Apple isn't among companies that venture into new product categories every year. With an incredibly small portfolio of products, the company makes an astounding amount of money. Naturally, ever since its launch in the US a few months ago, we'd been waiting to get our hands on the Apple Watch.
The good-old watch stands alongside digital cameras and landline phones as one of the many products rendered obsolete by the smartphone. Apple Watch is a product that challenges traditional watches and a wide range of smartwatches from Pebble, Fitbit and the many watches running Android Wear. We used the Apple Watch for 10 days to find out if it's up for the challenge.
Design
The first thing you will notice when you wear an Apple Watch is how polished it feels. Apple's hardware engineering is top class and everything about the Apple Watch reflects attention to detail. The glass at the edges of the screen curves downwards into the metal casing that houses the digital crown and another button.
Another nice touch is how the watch band almost melds into the metal casing. We used the variant with 42mm silver casing and a white sport band. The clasp snaps in place easily and fits securely. We wouldn't recommend the white band unless you're sure you can keep it clean. In our 10 days of use, the band got dirty and didn't look as new as when we'd first received the watch. The black band is perhaps the only one that won't get dirty, so be sure to keep that in mind before buying. Apple Watch Sport is the base variant and the bands for it are the same but for a difference in colour. Check Apple's website for details on the various watch case and band options.
The base of the watch has the heart rate sensor, which is a must-have for fitness enthusiasts. Wherever we went wearing Apple Watch, people noticed it immediately and told us that it looks good. This is a good marker for its looks.
The only downside is that the watch feels a little bulky. Initially we felt a weight on our wrists and weren't very comfortable wearing it. This is coming from someone who doesn't wear a watch. If you wear one regularly, this may not bother you at all. But at no point during the 10 days did we forget that the Apple Watch was on our wrist. This is one of the trade-offs of using a first generation product. The iPhone and iPad were slimmed down drastically in subsequent years and we expect the Apple Watch to get similar treatment.
Apple also has different take on smartwatch software. Using the digital crown for scrolling is a great idea that feels natural on the Apple Watch. By default it shows you the watch first and you can swipe downwards from the top of the screen to check notifications or swipe upwards from the bottom to check Glances.
Glances are like iOS' Notification Centre widgets where apps show you some information and tapping once opens the app and reveals more information. This is where you check the weather and control music playback. Once you discover these two features, you will have no trouble using them. We'd still like a way to dismiss all notifications from an app like the feature on iOS.
Sometimes we had too many chat notifications and had to clear them out individually, which was a bit of a chore. If you clear a notification on the Apple Watch, it goes away from the iPhone as well. Similarly if you clear it from the iPhone, then the notification goes away on the Apple Watch. If you are wearing the Apple Watch then your alerts are silenced on the iPhone, which is another example of seamless integration between the two devices. The Apple Watch significantly reduced the time we spent checking our iPhone.
Tapping the digital crown once takes you to the apps screen where all apps are arranged in a neat hexagon that spreads outwards as you install more apps. You just see app icons (and not their names) and it sometimes becomes difficult to find the app you need. However you can customise the layout to keep your favourite apps near the centre.
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