It’s been close to a year since I bought my Apple Watch Series 6 and here are my thoughts. It’s much easier to wear around all day compared to my Garmin Fenix 5X. The short 1-day battery life has not gotten in the way of things. It’s rare that I get home past 9pm, giving me plenty of time to recharge it for the night. In the worst case, the Power Reserve function works. (40% is plenty for a night of sleep monitoring.)
However, it’s also true that I haven’t been using all the features. My parents bought the 10$/month Verizon cellular plan for the watch in order to monitor me 24/7. Their justification is that this will allow them to use GPS tracking. Most of the time I take my iPhone with me when I go out, so I’d say it’s unnecessary. I told my dad about this, but he brushed it off, saying it could be useful.
The SpO2 and music on the watch features seemed entrancing at first, but neither came in handy. SpO2 works well, but I soon discovered that blood oxygen levels are unrelated to my illnesses. Loading music on the watch requires a subscription to a streaming service; the Hoopla library service is incompatible at the moment.
Honestly, all I’ve been using it for is sleep monitoring, exercise and time. Occasionally, I do ask random questions (i.e. “Hey Siri, what is the sunset time in San Jose?”), but those can be handled by my iPhone. Truth be told, one of my dad’s $20 Xiaomi bands could do the trick, but it’s always nice to have a bit of luxury.
PS: as for upgrades, Apple Watch 6 should be able to last me a long time
