First a disclaimer: I am an Apple-geek. I eagerly await those Wednesday keynote addresses, wondering what will they come up with next. I currently own two Macbook Air computers,one iPad Mini, an iPhone 6+ and now an Apple watch (sport edition).
I'm a working APRN who sees patients in chronic hemodialysis units, office setting and inpatient settings. I frequently work with immunocompromised individuals and wash my hands VERY frequently. Personally I do not care for the brand of hand sanitizer that one of my facilities use so I do wash my hands even more when I see patients there.
For me, I use the watch to receive text messages and it is great for this. When I am with patients I try not to interrupt them. It is so easy when I get a little notification (which is customizable) to either decide to read the text or quickly place my hand over it to hide it. This saves me a lot of time and many times my patients don't even realize that I've received a text. Since my practice utilizes a service for encrypted text messaging, I do need to go to my phone to retrieve it but my watch gives me a heads up which I appreciate.
So...here goes my review of the Apple watch:
I purchased my watch at an Apple store
However, it is now available at Best Buy and other select stores. You MUST have an iPhone 5 and newer running at least iOS 8 in order to connect to the Apple watch. There are two size options: 38mm and 42mm. While 4mm doesn't seem like much, I would recommend the larger watch. Even for someone who is very petite (as one of the Apple store employees was ) the bigger watch is more functional.
The Apple watch doesn't have internet capability
You must have an iPhone in order to utilize the full functionality. One of the coolest features is the ability to customize your watch face. There are multiple options with each one of them offering multiple options. I chose the simple but very clear to view watch face with second hand.
Built In Apps
Work-Out which has multiple options including timing an indoor walk, outdoor walk, elliptical, running, cycling, rowing and "other" so this is customizable.
Activity which is a visual guide to your activity during the day. Colorful circles enlarge as you increase your activity throughout the day.
World clock - options for time other then where you live (self-explanatory).
Maps - I didn't find this particular app useful as the screen is pretty small. Since I live in the country unless you can see a wide area (like 25-50 miles) then its not very useful for me. However, I can see that if you are in a more urban area, this would be useful.
There is a camera option but its really NOT a camera - it simply displays photos from your iPhone. However, it CAN be used as a remote for your iPhone camera so you can click your watch and take a pic on the camera.
Alarms - self-explanatory.
Stocks - which you can customize as to which stocks appear and the data regarding those stocks.
Timers - various timers as well as stop-watch capability.
Passbook which is easily one of my favorite apps. This connects you to Apple Pay which you can use to auto-pay by holding up your watch to the Apple Pay reader and clicking twice.
These are most of the apps already-installed on your watch. At the moment there are not too many additional apps that you can install. However, I did install Fit.Simply which is a pretty simple pedometer that measures steps.
Add-ons
So far I have only purchased the following and really like the options of changing the bands.
Watch-bands - there are several options for colors. I originally purchased my watch with the orange band and while I still love it, I bought a more conservative black band for work. Super easy to change out the bands - you just press one button on the back and voila, slip one off and slide the new one on. Because the watch is unisex, the bands come in two sizes S-M and M-L.
Night-stand - when the watch OS 2 comes out (which hopefully will be soon) one of the new features will be that the orientation will flip so that when you charge it at night, the watch face will rotate also.
Now the perceived cons...
I have read several reviews of the Apple watch and most seemed to perseverate on the need to charge the watch. Believe me, its not that big of a deal - you just plug in the charger, place the watch on it (its magnetic) and voila in the morning its charged. I use my watch all day long with messages, phone calls, etc., and I have always had at least 33% battery charge left at the end of the day.
As to being sturdy - believe me, I'm rough on watches and have not had any problems with it so far.
The cost - yes I do admit that I have never spent $399 on a watch before. However, like all Apple products it will be easy to update as new watch OS's (is that a word?) come out. I have one Macbook Air from 2010 that is just as up to date as my Macbook Air from 2014. So, Apple does have an ability to keep this watch up to date as new advances are made.
So...what do you all think? I give it a 5-Star. I know from reading another thread that several of our posters have Apple watches.
MY RATING
Share your thoughts....thanks in advance.
UPDATE: I purchased an Apple Watch series 4 over Christmas, again at an Apple store. It is great, love it. It has internet capability, doesn't require the iPhone to be nearby and has the every popular EKG button.
