A week’s time with the Apple Watch

A  couple of weeks back, the Apple Watch was officially released in the Philippines through authorized reseller stores. It took some time for Apple’s smart watch to arrive in the country but it was an opportunity for a lot of Apple fans to get their hands or wrists on the Apple Watch.

There are basically three models of the watch: The more affordable ones, the Watch Sport,  are made of anodized aluminum body, Ion-X glass and rubber wrist strap in either 38mm or 42mm face. They sell between P19,990 and P22,990.

The second is the Watch model which comes in a stainless steel body and sapphire crystal in either 38mm or 42mm face. It also comes with a variety of stylish bands like rubber, genuine leather and metal (Milanese loop) as well as colors to produce around 20 variations. These range from P30,990 to P61,990.

The third model is called the Watch Edition and is the most expensive of the lot, primarily because they are made of 18-karat gold cases and sapphire crystal. This model can already be considered more of a piece of jewelry rather than a gadget. Take note that the suggested retail price starts at P560,000 and goes up to P960,000 a pop. And yes, there are actually quite a few takers for the Watch Edition according to representatives of a local reseller we talked to.

For the most part, Apple fans will like get the Watch Sport due to its price and you will also need to own an iPhone to be able to activate and use it.

In the last week that we’ve been using the Watch Sport that we bought during the launch, we’ve had mixed emotions toward the smartwatch. We’ve used a number of smart watches before this so we have a fairly good idea on what to expect.

To start with, the design and build quality is good but nothing really impressive. It looks simple, light, and feels comfortable on the hands. Perhaps what makes it more interesting is that you are able to choose from a number of straps and colors that will fit your taste and lifestyle.

The interface of the Apple Watch was conceptualized from the ground up and it’s really good. First-time users might need some time to familiarize with the UI but the execution has certainly been thought out very well. Aside from the touch screen, there are a couple of physical buttons that help in navigation. The digital crown serves as a scroll wheel, which is similar to the design of the click-wheel on the iPod. This works well for setting fine adjustments.

With Force Touch, you can press down on the screen to give you contextual settings or additional controls to whatever function or app is running on the screen.

It comes with a number of sensors that even a simple raise of your wrist will wake up the screen and also turn it off when you lower your wrist. Siri works just as smoothly. There is a heart rate sensor, a pedometer and you can even run Google Maps on the small screen.

The Apple Watch can also serve as a remote control to your Apple TV and even work as a remote shutter for the camera of your iPhone.

One of our biggest complaints with most smart watches we’ve tried before is battery life. Some don’t even last the entire day and the ones that can last around a day and a half or two seemed a bit limiting.

In the case of the Apple Watch, we managed to get around a day and a half on average and as much as two days on a single full charge. And we were not really actively using the Apple Watch that much so we can consider that as light usage. That means you still need to recharge the device at the end of the day.

Apple has made a pretty solid first-generation device with the Apple Watch. There’s no doubt that it’s an interesting approach for a smart watch. Our only complaint is the battery life and the expensive price tag.