinions. I got some great information from this article as I do from every other article and thats why I keep coming back. So to all the malcontents out there talking all that trash, take a magnesium calcium supplement for witch your probably deficient in and chill the flip out. Enjoy this great website built off the efforts and contributions of many talented people. And click on damn add every once in a while to support them, its not going to kill you to loose a few seconds of your life.
As an owner of the Apple Watch, I'd like to provide some comments to the review, and to the general state of the comments.
First, a review (and by extension the reviewer) is not the ultimate source of truth in the universe, but rather is a mere opinion of a collected group, providing some form of technical evidence to ground their claims. Depending on the site, the aforementioned evidence could be extremely detailed and scientific, or it could be somewhat subjective.
It is entirely your choice as the reader to agree with the reviewer's words, but please, do not belittle the reviewer or the article. Even if you are gifted with literary ability that far exceeds his (which I would think is extremely unlikely), it does not give you the right to bully and patronize others.
I, for one, agree with most of what the reviewer mentioned: the Apple Watch has never given me trouble with the battery life. I doubt there is a huge population of Apple Watch users who have actual need to keep the Watch on for longer than 18 hours (the battery life stated by Apple, which seems very underestimated). I have not had much trouble with the actual function of the Apple Watch, as I use it mostly for parsing notifications more effectively than the use of just my iPhone would allow. Taptic Feedback works very well, and I am able to respond to most notifications without disrupting my coworkers in an extremely quiet work environment. Although there is some noticeable loading time for apps that require the use of iOS, this fact has never bothered me to the point of being a dealbreaker.
At the end of the day, I'm able to afford the price of the Apple Watch, and have thus far enjoyed the benefits of ownership. While there are still some things I wish Apple could improve in both hardware and software, I have not regretted my purchase.
I think both the moderators of Anandtech as well as its readers would benefit from a more contributive and constructive discussion.
While I'm no Apple fan (and will never own an iPhone and by proxy and Apple Watch unless some major changes occur at Apple), I will admit that this watch is a neat piece of technology. Sure it has some first gen quirks and will likely be orphaned rapidly as new and improved models come out, but Apple did put some effort into this and I look forward to seeing their competitors up their game in response so I can get those products once the prices come down. Still, I'm a little annoyed at how much media attention and hype Apple gets for a product that really isn't all that different from existing android smartwatches. (And yes, this article does read a little like a kid at christmas who got a shiny new toy. At least the final conclusion comes back to reality and recognizes this is a first gen product with some major drawbacks so we should wait for the next version.)
Granted, it's not the piece of technology I would have designed (and I heartily agree that it costs entirely too much for what it is), but the same could be said for pretty much all smartwatches at this point. I'm a little disappointed with Apple's (and most other companies) approach to the smartwatch and trying to pack too much power into a device that doesn't really need it.
I think Pebble's approach is the most logical at this point. It displays notifications, has a microphone, and even runs simple apps all while maintaining a week's worth of battery life and an always-on e-paper display. The LCD and relatively beefy CPU on the Apple watch and others allow for flashier interfaces and apps, but I'm still not sure how that really adds to the smartwatch experience at this point.
I'll keep an open mind and see what happens over the next few months, but right now I see the smartwatch primarily as a notification accessory for a phone and have a hard time visualizing how it will work as an application platform beyond the most basic apps given the tiny screen.
Amazing review. Really great. I think this review is a perfect blend of geeky and non-geeky explanations about why the Apple Watch exists. Simply amazing. Thank you so much.
OMG, are you KIDDING ME? I knew Anandtech will not be the same after it was sold off.
Here's the deal, you FOROGT COMPLETELY about the COST of this thing... Apple Watch maybe one of the better attempts at SmartWatch, but it costs easily $700-1000 for a nicely setup one (like the reviewed item), and it does ZILCH for that $1000 without an iPhone...
I got one through work, and used it for a couple of weeks, then forgot to charge it and went back to my regular watch and haven't looked back. It's an ACCESSORY, and as an accessory can't possibly cost $700 or so, if it was $250, it'd be a fantastic item and would have sold a lot more and they would have not had to HIDE the #of watches sold.
Here are my Top10 biggest problems with Apple Watch:
1. 42mm is too small, and I have a medium wrist, my index covers half the screen. It's way way too small! It should have been 42, 48 to fit on everyone's wrist, yet readable/usable 2. 18hrs battery life is too short - It's too short in case you forgot to charge it one night (needs 2 days to be acceptable) 3. If it can't do 2days, 18hrs battery life is not needed - They achieve 18hrs with ridicolous battery saving, making the use of the watch very challenging, like you can't look at the screen over a cpl of seconds as it will go away, like when I was biking, it was almost impossible to turn the screen and look at what time it was, had to bend the wrist in an awkward way while on the move. The battery saving should be customizable, as I rather have 14hrs of full use with longer display times than 18hrs, as I would never wear it 18hrs straight, usually after 12-14hrs, it's being charged 3. It does NOTHING that your iPhone doesn't do 4. Heart rate monitor works only while you are sitting still! Like seriously? 5. If you get a lot of notifications, it becomes very very annoying, no way to make it selective 6. It is NOT waterproof 7. It is UGLY, UGLY, UGLY... I am sorry, I AM a watch wearer, and this thing is just a black screen on a band! Again due to the crazy battery saving, it's almost always off, so nothing on the face of the watch which is THE key for looks of a watch, and this is always black. Now, I admit, nothing else I've seen is that great either (Moto360 maybe), but coming from Apple, this thing is just ugly 8. Apps, there's no app that does anything better on the watch than on the phone 9. Weak processor, capabilities. We developed 6 apps for the watch, and it couldn't even render basic business charts, and installation would take minutes! We had to completely do all of the processing on the phone and just send the completed data/visuals to the watch. It's absolutely inadecuate for any serious computing, plus having a terrible SDK! 10. Last, but not least, It's damn too expensive! I really find it hard to believe not more reviewers have taken an issue with the cost, it's absolutely ridiclously priced, and PLEASE do NOT try to compare it with hand-made Swiss watches made in small numbers or with stuff that lasts forever, this is a consumable accessory, that will be obsolete in a year, and will not work after 2-3yrs. It has a FRACTION of the functionality of an iPhone, costing almost the same (not considering contact prices).
Overall, weakest Apple Hardware release in recent memory!
Watches went out with the bathwater it seems since smartphones. If you have a phone you dont need a watch. They are dinosaurs. It is taking a step backwards.
The review read like a magazine article with a bit of tech in the middle and the device seems to be a polished piece of unimportant kit for people looking for something to spend their money on. It will likely appeal to a few and seem pointless to most others. Me? I have a watch, its solar powered & waterproof. Guess which category I'm in? 😉
I like watches, and own mechanical " automatic" ones alongside cheap Timex'es and even one with gps. and being a geek was always interested in smart watches. I've played around with this one, and the build is impressive. But it's too first version, as the battery doesn't last enough for a watch, there isn't an always on display. Sony watch v3 does have always on display but it's not very good, while it's battery lasts longer that's not enough either. The pebble does both well but the display isn't good enough, haven't seen the new one. So, this is too expensive for what it does in my opinion. Will keep on waiting..
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Murloc - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
First!Murloc - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
the reviewer has no hair??ianmills - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
HAHAHAHA exactly. The apple watch is reviewed by someone who is self-concious enough to shave their arm hair. This explains why the review is so positive. Some people find self-esteem in odd places...supermoon - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
That's just what some people's wrists look like bruh, including mine. what are you grasping at??dsumanik - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
This entire article (photos and content) has been 'photoshopped' by apple PR. Hair and skin smoothed, bokeh added....look at how the watch is posed in the shots, it is amateur photography heavily post processed....in a lame viral marketing attempt.ANANDTECH STOP TRYING TO SELL US SH*T.
APPLE SAMSUNG CORSAIR WHATEVER
IF I WANT A COMMERCIAL, ILL GO TO THE MFG WEBSITE.
PS.
EVERYTONE IN INTERNET LAND THE REVIEWERS FORGOT TO TELL YOU THAT THIS WATCH DOES
NOTHING.
ZIP.
ZILCH.
NADA.
WITHOUT AN IPHONE.
IT COSTS $400 + AN IPHONE EASILY PUSHING THE PRICE OVER 1K.
PS
GO SEE IT IN THE STORE, ITS CHUNKY AND PRETTY CHEAP LOOKING, NOT LIKE APPLE'S WEBSITE PHOTOS AT ALL.
GO SEE FOR YOURSELF.
12K FOR THE 'EDITION' ?????????????
LOOKS LIKE IT BELONGS RIGHT AT HOME IN THE WALMART ELECTRONICS SECTION!
LOL!
navysandsquid - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Hate on brother lol butt hurt much its ok enjoy your droid turbo lolRyan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"This entire article (photos and content) has been 'photoshopped' by apple PR. Hair and skin smoothed, bokeh added....look at how the watch is posed in the shots, it is amateur photography heavily post processed....in a lame viral marketing attempt."While we do use Photoshop for editing (once you get past basic cropping, you probably want Photoshop), to be clear here these photos haven't received any significant processing. The only work we do on our photos is lens/sensor correction and auto toning.
The fact of the matter is that Josh is an excellent photographer (the best one among us, in fact), which is how he's able to pull off these amazing shots. So the fact that you think it has been heavily edited is flattering in a sense; we didn't have to edit them, we were able to take those photos naturally in the first place.
And no, no one from Apple PR has touched the photos. Or the article.
BittenRottenApple - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Worship the holy apple.The apple way, selling over expensive crap to stupid consumers that like to
get robbed.
This has been a disastrous launch in every respect. The iwatch is such an
ugly piece of crap, it is truly unbelievable how a company, formerly known for
its remarkable design, dares to put out such a crap ton of shit. Some
characteristics are glaringly obvious and inherent to it: over expensive,
hardly innovative, limited functionality and usability (need of an iPhone to
make it work), looks exactly like a toy watch and so on.
There are of course way better smart watches out there, especially from the
likes of Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Asus, LG, simply put, there is no need for
another piece of over expensive junk.
Regardless of what the casing and strap are, it's still maybe $8 worth of electronics at best, a painfully tiny screen, awful battery life, absolute dependence on an iPhone for proper function, and in reality adding extra time to decide if the message your phone just pinged your wrist with is worth pulling the phone out for to reply with.
The smart watch is a dumb idea in its current form. The Apple icrapWatch (tm) with its "Wealthy - Rich - Look how obscenely rich I am" case material tiers (seriously, the upgrade from plastic to red leather band is $7k? Not even a gold band available to justify that $17k price?) is the ultimate expression of that.
Maybe in 5 years or so a transparent OLED screen over a traditional watch with these sensors to pop-up notifications long enough to be noticed but not need to be charged every two hours is when it'll make sense, but for now it's a useless gimmick that nobody really needs.
Let's face it, the Apple Watch is a total and utter failure. The one called Sport edition doesn’t even has a dust, shock and water resistant exterior and thus fails in nearly every "sports" related usage scenario, albeit still costing nearly as much as an iPad, or, you know, a real watch, which works for years to come.
And the luxury one? Oh god, 17k+ for this utter crapicious experience. If you’re a millionaire, donate that 17k+ to the EFF, the communist party, an union or consider that such an amount of money could save lives in many third world countries or help to preserve nature. Besides that, it doesn’t even look that luxurious compared face to face to Rolex standards, more like some sort of ugly, chubby toy enclosed in a thin, and tiny gold case. The functionality provided, if one even dares to call it that way, are utter crap too, nothing new, nothing exciting here, nothing Samsung, LG, Pebbles haven't been offering for years on a far superior basis. For example the Pebbles watch which costs
less than 79$ and has 8 days of battery life, shows many of the notifications and info someone might need, all the while being water and dust proof, with changeable wristbands. Seriously, fuck this overpriced, environmentally obscene, eco terroristic icrapWatch (TM).
Yet another fine addition to the long list of "Terrible Products Apple Makes to Gouge Money out of People".
The new icrapWatch (tm) is a testament to Apple's collapsing technical acumen. They eliminate all ports providing no cable based connectivity at all? This craven stupidity should send the last adherents running. But running to what? Windows isn't even a viable option anymore, since it now is the most widespread commercial NSA gathering tool available, closely followed by Android, iOS and OS X.
It's a sad day for people who need real smartwatches. Jony Ive is a pompous, clueless hack who should be fired and shot on the spot (or torn apart by a horde of rabid dogs) for introducing crippling regressions like this one.
Look at this POS: No USB port, which won’t require an adapter to do anything. So if you aren’t going to require an adapter anyway, why not make that nonexistent port a modern port one: Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can carry USB, video, Ethernet, external storage... ALL AT ONCE. And it can be daisy-chained, which would be hugely important when the icrapWatch (tm) would have ONLY ONE PORT. So WTF is Apple doing in not making its nonexistant port into a thunderbolt port?
And again, are you kidding me? No thunderbolt connector? Now every sorry user of this pos doesn’t have to find a thunderbolt to USB C, a USB C to USB to HDMI, a USB to USB 3.0 period, a USB C to USB connector for apple’s time machine and also does not manage to don't short circuit all that with the AC/DC to USB C connectors, seriously ? Not worth 200$ new pile of hairy connectors for the brand new icrapWatch (tm), and that is called a revolution nowadays? No ********** way, the Pebbles is way superior, period.
By the way, they're perpetrating no connectors at all. Thunderbolt is a much-needed step to a modern I/O standard. No connector is an outdated, abused standard that was designed primarily for Rolex watches. It's not suitable for external storage, video, or anything else requiring bulk data transfer with minimal CPU overhead. A nonexistant connector at all is a regression, a major step BACKWARD.
Starting at $349.00----Less than $8.00 worth of hardware = ~$341.00 premium to use icrapWatch OS instead of windows. (Honestly the most expensive component of this icrapWatch (tm) is probably the screen.)
Anyone with real work to do will not even be able to buy this thing. My friend’s last Air was neat in that it was small and lasted all day, but it was so under-powered, it was frustrating. I can only imagine how limited this machine will be.
Who cares about price, weight and size, when this product is crippled by a hopelessly defective design? You can't hook up a power adapter and external storage at the same time. You can't hook up an external display and external storage. Hell, you can't even plug in a thumb drive!
This product is the most asinine piece of shit Apple has produced, and that includes the (thankfully) short-lived Shuffle that could only be controlled by a gimped Morse code.
$270 less gets you the new Pebbles which will eat the crapWatch's lunch.
If you need to do a lot of processor intensive work, than you would not even go near this thing. It would be useless to you. If you need to crunch spreadsheets or are heavy in corporate analysis, this icrapWatch (tm) would also be useless to you.
This is the kind of icrapWatch (tm) that Apple sells a lot of. This icrapWatch (tm) is largely useless for anything other than email and facebook. It cannot store many files, it cannot process much information, and it has no external port. There is nothing wrong with using this icrapWatch (tm) for casual tasks, but it is CERTAINLY not a productivity machine.
It is what it is. A status symbol/statement. Or some other statement. A statement that you just bought a $349 or icrapWatch(tm) with a $341 or more case so you can show off in front of your hipster isheep friends.
I hate to stick to Apple only facts here, but Apple said that the current Samsung Smatwatch is 24% thicker than this new icrapWatch (tm). That does NOT mean that the new icrapWatch (tm) is 24% thinner than the current Samsung Smatwatch , it means that it is ~20% thinner than the current Samsung Smatwatch. They clearly phrased it that way to make it sound more impressive and hence dupe the consumer, aka stupid isheep.
So, it's a toy watch plus with a display and no over expensive dongle so you can’t do everything a Pebbles can do, at more than four times the price while looking posh.
And here I thought technology was about function over form. I get it, functional art; art I can do things my phone does, but in a space that anyone can see me doing it, stylishly. Crippled and non standard in-house branded "business" software does great, can't do anything really artistic on it except maybe GarageBand or stock filter photo edits to my innumerable selfies, but it's got that partially eaten fruit on the back that screams "money I'm too stupid to keep or invest wisely."
Take my money!
I wouldn't hold my breath.
This is apple's marketing strategy: mind-numbing markup on dirt-cheap, mediocre icrapWare (tm). They throw together a cheap little toy like icrapWatch (tm), pretty it up with silver or gold paint, and ride the wave of ignorance, outrageous markup, and marketing that they've been using as a business model for many, many years now. The only thing Apple has ever made that's less worthless than all the other crap their conspirators like Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd excrete all day and night by taking advantage of child labour are iOS and OS X which, besides being notoriously crippled and constrained walled gardens, aren’t even worth the hassle unless you also dumped thousands of dollars into other apple products.
Many apple owners I’ve encountered never stop trying to belittle and demean others because they don’t have a Macbook or an iPhone (or an icrapWatch (tm) for that matter) and then try to act like their overpriced apple products are overall better when they are certainly not, by any standard.
Luxury cars, while still worthless crash grabs, usually offer some quality and features that are actually somewhat superior to cheaper competing vehicles and models.
icrapWatch (tm) such as this start already expensive as hell with little performance to warrant such outrageous costs. Apple isn’t the luxury car of anything. It’s the luxury car DESIGN with a 4-cylinder under the hood and a tape-deck in the sound system, all with the price tag of "luxury". They sell laptops made cheap in china, using child labour and the same hardware you can find in SO many other laptops, slap their OS on it, put it in a thin case, and then markup the price by 300% to 600%. These are the facts. This icrapWatch (tm) in question is nowhere NEAR worth that kind of money. I mean, smartwatches in general are overpriced, but apple has made their entire business model out of extreme markups backed by clever marketing with little actual technological superiority of any kind. Every single apple product on the market can be outperformed in every way by comparable products. Apple icrapWatches (tm) can be outperformed by smartwatches that are FAR FAR cheaper while relying on older tech. The only thing that apple has that nobody else does is OSX and iOS, their operating systems. These are mediocre operating systems, but they are literally designed to be limited on anything it determines to be "non-apple hardware". Other operating systems can be installed on just about any computer you can slap together, whereas OSX is specifically and deliberately designed to be non-functional on ANYTHING that isn’t made by apple. It’s nothing but a cash-grab.
Apple is indeed playing run-of-the-mill capitalism, they try to capitalize on the ignorance of the average consumer with marketing campaigns designed to make you assume you're getting your money's worth.
There are millions of consumers who are on the fence, who are actually interested in buying something that's worth the money they spend. Those people deserve factual information and do not deserve to be exploited for their ignorance on the topic. So excuse me if I have a problem with it. College students especially, who don’t have a lot to spend in the first place, are being taken advantage of in every area of their life. Buying a smartwatch should be one less area of exploitation. This is why I have a problem with apple and with many other companies and services that attempt to capitalize on ignorance.
Years down the road when the batteries in this model are dead and you have to keep it plugged in just to use then you'll have no way to plug in a flash drive or an external hard drive. I don't care how sexy it looks: sometimes and more often than not less means a serious lack of functionality.
We can only hope that consumers send this piece of diabolic garbage to oblivion, as they did the idiotic iPod Shuffle that could only be controlled with Morse code over a proprietary headphone wire.
The Apple Iphone 1 and Ipad 1 might have been innovative at their time,
but since then, the bitten apple has been continuously rotting from the inside
outwards, always swarmed by millions of Iworms which regale themselves with its
rotten flesh, not forgetting all other Americans who support apple by means of
their tax dollars to finance its bought US Treasury/Government bond interest rates.
Last but not least, every Apple product includes a direct hotlink to the NSA,
free of charge, something that might make it a good value, after all.
Ceterum censeo Applem esse delendam.
twanto - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"There is nothing wrong with using this icrapWatch (tm) for casual tasks, but it is CERTAINLY not a productivity machine." I was really hoping it could handle some spreadsheets and a bit of 3D rendering, but I guess not.This post was either satire or the greatest literary achievement by someone with a bonus chromosome 21.
Schickenipple - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Word. If you are trying to create spreadsheets on your watch, or any screen that small, you are an idiot.supermoon7 - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link
You're so right! Use the watch for what it's intended for. It's not a computer. According to the guys at http://www.watchtimely.com it was originally meant to have a slightly larger screen to be able to do more complicated things, but the developers realized nobody would do them on their watch anyway.xihan94 - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
+1 for the uncovered bonus chromosome 21.johnnycanadian - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
... you seem to have a tremendous amount of time on your hands. Perhaps learning a new skill would be valuable?Schickenipple - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
This guy has written book-length posts on pretty much every Apple product review. It's quite sad, really.I'd have to imagine that ANY skill other than ranting on and on about something he's never even used would go a long way... A career, maybe?
iWatchHogwash - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Dera BittenRottenApple,Excellent Analysis, what a great read, rationally and logically consistent, thank you very much.
By the way, some further recommendations to read and watch:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-hate-Apple/511277...
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-we-really...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa9d5mXc7eg&fe...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90NJOpjq02M
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38007-new-y...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/technology/perso...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37610-lg-re...
Other Apple news not mentioned here:
Apple Watch sales fall by 90 per cent
Apple has another lemon
It is turning out exactly as we said – sales of Apple's latest cure for cancer have slumped to a shadow of their initial "glory."
While the Tame Apple Press and a big chunk of analysts sung praises for the iWatch, claiming it would sell 70 million in its first year. We pointed out that the gizmo was nearly two years out of date and lacked most of the software which would make it moderately useful and if it succeed it was a triumph of user stupidity and marketing.
Lately analysts have been slowly withdrawing the enthusiastic sales figures they gave the watch, and now a new survey has shown that sales have fallen by 90 per cent.
Apple is selling fewer than 20,000 watches a day in the US since the initial surge in April, and on some days fewer than 10,000. This is not too bad, but it does suggest that most people who wanted an iWatch have one, and existing users are not managing to win many converts amongst their friends to make it take off. For the record to make the 70 million figure apple would have to sell 195,000 a day.
Data collected by Slice Intelligence show that Two-thirds of the watches sold so far have been the lower-profit "Sport" version, whose price starts at $349, according to Slice, rather than the costlier and more advanced models that start at $549. Apple's gold "Edition" model priced at $10,000 or more has only sold 2,000 of them have been sold in the US.
The figures are based on the electronic receipts sent to millions of email addresses following purchases. The company conducts market research on behalf of consumer-goods companies, among others, many of them in the Fortune 500.
All up though these figures are not bad, but they are not the sort of numbers which Apple needs to convince its investors that it can make mega sales any more. With sales drying up in China, Jobs mob will not have a good bottom line this year.
Source:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38173-apple...
And
Apple puts iWatch in stores
Maybe some idiot will buy them
Apple mysteriously has enough iWatches on hand to start putting them in its own stores.
The iWatch went on sale six weeks ago and at the time Apple did not think it would ever have enough to put it in its own shops. The original plan was to flog them online and in fashion stores, however and Jobs' Mob thought it would never have enough to meet the crushing demand for an out-of-date wearable which was more expensive than anything else on the market.
So it appears that suddenly Apple has enough. Of course the Tame Apple Press is trying to keep the story about a shortage going. Potential buyers must first reserve their device online, and some models are still out of stock.
But the sport models, which are most popular and the cheapest, are available across the country, while others can be bought in Apple's flagship shops, such as those in London and Manchester.
In order to reserve your device, you must pick the Watch you want to buy, choose a store to pick the device up and then choose a time to go and buy it.
You can also order the home delivery, but it's not recommended as it takes more than three weeks for the shipment to be delivered.
The most expensive models, such as the 38mm yellow gold model with red modern Buckle strap, are still unavailable. As Apple said last week, the 42mm Watch in Space Black with the metal link bracelet is unavailable at all stores for now.
Source:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38018-apple...
Finally some related news (pasted in chronological order from new to old):
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38274-apple-press-gea...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38254-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38173-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38126-analy...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38018-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38017-apple-is-convic...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/38007-new-y...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/technology/perso...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/38004-xiaomi-sells-6-...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37983-twitter-thinks-...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37893-zenwa...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37889-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37832-analyst-realise...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37787-quanta-clarifie...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37756-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37660-iwatc...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37646-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37635-apple-results-s...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37610-lg-re...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37609-is-the-iphone-a...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37586-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37558-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37499-imac-is-getting...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37485-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37391-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37350-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37349-apple-a-trillia...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/37278-new-ios-...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/37248-apple-blames-se...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37235-devel...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/37224-iphone-i...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37130-mobil...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37048-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/37001-study...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/36699-apple...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/36603-consu...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/wearables/36427-sony-...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/36342-intel-outclasse...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/36183-microsof...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/36169-microsof...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/36080-microsoft-beats...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/35959-apple-wa...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/35740-doctors-rubbish...
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/35694-rumour-i...
Have a nice day.
Ryan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
In the interest of transparency, BittenRottenApple has been banned from AnandTech. We have since identified him as a sockpuppet having used multiple accounts here, and while we afford our readers a great deal of liberty to discuss products and articles, we will not put up with people who are dishonest in their actions.Dennis Travis - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Ryan, thank you. It's for the good of the site. I was about to reply to him but glad I read this first!Again thanks for getting rid of people like that. Just brings the whole comments section down.
colonelclaw - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Thanks for that Ryan, on the internet it's easy to say "you need to get some kind of help" in jest, but in this case I think it may actually be true. Presumably iWatchHogwash is the same person?sammery - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Goodness me. That was so long and devoid of meaning I might start using it instead of Lorem Ipsum.WinterCharm - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Take your neurotic apple hating bullshit elsewhere.You're just bitter that Anandtech gave the watch a stellar review.
mr_tawan - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
TL;DRlotechnz - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Whoa. Chill bro. You realise these are comments right? You should go start a blog and let no one read your thoughts there instead of clogging up these ones.ducatisteve - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
I didn't want to read this whole thing, but I couldn't stop. Amazing.speculatrix - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
So, I get the feeling you think it's a bit overpriced and lacking in function.Bansaku - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
The Troll is hungry folks. If you keep feeding him he will only come back later. :Pgrahamwilliams - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
You don't get out often, do you?Rickster17 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
@bittenrottenapple: You just don't get it. Seriously, a thumb drive for a watch? External ports? External memory? A spreadsheet? Just walk away, you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.Samus - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Are you fucking serious? TL/DR.PrinceGaz - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
After writing that much, it is clear you have far too much time on your hands. But not on your wrists.WinterCharm - Saturday, July 25, 2015 - link
Keep posting your apple hate. The apple haters are the real sheep.TedKord - Monday, July 27, 2015 - link
Holy crap. That post was longer than the review.Figaro56 - Saturday, August 1, 2015 - link
Holly crap you sound exactly like a manic depressive friend of mine. You lost me at the gazillionth POS comment.michellepennie - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Boohoo you sound the jealous type and i bet you couldn't afford one :P loldsumanik - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
You know what Ryan, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.Whether it was apple PR or not is irrelevant. I'll even admit I didn't even finish the entire article because it read like a kid getting a new toy for christmas explaining how magical it was.
Can you explain to my why the author(s) felt the need to photograph and post not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE neatly arranged unboxing shots... on the very first page of the article.
The shots were deliberately arranged on a cleaned, attractive, ironed cloth that tied into the watch's color scheme.
Some questions about the opening sequence of photos :
- Do you think that these shots reveal any info to your readers? Tech specs, warranty info, durability?
- Why does the EXIF info read adoble lightroom. Like gimme a break. They were enhanced.
- If we remove all verbiage, does the watch look attractive, or unattractive in any way shape or form?
- Do people generally wear a timepiece nicely draped over their fingers in front of a sunny picturesque tree?
- Is it just a coincidence that not only I but others, thought the photo's looked 'funny'?
The author(s) deliberately took time and significant effort to make the product to look as attractive as possible. The opening page, it's photographs and presentation instantly clue the reader that this piece is obviously written with heavy marketing bias and the overall tone and conclusion will be a positive one.
Is my original post inflammatory? Sure. Beligerent? yes.
100% True?
YES.
You know why this watch isn't selling? Apple's customers are thinking this:
"Cool! New apple watch! What does it do?"
"Hmm, it doesnt really do that much. I was kind of expecting more."
"You know what, it's kinda chunky and why does it stutter?...OMG, 400 bucks? pffff totally not worth it."
I know this because I am an apple customer, and this thing pretty much just sucks.
Some more questions:
- Do you think it would be good for your publication to write a scathing review of an apple product that went viral? Isn't that kind of sad?
- Would you recommend this product for a single mother, your grandma, or anyone else close to you?
- Have you thought about purchasing this product for ANYONE as a gift?
- Had this review not taken place would you have gone out and purchased this item for yourself? LOL!!!!
- Can you link me an article written on anandtech that portrayed any apple product in a negative light, ever?
I'm sorry RyanI know you are jsut doing your job but the 'general consumer' is getting smarter and the internet is getting clogged up with this kind editorial crap.
The only way to stop it is to speak up, LOUD, and be heard.
Didn't Ellen Pao just say it best?
"The trolls are winning"
By trolls, she meant the general public tha ist sick of being lied to and manipulated.
Lied to by presidents, company reps, journalists, law enforcement, intelligence agencies....right down to silly little amazon reviews.
2 weeks later he files a patent to provide an advertisement based on your bank account balance!
Call a turd a turd.
Dont photoshop it then, sprinkle whipcream and cherries on top.
Just sayin.
Ryan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"You know what Ryan, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."Thank you. I appreciate it.
"Whether it was apple PR or not is irrelevant. I'll even admit I didn't even finish the entire article because it read like a kid getting a new toy for christmas explaining how magical it was.
Can you explain to my why the author(s) felt the need to photograph and post not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE neatly arranged unboxing shots... on the very first page of the article."
The short answer is that our Apple reviews have a wider reach than our standard technical articles. The range of readers that will show up to AnandTech for a MacBook or iPhone review has a much more distinctive consumer shift than say an SSD or CPU review. And while we still have a large number of technical readers (who are our heart and soul), it's also good for us to be visible to less technical consumers, as it helps them learn that we exist and, hopefully, come back to learn things that no other site can offer.
In any case, when you're working to reach a broader audience, you need to focus on more than just words. Less technical consumers aren't going to care about the S1 analysis for example, and that's okay, because we reach these users in other ways. And one of the ways we do that is in photography. Broader audiences like pictures - they like good pictures - and that means we step up our game on photography for these reviews in order to accommodate those users. There are a number of other sites out there reviewing the Watch, and there is a segment of the broader audience that will write us off in favor of another review if we show up with poor photography, so we need to make sure that not only is our analysis top notch, but our prose and imagery is competitive as well.
At the end of the day we won't make any compromises on the technical side for our regular technical readers, but if we can also bring wider consumers into the fold through materials such as improved photography, we will do that as well. This way both techies and non-techies alike can enjoy our articles and learn something from them.
mapesdhs - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Irony is, if the photos were 'poor', someone would be complaining about that instead. Ya can't please all of the people all of the time...Ian.
Schickenipple - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
It's sad, Ryan, that you actually had to explain this to someone. I thought your core readers would understand that an Apple Watch review isn't in the same category as a NVMe PCIe SSD. Guess not.bo3bber - Saturday, July 25, 2015 - link
Ryan, just wanted to observe that this approach has had the opposite effect on me. I used to come to AnandTech as my absolute goto first tech site, and these Apple puff pieces made me question your other reviews. So instead of improving your reach, at least for me, you reduced your reach because I feel that I cannot trust you as much as I did.The fact that Anand himself also left to go to Apple would strongly suggest you be wary of running Apple stuff that is fluffy.
I only read the summary, because the out-of-box first page showed me it was going to be a puff piece not a technical review.
I think you do yourself a disservice and have damaged your brand by trying to reach a larger market.
Samus - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
They clearly haven't paid attention to the high production value of ALL Anandtech articles over the past decade. You guys use top notch photography and lightboxes all the time. These comments are ridiculous.The Reddit fallout must have sent trolls to every corner of the internet.
victorson - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Ryan, I do respect Anandtech coverage a lot and Josh has done some great research articles that I'm still digesting. However, I have to agree with others: this review just reads strangely lacking in perspective. It is choke-full of weird claims about watchOS being the iOS in the watch world, and about all that first-gen BS that gets throw around. Why is it that every tech reviewer would gladly slam a device for its poor functionality, but once we start talking about Apple, suddenly you guys chicken out and rather than saying that it's shit, you say that 'well, it lags like hell, but that's okay, because it's a first gen product.' And how about commenting on the lack of any actual useful functionality on the watch that would make users spend a ludicrous $700 for a single-core 500MHz processor running a 1.5" display? Don't get me started on forgetting to mention that other competitors have always-on screen (the WatchOS is a sore disappointment) AND come with two days of battery life. AND half the price! But no, rather than giving us some insightful comments on that, we get the 'I'm definitely convinced in the smartwatch now'. Thanks, very useful! /ssachouba - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Still, if you had reproached the Apple Watch with anything, you wouldn't be able to get your hand on any Apple product anymore.You've not even compared the Apple Watch with Samsung's smartwatches, which have a better display, way better battery life, and so on.
Keep worshipping Apple, you're the only website which finds the Apple iPhone 6 has a better battery life than the Galaxy S5, which is obviously not true...
twanto - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Another idiot who knows nothing about photography. They didn't take these photos with an iPhone..... some people still buy real cameras with real lenses, no surprise here: IT'S A TECHNOLOGY WEBSITE!Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
" bokeh added"Ayup, that's totally what it is. Definitely not because close-up photos have less depth-of-field than distant ones(as a loose rule). It's totally 'shopped to add the cool word for out-of-focus backgrounds.
dsumanik - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Actually bud i am an accomplished photographer myself, Mr. Ho was using a d7000 shooting the 35mm dx prime wide open. I own a d7100 and same lens, i recognized it right away....i used the phrase 'bokeh added' to troll a reaction and it worked.The bottome line is that the photos are enhanced, the only way to prove otherwise would be to post the original RAW files, not jpegs. There is nothing wrong with enhancing photos for your article, but claiming you didn't when you did just proves how far you are willing to go to lie about the silliest detail.
Heres the bottom line:
- they presented the product in question in the most positive light possible
- the article was meandering and incoherent and 100% opinion based - but overall positive
- can someone link me a negative apple product review written by anandtech, ever?
- has every apple product, 100% of the time, been perfect?
- if the apple watch is so awesome, why did the reviewers never own one until this review?
- how many people wear a watch perfectly draped over thier wrist
- why were there so many unboxing shots?
- Mr. Smith did not answer my questions of whether or not scathing apple product review that went viral would be good for his website and career as a whole.
Ill tell yah why, apple wouldnt be very happy with mr smith writing a crappy review of thier product, and there would be repurcussions to his career because of it,
And that my friends is exactly the problem.
This website has become a huge commercial, as with a large majority o the internet and i will continue to embarass and troll authors of this kind of junk whenever possible,
Like i said, just call a turd a turd..
...the watch sucks dudes, its not a maybe, it sucks...go look for yourself.
Samus - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
I'm not an Apple person, but the iPhone 4S just happened to be the best smartphone I ever owned (except perhaps my HP\Palm Veer...I like small gadgets)Just like the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch I've ever had. The Pebble will always have a place in my heart as the first smartwatch I owned (unless my 1996 Timex Datalink counts?) but it is clearly outclassed by even competitively priced smartwatches (a LG G watch is $80 refurbished, the same price as a new Pebble, and the Pebble Time Steel is nearly as expensive as the Apple Watch)
dsumanik - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
high five, for youI'll wait till iWatch 3 or 4 thats has integrated LTE modem and actually allows me to jog without a phone.
Like i said, this one still sucks, I've seen it, tried it, and it's overpriced (unsuprising from apple) and slow. Literally the only cool thing i can think of that it does is the wrist tap navigation, or the the tapping u get from sms ... would be good for unobtrusive communication in a meeting, or flirting with your girlfriend.
Jobs wouldn't have allowed this.
He would have waited another generation for the required technology, or engineered it himself.
Even the most die hard apple lover has to admit that.
WinterCharm - Saturday, July 25, 2015 - link
The butthurt is strong in this one.The apple watch is currently the *best* smartwatch out. There's a reason it has 75% market share of all wearables.
superflex - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
I guess you've never experienced a watch band pulling out hairs on your wrist then.I had one that would do that. I never wear it.
Arm hair does matter.
JoshHo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
If someone has been secretly shaving my arms, please let me know.Ryan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I may have had Stephen replace your shower water with Nair...Samus - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
sucks for the regions he might want hair in. should make him a hit with the girls ;)twanto - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
inamills: you've got the dumbs.Samus - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
The reviewer is Asian. Many Asians, especially Pacific Islanders, lack much of what Caucasians would typically think of as body hair.What a stupid observation.
Ethos Evoss - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
thing is apple owns all gadget websites by bribing.. so apple just told sites like this ''YOU DARE TAKL/WRITE NEGATIVELY ABOUT US N OUR PRODUCTS'' we bought you so ...whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"In every phone I’ve ever used, the only time I use manual brightness is when the auto brightness system is clearly programmed wrong in some shape or form. Common cases where this would happen include auto brightness that didn’t actually set the display to maximum brightness in daytime or wouldn’t set the display to minimum brightness in absolute darkness."My iPhone's auto brightness setting doesn't do these things -- at least, it certainly doesn't set brightness to minimum in darkness. I frequently need to make manual adjustments. Could something be wrong with auto brightness on my phone?
Galps - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
You can calibrate the auto brightness on the iPhone. Search google for how to calibrate iPhone auto brightness and you can find instructions on how to do it. It's not very difficult.whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Thanks, that was helpful. Did not realize calibration was a necessary / possible thing.uhuznaa - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
It only becomes necessary after you start to adjust it just for the sake of adjusting it. Leave it alone and you'll never need to even touch it (as most people do, really).nofumble62 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
and his pay check was from Applestefstef - Monday, July 27, 2015 - link
well as Long as the People who submit comments on this Website have a brain ,,tipoo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Please don't do that.cknobman - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
WOW Anand very disappointed.First Apple watch has been largely a market failure so far. Outside of initial orders sales have been poor.
Second your review is definitely tinted in "Rose colored" apple glasses.
The design is bulky, thick, and look absolutely stupid on a wrist. Even owners of it will admit its too big.
The UI interface sucks and the using the wheel to scroll thorough dozens of tiny circles on screen is retarded and not user friendly.
You fail to mention the watch practically does d!ck without the phone which makes it pointless. The freaking $400 Apple watch cannot fulfill the same level of functionality that a fitbit can unless its tethered to a damn iPhone.
That reminds me the watch only works with iPhones!!
The battery life is terrible.
It TOO EXPENSIVE.
Yeah greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaat device though! ;)
ViewRoyal - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Yup, you are right. No one has bought the Apple Watch. Everyone hates it. Apple is DOOOOOOOMED!(And now, let's hear from someone who is rational and in tune with reality ;-))
sonny73n - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I have a few watches and some of which I'll probably never wear them again because I prefer my favorite ones. Let's not talk about Rolex, instead take one from my bunch - a Movado that I paid $2200 around 15 years ago. Surely it had cost me a lot more than the $400 Apple watch but its value today is not much different from 15 years ago. Carbide band and housing, sapphire glass - a fine and stylish quality time piece unlike the Apple watch which will be obsolete soon in a few years. Apple watch may be a good watch NOW but for $400, it's very unattractive not to mention I'll probably feel like an idiot right after I pay for it.Some people just doesn't understand that it's not about the price, it's about the value of the product they're paying for. If people keeps paying high price for craps, them companies will continue making craps thinking they've produced masterpieces. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $40 for this ugly ToyRUs looking watch. And NO, Apple isn't doomed but sale figures can certainly tell how good or bad the product they're selling. Feel free to support Apple if you like but I'll only support my wallet.
Zak - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
A smartphone should not be compared to a phone and a smartwatch should not be compared to a watch. Even though I still can't see any use for a smartwatch... But comparing Apple watch to a Movado or Rolex is just silly, this is not what a smartwatch is meant to be.Kvaern2 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I find Anatechs review to be a lot better than yours.DSN1138 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
the watch can actually do work outs/steps without the phone. The battery life on the watch is insane im usually at 70-80 % by the time I got to bed. Also you don't "use the wheel to scroll through dozens of tiny circles".... its a touch screen.. you scroll with you finger..davegraham - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
meh...I have a 42mm version of the sport and will burn the battery in < a day in use. for now, it's a good notifier of things i need to do but otherwise, it's nothing special.sohrab - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
May I ask what you do with your watch on a day to day basis that makes it so that you have no battery life left? I use mine from 7 am - 10-11 pm, most days with a workout recorded, and worst case scenario, I'm at 30% by the end of the day.Roguedog - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
your experience is unusual, as most who respond to these articles report eod average battery remaining to be about 40-60%.... my day starts at 0500, ends around 1130 with typically 45% battery remaining, I sleep with it on, awake @ 0430 with about 40% remaining, charge about 35 minutes to 100% while showering and shaving. What's not to like!?darwinosx - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I have a 42mm version and it routinely has 40% left.S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Sorry, I call bullshit. My own experience, as well as the experience of everyone I know who has one, as well as every SINGLE impression and review I've read, is so far off from that. My Watch typically has 50% left after 12 hrs. If you really can't get through a day, then take it in, it's defective.xenol - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
A lot of smart watches are kind of thick and bulky and look stupid on the wrist.Nobody else has an interface that works miles better from what I hear
Most smart watches do "d!ck" anyway without a phone to attach to.
Fitbit still needs something to attach to for it to be useful. Well, unless I get the uber high-end one, but that's $250 for a dedicated device.
And iProducts only work with other iProducts, did you not see that coming?
Battery life is terrible on everything but Pebble.
Honestly, all smart watches are too expensive for what they supposedly try to do.
ingwe - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Yeah. I totally agree. I just can't see paying so much for a watch when it will need to be upgraded.S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
It won't NEED to be upgraded. It will continue to perform the functions it had when you purchased it, as well as alot more (with software updates) for quite a while. Stop pretending like the Watch is going to explode exactly a year after it's purchased, or that upgrading is a requirement.cknobman - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I agree with you completely.At this point smartwatches are seriously flawed devices.
Just because this one is made by Apple does not mean it deserves a good review though.
name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
What is your complaint? How are smartwatches "seriously flawed devices"?They do (or at least Apple Watch does) what it promises to do. It's a good watch, a good notification screen, a good fitness tracker, and it helps with minor short communications. It can even be useful when you are just lying in bed and want to know a fact without bother to get up to go to your phone or PC. (eg "Hey Siri, when is sunset tonight?")
Being more expensive than you want to pay is not a "flaw" and calling it shut is pissing in the well of intelligent informed debate. People likewise complained that the iPhone was supposedly more expensive than it "should be", a complain that they still continue to repeat every year. Doesn't seem to have hurt Apple any, and doesn't actually have anything to do with the usefulness of the device.
S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
No, it deserved a good review because the author had extensive experience with it, and genuinely liked it. Mind blowing concept, eh? You didn't even read the damn review, did you? What an insightful comment yours is.Roguedog - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
That may be true for all the others, but the Apple Watch is not overly thick... in fact it is the same thickness of the Commander/day/date automatic I've worn for years.... less than twice the thickness of my Tags, thinner than my Bulovas, and half the thickness of my Omega, I don't own a Rolex, but those I've seen are quite bulky.Roguedog - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Hey cknobman, your ignorance about the subject matter is on display. Do yourself a favor and at a minimum, research the subject before blithely regurgitating the negative review points of other idiots, none of which is true in my experience, nor in the experience of 99% of actual users.cknobman - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Tell me what I was wrong about.In regards to it being a flop here are some links (from very recent articles) that prove outside of initial launch sales and preorders it is selling poorly:
http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-sales-sluggis...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/07/20/appl...
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/apple-watch-sales...
In regards to its features, please discredit my claims. It is big, its user interface sucks (not only in my limited use but the actual users who have it have explained to me why they think it sucks), it does not do squat without an iphone tethered to it, and it is expensive.
mrochester - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
This is all speculation, not proof. We won't know anything official until/if Apple start announcing Watch sales separately from their 'other' category.thomasguide - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
I hear that argument a lot from people and this is little Timmy's comments about that “We don’t intend to provide insight that could help our competitors,”Yet they seem to provide a lot of insight that could help their competitors by releasing iphone and ipad sales figures. Why is that? Is itbecause iphones are selling like hot cakes and it makes the company look good? They don't release watch numbers because sales have been dismal. Had they sold 20 million units, you bet your ass little Timmy would separate smartwatches into their own category rather than lumping them in with ipods. This way they can blame the lackluster sales on declining ipods instead the flopping watch.
Looks like all the fanboys bought their i-toy in April, now what Timmy?
S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
It's so sad that you need to disrespect Tim Cook by calling him "little Timmy" in order to make yourself feel better, as well as your no doubt empty life. So very sad.Oh, and ignore the fact that Apple announced that they would not break out Watch figures MONTHS ago, it's not a decision they made after they found out sales. Your entire argument is moot.
S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Uh, Tim Cook stated as a fact that Watch sales were higher in May than April, and higher in June than May. Another rabid Apple hating lying troll caught in their lies. But this is the internet, so cowards like you will never admit they're wrong.hlovatt - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Apple announced today that the watch sales were over $1 billion. I guess it's going OK :)darwinosx - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Nobody but Apple knows what Apple watch sales have been like and you sure don't The Slice report has already been widely discredited.Battery life is not terrible at all further indication you have no idea what you are talking about.
Galps - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
First off, sales haven't been announced so none of us really know how successful or not it really has been but the last estimates I heard put sales close to 3 million. In comparison, only about 720,000 smartwatches sold in 2014 total. So if more than tripling smartwatch sales in 3 months is a failure, then I need to start failing at things more like Apple. Second, design taste is completely opinion but I think I'll trust Vogue and Beyonce for fashion advice over some neck beard commenting on a tech article. Don't know what "owners" you've talked but anecdotal evidence is still anecdotal evidence. I could tell you about how all Android phones suck because me and my 4 friends each had a Galaxy S3 and our battery life was terrible and the UI was buggy and laggy. But that wouldn't matter because there are many other people who loved their S3s regardless of my anecdotal evidence to the contrary. In my opinion, I don't find the watch to be bulky or thick at all. To the contrary actually. I find it to be a lot smaller than most other smartwatches. Lastly, it will do plenty without the phone. You can go on a run and it will still track calories, time/pace, and heart rate. You can still use all the watch functions without the phone. When Watch OS 2 comes out, you'll be able to update all your apps via wifi independent of the phone. You can listen to music independent of the phone as well. Really the only thing you can't do without the phone is get notifications. And battery life is great. I have yet to make it through a whole day with less than 45% battery by the time I go to bed and my 6 Plus has been pushed to 3 days without a charge. Granted those are my experiences so I can't speak to everyone else's experience but I haven't had a single battery issue or any trouble getting my watch and phone to last me at least a day and half at minimum.Also, expensive is a relative term based off of your own income. I'm not trying to sound elitist (although this is going to sound really elitist so I'm sorry) but I have no issues spending $400 on a smartwatch. I have enough disposable income that spending a few hundred bucks on a watch isn't going to set me back in any significant amount what so ever. Maybe you have a hard time coming up with an extra $400 but some of us have money and don't really look at $400 as a large amount. Again, I know it sounds elitist and I'm not judging you if $400 is too much, I'm just trying to get the point across that a lot of people don't look at $400 as a lot of money.
navysandsquid - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
her you need some lotion for your butthurt lol its ok pal we know you don't have any money you don't have to tell us. hate on brothername99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"Apple watch has been largely a market failure so far"What do you define as a market failure? Especially in a new market?
Apple have apparently sold around 4x as many watches as the entire Android Wear sales. That would seem to indicate a success.
They have apparently matched the internal Apple sales targets. Again indicates success.
Almost everyone who actually OWNS and has USED an Apple watch (as opposed to simply bitching about it) loves it. You see this both in reviews and in the most recent customer survey from Wristly research.
So where exactly is this failure you speak of?
Ethos Evoss - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
why when is some website talking bout shitty appe products there must be tons comments???IUU - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Anyone knows how much does it cost?Stuka87 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
It says on the front page?jakezilla - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
They quote the price for the sport, yet the review is of the $300 more expensive version with the stainless steel case and loop band. In my opinion, the lack of included the "as tested" price shows the reviewer's biased opinion. The watch in question is nearly double the only quoted price in the article.nafhan - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
$750 as tested. The 42mm SS is $600, loop band is $150. When you buy jewelry, expect to pay for jewelry.thomasguide - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Except said jewelery cost $2 to make and doesn't have the metalic value of gold. Gold jewelry can always be sold and recover it's value if not make you a profit.S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
The Apple Watch costs $2 to make? Wow, you filthy lying trolls never run out of crap to spew, do you?name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
What are you trying to say? Are you claiming that there is some secret difference between the models that nobody knows about? So when he talks about the performance or battery life of the steel model that's different from the sports model? Don't be stupid.IUU - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
oh sorry I thought I looked there and didn't see it.Wait why 10000 dollars?
IUU - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
I mean I see the cheaper models, but who would put ephemeral electronics parts inpricy metals and design.
Except if they do not have precious metals on them, in which case?
robinthakur - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I know what you mean. If I forget my Apple watch I suffer mild anxiety the whole day knowing that i'm not recording my activity ;p I've had it since April, and with the udpates so far, it's pretty indispensible. I can't wait to see where Apple takes it next.Michael Bay - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
You mean NSA is bot recording your activity, but they still do.jjj - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Wow Anandtech selling out in a huge way again.Ugly, beyond stupid navigation and software, a lack of a basic understanding of what the product is, faked screen resolution , huge bezels to accommodate an insufficient battery and an oversized vibration "motor" . And then there is the price, 400$ for the kids version and 600 for the adult version- if you had any trace of decency you would "murder" them in this article just for the price.
Or maybe you guys just have the vision of a potato and can't quite grasp the concept of money either.
Or maybe you are just cowards and , like any other American publication, you can't even imagine saying anything negative about Apple.
pSupaNova - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Well Anand did move to Apple and Apple PR machine must be running on overtime to try and shift this product.Gadgety - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I agree. In addition it's probably one of the most unnecessarily wordy articles I've read in a long time. Who's the "I" in the article, Joshua or Brandon?Gadgety - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
1794 words in the "final words" section alone.Ryan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I is Josh.Michael Bay - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Literally stop liking what I don`t like.Vera-Lee-Isay - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
jjj, you might have emotional issues, but for many of us, the Apple Watch is a wonderful version 1.0. I do enjoy mine and as for the $600 price tag... no big deal. I spend more than that on weekend fun. The article is fine. I find my own experience with the watch very solid and quite fun to wear.wperry - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I'm glad that you were able to manufacture an opportunity to brag, but the reality is that price is an important factor. In absolute terms, you correctly touch on the fact that everyone sees a different value proposition based upon many things, personal finance being one of the major factors. What you completely neglect is the price relative to the market.Well, what's the market? Some people will compare it to other smart watches out there at 1/2 the price (or sometimes significantly less). Other people will compare is as a jewelry piece, in which case all bets are off (frankly, I don't think that it has much appeal here, as it has the potential to become too common to be remarkable, possibly even delving in to the cliche). Others will compare it to the convenience of pulling their (necessary) phone out of their pocket. In all of these regards, I think that it's hard to argue a solid value proposition to most people.
name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
If you SERIOUSLY consider the price to be an issue, then just wait.Commenters seem to have utterly no sense of history, even history they have lived through. For example
- the first iPhones were strongly tethered to iTunes. Over the years, that tether has become weaker and weaker. Why do you imagine the same thing will not happen with the watch?
- the first model costs what it costs. That's life. But next year there will be a new model, and you'll be able to buy this model on eBay for $150. Or maybe Apple will continue to sell these models (maybe just Sport, maybe Sport and Steel) at $100 cheaper, like they do with iPhones and iPads?
Complaining that something sucks because it costs more than you want to pay is a childish way of looking at the world. Hell, I want an apartment in One57 and sadly I don't have $90 million to pay for it. That doesn't mean the apartment sucks...
wperry - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Comparing value vs alternatives is "complaining," and a "childish way of looking at the world"?Okay.
IUU - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
If the apartment sucks I will complain about the apartment too.In a world where the concept of money is rapidly losing any trace
of meaning, people that have to suffer needlessly from its scarcity,
will inadvertently criticise a price.
And complaining about the price of a gadget is nothing compared to
the price of essential drugs for our health or other basic needs. A watch
that doesn't sport pricy materials with a so so design and a
tiny cpu because of space limitations cannot demand the price of a full pc.
I would say that 50 to 100 dollars is closer to reality, not taking into account
the jewellery factor.
I think the computer industry got carried away by the success of the smartphones
and the tablets. The next step probably is close to incorporated chips into our body, or
an advanced version of google glasses if you like
cgpublic - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Perhaps you missed the memo, but clowns earning peanuts to trash Apple online on behalf of PR firms has become passé.Get a real job, bum.
Stuka87 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
First, there are LOTS of watches that cost well over $600, and all they do is tell time. Companies have no issues selling them. And yes, its a 1.0 product, it will undoubtedly be improved in the next iteration.But saying Anandtech "sold out" in this article is a bit far fetched. Especially without any evidence to support your theory.
wperry - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The watch market north of $600 is that of jewelry; a large part of the appeal is a uniqueness that appeals to the individual wearer. Do you really think that changing the wristband and switching the default display is going to provide enough differentiation for the iWatch to appeal in that regard? I have a hard time seeing it; further, the more popular the watch becomes, the less it appeals to this market.The other issue, of course, is the "companies have no issues selling them" statement. First, yes, they do have issues. There's still market competition, they don't operate in a vacuum, they're not completely exempt from it. Second is the size of that market. If Apple were to move the same number of units as the luxury watch market, the iWatch would be an abysmal failure.
FunBunny2 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
-- First, there are LOTS of watches that cost well over $600, and all they do is tell time.Virtually all have been, and are, crafts made mechanical watches. The kind of thing that you hand down to your kid. Watch is a disposable trinket.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Go price a Movado or Tissot stainless steel watch. These aren't heirlooms. They are made from the same $12 quartz watch movements as a Timex, yet sell for hundreds of dollars, even more than $1000 in some cases.johnnycanadian - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"Selling out"? Yes, the reviewer states that the AW is the best wearable to date, but he still "finds it hard to recommend this first generation Apple Watch". Seems fair to me, but please don't let that muddy your "OMG ANYTHING APPLE IS TEH SUCK!!1!1!11!" bias.darwinosx - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
High school kid.Devo2007 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Given that they received both the sport band and the Milanese loop (note "received" and not "bought"), you know they had to give a positive review. Anything less would have Apple PR threatening to block Anandtech from future press events or review samples.KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Pretty much every reviewer, including Nilay Patel, got the Sport plus one band of his or her choice, usually the Milanese, Link, or Leather Loop band. Also, this review is out about 3 months after the other major sites, so it isn't like they got priority or anything like that.Devo2007 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
My point is that it was a review unit that it appears they got to keep (they've had the watch for months).Sorry, but it simply reads like a love letter to Apple, and while some flaws are mentioned, pretty much any other wearable would have been slammed for it. Here, it's a "version 1.0 thing"
S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Congratulations for a comment filled with nothing but absolute and complete horse-shit, and for making yourself look like a complete moron to anyone who isn't an insane troll like you.Faked screen resolution? Huge bezels? Insufficient battery? Oversized vibration motor? Kids version? This is the first time I ever hear a single of these creative "complaints", probably cause you pulled them straight out of your ass.
anomalydesign - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The aspect I'd like to see further discussed is the price. Is there enough functionality in this to justify it costing more than your smartphone in many cases? The functionality/price ratio has been an issue for the existing android wearables, and those generally cost 1/3 as much, or less (while offering strikingly similar functionality).I can't help but think that the high price point Apple picked was partly to address the abandonment issue you mentioned. If you pay $600 for something you're much more likely to make a point of using it than if you paid $100 for the same item. Even still, after everyone was spotted wearing Apple watches the first week or so they were out, it seems like if anything there are fewer in the public eye now than then. Slow adoption is OK, but declining adoption is a bad thing.
p_giguere1 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The functionality/price ratio is pretty much meaningless if we don't perceive this as a pure tech device, but rather a tech/fashion hybrid. Fashion is pretty much the opposite of cost-effectiveness, but it's also something most people value (to different extent).Maximizing that ratio would most likely mean making the device not fashionable at all, and therefore not appealing to the non-nerdy demographic. The key is finding the right balance to please most people. Most people are totally willing to sacrifice some of the functionality/price ratio for fashionability.
If what Apple wanted was to provide a good functionality/price ratio, the current aluminum (low-end) model would probably be the high-end model, and they'd offer a plastic model as the low-end. They don't because then people would perceive it more as a gadget and less as fashion accessory/jewel.
While the functionality/price ratio could definitely be discussed, I don't think it should be measured like maximizing is objectively good. Making it pretty low is actually likely what will contribute to the Apple Watch's success. Beats by Dre probably wouldn't be the best-selling high-end headphones either if they targeted a high functionality/price ratio.
FunBunny2 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
-- The functionality/price ratio is pretty much meaningless if we don't perceive this as a pure tech device, but rather a tech/fashion hybrid.But it isn't a tech device. An old X-term has more brains than the Watch.
extide - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
You do a disservice to real high end headphone by calling Beats by Dre 'high end', lol.Guspaz - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
My iPhone cost $950, the Apple Watch costs $350. I didn't buy an Apple Watch, but it wasn't because of the price. It was because the first-gen product seemed like it needed a few more revisions.That said, the sport should have a sapphire screen, and the bands should be much more affordable, but still, cost wasn't the reason I didn't buy.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
My guess is that if GTAT didn't go under they would all have sapphire crystals.Shadowmaster625 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
OMG it taps your wrist when you get a notification. I will never ever have to miss an important txt ever again. I am going to rush out right now and plunk down $600 for this, and another $800 for an iphone so I can use it.Just kidding. Who are you frickin kidding? $1400 for a wrist tap. lol. How about this? If I'm expecting an important call or message, I will look at my phone more often. And NOT spend $1400 doing it.
Stuka87 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
If you don't want to live in the 21st century, but all means, don't. Smart phones are used by the majority of the population on earth, but nobody is forcing you to use one. Feel free to spend your money elsewhere.But it should be noted, VERY few smart phone owners pay the retail price.
BMNify - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
What?? Almost all smartphone owners pay Full retail price for unlocked phones throughout the World, not everyone is a Slave to the carriers like in the USA.Guspaz - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
US, Canada, UK, France, Australia, Singapore, all have major carriers doing phone subsidies. Not every country does, but many (most?) do.Ronald Hummelink - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
In most markets these days these 'subsidies' are finance constructs. You repay the loan through the higher subscription fee. Evidence of that is many of these markets offer 'sim only' contracts significantly cheaper than bundled deals.Kristian Vättö - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Exactly. The 16GB iPhone 6 is $649 in the US without a contract.Guspaz - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
What's the difference? They try to gussy them up and give them fancy names like "tabs", but they're just contracts by another name. THe only difference is they don't have a fixed length.The government (CRTC) didn't buy it either, and in the wireless code that sets the maximum amount of time before the balance owing (after which the ETF/ECF must reach zero) after 24 months, they simply defined these "tabs" as "contracts of indeterminate length", and applied the same 24-month restriction to them.
hughlle - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
But are they subsidising the phone, or the service? I bought my HTC on contract, and however you look at it, I've now paid out more than the retail cost of the phone. In my mind it is the service that they are subsidising, not the phone.extide - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
That doesnt even make sense, how could the carrier subsidize the service? They are subsidizing the phone by charging you extra for wireless service. The thing is that they never drop the price of your contract, so even after you have repaid the cost of the phone, you are still paying that higher price.Imagine if you bought the phone at TMobile who DOES have a lower service price when you do not get a subsidized phone. Say you also get a small loan to pay for the phone (T-Mo does this) -- once that 'loan' is paid off -- your monthly bill effectively goes down as you are just paying for the service.
Manch - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I keep my phone in my front pocket. If I get a text or what not the vibration tickles me downstairs a bit to let me know....relentlessfocus - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I bought my AppleWatch out of curiosity though I was dubious about functionality, unenthusiastic about the physical design and unsure if I'd find it comfortable to wear as I hadn't worn a watch in decades and since getting a smartphone I saw no particular need to wear a device for telling time. I bought a space grey sport and bought a green plastic band.Almost immediately I liked wearing the watch as a fashion item. YMMV but once I was wearing it I liked how it looked. As I work out a lot on a rowing machine I hoped the heart rate monitor could replace my Polar HRM. To an extent it has. When comparing the read outs from both in a steady state situation my readings are within 1-2 bpm. The watch does take 15 seconds or so to get a reading while the Polar Band seems instantaneous. The band of the AppleWatch has to be worn tighter than normal to get a good reading. Occasionally the AppleWatch gives a totally false reading for awhile then jumps back to accurate readings. Calorie burn comes out almost identical to Concept2 readings plugged into their calorie counter.
ApplePay has just come to the UK and I'm eager to try that out when my bank joins at the end of the month. Some of the inbuilt functionality does minimise friction of my use of my iPhone reducing the number of times I have to pull my phone out of my pocket. Agree that's a first world problem but I do live a first world hectic lifestyle.
Despite the rant of JJJ below I like my watch and I'm happy I bought it. I don't think it's a must buy for most people, it's a convenience at the moment not a necessity. I do think that wearables have a strong future. Biometric sensors are bound to become more sophisticated, GPS receivers smaller, and a range of use cases unimagined today likely to arise.
mrdude - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"Although we don't have an objective battery life test, the Apple Watch never failed to last a full day, and charge time is acceptable although nowhere as fast as something with wired fast charging. This sounds like a relatively short comment, and it's because I sincerely never worried about battery life. Range anxiety just isn't a problem like it is on smartphones."That's precisely why this is a very poor watch -- and even smart watch, for that matter. Battery life should be roughly a week and not a single day.
Up until a year ago, I never wore a watch. Now I can't go without it. I left the house without it on once and felt like I wasn't wearing any underpants. The only reason I began wearing one was due to work, and more succinctly because I couldn't pull out my cell phone whenever I felt like (hospital setting). A smart watch would be perfect for me, as I could potentially use it as a regular watch, and also access/read messages beaming from my phone... except 'dat battery. The apple watch turns off the display *way* too quickly and still suffers from very poor battery life. Further, as an independent device it's practically useless.
I really dislike this review. It's not so much that the technical aspects aren't discussed, and done so well, it's just that the practicality is practically ignored. And that ultimately is why this is a pointless device. My use case isn't a corner case either but rather the epitome of a perfect scenario for this device: a phone-away-from-phone that could offer a "smart" device while still maintaining the practicality of a watch. This isn't it. It does neither. And for other use cases, one can make the argument of why not just use your phone in the first place?
Kjella - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
With no offense, I find your expectations unrealistic. If you want a smartphone strapped to your wrist - particularly one lasting a week as few phones do - it's going to have the weight and volume too. I actually expected it to be more like a smartphone wrist accessory like a bluetooth headset, not less. If they want this to work better, they should do more to make the smartphone the "cell tower" and the watch the "cell phone" part of the relationship as another 50g in my pocket would be fine if I need to drag it out less. Maybe have less ambition about performance and concentrate on simple 2D graphics for notifications at a lower cost. But in the end, their primary customers are those who are saying "Watch? WTF do I need a watch for, that's so 20th century." Because it's going to be a sucky "normal" watch even if they do all that and more.mrdude - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I don't want a smartphone strapped to my wrist. It's a watch first, and should therefore handle being a watch first and foremost with no troubles. The additional functionality should come without compromising the fact that this is a watch. The Apple Watch doesn't do that, and I fear it's going to be more than a single generation to get there.Kjella, this is a separate device from your phone. It should add functionality while still being a watch. This doesn't do 'watch' well at all. In fact, it's a horrendous watch. It's stylish, and it can fetch messages from your phone, sure. But it lacks the ease of use and the battery life is horrendous. It doesn't need to last a month, but roughly a week and shouldn't require a dumb hand motion or click of a button to do its main job. Remember: it's a watch.
PeteoBos - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Rember is a SMART watch. If I wanted just a watch i could buy a $2 watch. I get filtered notifications on my wrist. I want to seen when the next bus is coming before heading to the bus stop. I want to see where I am on a topo map while kayaking or hiking with my phone in a safe place. I want track my workouts, my heart rate, how many calories i'm burning. I want to be able to quickly reply to a Txt I actually see on my watch and not miss it because i never feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I want to be-able to pick up a phone call from my wife when I am in my house and do not have the phone next to be because I'm paying attention to my daughter instead of staring at a Dam phone screen all day.mrdude - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Just don't expect to do that throughout the day and then also tell the time on the way home, because it'll be dead. And during your daily routine, the "watch" will tell you the time provided you only need to look at it for a fraction of a second.See the problem? Watch first, then the rest. Instead, Apple did a smartphone accessory under the guise of being a watch.
ingwe - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Kind of agree. The thing is that there are a lot of tradeoffs to make when designing something this small. The less "smart" it is, the less you can charge for it. The more "smart" it is, the harder it is to achieve any kind of reasonable battery life. I think they picked a point on the smart vs battery life curve that I am not interested in, but I that doesn't mean it is a wrong choice. It just isn't what I want. Especially not at that price tag, but that is kind of a separate issue to me.I should probably note that I am including screen capabilities in my definition of smart.
liuping - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
A Fraction of the second? have you actually used the watch?When looking you tilt the watch to check the time, the screen stays on for 7 seconds before the screen turns off. 7 seconds is long enough for me to read the time, check my next appointment and see if any notifications have arrived. If I need more time I can touch the screen.
Also, I use my Apple watch all day and have not had any issue with the battery. It's has always over 40% at the end of the day when I place it in the charger.
PeteoBos - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
do you own one? I think not. I do those all the time and it easily lasts a day. An ifs a GREAT Watch. its fine if you dont "like" it or think its practical, but i get allot of real world use out of it and love it. just like the anand reviewer.Daniel Egger - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Sounds like you should get a Pebble Steel.BoberFett - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I've only read reviews, no personal experience, but I believe the LG G Watch is supposed to have an always on display while also lasting 1+ days. If the Apple can only do one day while having it's display off 95% of the time, Apple failed there.KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The LG watch is bigger and has a bigger battery. I haven't seen it live, but I did see a Moto 360 in person on Friday. It looks like a hockey puck strapped to your wrist. I couldn't wear one. But I like my 38mm Apple Watch. It's a good size.PeteoBos - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Battery life has not (for the most part) been an issue for me. It lasts a day most of the time including using the heart rate monitor during workouts (around 1 hour a day) I just plop it on the charger when I plug my phone in at night. Its really no issue at all. Only time it cant last is when i'm going on a 4-8 hour hike. at that point i just charge it when i get home or if its a multi day hike I have a small, very light battery pack that can charge my phone and watch 2 times. You are not going to find a heart rate monitor that lasts much more then a day or 2 that is also a smart watch. I use the watch to look @ topo's while I'm hiking so I know where I am.. I know this is hard to believe for allot of andad readers, but the Watch has been great and very useful device for me.Qwertilot - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Getting information (compass, grid ref etc) while walking non trivial distances definitely seems to be one of the things where smart watches have a fairly clear cut use case. Or even normal watches come to that :)(Even the Apple watches seem to start slightly cheaper than the dedicated GPS watches which will actually give you a grid ref.).
LongTimePCUser - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The Fitbit Charge HR reads heart rate continuously and counts steps and floors climbed continuously. It also tracks sleep.The battery lasts 3 - 4 days. A week would be better. But 3-4 days is acceptable.
A watch that dies in few hours if you turn on heart rate monitor is just not useful. You certainly can't track your sleep patterns if you have to charge it over night.
PeteoBos - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Fitbit Charge HR is an activity tracker and cant do the myriad of things of things my apple watch can. for some people that will be fine, for me i want a smart watchQwertilot - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
If you're walking the sorts of distances that keen walkers are, you really don't need an activity tracker because you already know its much more than enough :)name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"That's precisely why this is a very poor watch -- and even smart watch"Your comment is as idiotic as when RIM's CEO was claiming that the iPhone sucked because it was a lousy phone...
The iPhone is a POCKET COMPUTER that was initially marketed (but not DESIGNED) as a cell phone so that people would understand the value proposition. Once people DID understand the value proposition, it was allowed to blossom into its full computer-hood.
The Apple Watch is a WRIST COMPUTER that is marketed (but not designed) as a watch, once again to show people the value proposition. And within a year or two, once agains as the value proposition is understood, the watch part will recede into the background and it will be allowed to blossom into its full computer-hood. Apple seems to be running the schedule faster with aWatch than with iPhone (WatchOS2 is already exposing more of the computer-hood) but this may be limited to the geek sector --- the real turning point will be when they change the focus of the advertising from watch issues to more general things, and we may still be a year or so from that.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Technology isn't there yet. If Apple wanted it to last a week, they could make a Pebble, but then everyone would complain that it doesn't do anything. It easily lasts 24 hours for me (it could probably go 30 hours most of the time). I charge it less often than my iPhone or iPad.Ryan Smith - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
For the sake of transparency, two comments have been deleted.I need to be very clear here: in our comments section we do not allow profanity, and we do not allow threats of violence (even if they are exaggerated for effect). Please be civil.
tipoo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I wish there was a comment ranking system so if we chose, we could not display the comments from a lot of the clowns that have popped up lately.johnnycanadian - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
It could be a lot worse: Anandtech could use Kinja.jabber - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The Apple Watch - great for telling you loads of pointless stuff about your daily routine you or anyone else really didn't need to know.Owls - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Is the reviewer for real? How stupid would it be trying to look at email on your watch when you have a much better device in your pocket?wc2000 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I thought the same until using it. It would not be worth it if you receive fewer than 3 or 4 msgs per day, or don't care about fitness tracking. I use both and am a convert.liuping - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I have it set so only email from VIP contact show up on the Watch. It's actually super useful. I can read the first bit of the email and decide if I need to read the rest right now or can get to it later.Same with message. It is surprisingly handy to get them without pulling out my phone.
Cygni - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Is this poster for real? How stupid would it be trying to look at email on your tiny phone when you're bound to be at a desktop computer all day?Lord of the Bored - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
What I took from the review:Blahblah watches are terrible UNTIL NOW! yaddayadda Apple makes the watch something you can love instead of something you simply cannot abide!
Also: Proprietary watch straps! But it's a good thing! We swear!
Really? Proprietary WATCH STRAPS? And straps that slide in from the side at that...
I can't wait for the droves of people whose strap keeps backing out. And the further droves of people explaining how it's a user failure and not a serious design flaw.
liuping - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The straps lock in place, they can't slide out accidentally. It's actually a very nice design.You can also buy third party adapters that allow you to use any standard 22mm watch strap with the Apple Watch. I use a nice leather strap most of the time, but the Apple sports strap during workouts. Switching straps takes just seconds.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
There is a button on the body that you need to press in order to release the band. It won't slide off automatically.Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Ah. That makes a huge difference, and I retract the complaint.As near as I could tell, it was a simple spring-latch rig, and you can understand where I was curious what people were going to say when the latch springs started sagging.
Joschka77 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
are you really trying to tell me, that Apple has gotten right what nobody in the whole watch making industry (including the likes of Breitling, Rolex, Tag Heuer, ....etc) hasn´t succeded in doing?"The ergonomic annoyances involved with wearing a wristwatch" have always been a nuisance to you, but Apple "on the other hand doesn’t suffer from discomfort issues at all, and in this regard, Apple has arguably pushed the industry forward"???
the whole watch making industry?
are you serious??????
wperry - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
That stuck out in my mind as well: an admitted non-wearer of watches commenting on how the watch industry has been pushed forward. Yikes. It's like someone with a bus pass making declarative statements on the third car they've driven.mrdude - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
All the while using the same band that reviewers have pointed out has a tendency to detach if it gets caught while pulling/putting your hands into/from your pockets.This really is one of the worst reviews I've ever read on AnandTech.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I have that band and have not had any issues with it detaching.wc2000 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I think it's pretty hard (or at least not standard) to find straps as good as these below $500 (and assuming you value the smart technology as worth more than $0, that means the Apple watch is indeed pushing the industry). I've owned a few $300 to $500 watches and have found them uncomfortable.p_giguere1 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The thing is that even "watch guys" are saying Apple's pushing the watch band industry forward.For instance: http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-...
"There is nothing that comes close to the fluidity, attention to detail, or simple build quality found on the Apple Watch in this price bracket."
"[...] the attention to detail on the straps and bracelets themselves is downright incredible, and when I mentioned above that nothing comes close in this price range, it is very visible when talking about straps."
"It is much nicer than any leather strap I've ever felt on a $350 analog watch."
"This "loop" style bracelet is just fantastic, and unlike the bracelet on my Omega, it just works. It's magnetized and you can close it at any size. It is light to wear, but substantial, and feels fantastic on the wrist. How does it compare to this nice Tissot with a similar bracelet? Switzerland, you don't want to know."
"In many cases, its offerings make what is coming out of Switzerland (or Asia) look amateurish."
I think you guys shouldn't underestimate Apple's ability to make good watches based on the fact other guys have been making them for longer. Remember what was said about the original iPhone?
Joschka77 above sounds a lot like Ed Colligan (Palm's CEO) in 2006: "We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
How's Palm doing now?
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I've worn watches since I was 7 (I'm 39). The band mechanism on the Apple Watch definitely has the "why didn't anyone think of this before" feel to it.name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Why do you find this so hard to understand?Donald Norman write a book in 1988 called the Design of Everyday Things which is one long rant about how badly designed is almost everything we encounter every day, from doors to faucets to toasters. It's fascinating reading it today, 25 years later, to see
(a) how aggressively Apple has followed most of what he says. (Obviously he does not talk about specifically smartphones or smart watches, but he discusses general usability principles)
(b) how little the rest of the market has been affected by his insights. Doors still suck Faucets still suck. Toasters still suck (and are dangerous as hell).
So why is it at all startling that Apple is the one company that can design a watch strap that doesn't suck?
Hell it's not just the watch strap. The crown on these $15,000 and higher watches ALSO sucks. I know someone with one of those fancy watches, with 7 diamonds floating in it and all that, and it is an utter freaking pain every daylight savings change because trying to reset the time with the crown is such a hassle --- trying to pull out this tiny little bobble on the side of the watch, then rotate it the precise amount. When Apple first showed us the digital crown I was terrified of the implications, because EVERY analog crown I have ever dealt with sucked. Fortunately I didn't need to worry --- Apple adopted the appearance of the crown, but (like the strap) actually put some freaking thought into how to make it pleasant to use.
KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Yes. I swap out my Apple Watch bands several times a week with ease. I replaced my bands in my regular watches with lots of difficulty every year or so.sor - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
You can't post a non-committally positive review about Apple Watch, you must be selling out. I decided way in advance that the whole watch idea was stupid, and it is still stupid, so this review is stupid. Who would pay this price just to read time on a tiny little screen?...am I doin' it rite guys?
wc2000 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The watch is a luxury product. It probably doesn't make sense for a person/household making much less than $150k per year.KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Joanna Stern gave a "not now but later" recommendation for the Apple Watch. Since it seems to have more appeal to non-techie buyers, they may be less concerned about obsolescence. The original iPod was $399. I can see someone buying it now under the assumption that there will be a better version in a year or two. The bands will likely be interchangeable.tipoo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I was excited for this mainly for ATs S1 analysis, was curious what was going on in that chip.piasabird - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I have not worn a watch in like 5 years or so. That is why God invented the Smart phone.tipoo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The steel one always looks pretty scuffed up in the short time reviewers have it. Seems just like the steel iPod backs that would gain scratches if you breathed on them wrong.KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
316L stainless steel scratches. I've worn stainless steel watches for years and they are all scuffed up after a few years. You can buff them out once in a while.tipoo - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
The Moto 360 uses 316L steel, the issue is how it's finished, not the steel itself.name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
And leather distresses. And printing fades. And copper tarnishes.You will never be happy in life if you insist on fighting the natural behavior of materials. Sane people delight in the wear of their jeans, they don't cry over the fact that the denim is fading (and worse, fading unevenly)...
weevilone - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Onto my wife's car seat no less.. :-(fred deer - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Anandtech has put their Apple buttkissing into overdrive now that Anand works for them.Where is the objectivity Anandtech was once famous for? Why does Anandtech feel the need to make excuses for Apples shortcomings? They only do this for Apple products. Here are two examples, the watch is slow, but we know Apple will improve this. The apps aren't very good but they'll get better over time. You suck Appletech.Smog35 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The price is steep to finger this.KPOM - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
So I see the anti-Apple crowd is out in force here. It's interesting to see a tech reviewer with a mostly positive view. A Wristly survey seems to show that non-techie people like the Watch better than techie people. Perhaps it's because they see the Watch for what it is, and aren't judging it solely as a tech product.At the same time, it's good to get an AnandTech view, since they are very good at addressing the limitations of the technology and giving us a sense of what we can reasonably expect for the future. Move this to a 14nm process, or even a 10nm process in a few years, and the Watch may be a lot more fluid and last even longer.
Impulses - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I appreciate having an AT review of the Watch, regardless of tone, if nothing else because they'll be more meticulous than almost any other site so it'll actually be worth reading even if I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion.My only quibble is that there seems to be multiple allusions to other wearables but they're never directly compared or even mentioned. I realize that the iOS buyer that's thinking of getting an Apple Watch is probably not cross shopping much but still...
Any other wearable review will surely feature plenty of direct comparison to the Watch. There's things that work very differently across the field, but even when it comes to highly subjective things like fit there ARE points of comparison.
For instance, something like the distance from strap lug to lug can vary greatly independently of actual watch size and it's something casual blog reviews don't really pay attention to.
dusk007 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I think the anit-AppleWatch vibe is strong with how many posts are phrased here but still there is some truth in it. The reviewer only mentioned the rather old Moto 360 as a state of the art comparison. Nothing about the 42mm diameter Huawei watch that looks really good and much better than the moto 360 which was first to market but is old tech today. G watch R and what they are all called.I love AT reviews about chip architectures and stuff, but where Apple is concerned they always had quite bit lacking in objectivity I feel. Maybe a Huawei Watch review will balance the scales.
Personally I still don't see this device really taking root outside of the die hard Fanboys and tech geek crowd. I have read a few reviews but a wrist watch is still a bother (I never found one uncomfortable just annoying), the Apple one is especially expensive and they seem to solve little that needs solving. It is nonessential, a bit of a techy toy and expensive, I don't see it taking off. iPhones are subsidiced, ipads are family devices, that justifies the cost. For the watch I don't see the big market that whole smartwatch industry is hoping for.
SR22pilot - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Data says non-techies are happier than techies. My experience backs it up. My girlfriend loves hers. It has taken longer for it to grow on me. It isn't an iPad that entertains. Apple Watch reduces your time consumed with technology. As for the review, my disagreement is with the statement that heart rate doesn't belong on a glance. My girlfriend had a heart issue and loves having heart rate easily accessible.JoshDouble - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
The Huawei Watch hasn't been released yet. "According to He Gang, an executive from Huawei’s smartphone division, it’s the Android Wear platform that’s causing problems. The company is adapting Android Wear to work without Google’s services in China, where they aren’t available, and to adopt Huawei’s suite of apps instead. It’s a time-consuming and highly technical operation, and has forced Huawei to push the release date until September at the earliest."Haters are gonna hate it, but Apple has nailed it once again and is already dominating this new market.
dusk007 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
To not have the fragmentation problems, Google from the start did not allow any skinning of Android Wear. I see how that might be an issue for Huawei. But from a pure hardware perspective it is the prettiest device I have seen.Daniel Egger - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
> So I see the anti-Apple crowd is out in force here. It's interesting to see a tech reviewer with a mostly positive view. A Wristly survey seems to show that non-techie people like the Watch better than techie people. Perhaps it's because they see the Watch for what it is, and aren't judging it solely as a tech product.That's exactly what I don't understand: The Apple Watch is a horrible watch (actually not much different from pretty much any other smartwatch on the market...). Two items are essential for *any* item which wants to be coined a watch: Decent battery life and permanent readability. The Pebble gets very close to that; anything else is simply a complete failure.
Call the Apple Watch a status symbol, a geek tool, a toy, jewelry ... but please not a watch.
tipoo - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"I’ve never really used a fitness tracker that keeps track of something as simple as standing time, which seems like an obvious metric to track as soon as you start using the fitness functions of the watch because sitting for extended periods of time can have significant effects on health regardless of how much exercise you do. "I don't really get this aspect of the Apple Watch's fitness part. It makes you stand for a total of minutes more per day, you could fill that entire bar while still sitting most of the time, like I suspect most people would still be doing in office jobs and such. Would that really make a difference? Everyone knows sitting too much is bad, but how can standing for a minute per hour or whatever make any difference?
liuping - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I use the stand alert as a reminder to get up from my desk for a few minutes, not just stand up and sit back down. I usually walk over and get a drink, visit a coworker, etc.It's surprising how without the reminder, I can easily go for 4-5 hours without getting up from my desk.
devione - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Hahaha wow.I own a couple of watches. I have a Zenith El Primero Striking Tenth Edition, a Rolex Submariner, a Suunto Core Brushed Steel, a Casio ProTrek PRW2500 and PRX7000 Mansulu, and old GShock I've had since I was 12 (I'm 24 now) which probably started my love affair with watches.
Until a smart watch can replace any of the above in terms of functionality, durability, usability and style, I'll stay clear of them. Especially at these ridiculous prices.
Take it from a watch aficionado, stay away from these until they're actually capable enough to be a standalone smartphone replacement and get a real watch (and no, Panerais don't count).
devione - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Manaslu*Sorry, correction.
FoolsErrend - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Anandtech. How far you have fallen.How much did Apple have to pay you for this "review" ?
hughlle - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Wow, really grasping at straws to try and put some positive spin on things.mkozakewich - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The funny thing is that no-one was trying to make watches until three or four years ago when the first rumours floated around of Apple making a watch. Apple is known as a company that will design things until they work, instead of throwing out half-baked products. In the last couple years, we saw some really horrible products, and last year there were some okay products with weird drawbacks. There's a reason all of those hastily-released watches were flawed. In three years, we'll look back and realize that modern on-wrist computing only really started with the Apple Watch.tuxfool - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
This is a complete fabrication. Even the Pebble wasn't the first attempt at a smartwatch.Impulses - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Don't fight it, RDF is engaged at 100% capacity.[email protected] - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
you are so ignorant... search for "android watch phone" , tons of them will pop up that are truly watch phonesDaniel Egger - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Watch Battery Life < 7d: Not acceptable. Period.name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Regarding ARMv7k, check out the following story:http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/09/support-for-q...
Note the date --- Sept 2011. Further evidence that Apple plans these things a LONG time in advance,
(Relative to which, it is interesting to note that over the past month there has been a flurry of activity by Apple people on working LLVM targeting M-class processors. Maybe Apple are planning more IoT peripherals in a few years, or maybe they want to stick a small MPU in every Beats headset for some reason?
Or maybe they are moving from whatever they use today for PMU and sensor fusion on iOS/Watch to an M-class core?)
hlovatt - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
First, thanks for a great review. Excellent to have such detail.I don't wear a watch so won't be getting one. However I know 4 owners who are all very happy. They all previously owned smart watches, Garmin, Pebble, Fitbiz, etc. and universally prefer the Apple Watch. The tap thing sounds like a gimmick, but just try it - it's really well done.
Gripe: If you hate Apple so much that you can't be rational just leave Anandtech. There are plenty of places were you can have a mutual we hate Apple session. You are spoiling the site for others who want to discuss tech. If you prefer some other product just buy it, don't sling insults at others that disagree with you. Get real the reviewers said they wouldn't recommend the 1st gen device and you go off saying they have sold out etc. Totally unfair to them.
name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
While investigating the CPU details in interesting (and thanks!!! for doing this) I think it's important to appreciate that the CPU is probably the least important thing about aWatch performance as it matters to the average person.There are IMHO three primary performance problems with aWatch today:
(a) There is far too little caching (in a very generic sense) so that third party apps (and some interactions with Apple apps) require communicating with iPhone. Much of this will disappear with WatchOS2; some of it may be an inevitable fact of life regarding how BT LE works and, in particular, the minimum possible latency when one side wants to talk to the other. But it's also possible that this latency could be reduced in future versions of BT by changing the rendezvous algorithm?
(b) The touch screen controller (I assume to save power) only seems to take initial sensor reading at around twice a second. The result is that the first time you touch the screen to scroll, there is an obvious halting until the system sort of "gets it" and starts smoothly scrolling. This is obviously a touch screen issue because using the digital crown (when that is feasible, so for vertical rather than horizontal scrolling) acts immediately and smoothly. The fix, presumably, is to ramp up the rate at which the touch screen controller does its initial sensing, but who knows what the power implications of that are.
(c) The heart rate sensor is on "full-time" (which means, I don't know, sensing once every 10 seconds?) when you are in the Workout app, but otherwise runs at a really low rate (once every ten minutes?) At least the way I use my aWatch, I'd prefer a higher rate.
I'm guessing that Apple was overly cautious about battery life in WatchOS1, and now that most people understand what to expect, and have about 40% battery at the end of the day, they can afford to bump up the sampling rates for all these different things (touch screen, heart rate, maybe even BT LE) and if that moves the battery life down to 20% battery at the end of the day, that's a pretty good tradeoff.
But nowhere in any of this is CPU performance actually an issue. I can't think of anywhere where CPU or GPU performance affect the experience.
name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
A few comments about fitness:The primary thing using the Workout app does, as far as I can tell, is switch to ongoing (rather than coarse) monitoring of heart rate and position, which is useful but not essential. However it DOES also give you a nice display of whatever you consider important. My Pebble used to kinda sorta track steps and thus calories, but the fact that the watch tracks and displays heart rate on the Workout app screen is actually really useful. With the Pebble I'd kinda slack off when doing a run or step climbing being that's only natural, but when your heart rate is displayed you have more incentive to keep pushing.
The workout app is also nice if you're trying to hit your calorie burn goal every day. If you get to say 10pm or so and are 150 calories short, you can set a calorie goal (rather than say a time goal or a distance goal) and then just start stepping while watching TV or whatever.
Two useful facts to know (which I don;t think you mention). You can launch Workout (or any app) through "Hey Siri launch workout" rather than navigating to the app screen. (It's also useful to know that Hey Siri as a way to start speech ONLY works when the screen is lit up. If you don't know this, it's maddening at first as half the time it seems to work and half the time it doesn't.
Also double-clicking the digital crown toggles between the most recent app and the watch face. I use it a lot to toggle between watch and workout.
Finally most readers are probably young and think the stand up stuff is dumb or pointless. It really isn't, at least for older people. I've got to the stage where, when I stand up I can feel a kind of stiffness in the muscles, you know that old person sigh when you get up. And I've found that since getting the watch and heeding the stand notices, that has pretty much disappeared --- it really does help older muscles to not get locked into no motion for two or more hours.
(Also if you find the standing irritating, it's worth noting that the watch wants you to stand for a full minute, with some motion. At first I just used to stand then pretty much immediately sit down. That's not good enough and it won;t give you credit for that. But if you stand and pace for a minute or so, it will always give a little ding and reward you with credit for the stand.)
The one thing I wish (there is so much we can all want them to add to WatchOS2 and then WatchOS3) is a data broadcast mechanism. In particular, if the workout data could be displayed simultaneously on a phone (placed near a TV or on a step machine control panel) that would be much more comfortable than having to flick the wrist every minute or so to check one's heartbeat. Oh well, in time...
navysandsquid - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I've never seen such a butthurt bunch of people. Almost every review on the internet give the apple watch a favorable review. Maybe you guys should stop letting you hate consume you. Anandtech has done one of the most indepth review of the apple watch. Which they do with most products. If you don't like apple products don't read the reviews. Your pathetic for even comments such ignorant things like "Watch under 9 days of battery life is unacceptable" Like please name a watch device with this much capability that runs longer then a couple days. oh wait you cant. I've had the watch for about 2 months and this review is spot on weather you like apple or not. Anandtech is a good review site. So just look in the mirror and say "Why do I hate them so much" Let me answer that for you. You don't like paying for what you get. Wait let me rephrase that. you do like paying for what you get your just to cheap to pay for quality. so p1ss of and buy yours self a Samsung smart watch for 149$ and let it collect dust lol I'm donename99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"Glances are well-executed and a useful feature, but I don’t really get the point of integrating heart rate monitoring into a glance or similar cases of app information"The authors appear unaware that you can customize glances. Go to the Watch app on iPhone and look around. You can both hide glances you find unimportant, and rearrange those that you want to use. Once you've done this, you can basically prioritize so that the most important stuff is in complications, while second tier stuff lives in glances, and third tier stuff requires an app launch.
name99 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
"Moving on to the saturation test, we can see that Apple has put a huge amount of effort into calibrating these displays, which is somewhat surprising given that one might expect wearables to not be all that critical when it comes to color accuracy."A persistent (and STILL not fixed) problem with the Apple ecosystem is that the faces of contacts display slightly differently on OSX vs iOS. There are outright bugs in the system (.psd photoshop files get incorrectly cropped on iOS, and different gamma is applied on OSX and iOS) but these may be fixed with the new Contacts framework of iOS9/OSX 10.11.
Point is --- your eye is actually remarkable sensitive to these apparently very slight deviations, at least when it comes to faces. So it makes sense for Apple to line up their hardware so that when they (at LONG FREAKING LAST!) get their software act together, the face photos do look identical across the line.
(And BTW how long will we have to keep typing in triples like iOS10/OSX 10.12/WatchOS3? At some point, and I think we're reaching that point, it's time to just refer to AppleOS 2015 followed by AppleOS 2016 followed by ...)
aryonoco - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
I am not an Apple hater, and I am very curious in the Apple Watch and the whole wearables category. However I agree with those who say that this review was below Anandtech's standards. Overly wordy, with too little information. I don't think I have ever said this about an Anandtech review before, but after reading this, I really don't think I learned a single thing that I didn't know going into the review.whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Without wanting to "pile on," I agree that this review could have been 1/3 the length, and 3x as helpful. I usually look to AT for the "best" review of any mobile device, but I would not say that is the case with this particular review. Most other Apple Watch reviews I've read have been more useful. (I think it comes down to editing.)nrencoret - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
+1 on that. I think you nailed the fact that Anandtech's succes is after reading an article, you always come out at the end a bit (or a lot in some cases) smarter. This review breaks the trend.JoshHo - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
It would be great to get specific instances of overly wordy areas, and information that you have learned elsewhere that is redundant in the review to improve our wearable reviews going forward.Blairh - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
As an iPhone user I think the notifications aspect of the AW would be very appealing, but Apple is asking for too much money for such a luxury. And I'm talking about the Sport models. The SS models are ridiculously expensive. It's no surprise that roughly 3/4 of all AW sales have been the Sport models. Seriously you are nuts IMO to buy the SS model unless you have money to burn. Plus I think the Sport models are just nicer looking in general. And lighter to boot.Anyways, this review highlights a current glaring weakness which is the inability to respond to IM 3rd party apps directly on the AW. If you use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger often as I do you are SOL if you want to respond with your AW right now. Perhaps this will change with the 2.0 update come fall, but still, right now this is really only ideal if you main communication is the messages app. Email is another story as there are several 3rd party email clients that offer voice dictation.
I'm waffling between an AW and the Vivosmart. The Vivosmart won't let me reply to any notifications from my wrist however it's a third of the price of the 38mm AW and feels awesome on your wrist.
I do believe in the future of the AW, but right now its got a lot of glaring holes to fill.
nrencoret - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
The worst article I've ever read on this site by miles. Too many words for nothing insightful. What I find here is a desperate struggle to justify what cannot be justified. As a person who loves the site's content I'm stumped by the horrible mess I have just read just a few points:- Apple has "solved" how a watch has to fit like no other company, traditional (ie. Rolex) or tech focused. That is a simply mindboggling statement.
- The UI/UX is great. The Apple mouse and the iPhone have just one primary button for interacting. The crown, side button and force touch trilogy are the work of a comitee which couldn't settle for a simple means of interacting with a piece of technology. What Apple is best known for is how great they are at removing complexity -"just works" and "boom" come to mind- the reviewers were far to forgiving to all the usabily issues (ie. force touch discoverability). These would have been major issues on any other piece of technology.
- Understanding what it is you get for your money: If you own a jewel like a watch or ring its timeless and has an intangible value. The watch can cost a pretty penny for something that has no better hardware than whats out there. There is no inherent intangible value in the watch because as has been stated in the review there will be future iterations of it, killing the timeles argument. As such, this watch is a piece of technology not jewelery and thus, its way overpriced. Lets just see how many dads give their sons Apple Watches and how those sons give them to theirr own.
- Battery life of a single day for a timepiece is not even remotely acceptable. The Basis Peak, Fitbits and Pebbles may not be as smart but they nail the basic concept of a a time keeping device must do.
- Nowhere was there a real argument of how the current incarnation of the watch is mostly useless without being tethered. Basis Peak comes to mind as how useful a device can be with our without tether.
I could go on, given the amount of sheer nonsense of this review. I'm really dissapointed that this came from Anandtech.
alanpgh1 - Monday, July 20, 2015 - link
Awesome Review... and right on target.I've had an Apple Watch for 2 months, and it continues to be an important and non-intrusive assistant in my life. I seem to learn something new that is helpful all the time.
The only thing I ask the author to consider are these words from your review:
"Finally, "Hey Siri" works well in terms of activation, but it's really kind of disappointing that the hotword detection doesn't work with the display off. I suspect this is due to power requirements as I haven't seen any other wearable have screen-off hotword detection, but it would definitely be great to see such a feature in the future."
It is actually a feature to have the watch only listen for the "Hey Siri" hotword when the arm is lifted.
Otherwise, if listening all the time, the system would have false triggers. Think about it; this way of operation is by design.
Thanks for an excellent and thorough review!
TheRealArdrid - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Gotta admit: I didn't get past the second page of this review. This is dripping with the feel of an Apple shill piece. Am I really to believe that no other watch in history, including recent smartwatches, properly fit the author's wrist but the Apple Watch, with its amazing Milanese band, magically did? Statements like that completely destroy legitimacy and credibility. Come on man...zodiacfml - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Their failure is sticking to the old, physical idea of a watch.FunBunny2 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
-- Their failure is sticking to the old, physical idea of a watch.Yeah, and what would GUIs be without radio buttons, menus, and all of the other analog clones they're built on? Face it: it's just pixels made to look "physical".
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Honestly, I love that Apple is successful. The sound of PC-worshiping heads exploding all over the Internet is amusing. It lifts my spirits on a regular basis.Seriously, people... Apple didn't run over your mother, kill your dog, or beat your sister.
The level of nerd rage over Apple's success really is misplaced. There are far worse things to cry over than yet another big tech firm that dodges taxes and overprices stuff. It's not like Apple is the only one and it's not like society in general doesn't reward that behavior.
I've seen the anti-Apple zealotry for decades. It never changes. It always comes down to whinging about how much Apple charges, along with accusations that only gays, girls, and social-climbing superficial people use the products. In reality, despite their flaws, Apple products have been dependable workhorses for people for a long time, and some of them have been pretty innovative.
The Lisa was a thousand times more innovative than the IBM PC. Apple didn't execute because of some poor management and the sudden spike in DRAM cost (caused by Japanese firms pushing US firms out of the market with price dumping and then colluding to raise prices, as far as I have read). Yes, it was expensive but the platform was a very solid foundation for line of machines. Apple had an office suite, multitasking, protected memory, tool-less design, a bootloader that made it easy to boot from multiple operating systems, and a plethora of other modern features back in '83.
Unfortunately, the Mac was botched because it was turned from what was envisioned to be a $500 computer into a $1000 computer and then into a $2400 computer -- without making the underlying OS robust enough to justify that price or the hardware expandable enough. But, despite that, it had a very efficient GUI and people were willing to put up with bombs and freezes because that GUI was miles nicer to work with than Windows (up until 95 when things almost became as good on Windows, but not quite).
If you think Apple is so fraudulent then start your own company or get a job running one already out there and out-compete them. Then let us know about your success. Until then, find something more productive to do with your time than rant ineffectually on Internet forums.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
As for this product specifically, my advice is to wait for the next iteration that comes with a shrunken process. Apple's first iPad had a relatively short lifespan, rapidly orphaned. I wouldn't want to be stuck with this device if the same thing were to happen. It has generally been the same advice for quite some time: when Apple comes out with a new form factor, wait until version 2.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
This even applied to the Mac, come to think of it. Jobs demoed (without telling the audience or the press, of course) a 512k prototype in order to run speech synthesis when he was unveiling the first Mac (128K, not expandable) to the press.victorson - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
Oh hey, here's a newsflash: it's not nerd rage over Apple's success, it's nerd rage over unjustified worshipping of Apple products by the media.Buk Lau - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Josh, if possible I think it's better if you listed all the smartwatches that you have used in the conclusion."For those still deciding on whether the first Apple Watch makes sense, I have no reservations in saying that it’s the best wearable I’ve ever used."
This line, although if thought logically people would understand that you have used a limited number of devices out of the many, but upon first impression it can be a bit misleading given that there is no clear comparison that you are giving here.
So I say if you want to clear things up more, you can list all or some smartwatches that you used in that sentence for a better expression. Just my 2 cents :D
thomasguide - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
"the best wearable I’ve ever used" That's like saying you have the highest rated tv show on the Ovation network.lilo777 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Unfortunately this review follows the very familiar pattern of the reviews for sub-par Apple products. When Apple device falls short on technical merits (no GPS, no 3/4G, mediocre battery life, nothing that would differentiate it from the cheaper - and in some cases better - competitors) the reviewers resort to praising the "experience" an "ecosystem". OK got it. The chore of charging you iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch daily now qualifies as a "great experience". And it's not like Apple makes your life easier offering wireless charging for iPhones and iPads. Other than that (or, sorry, as our beloved leader used to say: one more thing - no fast charging either) the experience is really great. Admittedly some people complained that with Apple Watch it was impossible to stand in lines over night but they will get used to it.deasys - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Surely you can do better than that, lilo777! For example, not only is the Apple Watch missing GPS, 3/4G, but what about a USB port, a video port for an external monitor, and a floppy disc slot! Yes, missing so much…lilo777 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Apple apologists have a long history of denying usefulness of features that Apple devices lack only to be laughed at later when Apple eventually implements them: USB 3.0 in computers, barometers in smart phones, NFC, phablets, 7" tablets, ANT+, multi core processor for smart phones/tablets, 2GB RAM in smart pnones etc.But I can do better indeed. Here is an additional list of missing features in Apple Watch: Wi-Fi direct, blood oxygen censor.
mrochester - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
That doesn't stop the Apple Watch from being great as it is now. The length of the feature list has little bearing on how good a device is.lilo777 - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
If that were true Apple would never add a new feature but they do. They do deny the usefulness of the features their devices lack at first (remember the infamous Steve Jobs' statement about 7" tablets: "It's meaningless unless your tablet includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size." ) then they implement them. I understand why many people get fooled by Apple PR but I do expect better from AT readers.[email protected] - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
agreed.i've owned several Android watch phones over the years and all of them have longer battery life, micro sd, and are FULL functional phones costing hundreds less.
the reviewer is simply naive of whats been going on in the watch phone industry.
CGHMARTINI - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Thanks for the review.Things I learned here exclusively were details on the chip and on the display.
Things you added valuable details to were App integration and watch face customization.
The valuable thing I learned elsewhere was the annoying lag when the watch wakes up.
I also learned valuable stuff from the comments of Watch Owners, so I'd really appreciate the possibility of downrating trolls.
All in all I'll wait for another iteration - but then I'll buy it. By then I expect it to have, apart from the obvious:
- fluent IoT / smart home commander functionality
- medical condition alert escalation
- bio & sleep cycle based alarm clock functionality
- a lot more contextual awareness (my major reason to buy Apple over Google/Android is their design, a close second is that they are the only one that I trust not to barter my data to NSA, Insurance, Bank, Employer)
I'm already looking forward to the next big thing: AR !
everythingis1 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Is anyone going to talk about that fact that these devices need 2 hands to operate. Doesn't that make the entire platform functionally irrelevant as anything other than a simple sensor? Am I completely crazy or is any smartphone, that can be operated with one hand for basic functionality, superior in every single way?deasys - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Actually, the Apple Watch can be operated 'no hands.' That's what Siri is all about.everythingis1 - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link
How do you activate Siri?Barilla - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Too bad one of the biggest features separating it from other smartwatches - the digital crown - becomes literally unusable if you decide to wear it on right hand. Yeah, some people do that...name99 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
LITERALLY unusable?http://www.imore.com/how-set-apple-watch-left-hand...
You mean the scheme Apple devised for this purpose doesn't work? Forgive me if I trust the opinions of various reviewers who have actually tried it over the opinion of someone who's never even touched an Apple watch...
nja4 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
I'm sort of on the anti-Apple hype train too, where reviewers are seem really expected to give Apple products overly positive reviews. However, I don't expect most people to share my opinions. The polish and appeal is so intense that I would bet most people would prefer their products over others. This review, as Ryan said, is going to be read by more than the core community, and I'm SO happy that Ryan responded in such a positive and discussion-oriented way. You're a great part of this community even when people are jerks about this sort of "obvious Apple bias."uhuznaa - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
Nothing that draws 200 comments on Anandtech can be really pointless... As soon as reviews of Apple products will fizzle out here with five comments or so Apple will have lost it. But not sooner.Really, all you guys seem to be really obsessed with Apple. Even if you hate it, but you do care very much. Most reviews of smart watches draw much fewer comments...
Junereth - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
this site really needs to make comments collapsible. it's incredible hard to navigate in here.SBD.3 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
I'd love to see the iWatch interface optimized on an iPhone. But as far as wearing a watch again, that ship has sailed.Tams80 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
A day for a smartwatch is just about bearable, just as it is a smartphone. More battery runtime is always better, but two to three days at moderate usage is the point at which I would be happy (basically, the ability to last a weekend away, where power is not easy to come by). One thing to take into account though, is that the smartphone takes priority. If there is only one charging point, the smartwatch gets left out, and therefore becomes useless.As for the review, I have some issues:
You haven't tried many watches, and by the sounds of it, none to the same extent as the Apple Watch. If that is the case, then I don't think you are qualified to make a comparison to them, as a professional reviewer. Further, you didn't even mention the Alcatel OneTouch Watch; the most apt comparison, as it also works with iPhones. As you clearly spent so much time of this review, you could have at least picked one up. They are cheap, but you also work for the well respected technology site; they might have even sent you one for free!
"The Apple Watch on the other hand doesn’t suffer from discomfort issues at all, and in this regard, Apple has arguably pushed the industry forward."
You do know that there are smartwatches out there that take standard watch straps? You do know that there are countless different designs of standard watch straps?
Finally, two specific points that really grated my gears (especially coming from someone who I expect to technologically knowledgeable):
"The ergonomic annoyances involved with wearing a wristwatch strongly outweighed whatever functionality it provided."
What ergonomic annoyances? The watch goes on your wrist, and in many cases never needs to come off. In return watches tell the time, often the date and day, and sometimes more. How is glancing at a watch less ergonomic than getting your phone out of wherever it is and checking it?
"wireless charging behaves differently from wired charging" - Total fluff, and no shit Sherlock.
So, to summarise. I think that while this was a good technical review of the Apple Watch, as a product review in general, it was very poor. The author let their personal view cloud his judgement too much, and comparisons were, well basically non-existent. If you didn't intend it to be a product review, then remove the product review sections. I expect much better from AnandTech.
Tams80 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link
One more point to add:While this is essentially a piece of jewellery, it is also a throw away commodity. The battery will degrade quickly with it's intended use, and as far as I know is not replaceable. This is more acceptable for a base piece of technology, so prices can be high. For an accessory though? The price is far too high.
It can't really be compared to jewellery though. Jewellery lasts a long time, and is often handed down. What it lacks in features, it makes up for in longevity.
dan98 - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
"You haven't tried many watches, and by the sounds of it, none to the same extent as the Apple Watch. If that is the case, then I don't think you are qualified to make a comparison to them, as a professional reviewer. "Bizarre point. The reviewer doesn't make any comparisons, other than to those he has tried.
"You do know that there are smartwatches out there that take standard watch straps? You do know that there are countless different designs of standard watch straps?"
Bad point. Where did he mention just the strap? He's talking about the discomfort of the wearable as a whole.
"What ergonomic annoyances? The watch goes on your wrist, and in many cases never needs to come off. In return watches tell the time, often the date and day, and sometimes more. How is glancing at a watch less ergonomic than getting your phone out of wherever it is and checking it?"
Bad point. The ergonomic annoyances of watches are clear and obvious to most people. ie. they catch on things, add bulk to the arm, and require care to avoid damage in certain situations. Its a question of whether these annoyances are outweighed by the advantages of the watch in question.
"Total fluff, and no shit Sherlock"
? This is a non-point which only serves to underline the commenter's bizarre stance.
yhselp - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
The first proper, in-depth review of any wearable that I am aware of. Thank you for taking the time to do it right, the end result is a very valuable (in many respects) piece of work. This, in my opinion, is the most 'AnandTech' article since Anand left and it's very welcome -- I've now read one too many articles here where the reviewer explains himself and tries to justify his opinion in a manner as if to ward off the expected flamers in the comments. I believe that loyal and regular AnandTech reader values your opinion as it is, unbiased and as objective as possible; do not be deterred by fanboys and haters -- there's no need to cater to them.[email protected] - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
review is totally biased... 12 hr battery life?search for android watch phone. there are android watch phones that are FULL phones with dual core/ quad core cpu that has 3 day battery life, along with waterproof , micro sd, etc etc and the price is between $100-300
[email protected] - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link
"I don’t know if Apple will succeed in convincing others of the utility of a watch, but they’ve definitely convinced me."right. now how much $$ did Crapple deposit into your bank account?
S2k15 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
What has to happen in someone's life, that they become such a hateful and shitty human being like yourself? Do you have evidence that this author was paid off? If not, shut the fuck up and spare us your attempts at slander and character assassination.Also, I hope you're not older than 5 yrs old, which is the only thing that would excuse the sheer stupidity of the using the word "Crapple". It's sad that comment sections have been flooded with absolute trash posts like yours.
allajunaki - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
Wow, Anandtech Comments used to be filled with smart people. Sadly, most of the comments seems to come from trolls. And I have a sneaky feeling that most of it are from a few. Unfortunately, instead of reading anything constructive, all I read is haters hating, and defenders defending. And most of it has no objective, or constructive content.I have been an Anadtech visitor for the last 15 or so years. I never once had to question the integrity of this website. Its sad that other commentators do not share the same sentiment.
Folks, best way to shut a troll, is by ignoring them.
Anandtech, can we have Comment Votes (Like Arstechnica) ?
Spencer Andersen - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
It is sad to see so many negative people commenting on every tech site. I guess people just need to prove they have some superior intellect or knowledge that makes them better than others to be happy.I sometimes feel bad for these talented individuals doing these reviews who put their knowledge to the web only for it to be dissected and misconstrued by the masses every single time. The truth is if these commenters were happy with their lives they wouldn't feel the need to constantly challenge or put others down. It's a huge problem with the world today, rather than work together and bring each other up so we can reach higher existence we choose to be selfish and think about ourselves and drag each other down.
I for one love Anandtech and visit it because these people know stuff about tech I never will so I value their opinions. I got some great information from this article as I do from every other article and thats why I keep coming back. So to all the malcontents out there talking all that trash, take a magnesium calcium supplement for witch your probably deficient in and chill the flip out. Enjoy this great website built off the efforts and contributions of many talented people. And click on damn add every once in a while to support them, its not going to kill you to loose a few seconds of your life.
jonminchoi - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
As an owner of the Apple Watch, I'd like to provide some comments to the review, and to the general state of the comments.First, a review (and by extension the reviewer) is not the ultimate source of truth in the universe, but rather is a mere opinion of a collected group, providing some form of technical evidence to ground their claims. Depending on the site, the aforementioned evidence could be extremely detailed and scientific, or it could be somewhat subjective.
It is entirely your choice as the reader to agree with the reviewer's words, but please, do not belittle the reviewer or the article. Even if you are gifted with literary ability that far exceeds his (which I would think is extremely unlikely), it does not give you the right to bully and patronize others.
I, for one, agree with most of what the reviewer mentioned: the Apple Watch has never given me trouble with the battery life. I doubt there is a huge population of Apple Watch users who have actual need to keep the Watch on for longer than 18 hours (the battery life stated by Apple, which seems very underestimated). I have not had much trouble with the actual function of the Apple Watch, as I use it mostly for parsing notifications more effectively than the use of just my iPhone would allow. Taptic Feedback works very well, and I am able to respond to most notifications without disrupting my coworkers in an extremely quiet work environment. Although there is some noticeable loading time for apps that require the use of iOS, this fact has never bothered me to the point of being a dealbreaker.
At the end of the day, I'm able to afford the price of the Apple Watch, and have thus far enjoyed the benefits of ownership. While there are still some things I wish Apple could improve in both hardware and software, I have not regretted my purchase.
I think both the moderators of Anandtech as well as its readers would benefit from a more contributive and constructive discussion.
gamer1000k - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
While I'm no Apple fan (and will never own an iPhone and by proxy and Apple Watch unless some major changes occur at Apple), I will admit that this watch is a neat piece of technology. Sure it has some first gen quirks and will likely be orphaned rapidly as new and improved models come out, but Apple did put some effort into this and I look forward to seeing their competitors up their game in response so I can get those products once the prices come down. Still, I'm a little annoyed at how much media attention and hype Apple gets for a product that really isn't all that different from existing android smartwatches. (And yes, this article does read a little like a kid at christmas who got a shiny new toy. At least the final conclusion comes back to reality and recognizes this is a first gen product with some major drawbacks so we should wait for the next version.)Granted, it's not the piece of technology I would have designed (and I heartily agree that it costs entirely too much for what it is), but the same could be said for pretty much all smartwatches at this point. I'm a little disappointed with Apple's (and most other companies) approach to the smartwatch and trying to pack too much power into a device that doesn't really need it.
I think Pebble's approach is the most logical at this point. It displays notifications, has a microphone, and even runs simple apps all while maintaining a week's worth of battery life and an always-on e-paper display. The LCD and relatively beefy CPU on the Apple watch and others allow for flashier interfaces and apps, but I'm still not sure how that really adds to the smartwatch experience at this point.
I'll keep an open mind and see what happens over the next few months, but right now I see the smartwatch primarily as a notification accessory for a phone and have a hard time visualizing how it will work as an application platform beyond the most basic apps given the tiny screen.
mjh483 - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link
Amazing review. Really great. I think this review is a perfect blend of geeky and non-geeky explanations about why the Apple Watch exists. Simply amazing. Thank you so much.bernstein - Monday, July 27, 2015 - link
once again: amazing review! love the thinking about having to sell people on watches again.where among the 35+ crowd wearing a watch is still very common, in the in 30- crowd its become very uncommon...
alexb1 - Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - link
OMG, are you KIDDING ME? I knew Anandtech will not be the same after it was sold off.Here's the deal, you FOROGT COMPLETELY about the COST of this thing... Apple Watch maybe one of the better attempts at SmartWatch, but it costs easily $700-1000 for a nicely setup one (like the reviewed item), and it does ZILCH for that $1000 without an iPhone...
I got one through work, and used it for a couple of weeks, then forgot to charge it and went back to my regular watch and haven't looked back. It's an ACCESSORY, and as an accessory can't possibly cost $700 or so, if it was $250, it'd be a fantastic item and would have sold a lot more and they would have not had to HIDE the #of watches sold.
Here are my Top10 biggest problems with Apple Watch:
1. 42mm is too small, and I have a medium wrist, my index covers half the screen. It's way way too small! It should have been 42, 48 to fit on everyone's wrist, yet readable/usable
2. 18hrs battery life is too short - It's too short in case you forgot to charge it one night (needs 2 days to be acceptable)
3. If it can't do 2days, 18hrs battery life is not needed - They achieve 18hrs with ridicolous battery saving, making the use of the watch very challenging, like you can't look at the screen over a cpl of seconds as it will go away, like when I was biking, it was almost impossible to turn the screen and look at what time it was, had to bend the wrist in an awkward way while on the move. The battery saving should be customizable, as I rather have 14hrs of full use with longer display times than 18hrs, as I would never wear it 18hrs straight, usually after 12-14hrs, it's being charged
3. It does NOTHING that your iPhone doesn't do
4. Heart rate monitor works only while you are sitting still! Like seriously?
5. If you get a lot of notifications, it becomes very very annoying, no way to make it selective
6. It is NOT waterproof
7. It is UGLY, UGLY, UGLY... I am sorry, I AM a watch wearer, and this thing is just a black screen on a band! Again due to the crazy battery saving, it's almost always off, so nothing on the face of the watch which is THE key for looks of a watch, and this is always black. Now, I admit, nothing else I've seen is that great either (Moto360 maybe), but coming from Apple, this thing is just ugly
8. Apps, there's no app that does anything better on the watch than on the phone
9. Weak processor, capabilities. We developed 6 apps for the watch, and it couldn't even render basic business charts, and installation would take minutes! We had to completely do all of the processing on the phone and just send the completed data/visuals to the watch. It's absolutely inadecuate for any serious computing, plus having a terrible SDK!
10. Last, but not least, It's damn too expensive! I really find it hard to believe not more reviewers have taken an issue with the cost, it's absolutely ridiclously priced, and PLEASE do NOT try to compare it with hand-made Swiss watches made in small numbers or with stuff that lasts forever, this is a consumable accessory, that will be obsolete in a year, and will not work after 2-3yrs. It has a FRACTION of the functionality of an iPhone, costing almost the same (not considering contact prices).
Overall, weakest Apple Hardware release in recent memory!
piasabird - Friday, July 31, 2015 - link
Watches went out with the bathwater it seems since smartphones. If you have a phone you dont need a watch. They are dinosaurs. It is taking a step backwards.clouddew - Saturday, August 1, 2015 - link
The review read like a magazine article with a bit of tech in the middle and the device seems to be a polished piece of unimportant kit for people looking for something to spend their money on.It will likely appeal to a few and seem pointless to most others.
Me? I have a watch, its solar powered & waterproof. Guess which category I'm in? 😉
OFelix - Saturday, August 1, 2015 - link
Taptic Engine > finally a good reason to learn Morse code!nosirree - Tuesday, August 4, 2015 - link
Disclaimer: current android user.I like watches, and own mechanical " automatic" ones alongside cheap Timex'es and even one with gps. and being a geek was always interested in smart watches.
I've played around with this one, and the build is impressive. But it's too first version, as the battery doesn't last enough for a watch, there isn't an always on display. Sony watch v3 does have always on display but it's not very good, while it's battery lasts longer that's not enough either. The pebble does both well but the display isn't good enough, haven't seen the new one.
So, this is too expensive for what it does in my opinion. Will keep on waiting..
mystilleef - Friday, August 7, 2015 - link
Did you guys even review the Moto 360?hukaite - Thursday, June 14, 2018 - link
Dear,I'm confrimed that that apple watch used the X-axis LRA NOT Z-axis LRAhukaite - Thursday, June 14, 2018 - link
https://www.vibrationmotors.com