Would I still buy an Apple Watch? On balance, yes
NEW YORK— It’s nearly a year since Apple Watch became available, and for much of that time I’ve been wearing one on my wrist.
A smartwatch isn't an essential purchase like your phone: Apple Watch remains largely dependent on the iPhone you carry.
I'd still buy one anyway. Here's why.
*Notifications are where it's at. I’ve come to appreciate Apple Watch for the notifications that arrive on my wrist: of tweets, texts, emails, appointments, headlines, reminders and weather alerts. The feature lets me determine right then and there whether I need to respond to someone immediately. Granted, I can live with eyeballing such notifications directly on my phone, but I like the convenience of glancing at my wrist instead, especially in a social or business setting where it would be rude to reach into my pocket. Another plus is the ability to quickly reply to some of those messages via voice or canned responses.
Baig: I'll buy the Apple Watch
On the days when I’m not wearing Apple Watch (or a rival smartwatch), I find myself momentarily glancing at my wrist for notifications that aren’t there, a force of habit more than anything else. And that’s even with me fully aware that the notifications that do appear on Apple Watch come with a gentle tap in the form of a vibration or pulse.
At the same time, I don’t feel naked like I do on those rare instances where I’ve left my phone behind.
Quickly summoning Siri on the watch is also useful at times, typically for something short and sweet, like the weather, a stock quote or currency conversion.
*I'm mostly skipping calls. You can initiate a wrist phone call via Siri too but the truth is I almost never do so, except to demonstrate to a friend how Dick Tracy might utilize an Apple Watch.
I occasionally do answer incoming calls on the watch, especially when it’s a hassle to reach for my phone. (Calls are still routed through the iPhone of course.) Rarely do such calls last more than a minute or so, however, not only because talking into the wrist feels unnatural but also because the quality of the speaker inside the watch isn’t great. There’s also a matter of keeping things private when I’m out and about. Fortunately, you can hand longer calls off to the phone without having to hang up.
*Using the watch to pay. I’m also a fan of using Apple Pay from the watch, though I don’t do so very often either, simply because not all the places I shop accept Apple’s mobile payments solution. But Apple Pay is really easy to do from the wrist—you can summon the credit card you want to use by double-pressing a button on the side of the watch and switch among cards with a swipe.
*Style counts. I’m not embarrassed to be seen wearing the watch either. Apple took the lead in designing smartwatches that are good looking, though beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I think most people agree with me, though, that these are handsome, albeit pricey ($349 to $17,000), timepieces with several fine watchband choices available. If rumors prove true, Apple will be unveiling new bands Monday when it holds a press event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
Of course, if all you want to buy is a stylish watch, you can purchase any number of alternatives. And rival smartwatch makers are also increasingly paying attention to the aesthetics, including Samsung's latest smartwatches (which run the Tizen OS), and watches that run Google's Android Wear operating system.
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I do like playing around with the different available watchfaces and routinely change them with my mood. My 9-year old son favors the astronomy-themed watchface because when he turns the digital crown on side of the watch, he can examine how the shadows over Earth change as you move forward or back in time.
I sometimes check my heart rate but otherwise don’t fully take advantage of the fitness apps in the watch. I do welcome the periodic reminders to get off my butt.
What I don’t typically do is send animated emoji’s to another person wearing Apple Watch. Or send them a sketch I’ve drawn on the watchface. I almost never send my heartbeat to someone else (other than for testing purposes).
*What's in the future? Aside from the aforementioned notifications from several of the apps on my phone that have versions that work with the watch, I still haven’t stumbled upon what I would deem a killer app.
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I’d like a future Apple Watch to be able to do more on its own so you can leave the phone behind. One thing you can do now without a nearby phone--useful for working out--is to store a music playlist of up to 2GB in size that you can listen to on a paired Bluetooth headset. If you are in a range of your iPhone, you can control the music playing on the phone from the watch.
I’ve pretty much conditioned myself to charging the watch every night just as I do my phone but if I forget I usually have a bit of juice left the next morning. I’d still put longer battery life on the wish list. I’m also not wild about the magnetic watch charging cable that comes with the watch. The magnetic charging dock Apple subsequently introduced is more convenient but also a $79 accessory.
If I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, Apple won’t reveal a new Apple Watch until the fall, though we could see further software upgrades sooner. In the meantime, let me hear from readers about your own experiences with Apple Watch. Knowing what you do, would you buy one again?
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter