I’ve been using the Apple Watch Series 5 since it came out in September, which is about
4 months ago, and in this video, I want to share my thoughts on the differences I’ve
noticed compared to my old Series 4 Apple Watch, as well as my final conclusion on whether
it was worth upgrading to the Series 5, and the features I believe could be coming to
the Series 6 watch this September.
Now my old Series 4 was actually the Gold stainless steel model with the gold chain
link band, and that’s the exact combination I chose on the Series 5.
I’ve compared both of them very closely, and there is literally no physical differences
at all except for the little engraving on the back that says Series 5 instead of Series
4.
So they’re basically identical.
Now why in the world would I make this upgrade?
Well, the most obvious reason is that we run this YouTube channel and we make a lot of
Apple-related videos, so we’ve gotta have the latest Apple products to test and review.
But if we toss that aside, the main reason I actually wanted to upgrade was the always-on
display.
Yes, the Series 5 technically does get the new Compass feature which you can’t get
on the Series 4, and I’ll talk about that in just a minute,
It also gets 32GB of storage versus only 16 on the Series 4, but that honestly hasn’t
mattered much to me because I never even hit the 16GB limit on my Series 4.
There’s a reason why there were so little changes and differences with the Series 5.
The Apple Watch has already almost hit its peak in terms of design, features and software.
The performance of the Series 4 was already great, the new display was a huge change that
makes it look much better.
The feature-set is already so vast, that it’s hard to think of more features that can be
packed into the Apple Watch.
The Series 4 was already the best smartwatch you could get, and it’s easy to see that
there wasn’t much left to improve on with the Series 5, except of course, the always-on
display.
So here’s why the always-on display is such a big deal.
For years, it’s been missing, and a lot of people have been asking for it.
The main reasons are due to functionality, being able to see the time, your messages,
the temperature or any of your complications at a glance without having to raise it or
tap it with your finger.
To some people, that might sound ridiculous, but that little bit of extra convenience actually
adds a lot.
For myself personally, that does help, but I also care about the style side of the always-on
display.
Previously, with the Series 4, I would at times swap out my Apple Watch for a nice regular
watch when going out to a nice restaurant, a wedding, or events, even though I would
lose out on the obvious smart functionality.
That’s because for many years, the watch has been seen as the finishing touch to an
outfit, like for a suit and tie, for example.
Have a solid block of black on the face of the Series 4 really seemed to kill that finishing
touch.
But with the Series 5 and the always-on display, your watch face is always lit up so it looks
much more like a normal watch.
Of course, this might sound farfetched to some people, but due to the always-on display
alone, I’ve noticed that I’ve stopped wearing some of my other watches altogether
because the Series 5 actually looks good and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
You’ll find a lot of different Series 5 Reviews on Youtube, where people are switching
back to the Apple Watch for the always-on display feature alone, so that’s gotta say
something!
One thing I also like is that different faces act differently when you turn the display
off.
Some turn a white background black, and others leave an outline of the time so it’s clearly
visible and easy to read.
But other than that, there really isn’t much of a difference between the Series 4
and Series 5.
I haven’t noticed any differences at all in performance, functionality or anything
else, but I’ve actually been getting very impressive battery life considering the display
is always-on, and I always have it set to the brightest setting as well.
I used to get to around 50-55% battery life at the end of the day, and with the Series
5, it’s now at around 35%, so losing 20-25% battery life is a good sacrifice to be able
to have an always-on display.
The only time the Series 5 died on me was when I went on a long 6 hour hike and I had
all of the workout activity tracking features enabled.
But other than that, it’s been great!
The cool thing about the Series 5 is that the battery itself is actually bigger, so
you can disable always-on in the settings and get even more battery life when you don’t
want to use that feature.
Now let’s talk about the Compass, the feature that’s not available on the Series 4.
Even though I have the gold chain link band, the compass is working perfectly fine.
I personally haven’t really used it because you really only need it when you’re lost,
and most hikes have trails that you stick to for that reason.
However, the compass can actually be utilized by other apps, like the Maps app, for example.
This enables the watch to show you which direction you’re facing, which can be really helpful
with navigation.
And Apple should be allowing third-party developers to make use of the compass to add this functionality
into running apps and other apps like that.
Now I know the Series 4 also supports the same features that you get with watchOS 6,
but I’ve gotta say that I’m really liking the new ambient noise feature.
It’s actually been quite useful for a couple of the videos we’ve done on this channel.
For example, we used it to show off the difference in speaker volume in our 15 vs 16” macbook
pro comparison video, and we used it again when we compared the volume of the fan noise
between them when at maximum load, so this is probably one of my favorite new features
with watchos 6.
Now before I give you my final answer on if upgrading was worth it or not, I want to mention
the features I would really like to see on the Apple Watch Series 6.
First off, I think it would be really cool if Apple created a round version of the Apple
Watch.
If you think about, Apple’s done basically everything they possibly can with the current
Apple Watch design, so a round option would be great and help make it look even more like
a normal classy watch.
I’d also like Apple to improve on the battery tech even more so that we would have an option
to not have the display dim when you’re not using it.
I actually avoid some watch faces because in always-on mode, it gets so dim that it’s
kind of hard to tell the time, so I ended up lifting my wrist anyway, so it would be
great if they’d be brighter.
There were some rumors of blood-glucose monitoring coming to the Apple Watch, and I think that
would be a huge accomplishment for Apple, making life a lot easier for people who need
to check their blood sugar.
Apart from that, there’s really not that much features I’d want on the Apple Watch
because it basically already has everything I could think of.
On the software side, I think it would be awesome if Apple created a Watch Face store,
where third-party companies or people could create custom watch faces than you can purchase
for a price.
This would create a new profit stream for Apple and make a lot of people happy by having
a larger base of watch faces.
Now the final question, do I regret upgrading?
Well, Kinda, sorta, yes, but at the same time no.
If we weren’t making YouTube videos, I would not have the Series 5 right now because I
wouldn’t have paid the money to upgrade.
It’s simply just too similar and I really haven’t noticed any other difference other
than the always-on display.
But at the same time I really, really, like the always on display.
The only reason to regret upgrading is the extra money spent, and four months later I
still feel kinda bad about it, but ultimately if I ask myself would I trade back to a series
4 right now and get the price difference back then no I wouldn’t.
I really like the series 5 and the always on display.
And for brand new Apple Watch customers, I would absolutely recommend going for the Series
5 over the Series 3 because of all of the great feature changes that came with the Series
4 plus the few new ones with 5.
Amazon does still have the Series 4 available renewed for $330, but I honestly think paying
$85 more for a brand new Series 5 is definitely worth it.
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you can use if you appreciate the information.
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