24 April 2015 will mark the commercial release of the Apple Watch, the company’s first new technology release since the Steve Jobs era. The piece of tech that is supposed to take the wearable genre to the next level, has garnered mixed reviews, to say the least.
In true Apple fashion the watch has been designed to reflect iconic innovation. Lustrous with a wink to high fashion, it is undoubtedly pretty to look at. With interchangeable bands from plastic to metal, does that make it an even more attractive proposition?
A select few have been given the opportunity to test drive the device and we have scoured the internet to attain 3 of the most common arguments and counter arguments that have surfaced from those who have had the chance to experience Apple’s first gen attempt.
The Apple Watch Battery Life
Apple claim that the battery can last up to 18 hours, “up to” can be a synonym for maximum. In theory it’s just enough juice to get to bed and slip it off to charge. No surprizes here, if you operate within an Apple universe.
Its Power Reserve mode strips the watch of all functionality except the time. Furthermore, to deactivate this feature you will need to reboot the watch that takes about a minute. When the competition is boasting from 25 hours to 2 days’ worth of power, things don’t look so good.
Slow Loading and Ineffective Applications
Testers complained of slow loading apps, with a lot of data interactivity between the watch and the connected iPhone. Something most experts believe will be addressed with future software updates.
One of the Apple smartwatch’s main attractions is the Taptic engine, which sends haptic feedback used for notifications but it takes it up a notch when the feedback is used to assist in navigation, but complaints of the maps software being slow does deter from this ground-breaking technology.
Geoffrey Fowler from the Wall Street Journal says, “The maps app, surely the answer to wandering pedestrians’ dreams, is so slow it makes me want to pull out my paper Rand McNally,”.
A consolation to Apple fans is that trusty, old Siri is as good as ever for navigating through menus on the watch.
The Apple Watch May be too Complex
For a company whose primary endeavour was to provide its users with a straight line between two points, early users have cited that the watch may be too complex for the novice user. Farhad Manjoo a techie reporter for the New York Times admitted it took him three days to become somewhat comfortable with using it, but once settled he called it “bliss”.
Scott Stein from Cnet , wrote a full review and still had to write an update after a week, of 11 things that surprized him about the Apple Watch, both good and bad.
If these gurus were having issue at first, what will it mean for the layman? The functionality may yet be out of this world, but does it matter if the consumer cannot find a way to use it. Seems a shift in the thinking of the previous releases where elegance and simplicity was the order of the day.
I for one look forward to the release. With progression in the market, competition will become more evident, which inevitably effects pricing.
The Apple Watch will retail from around $350 to $10 000, with some models going up to $17 000- yikes- but when has cheap ever been associated with Apple?
Don’t forget if you want to purchase one, you will have to make an appointment. Whether there will be a flood of appointments, only time will tell.