Following yesterday’s iPhone XS/Max reviews, it’s now the turn for reviews of the Apple Watch Series 4 – and there couldn’t be a greater contrast between the two.
Apple’s cherry-picked quotes aside, reviewers were mostly underwhelmed by the new iPhone, advising iPhone X users not to bother upgrading and owners of older models to hold fire for the iPhone XR.
But when it comes to the new Watch, the clear majority view is that the Series 4 finally delivers on the promise of the device – and now is the time to buy. Even mechanical watch site Hodinkee shared this view …
Buzzfeed was less impressed than most, but then Charlie Warzel said that he was ‘not an Apple Watch devotee,’ and prefers his Garmin watch with its 12-hour battery life.
Watch site Hodinkee said the Series 4 is the right time for holdouts to try a smartwatch.
A little more than three years later, I largely feel the same way. I can’t seem to shake the notion that the Watch is priming us for a new kind of ambient computing behavior, where all our hardware is barely noticeable but just kind of connects to us — through wireless headphones and little sensors and gyroscopes scattered in everything from hats to glasses to our clothing. We’re not there yet, but devices like the Apple Watch are getting us closer.
iMore describes the haptic feedback that the redesigned Digital Crown now offers, as well as an interesting detail about the side button (there’s also a sweet fall detection test GIF included):
Will you want to trade in your mechanical watches for an Apple Watch? No, you won’t. But I do think it’s worth adding an Apple Watch to your rotation if you don’t already have one. I’m not one for working out with mechanical watches on, so right there I’ve got an opening in my life for an Apple Watch. There are also days where it’s good to have a little extra info at hand and leaving that vintage sports watch in its box at home for a few hours isn’t the worst thing in the world.
From there, I think you’ll likely learn a bit about your connection to watches too. What is it that you miss and what is it that you don’t miss about your more traditional timepieces? What does the Apple Watch bring to your life that your mechanical watches can’t? These are all good questions and I know plenty of watch collectors (myself and a few other Hodinkee editors among them) who enjoy rotating an Apple Watch in with their other watches. The days of watch lovers dismissing the Apple Watch are long gone and at this point it feels almost like a must-have for anyone truly interested in timepieces more generally.
The Independent also said that if you haven’t yet bought an Apple Watch, now is the time to do so.
The Side button is flush now but still a real button. It doesn’t make Series 4 any more water-resistant or “swim-proof” than Series 3 was. That’s still the same. But it does make it a little harder to find with just your finger, which might be an accessibility issue. If you’re not used to Apple Watch conventions, you’ll still be able to tell something is there, it might just take some experimentation or explicit information to help you figure out what it is. If you’re at all used to Apple Watch, though, you won’t even notice what you’re not noticing — you’ll just press the side and it’ll work, same as ever. […]
If you have an iPhone, you should have an Apple Watch. And you should probably have a Series 4. If you don’t have one at all, don’t give me any crap about not wanting or needing a watch or a wearable computer.
The New York Times liked almost everything about it, yet advised against buying it as your first smartwatch – or upgrading from the Series 3.
For a start it is the most achingly beautiful Watch yet from Apple. It takes my breath away each time I raise my wrist and the screen quickly fades up in full, colourful glory. If that sounds over the top, just wait until you see one in the flesh.
Seriously, this is not just the most elegant evolution of Apple Watch design – though it’s certainly that, too. It takes the design to a new, gleaming level of opulence […]
Last year’s Series 3 was great, but this is a whole new thing. The design is just gorgeous and the bright, vivid display with its narrow, curved bezels, looks sensational. The uptick in performance power is noticeable at every level and the increased health qualities and fitness monitoring are hugely welcome.
If you’ve held back from getting an Apple Watch because you thought it wasn’t quite there yet, well, it is now.
Runner’s World said that the Apple Watch is finally a great option for runners – though more for watchOS 5 as for the new Series 4 hardware. In fact, it recommended the cheaper Series 3 for younger runners without health concerns.
The screen stretches out from one edge to the other, letting apps take up more of the watch’s face. This enlarged display makes everything on the watch look better, including text […]
The speed difference was most noticeable when using Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. By simply raising the watch toward my mouth, I could speak a command like “Set a timer for 20 minutes,” and the watch reacted with barely any delay. The hands-free ability to summon Siri is a feature of Apple’s new watch operating system, WatchOS 5. In my book, this is how watches were meant to be used: without having to press any buttons.
I wouldn’t recommend it for people who are considering a smart watch for the first time. Here’s why: $399 is a stiff price to pay for a gadget with lightweight utility. Fortunately, Apple is selling its older Series 3 watch, which I rated as a great product last year, for $279. Now is a good time to get the older one.
I wouldn’t upgrade to the Series 4 from a recent generation of Apple Watch, either, because the improvements won’t feel significant. But if you bought the original Apple Watch in 2015 and liked it, this will be a great upgrade. The first watch was sluggish, with limited battery life, and it no longer receives operating system updates. The Series 4 addresses all of the first-generation watch’s flaws, and the speed boost will be a big step up.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that Apple made a slow start in the smartwatch race, but has now left everyone else far behind.
At some point, we’ve all went out the door and forgot to start our watch. Now the watch will recognize when you’ve started an activity and even try to identify the type […] and the watch will have recorded your data from the start of the activity, not just when you hit the start button.
For marathon runners aiming for a specific time goal, you’ll like that Apple has added a feature common to other advanced GPS watches: pace alerts. You configure these within the Workouts app on the watch (click the three dots on the workout tile to access that workout type’s settings). On the run, the watch will alert you whenever you cross the predesignated threshold—for example, if you speed up and go from 8:05 per mile to 7:55 on average, it’ll alert you once. But the alerts are infrequent, so you don’t get annoyed.
TechCrunch said that the best smartwatch on the market just got better – mostly in small ways, but they add up.
Like the fable of the hare and the tortoise, Apple has continued to iterate on its design, while Google seems to have abandoned the race. Today, Apple is miles ahead, with Samsung’s Gear Watch a distant second but still the best choice for Android users. Android Wear, now called Wear OS by Google, is far behind both.
Last year’s Apple Watch Series 3 was a massive leap forward, in both hardware and software. Apple is now competing with itself, and the Series 4 is leaps ahead again. The hardware is fast enough that no interaction has lag, be it flicking your wrist to turn on the screen, or tapping a complication to launch an app.
The screen on the Apple Watch 4 has been redesigned with a bezel-free, edge-to-edge display that fits more on the screen. The two new Infographic watch faces take advantage of all this space […] The Series 4 is compelling for those who can afford it.
Eleven years after the release of the iPhone, Apple’s most important product offers only incremental improvements with each new update. This seems to disappoint pundits, who demand giant leaps in technology with every release. But those wanting year over year drastic improvement need only look at the Apple Watch, which shows no signs of slowing down.
TechRadar said that Apple had hit the two things people were looking for from an update.
If you’ve used an earlier version with any regularity […] the increase in surface area is pretty readily apparent, especially when an email notification comes through. It also means app developers can jam in more detail and the Watch’s faces can feature additional complications […]
Apple’s success doesn’t lie in any single standout feature. Rather, as with the iPhone, the company has excelled in providing an overall hardware and software experience that makes it possible to use the product mostly without thinking […]
The Series 4 isn’t the kind of refresh that justifies upgrading from the last generation, especially given the $399 and $499 starting prices for the standard and LTE models, respectively. But there’s certainly enough here to keep the Apple Watch at the top of the smartwatch heap. The addition of serious health features like ECG and fall detection further lay the groundwork for a what the device — and category — will become, going forward.
USA Today said that the health features are the real reason to buy the Series 4.
The larger screen and more rounded edges are much nicer to look at and offer more functionality, and it also adds in some extra features too that are designed for those who are a little more vulnerable or suffer certain health conditions […]
The Apple Watch 4 stole the show at the launch of three new iPhones, and for good reason: where those were all just copying the iPhone X from last year, the Watch 4 feels materially different. This is Apple’s best smartwatch – not just because it’s the newest, but by a long way.
Not just for the upgrade in display and size, without adding that much heft, but in the way Apple is pushing it: the Watch 4 is now a health-focused device, something to help you get fitter or stay healthier if you’ve got a serious condition – or even just safeguard the more infirm for their loved ones.
For: Larger display. Lightweight design. Louder speaker.
Against: Still on the pricey side. Battery life needs to be more than two days.
The Verge shared the majority view that the Series 4 finally realizes the original goal for the Apple Watch.
At the risk of stereotyping, it’s safe to assume that Apple is grabbing at an older demographic, customers who, by and large, may have been more dismissive of earlier smart watches […]
Those of you who buy Series 4 will appreciate its larger display, louder speaker and such. But Apple has been pushing the new watch as a guardian for your health and that is arguably the most important reason to buy it. Even if your goal is never to have to use those features.
We’ll of course be bringing you our own takes on the watch – including new pieces in my Apple Watch Diary series.
Then Apple did what Apple often does: iterated, refined, and fixed. But as much as there were software and hardware improvements to the Series 2 and Series 3, the most important refinements were to the Apple Watch’s purpose. It gained clarity. It was for fitness and notifications. Eventually, when it was ready, Apple added better connectivity.
Now, with the Series 4, Apple is iterating again. And, importantly, it’s learned how to iterate the product’s hardware and its purpose at the same time. The Series 4 has finally achieved something like the original goal of the Apple Watch. It’s not quite a do-anything computer on your wrist, but it can be different things to different people now.
Good stuff: Great battery life. Huge, beautiful screen. Health-tracking features, not just fitness.
Bad stuff: Siri is still unreliable. No always-on screen option. Complication options can be confusing.
