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Has there been a learning experience for Apple similar to Apple Watch? At the time of launching the original model in 2015, there was – not unfairly – the impression that Apple itself was not sure what exactly it should do. Now that the Apple Series Series 4 comes to the wrist, it does not only with a laser focus, but also with the hardware needed to match.
First, the bad news
Apple 2018 watches are more expensive. Series 4 starts at $ 399 for the 40 mm and $ 429 for the 44 mm; If you want a cell phone, add $ 100 more. In contrast, Series 3 started at $ 329 without a cell, and $ 399 with it.
A subtle evolution of design
The design is familiar and yet new. This 44mm version is wider than the previous model, but the reduction in thickness is more important. It may be only 0.7 mm difference, but with the Apple Watch Series 4, you will feel less like sitting over your wrist, precariously, and more like if you were there .
The components and controls have been refined in a clever way. The microphone has been moved to a new location, between the digital crown and the side button – now exhausted; in the process, it helps to reduce the distortion during calls. Two slots on the opposite side accommodate the speaker and the barometer. The speaker itself is 50% more powerful, which makes all the difference when you use Apple Watch for hands-free calling. It is much more likely that you will hear the sound of the engine and the noise of the road while driving.
The new haptics for the digital crown are another example of charming subtlety at work. The tiny punches that tremble with fingertips are tiny: the lightest feather through the strings of the world's smallest harpsichord. Nevertheless, they communicate a physicality that adds depth to the scrolling process.
Despite all this, the assurance is that none of this is a change in itself. Both sizes of Apple Watch may be new in this fourth generation, but all your existing wristbands and watchbands will work the same way.
If there is a place where fashion comes, it's in the finishes. Finish the Apple Watch and the ceramic model. Instead, you get a choice of matte finish aluminum or polished stainless steel, silver, gray or gold. Silicone sports bands remain, with velcro sport loops, Milanese loops and a range of leather bracelets, Nike and Hermes, which range from the subtle to the gladiator style strap.
The best smartwatch display
However, one thing is certain: the new Apple Watch is fascinating. When you tilt your wrist and the rich and saturated OLED panel bursts, it's as if its colors are invading the corners of the glass.
The old Apple Watch favored black for its interface because it allowed to hide the edges of the OLED screen smaller with the bezel that surrounded it. This series 4 looks at the prices of these blacks because they highlight the graphics.
Apple uses its 30% larger panel. On the one hand, there are two new information-rich watch faces: the "Infographics" circular layout that brings together four complications on the inside of the dial and four on its edges, and the "Modular" layout that has two complications and a digital reading. -outside. I am totally having more data to watch or sink, but both feel a little busy. When I discovered that I was forcing myself to choose a complication "just to fill the place", I realized that there are times when the empty space can be just as valuable .
At the other extreme, there are Apple's new dials, including fire, water and steam. They cross different clouds of colored dust, rippling liquid metal and fireflowers, coming out of the center of the screen and bouncing off its edges. In addition to their charm, Apple has filmed them for real, building huge dials and burning or flooding them with liquid. No, you have no useful complications – you do not even have the date – but the sacrifice is worth it.
What you still do not get, even with the potential of low OLED consumption and a new chipset on the inside, is a permanent display. Want to check the time? Tilt your wrist to wake the Apple Watch Series 4, like the previous three generations.
A brand new heart
Larger touch screens are not the end of new material. Just about everything there is inside the Apple Watch Series 4, from the largest Taptic Engine to the new chipset and the sensors that accompany it. It starts with the new Apple S4 processor, combined with the new W3 that adds Bluetooth 5.0 to the existing W2. The battery is also slightly larger.
We are far from the first days of the first Apple Watch. At that time, a much slower processor, combined with iPhone-dependent software, contributed to a slow and often frustrating user experience. Since then, each iteration of Apple Watch and watchOS has improved performance and responsiveness, but it's still fair to say that this series 4 is an exponential leap forward.
Applications load almost instantly. The animations are fluid and without stutter. There is no frustrating spinning circle that has hit previous versions. It really feels like there's a little computer on your arm, not a distant window – and in trouble – trying desperately to see what the iPhone in your pocket is trying to say.
As before, there are two versions with both sizes and several colors. The standard Apple Watch Series 4 has WiFi and GPS; a $ 100 bonus also allows you to get cellular assistance through an integrated LTE radio and the eSIM. Most operators charge about $ 10 per month in addition to your existing plan for the Apple Watch service.
A new health axis
Apple's health and fitness monitoring has improved with every generation of Apple Watch and every launch of watchOS. The automatic detection of training is the title here: find out if you have started exercising – running or walking fast for about 7 to 8 minutes, maybe, or cycling – and suggest you follow it. Better yet, it evokes retroactive data for your workout so far.
As always, there are three rings for the performances of Move, Exercise and Stand during the day. Apple has added yoga and hiking to the training app, and more useful information is shared while you're in session. If you run, for example, you can now get rhythm alerts and see if you are behind your usual performance.
Resistance to water up to 50 meters means that the Apple Watch Series 4 can also be worn when swimming. Afterwards, he does his festive trick "spit water".
A medic for your wrist
The Apple Watch had a heart rate sensor right off the bat, but the Apple Watch Series 4 increases diagnostics with both more sensors and with smarter use of them. Previously, you would receive an alert if your heart rate increased, even if you were not doing any activity. Now, you will also receive a warning if your heart rate drops for no obvious reason and, later in the year, arrhythmias and irregular rhythms that may be another indicator of concern will be reported.
The biggest novelty, however, is his electrocardiogram, or electrocardiogram, sensor. On the back and center of the digital crown are electrodes that together can read the electrical signals from the heart. After thirty seconds of scanning, the ECG application will tell you if there are signs of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can be a sign of stroke risk, among other things.
At present, although the FDA has approved the Apple Watch Series 4 function for ECG functions, the application itself has not been released. That, Apple says, will come later in the year. It should also be noted that this equates to a single-probe electrocardiogram: more comprehensive tests that you may have done in a hospital or health clinic will identify health problems that this smartwatch may not have.
There is still something impressive. In a demonstration of a preliminary version of the application, I saw the Apple Watch spit out a graph showing the heartbeat. Although the Health app on the iPhone, you can then export it to PDF, to send to a doctor or other specialist.
Honestly, I am totally torn. On the one hand, I think we'll hear a lot of stories after the release of the ECG application update, people unknowingly walking around in heart problems they did not realize before checking their Apple Watch. The symptoms of atrial fibrillation can easily go unnoticed, especially at first.
At the same time, however, I fear misuse. I am almost not the biggest hypochondriac, but I can easily catch up with the frequent checking of my ECG results. I doubt that I am alone with that either. My concern is that people rely solely on Apple Watch – despite Apple's principled exclusions that it's just one of the diagnostic tools to identify health problems.
Something I can absolutely endure is the detection of falls. The more sensitive Gyroscope and Accelerometer Series 4, combined with Intelligent Auto Learning, can now detect whether you are stumbling or falling and offer to contact emergency services for you. If he thinks you have fallen but you do not answer or you do not move, one minute you will automatically be asked for help.
As a person with a grandparent who has had many falls in recent years, I think the potential value of falling detection is enormous. It is disabled by default unless your health profile indicates that you are over 65 years old. Even after turning it on, the Apple Watch has been smart enough not to confuse my intentional incidents with actual crashes.
watchOS 5 brings the extras
Apple continues to try to make Watch to Watch communication happen. The walkie talkie is not as scrupulous as sending animated messages or your heartbeat to someone else's wrist, but it still sounds gimmicky.
Open the application, choose a contact and after a while, you get a big yellow circle. Press and speak and your message is sent to your friend. It's up to you to decide if you say "finished" after each message.
It works, yes, although I can not see myself much use it. Part of the problem is that you have to own an Apple watch to use it. Yes, it's a growing cohort, but I can not help but wish Apple's Walkie-Talkie feature to be embedded in Messages on the iPhone, or even just be available as iOS and standalone macOS application. Currently, only a small subset of my frequent contacts support it, so this is not the first way to get in touch with them.
As with third-party applications, Apple Watch Series 4 and watchOS 5 unlock new levels of independence from your iPhone. Applications now have a selection of notification types to choose from, ranging from high priority notifications to silent notifications. Dynamic interactive notifications actually allow developers to create subsets of application features in the alerts themselves.
For example, a restaurant reservation application can not only remind you of a table you have booked, but also allow you to change the number of attendees or the time of booking, all from the notification itself. A parking application may indicate that your time is about to expire, but allows you to extend it directly from the notification. Developers will be able to add different buttons and controls, and even integrate Apple Pay payments, directly into notifications.
I think it's fair to say that we are moving towards a new era of smartwatch functionality. Applications that do more, in a very targeted way, and despite their increasing complexity, allow you to avoid pulling your iPhone as much as you could. On the other hand, existing Apple Watch applications are mostly not ready for this new world. There are promises there, but it will take time for them to be delivered.
Battery life
A bigger screen, a more powerful processor and more sensors … you should expect that the battery life has been a success. Although the battery is slightly larger in the Apple Watch Series 4, it is only slightly increased. What is impressive, then, is how long the laptop will last.
Apple's general advice is "a full day", although this obviously varies with the use of the smartwatch and the frequency with which you use energy-hungry features such as GPS and cellular data. Used mainly for notifications, I did it from morning till night and there was always more than 50% of the battery.
The activation of a drive, and therefore GPS tracking, however, had a greater impact on power. Despite this, I always spent a full day with juice to spend.
It's Siri's turn
I am both naturally reluctant and British, reluctant to speak on my wrist, and unfortunately Siri often does nothing to encourage me to step out of my comfort zone. Apple's wizard has improved since the early days, of course, but there are still many times when you remember more "Artificial" in AI, and unfortunately less "Intelligence".
I can not be alone hoping that Siri will intervene soon and begins to be more proactive. One of the strengths of smartwatches in general, one of the strengths of the Apple Watch is that it acts as a limit to the life of your smartphone. A notification comes in, you check it on your wrist and you operate it or ignore it. You are not distracted by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other application available when your phone is unlocked.
The ability of the Apple Watch to filter what makes your wrist has not changed much since the first generation. You can always choose which apps can send notifications to the mobile, and you can always set up your VIP email list and leave only messages that fall into that special inbox. Beyond that, though, you are all alone.
Even the rule option would be a big improvement. During the week, I may be fine with each email announced on my wrist; at weekends, though, I may only want those key contacts, or people that Siri identified as friends and family, rather than work-related ones. Apple loves talking about the automatic learning of the iPhone. It's time to have smarter use of the screen on my arm.
Verdict
I find the trajectory of the two major smartwatch platforms fascinating right now. Wear OS, which began by pushing practical features and health monitoring, is now moving towards segment fashion. In contrast, the Apple Watch began as a fashion statement, but is now focused on health and well-being.
The reality, of course, is that all laptops are somewhere in between these two extremes. The fact that the Apple Watch Series 4 is simply more complete, not to say polite, that any other smartwatch is just as unavoidable.
It's also more expensive than most mainstream smartwatches. You can certainly complain about it, or you can realize that what you pay for is a degree of cohesion and integration that no rival can match. This is partly explained by the way iOS and watchOS work together; It also benefits from Apple's tight control over everything from industrial design to processor architecture.
This space on the wrist and the attention you give it are special. The Apple Watch Series 4 is simply doing more to earn its place.
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