- [Michael] This video is sponsored by Setapp.
What do you say about a smart watch
that pretty much everyone agrees is the best you can buy?
We could say everyone's wrong, but that's not right.
We could say everyone's right, but that's wrong too.
Though maybe, as usual the truth lies somewhere in between.
(energetic music)
Here's the thing,
any review of the Apple Watch is incomplete
without saying that it's the very best smartwatch
you can buy if you own an iPhone.
And that's partly because Apple intentionally prevents
other smartwatches from taking full advantage
of certain features.
And in some ways the gen five Apple Watch
suffers from the same handicaps inherent in most wearables,
but even falls behind some of the competition.
Take the always on display along with the new compass
it's a feature that the competition has had for many years.
And it's great because you shouldn't need to take an action
to see the time on a watch, it should just always be there.
But enabling it means that
if you forget to charge the thing overnight,
you'll be looking at a dead battery by noon the next day.
I don't mean to say
the Apple Watch is unique in this respect,
but a lot of other smartwatches at least do better.
The TicWatch Pro and Casio Pro Trek F30
use dual-layer displays to eke out
two and three days per charge respectively.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch gets about three days,
while the Fitbit Versa 2 and Garmin MARQ Captain
trade features for seven to 10 day endurance.
You might say you don't mind charging your watch overnight
because you just slap it down alongside your phone
and what's the big deal?
Fair enough.
But then you can't use sleep tracking.
Now of course this isn't always accurate
but even with approximation, I love being able to see
if my sour mood is the result of a restless sleep
or just the latest bat of jet lag.
Now it's not that you can't do it in the Apple Watch,
the app ecosystem is huge
and there are third party apps for this,
but again the watch isn't gonna last you the whole next day
if you do.
Now another thing you might have noticed
about other wearables
they look like watches.
Call me old-fashioned but I prefer a certain traditionalism
in my timepieces, or at least the option they're up.
And if you get an Apple Watch,
hope you like rounded rectangles
'cause that's what you're getting.
Then, while it has more apps than any other watch
finding the one you want in this massive a launcher
is just as hard as it was four years ago.
Like this is the compass logo.
Took me three tries to find it.
Google's Wear OS, much easier to use in this respect.
Now, you know what hasn't kept the Apple Watch
from becoming the most successful smartwatch?
Any of the stuff I just complained about.
And it's not just lock-in.
The Apple Watch really does a great job
at most things wearable.
The screen is bright, vibrant and sharp.
And that counts just as much for the simple watch faces
as it does for the photo-realistic ones.
The notifications come in as reliably
as they do on the iPhone.
So more reliably than on many Android phones.
And the vibrations that alert you to them
are more refined, thanks to Apple's Taptic Engine.
Stay tuned to the end for a nasty surprise on this subject.
You get your choice of sizes, your choice of materials,
your choice of how dependent it needs to be on your phone
with a 4G edition.
Mine is a stainless steel cellular model with GPS
which is why this video is so late.
Pro tip, if you want your Apple Watch right after release
order an aluminum one.
And you get an easy to understand
and fully-featured health and fitness suite.
And most watches these days track your walks and runs
and let you measure your heart rate,
but none of them can let you take an electrocardiogram
to measure your heart rhythm
except the Apple Watch series four and five.
That let's it help with early detection of things like AFib,
a potentially serious heart complication.
Also remember this.
- I've fallen and I can't get up.
- Yeah, the watch can detect when you've taken a spill
and if you're motionless for the minute afterward
it calls emergency services for you.
My final thoughts on the Apple Watch series five coming up
but first a quick word on a way to make the most
out of your Mac.
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Back to the Apple Watch.
Those health features,
plus things like international emergency calling
in over 50 countries, those are the kinds of things
not many other manufacturers are doing,
the kinds of things that make me look kind of silly
for forgiving the downsides of Google's Wear OS
in exchange for, you know, round screens.
Then consider the attention to detail
that Apple built its reputation on.
The digital crown works almost everywhere in the OS
and it gives you little haptic ticks
like a mechanical crown would.
The Apple Watch is still one of the only smartwatches
equally easy to wear on either wrist.
The magnetic charging pad
clacks on the first time every time.
Apple pay, forgive me, just works.
And that nasty surprise I teased earlier.
It's just a byproduct of this leather band I sprung for.
When it moves on the wrist,
the tiny slips of leather on leather
give me the feeling of phantom notifications.
Drives me nuts.
But as with every Apple Watch,
changing that band is very easy.
It all makes for a smartwatch that, just like everyone says
truly is the best out there for iPhone owners.
Yeah, starting at $399 it's pricey,
but my biggest complaint about it,
the fact that it doesn't work
with my preferred Android phones.
And uh, I think that says it all, right there.
For a deeper dive on the Apple Watch series five,
check out Rene Ritchie's coverage on Vector
from which I've stolen a few shots
linked right here.
This video produced
based on a retail Apple Watch series five
purchased by MrMobile,
and of course Apple was given no copy approval rights.
They're seeing this for the first time right alongside you.
Please subscribe to the MrMobile on YouTube
if that's the kind of video you'd like to see more of.
Until next time.
Thanks for watching.
And stay mobile, my friends.