hi everyone Aaron here for zollotech and this is the apple watch series 7.
this has been my main apple watch since the day it released which was just over six months or so ago
so i wanted to talk about how it's held up durability any issues i've had and more
now the first thing is overall use i use the apple watch mostly as just a watch so i'm not using this
mainly as a fitness or health device i'm using it more as a watch and communication device
so as you can see the layout on my display i have messages in the upper left then in the middle i
have the lumia app and this is infograph modular on the display here so infograph modular with the
complication lumi or app lumia in the middle that tells me when golden hour is or the best time to
sort of take photos and video then in the bottom left i have temperature compass in the middle and
music on the right the things that i use the most with this now i don't use it for workouts
too much i do use it from time to time maybe to take a walk or something along those lines
and i'll probably use it more this year and very soon than i ever have but as far as this goes this
is more how i use it it's just basically a nice watch with communication ability now as far as the
overall durability of this device well apple says they've increased durability this year now this
is the stainless steel model you can see here the actual sensors are turned on since it's trying to
measure my my heart rate but you'll see here it's a series 7 45 millimeter stainless steel version
and the reason i opt for the stainless steel and last year the titanium version is that it comes
with this sapphire crystal display now others have measured the display and said that maybe
it's not a 100 sapphire or it's a lower grade but either way it's a hundred percent provided me a
scratch free experience so i have no scratches on the display so if i shut the display off you
can't see a single scratch and just last week i actually bumped it into bricks and concrete and
i don't have a single scratch on it i've had that problem in the past with the aluminum or aluminium
one that has glass on it and it actually scratched really badly so that's an advantage if you don't
want to put a screen protector and one of the reasons i opt for the more expensive version just
for that sapphire crystal the overall frame being stainless steel is actually held up pretty well
it does show quite a few fingerprints though if we rotate it around here you can see any fingerprints
it might have and it does pick up fingerprints just like the stainless steel iphones do
but overall it's actually pretty scratch free i haven't had any issues there and then you could
polish it out if you needed to i'm also using a nomad stainless steel band that sort of matches
it so that's something i've been using for a long time i really like their products and they were
nice enough to send this along quite some time ago so that'll be linked in the description but
it's not a sponsored video or an advertisement for them it's just something that i like and
that i use regularly now as far as durability like i said it's quite good no issues there
and if you have the aluminum version again as long as you're careful with it i really wouldn't expect
any issues as far as that goes now with the larger display this year we get a couple extra
features so basically we have a larger display which actually is much nicer than it sounded to
me at first it's easier to see everything but also provides more information on the screen or display
in a larger format and then allows for a couple extra things so you also get this always on
display that's up to 70 percent brighter however that's never really mattered to me as you tilt
the display down so maybe we tilt it away from the screen it goes into a slower maybe 10 hertz
mode or so there you can see it there and saves power but it's up to 70 percent brighter but when
the watch is tilted away from me i'm not looking at it so it doesn't really matter to me if i had
it horizontally on my wrist maybe laying on a table that might be a little nicer but that's
something that doesn't really matter to me and it isn't a reason to switch from maybe a series
six to a series seven however you do get a couple extra features with the larger display so if we
go into things like the calculator here so we'll go up to calculator let's go back calculator we
have a full size calculator here that makes it really easy to use because the display is larger
we also get a full size keyboard which is really nice so if we go into messages in messages if i
tap on messages i can say hi how are you today just by swiping and just go hi how are you today
now it's not a hundred percent accurate and i find i have this issue a lot so we can back up
and then try it again i find it much easier just to use the microphone and use voice dictation to
say this so we can do the same sort of thing here hi how are you today and it's much easier to do
that and it's very accurate so i typically don't really use the keyboard much but it's nice to
have that option with the series 7 since you have that larger display now one thing that was really
useful to many of us late last year is apple added the ability to unlock your iphone if it has face
id using your watch to bio authenticate that it's you and if you're wearing a mask so it would make
it a lot easier to unlock and then later they added the feature directly into the phone itself
if you have an iphone 12 or newer so if you have an older iphone older than an iphone 12 which is
only a few years old at this point you can still use the apple watch to help unlock it and make
your life a little easier if you're wearing a mask so this is something if you don't have
an apple watch and you have maybe an iphone 10 i would recommend it just to more easily unlock your
phone if you're wearing a mask so that's something that's been very helpful that apple added later on
and has been helpful to many people and is still there again if you have one of the
maybe devices older than an iphone 12. now this year we did not really get a processor update
so we didn't really see too much of a change there so if we go into different apps they're nice and
fast as you saw the calculator here maybe we go into the camera remote it will trigger the camera
on the phone it loads pretty quickly and also things like compass or any app that you're going
into even if you don't go into it too often it seems to load fairly quickly so it's been really
nice to have as far as that goes although i really don't notice a difference between the series 6
and 7 with loading speeds or anything like that it has been pretty solid though as far as the overall
stability of the software typically watch os has been fairly stable and you can see it's just nice
and fluid and fast so no complaints there as far as that goes however one thing i've mentioned in
the past is if you're wearing a band like this so the stainless steel band if it's not tight
enough and maybe you're trying to monitor your blood oxygen level or ecg you're trying that out
typically it needs to be fairly tight to do that maybe if you're working out and monitoring that
it can be a little bit hit or miss sometimes if you're trying to monitor that if you don't have a
watch band that's tight enough so that's something you want to keep in mind maybe you're working out
and you want it to give you information about that i would recommend instead of maybe this
sort of watch band maybe a watch band such as the solo loops you may want something that's a
little more elastic that holds the watch closer to your wrist if you're working out taking a walk or
anything like that it's also lighter and then of course it breathes a little bit better sometimes
if you're maybe working out hard or you could go for the one with the little holes in it or any of
those they seem to work a little bit better with different sensors so that's just something to note
and i've noticed the same sort of behavior with this watch as well now we did have some
odd charging issues with this we have faster charging with this watch however i don't really
pay attention to that too much because i just put it on the charger at night when i go to bed i'll
take it off my wrist put it on the charger next to my phone and then i go to bed and it charges
so i haven't really noticed a speed difference but i have noticed some odd charging behaviors
depending on what version of watch os is on it so sometimes it just wouldn't charge all the
way apple fixed that with different updates and things like that but it's just something that was
not really problematic in the past but was with this watch hopefully they get it fixed if you're
still experiencing those issues i know some are on the latest watch os update and it seems to be
a problem for some people now as far as overall battery life battery life has been pretty good
so if we go into battery give it a second to load you'll see i'm at 96 96 battery after about
an hour or so and i've had the display on while recording this video and that uses power as well
and so if we go into battery health like i said i charge this every night and for six months i'll
just put it on the charger at night go to bed take it off in the morning and i'm still at 100
usually after a year or so i'll be down into the lower 90s or so it's very normal it's within spec
80 after two years is normal but so far it's holding up well and maybe a little bit better
than the series six was at this time last year also so no complaints there battery life gets
me through a day without a problem now if you're going to be streaming music on this with air pods
that's going to take more power also if you're working out a lot that's going to
use the sensors which in turn uses more power so it may not get you through a day if you're doing
that you can always just turn off the always on display to save some power there also if
you want to do that maybe if you're working out heavily and you're just using this all the time
with its sensors now this is also the cellular model of the watch and i do have that activated
you can see that here with the little cellular option and you'll see it's on t-mobile it's worked
fine typically if i go for a watch i'll leave the phone at home go for a walk with the watch
and i can still get messages if there's someone trying to contact me with an important message
so it's always great to have that option it seems to work well i haven't had any issues with it
and it just seems to work i can stream music off it if i want to or listen to a podcast
and i have no issues with cellular connectivity so i really haven't found that i need 5g on the
watch or anything like that it just works well and i don't think about it now often i get asked can
i swim with my apple watch can i get it wet and apple actually certifies this as swim proof with
wr-50 water resistance it's also ip6x certified so that means it's more dust resistant water
resistant and people wear these all day and all night to monitor sleep or maybe shower with them
and swim with them there's no issues with that whatsoever i've had zero issues getting these wet
and as long as it's not a super hot shower and maybe it loosens the adhesive i've heard of no
issues whatsoever if you're swimming or even diving not to super deep depths it seems to hold
up well so apple certified it and it's waterproof and if it leaks typically you can bring it to an
apple store and they'll help you out with that so i haven't experienced that in all the years
i've had apple watches but this one's holding up really really well especially since the latest
version is even more durable this time around now as far as apple watch bands i typically recommend
either the solo loop or the nylon woven band i find both of these to be very comfortable and the
nylon woven band is more expensive but is very lightweight and breathes really well so that's
one reason i typically use it and i actually wear this a lot when i just want to maybe go for a walk
i'll switch between either one of these just depending on which one i prefer for
that time the nylon woven one though definitely breathes better if you're maybe working out a lot
or it's just very hot all of the time so i would recommend one of these or maybe one of the other
nylon bands as well now as far as who this is for i would typically say if you have an apple watch
series 5 or older the series 7 is worth picking up however if you have a series 6 i would probably
hold off unless you really want the larger display at this point there wasn't enough giant feature
changes to really justify upgrading this year for most people so i would probably hold off as
we'll see a series 8 later this year usually in september when they release the new iphone 14. so
that's typically what we'll see and then of course this will support watch os for years to come so
meaning watch os 9 10 11 probably 12 and maybe even 13. so we'll have to wait and see what apple
actually supports but they're still supporting the series 3 apple watch and watch os 9 may support it
as well we'll know that in june at wwdc but as far as the apple watch is concerned it's one of
the best apple devices that you don't really have to think about it's been very stable and
just works well and is a nice utility device also that tells time so that's something that
i recommend for a lot of people that are looking for a simple communication device with apps and
things and of course workout features as well now if you have any other questions you wanted
to know about the series 7 apple watch i'd love to hear from you in the comments below
and of course if you'd like to get your hands on this wallpaper i'll link it in the description
like i normally do if you haven't subscribed already though please subscribe and if you enjoyed
the video please give it a like as always thanks for watching this is Aaron i'll see you next time