“The true value of a smartwatch may still be up for debate, but what’s undeniable is that people see practical value in connected fitness devices. With the Apple Watch Series 2, Apple has decided to embrace that,” Valentina Palladino writes for Ars Technica. “The second-generation model of the company’s smartwatch builds upon the foundations of the original by adding a built-in GPS, water-resistant design, and swim tracking abilities. It runs watchOS 3 as well, which adds to the fitness features while boosting the performance of the watch and fine-tuning some of those smartwatch characteristics.”
“The Apple Watch Series 2 gives the Apple Watch a sense of purpose it didn’t have last year — it’s a fitness device that also happens to do some other smartwatch-y things. The hardware improvements combined with the refined nature of watchOS 3 make the watch a solid contender for the activity tracker that lives on your wrist,” Palladino writes. “But the Series 2 is still an optional device, and a lot of people will opt not to buy it because the base model costs just shy of $400 (at $269 the newly tweaked Series 1 is more affordable, but also takes a big step down as a fitness device by losing swim tracking and the GPS). ”
Palladino writes, “Overall, using the Series 2 as a fitness device is a great experience with very few hiccups.”
Read more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: All consumer electronics are optional. Yes, even iPhones. Even – gasp! – Macs! In fact, for a healthy human being, all electronics are optional. (We apologize profusely for our sacrilege, even though the entirety of human history prior to 1920 or so proves it.)
Palladino makes another mistake in her review, characterizing the price of a product. Sorry, but that’s not the job of the reviewer. One person’s “expensive” is another’s “peanuts.” Just report the price and the reader can decide whether it’s affordable for them or not; the reviewer’s personal financial situation is meaningless when it comes to price.
We plan to upgrade our Apple Watch units every time a new one is available because it’s not just a ““watch” or a “fitness device,” not by a long shot, it’s a personal computer on your wrist when understood and used properly.
SEE ALSO:
Mossberg reviews Apple’s watchOS 3: Quicker, easier, and more useful – September 21, 2016
CNET reviews Apple Watch Series 2: ‘The smooth wrist companion it was always meant to be’ – September 14, 2016
WSJ reviews Apple Watch Series 2: ‘Apple Watch finds its purpose in life’ – September 14, 2016
The Verge reviews Apple Watch Series 2: There’s something effortlessly cool about it – September 14, 2016
Apple Watch Series 2: Apple refocuses its smartwatch – September 12, 2016