The Apple Watch had a rough launch: atypically critical reviews, extended shipping delays, and public skepticism surpassing the launches of the iPhone and iPad. But as I write these words, Apple is just beginning next-day shipments of the first Modern Buckle, Leather Loop, and Space Black Stainless Steel Apple Watches, which means that tomorrow will be the first day when the entire Apple Watch lineup is actually in (or on) consumers’ hands.
Since a month has passed since pre-orders opened, I wanted to revisit an article we published in early April — a summary of 15 user experience problems revealed by early Apple Watch reviewers. When the article was published, some people accused the reviewers of bias, but others saw the issues they identified as legitimate. Now that the “new product” dust has had ample time to settle, this follow-up article asks two questions: first, did each of the issues turn out to be real? Second, if each issue was legitimate, how should Apple solve it, if it hasn’t been solved already? The answers are actually worth discussing…
1. “An Overly Complex UI.” Was this a legitimate concern? Yes.
Flagged by many reviewers as confusing and non-intuitive, the Apple Watch’s user interface would certainly benefit from some major tweaks. First-time users are almost certain to be confused by the interplay between the text-free Home screen, the watch face (the only way to swipe up to see Glances and down to see Notifications), the button to activate Siri, and the other button that calls up a list of favorite contacts. None of the features works exactly as expected — there is indeed a learning curve, as well as a persistent and frustrating sense that you should be able to access the things you want, faster.
Solution: Apple shouldn’t be afraid to do what it did repeatedly with the Apple TV and the wearable sixth-generation iPod nano, namely a major Home screen redesign. Ideally, the Home screen would blend better with the Watch’s time-telling functionality, while providing a less fidgity way to access notifications/glance information, communication tools, and core apps. A rethought icon grid — possibly zoomed in by default — wouldn’t hurt, either.
2. “Getting The Screen To Turn On Can Be Challenging.” Was this a legitimate concern? Sort of.
Several reviewers flagged the Watch’s auto-on/auto-off screen as an annoyance for various reasons, primarily its tendency to not actually turn on whenever desired. While the complaints were valid — including ones that the screen turns off too quickly when in the midst of use — the problem is not as pronounced as the worst howls suggested. The feature works most of the time, and when it doesn’t, a tap on the screen turns it on.
Solution: Hopefully, a software update will make the accelerometer a little more generous in recognizing “wrist up” motions, and the OS a little less willing to shut the screen off mid-use. Until then, a quick tap on the screen will suffice.
3. “Notifications Are Annoying By Default.” Was this a legitimate concern? Yes.
Early reviews painted Apple Watch’s notification system as a nightmare; the Bloomberg review claimed that sounds and vibrations from multiple sources quickly became a flood: “If you’re a busy person who communicates constantly on your phone, [notifications get] overwhelming fast.” Once again, there’s truth in the complaints, but the major problem turns out to be the Apple Watch’s initial setup process — it’s just not managed properly. Apple was so concerned about delivering a quick “boom, your Watch is working” experience that it didn’t worry enough about making the Watch start out delivering the right number of notifications (as well as balancing out a few other key things). This is why every Apple Watch user currently has to spend time tweaking settings after the initial set up process.
Solution: Setting up your Watch should involve a making a few key choices up front, particularly for notifications, installation of apps, and syncing of music and photos. Five simple questions would make a world of difference: do you want notifications as taps or sounds? Do you want to start with 1, 3, 5, or 10 listed apps notifying you? Which apps from the following list do you want to install? Which music playlist do you want to sync? And which photo library do you want to mirror, if any? You shouldn’t be forced to hunt through settings to discover these things yourself, and Apple could easily prompt you to make these choices in advance using the iPhone Apple Watch app, as soon as your device is shipped. This pre-arrival Q&A process might even justify the app’s generally unwanted presence as a non-removable part of iOS 8.2 and later releases.
4. “Fitness Sensors May Require Swapping On Apple’s Sport Band.” Was this a legitimate concern? Sort of.
Some reviews hinted that the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor would depend on a tight band, such as a Sport Band, and we later learned that some tattoos could create issues, as well. It’s clear that there’s a potential issue here for users who want fitness tracking but also want to keep wearing fancier, more expensive bands (or… tattoos) during workouts. But there’s not a magic solution.
Solution: Wear the Watch tight if you care about persistent tracking, and consider one of these increasingly numerous, affordable third-party bands as a more fashionable or disposable fitness option. If you have wrist tattoos, a chest-mounted heart rate monitor might be a better idea.
5. “The Speakerphone Is Only Semi-Useful For Phone Calls.” Was this a legitimate concern? Not really.
Some of the early reviewers didn’t seem to understand how the Watch was supposed to be used for phone calls — it’s basically a small speakerphone that works from your wrist, and isn’t intended to be held up to your ear like a phone or used as an intermediary for a Bluetooth headset. It turns out that the Watch’s key virtue for phone calls is keeping a microphone and speaker closer to your mouth than the iPhone in your pocket or elsewhere in the room. You can have a normal phone conversation with someone while you’re doing other things with your hands, like lifting boxes. The biggest issues are the peak volume level of the speaker and the noise cancellation of the mic, which are actually impressive given the Watch’s small size and location, but not as powerful as the larger iPhone.
Solution: Get used to how the speakerphone is supposed to work, and the situations where it’s useful, and you’ll appreciate its convenience.
6. “The Apple Watch Is Slow, A Particular Problem For Maps & Location Services.” Was this a legitimate concern? For some things, definitely; for other things, no.
There have been a lot of complaints about the Apple Watch’s speed. In most cases, you won’t notice problems, and the Watch’s speed is not bad overall. But when it gets hung up on something, it’s definitely annoying, and yes, the issues are indeed pronounced when using maps. The root causes appear to be complex — a mix of buggy apps, overdependence on the tethered iPhone, and underoptimized Watch OS system software sometimes struggling to handle multiple processes efficiently.
Solution: These issues are 80% Apple’s responsibility to fix with better Watch OS software, and 20% on app developers to make better use of the software.
7. “You Need (At Least) Two Hands To Use It.” Was this a legitimate concern? Sort of.
Two reviewers noted that the Watch, unlike an iPhone, can’t be used solely with one hand — a potential problem when drinking a cup of coffee — and that the Sport Band can be tricky enough to put on that even two hands don’t make it easy. Both complaints are legitimate, though not show-stoppers: the Watch works one-handed as a watch, and Siri can do certain other things with just a quick hold of the Digital Crown (or screen activation plus saying “Hey, Siri”). You’ll learn to put on the Sport Band over time, even though the process certainly requires two hands.
Solution: Adding more functionality to Siri — and guaranteed reliability in executing requests — is key to improving the user experience here. It would help a lot if Siri could talk, rather than just answering responses on the screen. (No, VoiceOver doesn’t count.)
8. “Apple Pay and the Passcode Lock.” Was this a legitimate concern? No.
Some reviews suggested that Apple Pay and other biometric tricks such as opening hotel room doors depend upon Apple Watch to be manually unlocked with a passcode every time it’s put back on your wrist. The process isn’t particularly challenging, but having to type a pass code every day could get annoying — if it was true. Thankfully, it’s not that bad: as some early reviewers figured out, Apple Watch can in fact be unlocked automatically by a proximate iPhone.
Solution: Flip the Unlock with iPhone switch on under Passcode, if it’s not on by default. Then keep your iPhone close and your Apple Watch closer.
9. “Third-Party Apps Aren’t Very Good.” Was this a legitimate concern? Definitely.
See point 6 on this — like the complaints about a “slow” Apple Watch, third party apps just aren’t great right now. Many developers couldn’t even get access to test Watches ahead of the launch, and some didn’t get in-house Watches until a week or more after the launch. Even today, third-party apps suffer from all sorts of issues, ranging from failures to load data to slow loading times to mediocre functionality. Apple has compounded the issue by optionally auto-installing all of the Apple Watch apps that developers are offering as companions to their existing iPhone apps, creating a parade of disappointment as users discover app after app worth deleting.
Solution: Don’t install third-party apps unless you’ve looked through the App Store preview and found specific functionality that sounds useful. Await 2.0 and 3.0 Apple Watch app updates that improve upon their predecessors.
10. “iPhone Dependence Is More Complex Than Previously Understood.” Was this a legitimate concern? Yes.
The relationship between the iPhone and Apple Watch isn’t totally clear, and although a few reviewers sought to explain it, it’s tricky. In short, “the Watch depends on an iPhone, except when it doesn’t.” When the Watch is connected to the iPhone, which is “almost always,” it draws down the iPhone’s battery at a noticeably faster rate. Yet it can definitely operate as a standalone music player and fitness tracker without the iPhone, and somehow join Wi-Fi networks, even though Apple has marketed these features so poorly that many people still don’t know they exist. Moreover, there’s no way to see when the Watch is on your Wi-Fi network, no Bluetooth icon on the Watch’s screen to indicate pairing, or other way to understand how much the Watch is pulling data from your iPhone.
Solution: Apple should treat the Apple Watch’s iPhone-free capabilities as a feature and give users a little more insight into how they work, ideally as part of initial setup (see point 3, above). For users who don’t want as much of a hit on their iPhone or Apple Watch batteries, and don’t need up-to-the-second notifications, there should be a mode that lets the devices communicate only intermittently — say, once every 5, 15, or 30 minutes — when the Watch is being passively worn. Not every watch-wearer is obsessive about time or timely notifications, particularly when battery life is affected.
11. “Apple Watch’s Battery Life Lives Up To Apple’s 1-Day Claim, Most Of The Time.” Was this a legitimate concern? Depends on your perspective.
You can take issue with whether it’s acceptable to charge a watch battery every day, but if you’ve said “yes” to that limitation, the Watch’s battery life is not likely to bother you. I’ve canvassed a lot of reader reactions to the Watch since it was released, and the broad consensus is that those who signed up for 1-day battery life have been largely satisfied with 1-day battery life. Apple’s next challenge is stretching that battery life so the Watch can be used for sleep tracking and alarms, or go charger-free during trips. Power Reserve mode, a feature that radically cuts the Watch’s features down (even including the watch face) to conserve power, does what it’s supposed to do but can’t be easily switched on and off.
Solution: Users should have the choice of a few different Watch operating modes, one with full functionality, another with reduced functionality, and then a slightly more functional Power Reserve mode that can easily be toggled on or off with a switch.
12. “Despite the MagSafe-Style Connector, Apple Watch Still Has Some Charging Issues.” Was this a legitimate concern? For some unlucky users, definitely. For most users, no.
Several reviewers discussed anomalous issues with the Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable, suggesting that there might be intermittent charging problems or issues keeping it connected stably to the Watch. Some people have commented that the Watch doesn’t charge fast enough, and others have noted that their Watches get very hot during charging, but the complaints have not been widespread. It looks like some early (and since-replaced) Watches were having bona fide problems with their inductive chargers, and it’s also possible that Apple’s translucent wrappers on the Magnetic Charging Cables were not getting fully removed during unpacking.
Solution: The wrappers on the Magnetic Charging Cables, particularly the plastic Sport versions, should be a little easier to see so they can be completely removed. And obviously, if there are hardware issues, Apple should (quickly) replace the defective units. I have every reason to believe Apple is doing this rapidly upon request.
13. “Apple Watch’s Music Playback Is Mediocre.” Was this a legitimate concern? Yes, but only for some people.
Given its iPod heritage, it’s hard to believe that the Apple Watch’s music playback functionality is underwhelming, but it is: Watch OS manages to step back in a bunch of ways from the music UI introduced for the similarly-sized sixth-generation iPod nano. Also surprising is the Watch’s apparent inability to play locally stored music through its own speaker — Bluetooth headphones or speakers are required, and Apple has set the Watch up to act primarily as a remote for your iPhone’s music library; you have to Force Touch to instead access the Watch’s locally-stored library. Some users like this, some don’t.
Solution: As noted in point 10 above, the Apple Watch’s ability to work as a standalone music player as needed should be a highlight of the device, not a buried feature. Apple should either split local music and iPhone remote music into two separate apps, or give users a better way to access the local library.
14. “Siri Is Pretty Restricted.” Was this a legitimate concern? Yes.
Some reviewers complained that Siri was too restricted on the Watch, often referring them back to the connected iPhone for assistance. If anything, their complaints were too restrained on this point: Siri on the Watch is weaker than any version of Siri you’ve ever seen on an iOS device. It can’t speak, it can’t access some of the Watch’s own apps, and when it fails, you’ll wonder why you didn’t just use Siri on your iPhone (which might, unfortunately, also fail, because… Siri). The only thing Siri does exceptionally well on the Apple Watch is figure out what you’re saying. This is useful when responding to text messages, but mistakes aren’t easily correctable because… no keyboard.
Solution: Siri needs some more work on the Apple Watch. I’ll just leave it at that.
15. “Apple Watch Breaks Cultural Norms In A Bad Way.” Was this a legitimate concern? The jury’s still out on this.
Some reviewers sounded a cultural alarm over using the Apple Watch in social situations, namely because fiddling with one’s watch is traditionally a sign that you have somewhere else to be or something better to be doing. But I’d argue that the reality is a bit more complex. Fiddling with a phone has become this decade’s replacement for fiddling with a watch, and many people now distractedly glance at phones in the middle of social (and private) situations. It almost seems like a lesser offense to glance at a smaller watch screen. But there’s no “right” answer on this; the issue is really individual judgment and behavior, not the Apple Watch.
Solution: See point 11 above — perhaps the reduced functionality power-conserving mode could double as an “emergencies only” setting, leaving your wrist at peace in social situations. The rest, namely deciding not to incessantly check your Watch, would be up to you.
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I’d rate #1 a “sort of.” Sure, the UI can be tricky if you try to figure everything out at once, but the basics are pretty simple.
I agree. I find it very easy to use. Although I watched a bunch of Apple Watch videos on YouTube in anticipation of mine arriving, so I guess I had a bit of a head start on the learning curve.
Some people heard that the Watch UI was tricky to figure out, and (wisely) worked around it by using videos and seeking out additional information. The better solution is for Apple to make the Watch simple enough, like an iPad, that anyone (including kids) could figure it out without videos.
One thing that makes it harder is unlearning to access everything from the home page, when the watch is much more based around the clock screen. How you set up your glances can be critical.
Agreed. “You must unlearn what you have learned!”
Users and reviewers both will suffer from treating the Watch like a tiny iPhone. It’s not a rich media experience. You won’t want to spend more than 10-15 seconds at a time. The app screen is not the central “location”.
After having the watch for about 3 weeks, this list is pretty accurate. As far as 3rd party apps go, I wouldn’t blame developers. Sometimes they work great, other times they take forever to load, and it’s inconsistent enough with all apps that it feels more like WatchKit than anything else.
tl;dr: Don’t by the watch for 3rd party apps, handling messages and notifications are what it excels at for the moment. Oh, and telling time.
A few, like “Overcast”, “Dark Sky” etc. do work well, but there are fairly obvious design flaws in other, even from major providers such as “Twitter” and “BBC News”.
Overcast gives me hope that other third party apps will be improved soon. At launch, the Overcast app was very slow and useless, now it’s very fast. The issue was developers creating the watchkit apps without actually having the proper hardware.
This is overcast the podcast player? (As opposed to the weather app)
Overcast is a podcast player, Dark Sky is a weather app.
Thee is another overcast that’s a weather app.
Great points here. Regarding the mid-tier emergencies-only power mode, I wonder whether the Do Not Disturb mode sips less power from the iPhone and saves battery life all around…
Airplane Mode as well. There are a lot of little things like this that are not totally clear to the user but are obviously capable of reducing power drain under specific circumstances. Apple just needs simple profiles to let users pick the usage model that’s right for individual needs and changing circumstances.
I’m not sure how many of you have noticed this, but when I’m driving while wearing my apple watch.. because my wrist is raised in a position while i’m holding the steering wheel, the watch turns on and off because of this and is wasting battery life. moreover I read an article about raising concerns about usage of watch while driving since this doesn’t qualify as a hand-held device per say. I would think Apple should innovate, if not improvise on this to save a bit of battery wastage and then also to keep users safe from any unwarranted distractions !
Yeah, I did, I hope they fix that problem.
That’s one of the few problems I have.
They where in there driveless cars when they road tested the watches.
*their
Ideas have been tossed around about adding “Driving” mode to the iPhone (and all cell phones). An example is that the phone recognizes its location in a car and this activates automatic limitations to the phone’s functionality.
These ideas would also apply to something like the watch, as well.
” Yet it can definitely operate as a standalone music player and fitness tracker without the iPhone”
I don’t have an Apple Watc, but this doesn’t make sense to me. The watch doesn’t have GPS, right? So it would be useless to me without the iPhone. Sure you can count steps and heart rate, but gps tracking is very important to me on runs of bike rides.
The Watch learns how to operate independently from the iPhone:
“After you run with Apple Watch and your iPhone a few times, the Workout app knows more about your stride. So you can run on a treadmill or outside without your phone and still get a really accurate workout summary.” – http://www.apple.com/watch/christy-turlington-burns/week-three/
For some people, it won’t be a substitute for GPS. Depends on your particular fitness regime.
Thanks for the reply but yeah I really like having the gps so I can check my routes
Like you, I run and bike so this was a concern. However, one of these issues is creatively solved (again not marketed very well by Apple). Read Christy Turlington Burns’ blog regarding her marathon training with the Apple Watch.
The TL;DR version is that if you use both the Watch and the Phone a few times together the Watch learns the average length of your running stride. It does this by comparing steps taken with the distance covered it retrieves from the phones GPS. Eventually, the Watch can guess your distance (pretty accurately) by knowing how many steps you’ve taken and how long your stride is.
As for the bike, well….I just got my watch yesterday and haven’t had a chance to work with that yet.
Thanks yeah I read that and it is a very good way to get around the gps but I really like having my routes in my history and I need the gps for that
Whenever I bike, I always have my phone for emergencies or major flatting episodes that can’t be fixed with patch kits. But being able to put my phone in the back of my jersey and not exposed because I have (will have) the watch would seem to be a win.
For running, there are times I am going on new routes and other times I am taking the same route near my home. For instance, if I’m in a new city, then I would want my phone with me anyway to not get lost.
I live in a hilly area so it will be interesting to see how the stride, distance comparisons hold up. Whether the increase in stride for downhill compensates for the decrease uphill.
Yeah this article is not indicative of the 5 Apple Watches I’ve, and friends of mine, used. Please, PLEASE remember 3rd party apps are purposefully hindered and Apple told us that last year. The watch has it’s faults but much of this is pure fabrication. The battery has proven BETTER then advertised and water proof to 140+ feet, does the watch preforming better then expected not important? It’s not a drawback if the watch requires the user to setup, talking about notifications, it’s behavior. That might be the most short sighted idea I’ve ever read, reminds me of Idiocracy.
Which of the points (each made by multiple reviewers) would you deem pure fabrication?
Also, +++ for your reference to Idiocracy, one of my favorite movies of all time. Not exactly sure how it applies here, but glad you’ve seen the film.
I agree with some, but not all.
-I tried on the Apple Watch at the Apple store the first day you could. Since it was a demo unit you could not really use the watch and see how it worked (at least not the one i had on), it played through a demo loop, but that was it, giving me a feel for the Taptic engine, notifications, etc… So for me the UI was a little confusing at first, and the scrolling on the crown is the iPhone and it kinda messed with me, i am used to scrolling like i can on the touchpad on my MacBook Pro. (Wish i could change it without changing the arm I am wearing it on in the settings, if i change it then the screen doesn’t always turn on when i look at the watch).
-My screen turns on 99% of the time so i don’t have much to worry about (and it is not an exaggerated motion. It also is set to my left arm, the arm i wear it on with the crown on the right, if i change arms in the settings but not in reality then my screen turns on about 75% of the time).
-I don’t have an issue with the heart rate sensor. I wear my watch pretty loose (if it is too tight it annoys me and pulls on my arm hair). My heart rate is very accurate with how loose i wear it, maybe it’s just me?
-The speaker sometimes stops working for a few minutes after i shower or wash my hands with it on, this is expected if water gets in there, but it starts working within a few minutes of drying off.
-Maps are great, just takes a second to load, which is expected, it needs to get the location from the iPhone, maybe in the Apple Watch 2 there will be GPS and no loading times.
-Dictation for text is great! No issues there, and Siri works great for text and calls, i don’t use Siri to look up things too often.
-Battery life is amazing! I wear it all day and i usually have about 50 to 60 percent left at the end of the day. I start my morning at 7 am every day so i can get to class by 8. I wear it until about 8 or 9 that evening and then turn it off (depending on the remaining percentage). If i have 50 to 60 percent left i will turn it off at night, and then turn it on again the next morning without charging it. The next evening i still have plenty left, i have not had to put it into power reserve mode yet. I get at least 100 text messages a day, more than 2 dozen notifications (that are not text), they’re not all going to my watch depending if i am on my phone or computer, but still thats a lot, at least 75% of them go to my watch, and i answer from the watch sometimes too. I am not complaining about the battery life at all.
-Charging is great! Have not had any issues. I have tested it and the watch keeps charging even if it is not direct contact with the charger. I have tested it and it will continue to charge as long as it is within a few centimeters.
-To me, it has proven itself already. I have had it for a little over a week. It is very convenient to have and it has actually helped me save some battery life on my iPhone. I am no longer getting a 20% warning at 7 or 8 at night. At 7 or 8 now i am at about 30 to 40% depending on my activity on my phone that day.
What i am using: iPhone 6, Space Gray Apple Watch 42mm
Man, really wish my experience with phone battery was similar. My phone battery is now dead (<10%) by end of day if I've not plugged it in at my desk or in the car for 30 mins or so throughout the day.
I have 4 e-mail accounts set up – all "Fetch every 30 mins" – location services enabled selectively for apps, likewise for background app refresh. Doesn't seem to matter much!
Otherwise – I think you're spot on. I've had issues the last 2 days or so with screen turning off/on when I do or don't want it to, but not to the point where I don't see exactly why (too small of motion, 'starting' orientation of watch). My battery life has been great, but I charge it every night regardless. I DO use Siri to look things up, and it's a little disappointing how much needs to go to the phone for a 'web search' if not parsed perfectly.
About the battery status – it works fine for me, too, from 8 in the morning until around 6 the next day – so it might be 1.5 to 2 days without charging. (mostly used for notifications)
what I think is more a little “fault” relating to battery issue is the visual indicator:
– when the “battery complication” on the watch face turns into red ring
– the “battery glance” (how ever it is named correctly:) is still with a green ring
(visual appearance should be the same, i guess)
Depressing the digital crown should act as a select button. The side button should take you to the home screen.
So you want two input methods to do the exact same thing on a tiny device? I agree that sometimes the ‘selection’ method isn’t completely clear (e.g. how do I ‘set’ the change I’ve made to the watch face complications?), but I think the digital crown as a “back” button makes a lot more sense.
As far as the other side button… I think it makes sense once you start using your watch to communicate with people more to have it always go to the “Contacts” screen. I do wish the messages were more intelligent and that it learned from common messages you send, and could parse better… but still.
The process of putting on the sport band “certainly” requires both hands? Lol really? For real? On the contrary I find it dead simple to put on my white sport band apple watch with only one hand and 3 fingers. I first place the watch on the top of my wrist on my left hand, press down on the band with all the small holes to my wrist with the thumb on my right hand, then I place my middle finger on my right hand in the large hole on the other band, then I place my index finger on my right hand on the opposite side of the band with the holes so my thumb and index finger are pinching that band, then I move the other band underneath the first band with my middle finger on my right hand and fasten the metal nub inside one of the small holes. Then I tuck the exposed strap into the hole my middle finger was previously in. Pretty simple. In fact I just took it on and off with my iPhone still in my left hand.
“You’ll learn to put on the Sport Band over time, even though the process certainly requires two hands.” Really?? When will this third hand grow?
Unless you have extremely long fingers AND a very flexible wrist, the hand attached to the wrist you put the watch on, is unavailable to actually put the watch on.
As with ALL watches, it takes ONE hand, unless you have someone else put your watch on for you.
So while I’ve already learned to put the watch on with the sports band, it was most definitely not with two hands.
If you want to read something more into this than that one hand has to be occupied attaching the band while the other hand is staying mostly stationary, okay, sure. The original reviewer who made the comment, Joanna Stern, semi-jokingly said people would wish they had a third hand for the Sport Band. It’s an unfamiliar design to most people and just takes a little getting used to.
The point I’m making is that like ALL watch bands before it, the same number of hands are required to put on the sport band.
Also, as with ALL watch bands before, the degree of difficulty in putting a specific band on varies. I have other watches where I also have to rest my watch arm against my leg in order to put the watch on. Apple watch is no different.
I agree with Tony. Many of these issues are well founded. But, to cite learning to put on a watch band with one hand as a legitimate issue is absurd. As Tony said, ALL watch bands must be put on with one hand and they all require varying degrees of dexterity. The sport band does not stand out as particularly difficult to fasten. Perhaps, many of today’s generation just aren’t used to wearing watches.
I don’t agree with all of the points, particularly 2 and 3. I had never a problem neither with the watch coming on, nor with it turning off too fast, nor with the reminders. Especially the notifications are a very personal setting, and no one-fits-all solution will ever do.
This was a great write up and, in my opinion, mostly accurate. I’ve had my Watch since ‘launch day’ (which really wasn’t launch day since it wasn’t available to 90% of people), and I’ve thought about each of the points made by Jeremy.
My observations/opinions:
-The watch is laggy, but it will improve.
-The battery is good enough, but I wish it were better so that it could track my sleep and so I could take weekend trips without packing another charger
-The watch face doesn’t turn on every time I want it to
-The sport band is great and the watch is simple to put on
-I’m glad I got aluminum instead of stainless steel. It looks amazing and doesn’t scratch. Matches my iPad and phone.
-Siri is mostly unusable for searching, but very accurate for replying to texts.
-Speakerphone is adequate
-Screen is amazing, especially in daylight. Another reason I’m glad I got the sport
-The space grey watch with black band doesn’t draw any attention. This is a plus for me.
-Not enough watch faces. I’ve grown tired of them already, including the faces I created.
-Music interface is adequate for me, but I guess it could be better. Pandora is fine as well.
-No charging issues. No heat issues.
-I’ve yet to meet another person who has an Apple Watch yet, which is weird. Very weird.
-No signs of wear and tear of the black sport band or discoloration. I’ve worn it every day since 04.24.15
Overall, I wasn’t expecting perfection from version 1. I am expecting it with version 2. I’m torn between dissapointment over the flawed launch and gratification. I’m dissapointed because Apple could’ve done better by their customers. There’s no excuse for it. I’m somewhat pleased though not to see an abundance of Watches in public yet. I know in the next few weeks they’ll be everywhere like the iPhone is.
I agree with most everything here. Great follow-up after a month of use. A couple of things I’d like to see in future updates:
• More use without the phone. I know this will require more battery usage, hopefully battery tech will get better. I’d really like to be able to run without the phone (I have the 6 Plus). So GPS would be great. And yes I know it starts to learn if you run with the phone and the watch, but it will still never be as accurate as having GPS.
• I think it would be nice to be able to choose 3 app icons to add to your watch face. They could be monochromatic in color so the “look” is still nice. Maybe we could choose which apps go there or choose the option to have the last 3 used show up there. I see them going at the bottom of the modular face.
• Movie mode: It needs to have a mode where I can easily turn off the screen unless I tap the digital crown. It’s not nice to have it come on during a movie when I don’t want it to. Last movie I saw I just turned it off.
•Crossing arms: When you cross your arms and rest your arm on the watch, it thinks you are force touching it and wants you to customize the face. Maybe Apple can make it so that nothing happens unless a smaller touch hits the screen, that way your full arm won’t set it off.
Just a couple of ideas. All in all I’m enjoying it thus far. I’ve had my Sport since the first Friday they came out. Finding new uses every day.
The UI is good, but there is a learning curve. The apps are bad and slow but will get better. I wish we could play music through the watch speakers. Siri bugs are the biggest inconvenience, Siri is definitely too restricted. They need some sort of safari extension for looking up Siri searches. Also the watch going blank during some apps is very frustrating. Especially while cycling it turns off way too quick. There should be some customization. Also we need to have a way to “type” words in. It could be through hand writing input that each letter uses the touch screen or some kind of spelling pad like with old cell phones, that with predictive text would be great for fast responses. Other than that none of these problems have been problems for me. Overall it’s a great product
Also need to be able to reply to emails! A lot of emails can be just as quick replies as text messages
I wouldn’t mind a first year without support for third party apps, especially if Apple doesn’t allow them to be speedy natively run apps. Other than that I think it’s a pretty solid v1.0 release and most of the problems can be quite easily fixes within a year of hw/sw improvements.
I almost completely gave up watches except for one use – to time my jogging.
So, at first I was disappointed that my Apple watch is both bad at telling time and at being a stopwatch.
It’s bad at ‘telling time’ because it only has 10 watch faces, and I want a large digital readout – Apple decided for me that I don’t need a large digital readout, I need a ludicrous extra large readout where hours and minutes are placed on separate rows – no thanks Apple – and they block developers from adding watch faces – great.
It’s bad at being a stop watch, because my real stop watch has a dedicated button for “Stop” on the Apple watch you must use the screen – a screen that stops responding when you get sweaty and the screen is wet. Gee – you have a dedicated button for social feeds that for me is completely unused, if that could be my Stop button, problem solved – but Apple decided to let me live with the problem, they know better.
I think you covered the other issues well….Siri is silent and stupid on the watch. Speaker phone is surprisingly tempting, until you find it doesn’t work that well. Voice Over makes the watch navigation unusable.
Ugh…but you can see if Apple fixed the issues, it would be a lot more handy then most people guessed.
Watch is a good idea – which really surprised me – but with the implementation issues it gives fuel to the hard heads that cannot imagine a wearable computer – for now, they are right.
p.s. let me add why the watch was surprisingly good.
I certainly didn’t believe I wanted my phone to message my wrist, but I am one that never got into slavishly checking my phone for messags, so I would have missed, almost certainly an important skype that I got. I happened to be wearing the watch when it handily told me I had a skype. Darnit, I did benefit from having the phone message my wrist :)
I also really appreciated, if I was driving my car and a call came in, to take a speaker phone on the watch….it’s just that it doesn’t work that well, but its immediately obvious this could improve my life.
I can see having the fitness stuff be cool in a way my regular stop watch never could – if only the Apple watch was actually good at being a stop watch, but it isn’t, because of the sweat issue.
ugh…but yeah, the little computer on the wrist might not be a bad edition. I write apps – I know WatchKit SDK is not allowing a developer to write independent apps – making them slow, and not allowing developers any access to the watch sensors – which eliminates my app idea….but I can see, if Apple allows it – someday, developers really making some new compelling uses for the watch. But for now, Apple is blocking all that – btw, almost certainly on purpose, not due to lack of time. My guess is they know the battery life will tank if people use apps all day, and they don’t want to face criticism for even shorter battery life.
The UI works well, glances and notifications are great. Not sure what you meant, simple to access and easy to use… the dots for the apps are open for debate, I’m ok, I organized them in spikes so they are easy to hit without effort. I think a “click into middle” (instead of super fluid) so you can use the crown to zoom it open or touch is a good idea.
One of the best reviews I have read to date. I would say that the issue of screen shutting down mid use is a bigger problem for people wearing watch during exercise that involves timing reps. It is actually at its worst. You want to do ten one minute exercises – sit ups, press ups etc and you want to track overall experience with fitness app and then open stopwatch. Three big issues:
1. App shuts very quickly
2. Then you want to light up screen but your exercise means it’s hard to do the right movement to get screen back
3. When it opens it has defaulted to the overall tracking app and not stop watch
4. If you are doing all this and sweating the screen does not respond.
It is an awful experience. Answer – have a setting that allows you to open app and lock it open.
Otherwise love the phone