A blog by Lauren Reid, CSR/Service Technician,
I’ve never had an Apple watch before, I always thought they were a bit of a gimmick. When I saw the Apple keynote in September, I was pretty impressed with the new Apple Watch, its new features and how it was making an impact on the health and wellness market.
I managed to get my hands on one and purchased the sleek 44mm rose gold without cellular (I’m not a Bell, Telus or Rogers customer). The set up was simple and easy with the watch app on my phone, simply scanning the apple watch the apps I had on my phone and settings were all transferred over to my new watch, I think it took about 10-15 minutes.
The new display is a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO), which basically means you get a high-quality OLED display that chomps through less power. This helps with battery life. Apple state that the battery life is 18 hours, I have managed to get 2 days out of the watch which I have been really impressed with. The Digital Crown has been improved since the previous model with haptic feedback as you scroll, which works well with the increase in speaker volume. Apparently, Apple has increased the speaker volume by 50%. I was pleasantly surprised when I used the watch to answer a phone call the other day. The sound was crisp and clear.
The first few days I tried to test most the built-in features like the Workout App which allows you to track your workouts, it even auto-detects when you are working out and will alert you to start tracking if you want to. The only downfall is that when you are walking or hiking it can take about 10-15 mins to notice you are doing something and this can be a little frustrating. I have found the Activity App a great way to keep motivated. One night just before going to bed I got an alert advising me that if I did a 10-minute walk, I would close all my rings for the day. I’m not going to lie, I got up and went on my stationary bike until I got the alert ring closed.
A big selling point for me was the medical improvement. As you may know, the Apple Watch received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for its ECG app and the atrial fibrillation feature that alerts you when you experience five irregular heart rhythms. This is just in the US at the moment but hopefully, it will be in Canada soon.
Another feature worth a mention is the fall detection. It actually works! I spent time trying to ‘fake fall’ (don’t ask) and the watch did nothing. While playing football one day I did fall to the ground and I could feel my watch buzzing like crazy and counting down before it would call for help. I was able to stop it easily. It was great to finally see that feature in action.
There are a few attributes which I wasn’t impressed with. Some apps are still in development. Only in November was the Spotify Watch App was released, as I’m not an Apple Music subscriber I had lacked having the control of music on my Watch. Also, there is no sleep tracking at the moment, I think this would be an impressive feature to have. Lastly, the other downside to the Apple Watch is the price. Starting at $519.99 CA for the smaller display it really is a high starting price and when you try on both screen sizes you realize you need the 44mm which starts at $559.99 CA.
Apart from those minor blips I found a little irritating, I’ve found the Apple Watch pretty impressive for my first watch. Hopefully, they keep improving the health and wellness features as I feel this could be a game changer for the medical industry.
Browse our Apple Watch collection: https://www.simply.ca/collections/apple-watch ,
or find out more about our financing options: https://www.simply.ca/pages/consumer-financing
