I eagerly awaited the big Apple reveal today. It just so happens that the mid-September announcement coincides with the halfway mark of my 30-day Apple Watch return policy. All in all, it meant that the fate of Tim’s new 40mm Series 6 would soon be decided.
In the two weeks I’ve worn the Apple Watch, I’ve been pretty happy with it. The lighter feel allows me to keep it on longer than my Garmin Fenix 5X. Initially, I did have trouble choosing where to wear the watch (watch face up vs military, left arm vs right arm); in the end I stuck with the most basic option (aka left arm + face up). Wearing the watch on the right arm felt too heavy and wearing it military style caused it to rub too frequently when sitting.
The much reduced battery life (18 hours vs 12 days of the Garmin) has not been impeding; even with sleep monitoring enabled, the most I have to do is charge it once a day. Smart watch apps have been fun, but I have not used all that many yet. By far the one I’ve used the most is Apple Fitness for running. I’ve also been thinking of setting up Google Home so I can control our smart light switches, but that one requires a lot of workarounds because Google Assistant and Apple Siri don’t play well.
Despite my satisfaction with my new toy, I can’t stop the frugal side of me from questioning whether or not the $400 price tag (plus the $10/month cellular fee) was truly worth my hard earned cash. Truthfully speaking, there isn’t much I do currently that couldn’t be handled by my Garmin Fenix + Mi Band 4. (So far the main features are making calls / texts, Find My location tracking, SpO2 monitoring, paying with Apple Pay and taking Hey Siri commands.) However, that may very well change once I delve more deeply into the slew of apps available.
According to today’s announcement, the main improvements of Series 7 over Series 6 are screen size (41mm / 45mm vs 40mm / 44mm) and charging speed (33% faster than older models). The always-on mode of the screen is also reportedly 70% brighter. Those are nice improvements, but nothing drastic and definitely not worth an extra $138 + the hassle of packaging / returns. Anyway, I’m glad that I jumped on the Series 6 deal and will keep my new red watch for the years to come.
