Apple Watch: Top 10 Reasons for Buying a Smart Watch
Should you get an Apple Watch?
We waited years for the Apple Watch, the first new product of the Tim Cook era. And we yawned. It’s pricey, particularly the upmarket Watch, and especially the Gold, editions. Watchband prices are outrageous at $150.00 for a couple of bucks of stainless steel, no matter how highly polished it may be.
But this misses the point, does it work well as a watch, and deliver relevant, targeted information to your wrist? My take is that it does that very well. I don’t know what the design criteria were for the Apple Watch, but here are my top ten criteria for buying a smartwatch:
1. At least a day between charges. Two days of solid use from mine without tweaking notifications and other settings to maximize battery life. I bet I could get at least three days, and maybe four.
2. Must offer a variety of watch faces. After all, we are all different, and we would get the watch face of our choice with an analog watch.
3. Has to provide diverse information at a glance. Time, date and temperature, at a minimum. I also get activity, digital time, and location on the watch face I’ve chosen.
4. Must respond to natural “watch checking” motion. Twist my wrist and the face appears. Twisting it back shuts off the display. Works for me.
5. Notifications. To save me having to pull out my phone, I need to see incoming calls, text messages and emails. I get all those and a lot more. No Facebook app though.
6. Quick responses. Need to make quick responses to incoming messages. The Watch lets me scroll through canned responses or dictate more complex ones.
7. Music on the go. Works, with limitations. Load playlists onto the Watch, and play music through Bluetooth headphones without the phone. Would prefer a jack for headphones, but it’s OK.
8. Health/Exercise tracking. Does the basics with built-in apps. Reminders to exercise 30 minutes each day, stand every hour, and tracks heart rate. Lots of health and exercise apps available.
9. Weather. Just enough information. If you want detail you still have to pull out your phone.
10. News. I get CNN headlines and breaking news, frankly they are teasers, and back to the phone for detail. Then again, I often don’t care about the latest celebrity politician outbursts.
What about stuff I wasn’t looking for, but find useful anyway? Here are my top 5 picks
1. Phone. I can answer a call from the watch, and even make one from there. Sure it’s gimmicky, but can help when you get a call and your hands are full.
2. Stand up every hour. It’s a nag, but most of us are too sedentary, so it’s a plus.
3. Calendar. No surprise it offers reminders, but a nice feature not to have to get out the phone.
4. Directions. Set directions on your phone in Apple’s map app. It can be useful when walking in the city. Better than being glued to your phone screen.
5. Camera Remote Control. Cool! Get a tripod and trip the shutter remotely. Great when you want to be in the picture. Or line the phone up, walk away, and get a candid shot!
After a week, I’m glad I got it. I tried a different smart watch, and returned it for a refund. It didn’t do the first 4 things on my top 10 list well, if at all. The Apple Watch does, and more. It’s taken over from Apple TV as the best product Apple makes that hardly anyone buys. If you buck the trend and get one, Amazon has some great watchbands at dynamite prices.