![Apple Watch Series 3 [GPS 42mm] Smart Watch w/Silver Aluminum Case & White Sport Band. Fitness & Activity Tracker, Heart Rate Monitor, Retina Display, Water Resistant](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71gsjKxyfjL.__AC_SY445_SX342_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
I deliberated on getting an Apple Watch for a long time. I found it unnecessary and I typically hate wearing watches. However, I am working on bettering many aspect is my physical health and decided to get one.
I will start by saying that I love this thing. I opted for a series 3 because the price is significantly lower than more recent models. From what I can tell, battery life and screen size are the chief improvements in the new models.
The good:
The watch is super convenient for accessing the most used features of my phone, without the need to use my phone. I often don’t have pockets and keep my phone in a bag, so the ability to check messages and answer calls from the watch is great.
I love that I can “ping” my phone. I misplace it at the house frequently. I only wish that, like the Find My IPhone app, the ping would sound until the phone is unlocked.
The watch integrates with my health related apps perfectly. Anything I need to access quickly can be done; whether it be my activity and sleep trackers or my heart rate tracker. It seems to accurately track my steps, as my phone (in pocket) and watch are generally consistent within 100 steps for every thousand.
The screen is easy to see. I don’t have great vision, but have no trouble reading anything.
The not as good:
The watch has a poor speaker output, when talking on the phone. I Understand that the intent is to use the airpod with this and I usually do, but there are times that I don’t wish to and I would like to be able to hear clearly.
Photos require an entire album to be synced. I would love to simply be able to store photos of my choosing. This becomes a bit annoying, since the aspect ratio of the Apple Watch screen is 5:4, versus most photos being 2:3 or 3:4. In order to ensure they view properly, you must crop them in the phone. As a professional photographer, this is annoying to me.
The battery life isn’t quite as good as I hoped. I presumed that I would get close to two full days from each charge. I get a little bit more than one day. I am not a heavy user, as much of what I do requires my phone. I get even less when using the AirPods.
The music app should be able to play from the watch speakers. AirPods obviously will sound better, but sometimes, I just want to hear my music quietly while working and don’t care so much for quality. I don’t want to have to have my phone following me or put pods in every time.
Lastly, the location sharing app, which shares the same icon as Find My IPhone is not super useful. There is no way that I can see that I can use this to find other devices of mine (MBP, my other iPhone, my iPad). From my phone, I can ping all of these devices. It should be easy to equip the Watch with the same capability to do so.
In short, I still love this. The issues are minor and nowhere near enough to deter me, but these are things that should be addressed in updated models or the OS, if they have not been addressed already.
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| Price | From: - | From: - | From: - |
| Ratings | (9,124) | (5,071) | (5,344) |
| Case Size | 38mm, 42mm | 40mm, 44mm | 41mm, 45mm |
| Case Thickness | 11.4mm | 10.4mm | 10.7mm |
| Display | Retina display | Retina display, 30% larger than Series 3 | Always-On Retina display Nearly 20% more screen area than Apple Watch SE and over 50% more screen area than Series 3 |
| Processor | Dual-core S3 processor | 64-bit dual-core S5 processor; Up to 2x faster than S3 | S7 with 64-bit dual-core processor; up to 20% faster than SE |
| Optical Heart Sensor | Optical heart sensor | Second-generation optical heart sensor | Third-generation optical heart sensor |
| Digital Crown | Digital Crown | Digital Crown with haptic feedback | Digital Crown with haptic feedback |
| Altimeter | Altimeter | Always-on Altimeter | Always-on Altimeter |
| Speaker | 50% louder than Series 3 | 50% louder than Series 3 | |
| Fall Detection |
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| Compass |
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| Noise Monitoring |
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| Blood oxygen sensor (Blood Oxygen app) |
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| Electrical heart sensor (ECG app) |
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| Capacity | 8GB | 32GB | 32GB |
| Power | USB-A magnetic charging cable | USB-C magnetic charging cable | USB-C magnetic fast charging cable |
| Bluetooth | BT 4.2 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.0 |
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This is what makes Apple watches so special
Austin McCoo
A fantastic watch, with a few minor annoyances.
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2020
I deliberated on getting an Apple Watch for a long time. I found it unnecessary and I typically hate wearing watches. However, I am working on bettering many aspect is my physical health and decided to get one.I will start by saying that I love this thing. I opted for a series 3 because the price is significantly lower than more recent models. From what I can tell, battery life and screen size are the chief improvements in the new models.The good:The watch is super convenient for accessing the most used features of my phone, without the need to use my phone. I often don’t have pockets and keep my phone in a bag, so the ability to check messages and answer calls from the watch is great.I love that I can “ping” my phone. I misplace it at the house frequently. I only wish that, like the Find My IPhone app, the ping would sound until the phone is unlocked.The watch integrates with my health related apps perfectly. Anything I need to access quickly can be done; whether it be my activity and sleep trackers or my heart rate tracker. It seems to accurately track my steps, as my phone (in pocket) and watch are generally consistent within 100 steps for every thousand.The screen is easy to see. I don’t have great vision, but have no trouble reading anything.The not as good:The watch has a poor speaker output, when talking on the phone. I Understand that the intent is to use the airpod with this and I usually do, but there are times that I don’t wish to and I would like to be able to hear clearly.Photos require an entire album to be synced. I would love to simply be able to store photos of my choosing. This becomes a bit annoying, since the aspect ratio of the Apple Watch screen is 5:4, versus most photos being 2:3 or 3:4. In order to ensure they view properly, you must crop them in the phone. As a professional photographer, this is annoying to me.The battery life isn’t quite as good as I hoped. I presumed that I would get close to two full days from each charge. I get a little bit more than one day. I am not a heavy user, as much of what I do requires my phone. I get even less when using the AirPods.The music app should be able to play from the watch speakers. AirPods obviously will sound better, but sometimes, I just want to hear my music quietly while working and don’t care so much for quality. I don’t want to have to have my phone following me or put pods in every time.Lastly, the location sharing app, which shares the same icon as Find My IPhone is not super useful. There is no way that I can see that I can use this to find other devices of mine (MBP, my other iPhone, my iPad). From my phone, I can ping all of these devices. It should be easy to equip the Watch with the same capability to do so.In short, I still love this. The issues are minor and nowhere near enough to deter me, but these are things that should be addressed in updated models or the OS, if they have not been addressed already.
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2020
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2020
I will start by saying that I love this thing. I opted for a series 3 because the price is significantly lower than more recent models. From what I can tell, battery life and screen size are the chief improvements in the new models.
The good:
The watch is super convenient for accessing the most used features of my phone, without the need to use my phone. I often don’t have pockets and keep my phone in a bag, so the ability to check messages and answer calls from the watch is great.
I love that I can “ping” my phone. I misplace it at the house frequently. I only wish that, like the Find My IPhone app, the ping would sound until the phone is unlocked.
The watch integrates with my health related apps perfectly. Anything I need to access quickly can be done; whether it be my activity and sleep trackers or my heart rate tracker. It seems to accurately track my steps, as my phone (in pocket) and watch are generally consistent within 100 steps for every thousand.
The screen is easy to see. I don’t have great vision, but have no trouble reading anything.
The not as good:
The watch has a poor speaker output, when talking on the phone. I Understand that the intent is to use the airpod with this and I usually do, but there are times that I don’t wish to and I would like to be able to hear clearly.
Photos require an entire album to be synced. I would love to simply be able to store photos of my choosing. This becomes a bit annoying, since the aspect ratio of the Apple Watch screen is 5:4, versus most photos being 2:3 or 3:4. In order to ensure they view properly, you must crop them in the phone. As a professional photographer, this is annoying to me.
The battery life isn’t quite as good as I hoped. I presumed that I would get close to two full days from each charge. I get a little bit more than one day. I am not a heavy user, as much of what I do requires my phone. I get even less when using the AirPods.
The music app should be able to play from the watch speakers. AirPods obviously will sound better, but sometimes, I just want to hear my music quietly while working and don’t care so much for quality. I don’t want to have to have my phone following me or put pods in every time.
Lastly, the location sharing app, which shares the same icon as Find My IPhone is not super useful. There is no way that I can see that I can use this to find other devices of mine (MBP, my other iPhone, my iPad). From my phone, I can ping all of these devices. It should be easy to equip the Watch with the same capability to do so.
In short, I still love this. The issues are minor and nowhere near enough to deter me, but these are things that should be addressed in updated models or the OS, if they have not been addressed already.
A fantastic watch, with a few minor annoyances.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2020
I deliberated on getting an Apple Watch for a long time. I found it unnecessary and I typically hate wearing watches. However, I am working on bettering many aspect is my physical health and decided to get one.Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2020
I will start by saying that I love this thing. I opted for a series 3 because the price is significantly lower than more recent models. From what I can tell, battery life and screen size are the chief improvements in the new models.
The good:
The watch is super convenient for accessing the most used features of my phone, without the need to use my phone. I often don’t have pockets and keep my phone in a bag, so the ability to check messages and answer calls from the watch is great.
I love that I can “ping” my phone. I misplace it at the house frequently. I only wish that, like the Find My IPhone app, the ping would sound until the phone is unlocked.
The watch integrates with my health related apps perfectly. Anything I need to access quickly can be done; whether it be my activity and sleep trackers or my heart rate tracker. It seems to accurately track my steps, as my phone (in pocket) and watch are generally consistent within 100 steps for every thousand.
The screen is easy to see. I don’t have great vision, but have no trouble reading anything.
The not as good:
The watch has a poor speaker output, when talking on the phone. I Understand that the intent is to use the airpod with this and I usually do, but there are times that I don’t wish to and I would like to be able to hear clearly.
Photos require an entire album to be synced. I would love to simply be able to store photos of my choosing. This becomes a bit annoying, since the aspect ratio of the Apple Watch screen is 5:4, versus most photos being 2:3 or 3:4. In order to ensure they view properly, you must crop them in the phone. As a professional photographer, this is annoying to me.
The battery life isn’t quite as good as I hoped. I presumed that I would get close to two full days from each charge. I get a little bit more than one day. I am not a heavy user, as much of what I do requires my phone. I get even less when using the AirPods.
The music app should be able to play from the watch speakers. AirPods obviously will sound better, but sometimes, I just want to hear my music quietly while working and don’t care so much for quality. I don’t want to have to have my phone following me or put pods in every time.
Lastly, the location sharing app, which shares the same icon as Find My IPhone is not super useful. There is no way that I can see that I can use this to find other devices of mine (MBP, my other iPhone, my iPad). From my phone, I can ping all of these devices. It should be easy to equip the Watch with the same capability to do so.
In short, I still love this. The issues are minor and nowhere near enough to deter me, but these are things that should be addressed in updated models or the OS, if they have not been addressed already.
Images in this review
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