“I should start off by noting that the Apple Watch Series 2 was never a lousy smartwatch from the get-go; it was both capable and responsive,” Anthony Bouchard writes for iDownloadBlog. “Still, a handful of features sported by the Series 3 stuck out like a sore thumb to me and tempted me to get it.”
“If I had to spell out some of the reasons why I think the Apple Watch Series 3 upgrade was worth it, these would be it: Siri speaks, faster processor, Bluetooth 4.2 support, Barometric altimeter, AirPower mat support, [and] backwards strap compatibility” Bouchard writes. “Just as there are features about the Apple Watch Series 3 that I like, there were a few things that caused me to suffer from buyer’s remorse: composite back, cost of upgrading, [and] same purpose. Unless you’re buying the Apple Watch Series 3 precisely because of the hardware and software changes that it comes with, the Series 2 is already capable of doing many of the same things that the Series 3 can do – like running watchOS apps, checking the time, taking/receiving calls and messages, etc.”
“Personally, I didn’t want the added monthly cost of the LTE + GPS model, so the GPS-only model was right for me. Nevertheless, if you’ve always wanted an Apple Watch that supports LTE connectivity, then this is an upgrade you won’t want to miss out on… It’s ultimately up to you to decide whether the Series 3 is a worthwhile upgrade from the previous generation. If you were to ask me, I would say it is.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And this is coming from a Series 3 GPS-oly upgrader. If LTE connectivity matters to you, it’s clear that Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) is worth the upgrade from older Apple Watch models.
Unfortunately not for me, i had to return mine due to the poor battery life using GPS + LTE. That was the main reason i went for LTE but for my use case (4-5 hour cycling) it simply does not make sense. If the cost was not an extra $10 per month maybe i would have lived with it, but at the end of the day i had to stick with my series 2
Pity battery tech is lagging so far behind, maybe in a few years this will be viable
Went from a Series 1 to a Series 3 (38mm) with LTE
Way better battery life.
Way more responsive.
Like the included band much better.
WiFi connection to your iPhone is much better.
Have not turned on the LTE radio yet.
Don’t know. But the series 3 (no cell) is way better than series 1. Battery easily lasts for 2 days (on the wrist 24 h a day).
I have Series 1 (original). For some reason wrist detection stopped working and I have to reenter the pass code within a minute of unlocking it. Apple’s diagnostics claim nothing was wrong. They wanted $250 to “repair” it even though they couldn’t tell me what was wrong. Gee, $150 more and I could get a new watch…
That being said, it *still* wasn’t worth the cost to fix or upgrade (I have stainless/sapphire and I don’t want an aluminum watch, but I don’t want LTE, either).
I turned off the requirement to enter a passcode (stopped using Apple Pay a long time ago as it was generally more of a bother than it was worth). I’m sure my series 1 watch will work fine for another year or two until the battery finally gives out. After spending $800 on the watch, I’d expect to to last better than 2.5 years.
So Series 3 isn’t worth the upgrade to me. Series 4, perhaps. Series 5, most probably. If I can make it to Series 6, definitely. I just don’t see sufficient benefit any any of the new watches until I get my money’s worth out of the watch I already own.
I have an iPhone SE. Great phone; really prefer the size. Tried to order an iPhone X at 12:01 (which turned into 12:04 before Apple’s Store came back up. After I entered the information to buy the phone they told me my phone was on a business acct and they wouldn’t sell me one. I’ve bought my last two phones unlocked and didn’t care, but by the time I got to this point in the Apple Store it was 12:07 and I figured I was looking at a late Dec/Early Jan delivery. All of a sudden I lost interest and cancelled the order; my SE will do me just fine until iPhone XI. Apple’s inability to deliver products on preorder day just lost them a sale.