I’ve been using the Apple watch series 7 for 1 week now, and even though I was extremely
underwhelmed with it when Apple announced it, and a bit disappointed once we did our hands on
comparison against the series 6, 5, and 4, since then it's actually surprised me in multiple ways.
In this real-world honest review im going to skip
most of the specs since you’ve likely seen them already anyway
and focus on what stood out to me using this watch day to day, both positives as well as negatives,
covering the little details that most reviewers didn’t touch on at the launch of these watches,
and finish with if the series 7 is worth it or if you should wait for the series 8.
I’ve been wearing Apple watches ever since the very first series 0 and I’ve upgraded every
single year, until last year that is, where the series 6 was such a minor update for me personally
that I broke that cycle and ended up returning the series 6 and using my series 5 for a second year.
The new series 7 is yet again an iterative upgrade, and many would argue that it's an
even smaller upgrade this year, so why am I liking it so much more this year?
Last year the 6 got a 20% faster processor, U1 Chip, a compass, the always on altimeter,
faster wifi, and a sometimes brighter display which was my biggest complaint about the series 5.
Now that wasn’t enough for me to upgrade, so what does the 7 offer. Well, there are no new
health features, the storage is the same, and even the S7 processor is just a rebranded S6.
Apple even said that the battery life is the same, but we know that their yearly claims
of 18 hours can vary greatly in real world use, and that's exactly what I experienced.
The same thing goes for other things they don’t mention such as the taptic engine.
Before I cover the screen and software,
let's talk about that engine. Almost no one talks about this but I find this to be a huge
deal in the real world. Apples been great at being able to nudge you about notifications
without other people hearing, but I found that sometimes its just too weak.
The same thing goes for using it as an alarm to wake me up.
Who knows but maybe I’m just less sensitive to that but
the series 7 once has a much stronger vibrations than my 5 and earlier watches and after using
it for a week and putting my series 5 on for today it's a substantial difference.
This makes me want to start using it as my daily alarm,
which I rarely used before, and that along with the faster charging and better battery life
will likely push me over the edge. Apple really pushed the faster charging feature with this watch
and that just 8 min gets you a full night of sleep tracking and the watch charges 33% faster as well.
Battery life has always been an issue with Apple watches, and though most of the time I can get
through the day some days when I’m using it more my series 5 will die before bedtime.
When I saw that Apple quoted the same 18 hours of life I was disappointed,
especially after they said the screen is 50% thicker, I thought how often do people
break their screens? I’m super tough on mine and it's never been an issue,
but many people complain about the battery so much that people disable
the always on displays to help, so why not use that extra space for a bigger battery.
Well it turns out Apple did increase the battery capacity with these watches, the 41mm has the
biggest improvement but its still there on the 45mm. That with the fact that the chip is more
efficient than my S5 and this watch is brand new made a noticeable difference in battery life.
And now that we have fast charging I’ll end up using sleep tracking as well.
Now the other big thing they pushed is the display. At first glance it seems
nothing like the 20% larger they talk about
and their product images show online. I found that it really depends on what apps and
watch faces you use. Some have almost no difference but others are very noticeable.
In reality the bigger screen is not a reason to upgrade,
but Apple software limitations might actually be. I personally really like the new Contour
face which is designed to maximize the screen size and use the light refraction
with the curved glass. Sure they could have added that to 44mm models but it wouldn’t look
as cool so I understand why they didn’t, but the modular duo is a serious rip off.
This face allows for two full width really detailed complications like stocks,
and none of the info bends into the screen curve so why not add a ever so slightly
smaller version for the older watches, well probably just to add more reasons to upgrade.
The world time and portrait watchfaces are available on the older models,
and they look good but once I got used to the larger screen of the 7 my 5 looked small.
I also noticed a few other differences Apple didn’t mention with the display.
One is contrast, where the series 7 has much less reflectivity than my 5
which is great and the other one is of course the brighter display when it is dimmed.
I hated that with my 5 and the 6 promised to be 2.5 brighter but it turned out that was
only outdoors and if I’m outdoors I don’t glance down anway. The 7 promises to be 70% brighter
indoors and its definitely noticeable especially in particular watch faces.
The portrait face shows almost no difference, but more minimal ones like california
are dramatically brighter, almost like it doesn’t dim on the 7.
Thank you apple for finally fixing this and making the always on display more useful.
Apple also finally gave the 7 a dust proof rating which was said to be only because
they actually tested it, but we now know this isn’t true because ifixit tore it down
and found new updated screens so these are legitimately more resistant to environments.
Now onto the final software feature that makes a big difference, the keyboard.
I’m not sure about you but I hated typing, or sketching to be more accurate
on the apple watch. It is so slow and annoying that I never even used it and relied on voice
which works well but is not always possible in loud environments or when you need to be quiet.
Well we have this new full keyboard with swiping that actually works well once you get used to it.
Once again I think they could work just as well on 44mm watches
but of course Apple isn’t giving it to us.
These legitimate upgrades and software limitations might actually make it worth upgrading from a 6 if
you have a ton of money that is, but most people shouldn’t do it. Coming from the 5
though where your battery was worst from the start and is now wearing out like mine is at
86% capacity is way more logical now then I thought at the launch of this watch,
and for series 4 owners its an ever bigger upgrade.
The main question is should you wait for the series 8 which will almost certainly
be redesigned. Well, if your on a budget and only upgrade your watch every 3-5 years
I would say try to wait another year if you can do it. If you upgrade more often
and you might not like the upcoming square edge display I say go for it. The improvements are
a lot bigger than I expected and will make the series 7 a more useful watch for me personally.
If you're wondering how the SE compares to the 7 check out our comparison right over there,
and click above to subscribe if you want to see more videos like this one.
This has been Max and I’ll see you in the next video.