the Apple Watch is the reason why I can't switch from an iPhone now that's a
big statement I know and I think there are a lot of other people out there who
own an Apple Watch that feel the same way the Apple Watch Series 4 is the
latest version of the Apple Watch and it's the one I've had now for over six
months in this review I'm going to go over what I use my Apple Watch for some
of the best features of the Apple Watch and how the Apple Watch has held up over
the past six months now while this video is mainly about the series for version
of the Apple Watch if you're looking specifically at an older version of the
Apple Watch a lot of things I talk about in this video are going to be applicable
to your use case why get an Apple Watch that's the question Apple had to answer
for people way back in 2014 when they release the first version of it and they
didn't quite know back then what all the main use cases were going to be for this
thing today it's become much more clear that all of the features for the Apple
Watch can basically be summed up into three categories information at a glance
notifications and fitness first let's talk about information at a glance when
Apple first launched the Apple Watch they spent a ton of time talking about
making a very precise timepiece and they delivered on that promise the Apple
Watch is one of the most precise timepieces that you can wear on your
wrist today but what really makes the Apple Watch shine is its watch face
options there are quite a few to choose from now from picture slideshows to
animations watch faces with tons of complications to specific watch faces
like the one celebrating LGBT pride Apple has always done a good job at
making tools that allow people to creatively express themselves and the
Apple Watch is no different once you select a watch face Apple lets you
customize the complications the colors etc if you're unfamiliar with what
complications are they're just the bits of information that you can put on your
watch from the day heartbeat sunset current temperature
workouts etc personally I use the watch face that includes the most
complications Apple could fit onto a single watch face it's exclusive to the
Apple Watch series for thanks to the 20% larger screen that the series for sports
and being able to glance down at my wrist and not only be able to see the
time but my activity level when the Sun will set the current weather temperature
and much more is more useful than it would first appear to be after dinner I
glanced down at my watch to see when the Sun will set and then I'll be able to
see if I have enough time to go out for a walk in a nearby park oh look at the
weather in the morning to decide whether or not I need to take a jacket in to
work at work I'll look down at the watch at the calendar complication to be able
to see what my next meeting is and I do this all throughout the day and then
finally when I want to stroll out downtown to go pick up some lunch
I'll check the current weather to make sure I don't need to take an umbrella
with me now this watch face is more function
over fashion but it's still pretty fashionable in my book it is the self
expression doesn't stop with watch faces though the Apple Watch is probably the
most visible Apple product you could own so Apple gives you a choice to express
yourself through different material finishes the watch comes in now I
personally chose the stainless steel LTE version of the Apple Watch you can't
actually get the stainless steel without the LTE anymore the main reason I got it
was I wanted the sapphire display on my watch
sapphire is a much harder material than the ionX glass Apple puts on its
standard Apple watch models if there's one thing I can't stand it's a scratched
screen and I haven't seen any scratches on my Series four or even the series one
I had before it which also had a sapphire display the Apple Watch only
has two buttons you can press the digital crown to go back hold down the
digital crown to wake Siri you can press the side button to confirm purchases
with the Apple Watch press the side button once to bring up a
card stack of your most-used Apple Watch apps or double tap it to bring up your
card and use Apple pay on the watch itself now that we've gone over
information at a glance there's a second way that you can actually get
information on an Apple Watch and that brings us to our second category of the
main core features of an Apple Watch which is notifications pretty much any
notification that you can get on your iPhone you can get on your Apple Watch
think of it as a way to filter out notifications from your phone you can
customize the notifications to get different taps on your wrists so you
know whether it's something important like a message or it not as important
like a news story notification ever since getting an Apple Watch I've
noticed that I pick my phone up less and overall I ignore notifications that are
not as important to me and what I do pick up my phone I'm not bombarded by
all of these notifications I just don't have time for another thing I like with
notifications is that with some of them you can respond to them directly from
the watch get a text message you can scribble or dictate a response right
from the watch get a phone call pick it up on the watch most of the time I ask
people do they know what I'm talking to them on and they say your iPhone and I'm
like no it's actually the Apple Watch so the audio quality with the Apple watch
especially the series for Apple did improve the speaker on the series for as
well as they moved around where the microphone was and the audio quality on
the series force specifically is really good alright I've saved the best for
last let's talk about Fitness with the Apple Watch this seems to be one of the
most common drivers for why people get an Apple Watch it tracks your steps
miles walked can help you track running workouts biking workouts swimming
strokes it can help you do lifts at the gym it's a really useful tool to get a
snapshot of your overall physical activity now the main way the watch
helps you track your overall activity is with three activity rings the outer pink
ring is the move goal it's the total calories you burn per day because of MU
but you can set the school yourself to challenge you to be more active and it's
a feature I found myself using often the second ring the green ring is the
exercise ring you need to complete 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercise
a day for that ring to be completed you can take a brisk walk ride a bike or run
whatever way you exercise will typically count for this goal to be completed now
the last ring you need to complete is the stand ring to complete the stand
ring you need to stand up and move around for at least one minute per hour
for 12 hours a day now the reason why the stand bring exists is this is based
on studies from health experts who say it's good for people to get up stand and
move around throughout the day for at least one minute per hour what this does
it's trying to prevent people from going into a sedentary state where their
bodies burn less calories that's at least the ideas behind why the stand
ring exists now if you like myself work in an office environment where you're
sitting down at a desk for eight hours a day this can be really useful because
the walked walk should give you stand reminders so if you've been just heads
down doing work and you're just so concentrated on that you forgot to stand
up move around the watch is going to help remind you to do that in my
experience I was very skeptical at first when I got an Apple Watch I am NOT
someone who has gamified into changing habits just to fill in three little
rings on a watch face however Apple does a very good job they give you achievements
They give you a little reward, just like a little graphic that comes up when you did a
seven workout week they do a very good job to keep you engaged and make sure
you're keeping active and just being able to see the rings on the watch face
every time I glance down at the watch if I do not complete all of my rings by the
end of the day it does not matter if I worked harder than I ever have worked
before I will still feel like I accomplished nothing and it really does
at least in my experience it has totally changed my behavior to be
very vigilant about filling in those rings if you're not really
self-motivated but you're motivated by peers Apple makes it very easy to
actually share your fitness goals and share your activity performance with
friends if you are motivated by competition with others in my experience
the tracking has been quite accurate I've compared the distance the watch
says when I'm on walks and I pass a mile marker and it's pretty dead-on accurate
in my experience now some other sensors that the watch has that are also pretty
accurate are the heartbeat sensor as well as the fall detection sensors and
the accompanying software it's already been credited with saving people's lives
around the globe and it's an important health feature the series for watch can
also detect irregular heartbeats as well as perform an EKG which is pretty legit
now before we wrap up the review there are a couple more Apple watch features
that I thought were worth mentioning so we're gonna go ahead and do that now
starting with theater mode you can turn this feature on so your watch display
doesn't turn on when you're sitting in a theater if you want to peek at the time
just turn the digital crown ever so slightly and you'll see the watch slowly
fade into a very low brightness setting the series four is waterproof so if you
get it wet and need to get water out of the speaker swipe up from the bottom of
the screen select the water drop button and turn the digital crown until the
watch starts buzzing and the speaker starts beeping and you'll start to see
water being pushed out of the speaker another candy thing from the watch
control center is the ability to ping your iPhone if you don't know where it
is you can control any media playing from your phone with the watch including
audio books podcasts and of course music this is really useful when you're
cooking and playing media on Bluetooth speakers in your kitchen
the Apple Watch also comes with an LTE version which means that you don't have
to have your phone with you when you want to go on a run or go for a walk you
can play music Apple Music or songs from your iTunes library you can download
some of them to your watch and it'll play on wireless earbuds like the Airpods or you can also stream podcasts over LTE
with the Apple watch as well you don't just have to get a Series 4 to get the
LTE version you could get a series three they also have LTE and both LTE versions
also a built in GPS which will help you track your run routes if that's
something you care about lastly you can use the watch to unlock your Mac which
works for Macs made at least since 2016 when the Apple Watch debuted almost five
years ago it seemed like Apple didn't quite know what people would be using it
for fast-forward to today and the Apple Watch can do so many things there isn't
enough time in a review to talk about them all it's become a versatile tool
with numerous use cases for very specific activities and if you happen to
partake in those activities once you get one of these things you'll never want to
be without one that's the magic of the Apple Watch. Thanks for watching our
review of the Apple Watch Series 4. If you like this video hit that thumbs up
button and subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more videos about more
tech products like this one. Also let us know what you thought of the
review and the Apple Watch Series 4 in the comments below.
Well, thanks again for watching. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder.