Is it worth it? – Quartz

With barely time to deal with the deluge of comments on iPhone Xs that were abandoned yesterday, it seems that the valves have opened again and that critics for the new Apple Watch Series 4 have been released today ( September 19).

Unlike new iPhone reviews, which generally agreed that there was not much difference between iPhone X and X last year, the new $ 400 Apple Watch seems to have thrilled readers. The device has a 30% larger screen, a new electrocardiogram monitor (which may or may not be particularly useful for the average user), d & # 39; better autonomy and a lot of new smart features.

Here's what commentators had to say about the device, available from September 21st:

The watches are larger than previous generations, but that did not bother Dieter Bohn du Verge:

The two new sizes are 40mm and 44mm, but they do not look much larger at the wrist than the old sizes. I used the 42mm 3 series and the 44mm size was only subtly larger, but it was also subtly finer. For me, it's pretty much the same, but I think the size trade-off for thinness is worth it. I suspect that the same will be true for people who prefer smaller size, but I recommend going to a store and try one before buying.

Brian X. Chen, of the New York Times, agreed, adding that the larger display made this watch much easier to read:

The screen stretches from one edge to the other, letting the applications take up more space on the face of the watch. This enlarged display makes everything on the watch better, including text.

The extension of battery life has been another selling point for many readers. Runner's World's Jeff Dengate said the watch was "a great option for runners," adding:

Another change we appreciate is an extra hour of autonomy. The 4 Series will now last up to six hours in outdoor training mode. The watch is therefore useful for long races and marathons. Of course, if you listen to music via Bluetooth and broadcast data via a mobile network, you'll get less performance. But even in these cases, the new Apple Watch will last an hour longer than its predecessor under the same conditions.

The new monitoring software, also available on the latest generations of the device, can automatically detect I have personally found can be a little boring). As Brian Heater of TechCrunch describes it:

About two and a half minutes from my race, the watch settles down. There is a haptic noise on the wrist.

"It looks like you're training," the face of the watch reads. This is followed by a big yellow button, suggesting that I start a race inside. I tap the neon button and the alarm clock starts, compiling me a reasonable approximation of the time it took the Watch to be sure of the type of activity that he was detecting.

I had not planned to test the feature on this series. In all the pre-race stretching ritual / music preparation / treadmill, I had just forgotten to fix the problem. It sounds like a small thing, but, then, most of the updates are relatively small in the grand scheme of things.

The new watch can also detect a fall, alert your loved ones or emergency services if you wish, which could be beneficial to the aging population in countries like the United States. Most of the reviewers that Apple chose were younger and generally in good shape, but they struggled to trigger the fall detector. Chen wrote:

In the name of journalism, I took several dives at home on my mattress, a couch and a dog bed to try to make it work.

I also headed to a climbing gym, where I climbed six walls and came across a padded mattress on my side and on my back. No dice. Finally, I climbed the highest wall of the gym – about 17 feet tall – and I fell. When I landed, the watch vibrated and vibrated. Alas, it was just a notification that warned me that someone had liked a photo on my dog's Instagram account.

Charlie Warzel from Buzzfeed had an even more dramatic experience:

Nevertheless, the watch did not detect a fall (or many things) when I fainted in a doctor's office after sitting too quickly during an outpatient procedure.

The watch is also the first device of its kind authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to use an electrocardiogram (ECG), a cardiac health measure used to detect irregular heartbeats and heart attacks. Chen has taken an appropriate electrocardiogram in a doctor's office, which involves placing multiple electrodes all over the body to get a picture of the heart's activity. Although it is not painful, it is still a rather complex process. The Apple Watch EKG is not as complicated nor as complete:

The EKG of the Apple Watch will not be as complete as that produced by a traditional electrocardiograph, which connects to multiple parts of the body, like the one the cardiologist used on me. The watch is a single-probe EKG device, which means it will record an angle of the heart's electrical signals – enough to collect arrhythmia data but not to diagnose a heart attack.

"I do not recommend it to most people as a novelty," said Ethan Weiss, the cardiologist who took Chen's ECG, to the Times.

Some commentators, like Rene Ritchie of iMore, found this reason for novelty enough to add this device to $ 400:

If you do not have an Apple Watch yet, you should have one. And probably this one. Yes, it may sound expensive and useless if you already have an iPhone and maybe an iPad and a laptop or whatever, but here's the trick: It can save your life in a way that nothing can happen. other can not offer you.

And many agreed that the new features of the watch were sufficient to justify the resumption of the new version, especially if you did not have an old one. Stephen Pulvirent from Hodinkee wrote:

To begin with a cliché, the Apple Watch Series 4 is more an evolution than a revolution. There is no new fundamental change that upsets what we thought was a smartwatch. But it is okay. Instead, it makes a number of incremental changes, some that you will encounter each time you raise your wrist and others that you may never notice, but the end result is an Apple watch that has a clear idea how to use it and how that can help you.

But not everyone was emotionally moved. Returning to his review of more than three years ago, Warzel summed up the new watch:

My starting point then: "You can see a plausible future if you squint just like that. This future is attractive and cool, but it's just right. do not. The. Again."

A little more than three years later, I feel much the same. I can not seem to shake the notion that the watch is preparing us for a new kind of ambient computing behavior, where all of our material is barely noticeable, but connects to us – through wireless headphones and small scattered sensors and gyroscopes from hats to glasses to our clothes.

We are not there yet, but devices like Apple Watch are bringing us closer.