Apple Watch Review

It's finally here! My Apple Watch! 

After spending a week with it, I thought I would let you all know how it's been working for me.

As a precursor, I thought I would let you know why I wanted the Apple Watch. First off, I had been using a Nike Fuel band for a long time (three years). While it motivated me to keep moving, it didn't track any fitness stats very accurately. I had debated on upgrading to a Fit Bit, but when I heard the announcement about the Apple Watch, I decided to hold out for it. I was interested in all the other non-fitness aspects of the watch, including the texting, navigating, and other apps I use on a daily basis as well as the health and fitness aspect of it. The Mickey watch face might have been a factor too!

Last Friday, I pretty much sat in front of my front window and watched through the rain for the UPS man. Jared and I had a wedding to attend that night, and yet I wanted to get a run in with my new watch. Literally, as I'm resigning myself to run without it and pushing in the settings on my treadmill, the UPS man came! Within 10 minutes, my watch was unwrapped (with lots of pomp and circumstance haha) and set up and I was literally off and running! I used the native running app and it seemed to work great. That night, it tracked all the fun dancing and walking we had that night. It was awesome!

Getting to know my activity app!

The battery came only halfway charged and so I didn't get a chance to see how a typical day would drain the batteries until Monday. After using it for a run, extensive navigation, texting and taking phone calls, I drained the battery to 4% at midnight. The rest of the days were pretty typical with a couple of errands with navigation, a run, and activity tracking, then texting and maybe one phone call. I only got down to 20%. I was actually able to eek out two days worth of use on one charge between Wednesday and Thursday! It charges really fast as well. If I take care of the battery well like I do with most of my electronics, I think I will not have much issues with it dying on me. Sure I have to charge it most every night, but that's not a big deal in my book for the amount of awesomeness I'm getting through the day.

Speaking of which, it's pretty fantastic to use. A surprising thing I didn't think I would love so much is the ability to change watch faces! I can change moods in an hour, a day, a week and whatever functionality I need. I can have all my watch faces saved and can switch them out with an easy flick of my finger. THIS IS SO COOL. I can also easily start navigating to any appointments by just clicking the watch face and force tapping for directions. It's pretty snazzy.

One day I can use Mickey

Next I can use the modular!

I can text and take phone calls without having my phone plastered to me all day. When I'm shopping for something and Jared gives me specifics on what to buy, I can just look at my watch and see what I need. I used Apple Pay for the first time at Sprouts after church it was like a real life Disney magic band! I was giddy. I can check my budget at a glance, see how my Etsy store is doing and control my Apple TV all from my watch face. My watch alerts me to drink my water, move, stand, reminds me when its time to leave for an appointment and I don't miss and alert like I used to with my phone! I love being able to check the weather quickly and have actually been really surprised with how good my heart is actually doing now that I have accurate measurements. All that running is paying off! While I'm not surprised with the limited number of apps that have come out for the Apple Watch, I am excited for the potential. Hello geocaching on my watch and using Waze!

My small yet powerful world of apps

I know many were upset that the watch didn't have native GPS. I, however, don't really mind that I need to have my phone close to do many things on the watch. I never run without my phone anyways as it is my safety beacon to my family. Sometimes, I just need to get my phone out and check email, look at Pinterest, or update my calorie intake. But as far as having all my alerts and info I need to see quickly on my wrist, this watch definitely meets the standard I expect.

Love being able to scroll through all my notifications quickly!

Now for some downfalls. The navigation is awesome. I love that I can just feel tapping on my wrist when it's time to turn. However, the native maps for Apple are just nowhere near to the superiority that is Waze. Driving to a new part of downtown, I got rerouted by unexpected construction and in another drive, got caught in some heavy traffic that I could have probably avoided using Waze. Secondly, the calibration for the GPS using the native outdoor run was WAY off. My normal 3 mile route that I mapped out at home and run often only showed up as 2.6 miles on the native Apple app. Nike Running has their app rolled out however and it's spot on with knowing my running calibrations already. While Nike is notorious for their bugs in the app (sometimes I have a hard time figuring out how to start the run...do I need to do it from my phone or from the watch???) it's still a great app to track runs! I didn't see a way in the manual to calibrate the native workout app. So that's a disappointment to me.

Loving the Nike App

Disappointed in the native workout app

But overall, I give the watch a two thumbs up! I'm looking forward to other third party apps rolling out their Apple Watch features and making the watch way more awesome. Soon, Jared might get one too and I can send him cutesy doodles on a whim haha. It's a serious upgrade for me from my Nike fuel band, and a definitely overall awesome birthday present that makes my whole day pretty awesomely convenient!