Apple Watch 3 Review 2018

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Key features

-1000nit OLED screen
-LTE
-GPS + altimeter
-Heart rate monitor
-Water-resistant to 50m
-NFC Apple Pay

Pros

-Good Battery Life
-Clear and bright display
-Great fitness features

Cons

-Only iPhone compatible
-LTE has a big impact on battery life
-Siri doesn’t always work

Apple Watch Series 3 Review

The Apple Watch has evolved over time and now features his third generation from the most popular smartwatch on the market. And if well is true that on looks it doesn’t change that much on this new model there some cool and new additions that make the series 3 the best smartwatch that Apple has even released.

The main addition with this series is the option for LTE connectivity. That will give you more freedom from your paired iPhone, and always-on connectivity wherever you can access network coverage. Another good news that comes along is that you can now have the same number for your phone and your smartwatch, taking one of the biggest problems with the Apple watches the annoying part of having different numbers for each device.

Have in mind that the Series 3 is available in two different models, one with the LTE and the ability of not needing a paired Ipohne and the other model that it only has GPS connection but no LTE which basically gives you a faster Series 2 smartwatch.

The series 3 comes with extra fitness functions that will give you a better look of your overall fitness on the long term, with a run and cycle tracking on board and a water-resistant casing for swimming, and it also comes along with the same heart rate monitor that was a big deal with the Series 2.

What is LTE?

The real news from the Series 3 is that is able to connect by itself instead of needing your iPhone to work along, it comes with it very own cellular connection built in!.

Does that mean that you are phone free? or that you don’t need to get an iPhone at all? Sadly not… not by a long way. The reality is that you can receive phone calls and some app notifications without the need of carrying your phone with you, but besides that, the smartwatch will depend on your phone for everything else.

When it comes to notifications you would need to upgrade each app to work in ‘standalone mode’ to work without your phone, if not you would not be able to use it or get updates even when the LTE is on.

For calling the quality is quite impressive on our test we were amazed how well the tracker can handle calls with a clear sound and amazing connection. So you are going to be able to be running and getting calls at the same time, and the sound is quite loud so no need for you to be using the smartwatch near to your ears for listening.

When driving the experience is not quite good since you may lose some sound with the ambient noise.

The one thing to have in mind that even is a good addition you need to have an extra of data to use this function so expect to pay between 5 to 10 dollars extra on data each month to have this working.

So for us, the new LTE has some cool additions having in mind that no other smartwatch is phone free when it comes to calls and messages, but it could be great if is something that can be free or something that you can use with your own phone package data.

Apple Watch Series 3 Design and Screen

The design for the series 3 is pretty much the same that the one from previous models. If well the market has gone with the circular design the Apple Watch keeps the square and curved look without looking back.

The design is a characteristic of the Apple Watch making it easily recognizable, so people would know that you are carrying an iWatch device. Even with the new additions of the chip and LTE, the design keeps intact with 2 version to choose from 38mm and 42mm. They add the antenna inside the screen with no need of changing the size or the shape at all.

In comparison with the Series 2 this model has a more comfortable and firmer button (with a red dot) to use the Digital Crown, but in terms of design they are almost identical, except for the red dot, that if well is true is not a big difference, Apple fanatics are going to notice it for sure, knowing that you are carrying the new iWatch 3

Overall is a comfortable sleek and light design with a beautiful 1.65-inch screen (on the 42mm  model) that can display all the information that you need and more.

Featuring a Second-generation OLED Retina display with Force Touch and Ion-X glass. On the 38mm the display has a 272 x 340 resolution and on the 42mm the resolution is 312 x 390. Although different in sizes the display brightness is the same at 1000nits making it ideal to watch even with the sun is on top of the screen.

Apple Watch 3 – Performance and watchOS 4

The biggest difference on the Series 3 and all the effort was put on the processor and wireless chip, that has the most boost compared with the series 2. Apple says that the new S3 dual-core processor offers up 70% more performance than the prior model.

A cool new addition is the ability to use Siri with the tracker. So you can use the virtual assistant on your wrist, you can ask Siri a question and the Apple Watch 3 will speak the answer through the Watch’s speaker. making the smartwatch experience come to life.

The latest operating system that is included on this iWatch 3 is the watchOS 4, that comes with a default Siri watch face that will give you the information that you wish at a glance, from the weather, calendar events, or the latest news, notifications or home controls, displayed in a timeline that you can navigate with the Digital Crown.

If you press the top-left complication you will get a shortcut button to Siri, although you can change this button to anything that you would like, having in mind that you can use the Siri just by holding down the Digital Crown or using your voice.

Keeping up with the new watchOS 4 you can also change your Music app as you wish, you can as well sync your playlists for offline use. By the way, you now have a much easier to use display when it comes to music you have a  card-based interface that will help you go through your music in a simpler way.

Now your favorite music is going to be auto-synced to your Watch when you plug it in to charge, so you will have the latest and new music that you like ready on your watch with no need of carrying your phone.

But have in mind that you will need to be subscribed to Apple Music to have this benefits. You can not use other music apps like Spotify. The most expensive model that includes the most complete iWatch 3 with GPS + Cellular has 16GB of storage, of which 13GB is available for your apps and media. The regular models come with 8 G but is still a good amount of data storage.

Besides that the other watchOS 4 updates are related to workouts and fitness that we would talk on the next section about it, so besides this, the Series 3 hasn’t changed that much from the Series 2. The Apple Pay is working a bit faster and good as always.

Alotuhg you can still find some delay on opening some apps so there still some things to fix, and for a big priced smartwatch we would prefer this type of load problems to be over.

Another downside for us is that any time you would like to change anything from the watch you would need to use your iPhone app to make the changes.

Apple Watch Series 3 – Health and Fitness Tracking

After the LTE the fitness part of the Apple Watch 3 is where they put the extra effort, with an improved heart rate tracking and the ability to take calls when running they are trying to get you on your most fitness self

Featuring the same GPS that was on the Series 2 but with the boost of an added altimeter that will track each stair that you go up as well the elevation data during your workouts.

On the improved heart rate tracking, you can monitor your daily resting heart rate, your workout ranges, pulse while walking, and you will get all this info on a chart to check your improvements.

So lets be clear all this boost make the iWatch 3 experience a lot better but there’s not a big deal of improvement from the latest series, and although is good data that you can track with this smartwatch the way that you will get the information is not that useful to improve over time, for example, you can understand that if you have a low resting heart rate you are improving your fitness level, but you would not get this information from the Apple app, you have to understand it by yourself.

So you will get number for the data, but no explanation on how you are improving or how can you change your bad habits

Another upgrade with the new watchOS 4 platform is ‘daily inspiration’, helping motivate you to achieve your goals when you wake up.

You’ll be welcomed with an update on how you did the day before, and given information as you go through the day on how you’re getting on. The watch would learn from your activity and understand when you were more active and give you a read of your whole day.

Apple Watch 3 – Battery life

So here is where the Apple watch gets weak, the most that it can go up is for 18 hours and that is in case that you would not use the LTE or GPS, cause, in that case, you would get 5 hours of charge only.

Alotuhg if you get the non-LTE version of the Apple Watch 3, the experience changes a lot with regular use you can get up to 48 hours. Although is still not a good battery life experience is much better than just 18 hours

Charging is reasonably quick. It should take one and a half hours to get to 80% or two hours to reach a full charge.

 iWatch 3 Who’s it for?

So we talk a lot of the different features and functions plus the new novelty of the LTE, so the main things for us about this smartwatch is the upgraded software that would make apps and functions go faster.

The Smartwatch experience like on any Apple watch is the best on the market so if you like to get a smart device the iWatch 3 is not going to disappoint.

The Apple Pay is working great for those that like to pay things straight from their wrist.

The Siri addition is cool for the same reason making the Apple watch 3 the best smartwatch on the market but it doesn’t work as great as you can expect, there are sometimes that you would have to speak more than once to get the real answer, or the watch is going to reply the same question that you are making.

The iWatch 3 is best for the fitness enthusiast, that’s for sure. With a much better display and GPS plus is waterproof that makes it the perfect partner for the person who wants a workout companion, where the original and cheaper Apple Watch lacks in all these areas.

Although if you are a fitness person or someone that take seriously your workout the Series 3 is not going to be such a great addition to your wrist since the data is not that advanced and specific to improve your fitness levels. You can use other Third-Party apps like Strava or Swim.com, but these are pretty basic apps so if you are someone that likes to get their workouts to the next level you will feel disappointed with the lack of data and readings from the Apple Watch 3.

So the iWatch 3 is the best for those smartwatch lovers that like to get the latest on technology and at the same time they enjoy to work out on a regular basis but not on a professional level.

However, for the intermediate fitness fan, the Apple Watch 3 does it all – heart rate, music playback (and streaming) and GPS tracking in one neat, attractive package.

Should I buy it?

So depending on what you are looking for this smartwatch can be a great buy. The great addition here is the LTE connectivity so is true that you will get an extra boost on your smartwatch functions and apps, but the big deal is the ability to not be needing a phone to get calls and notifications while running, or get updates when at work or in the car which is pretty amazing actually.

So if you really enjoy this smart features this could be a great buy, but is a real necessity? how many times would you need to make calls from your wrist? So don’t get us wrong is a good addition but you can be as good with the non-LTE version and that is just the reality.

Something else to have in mind is the price, the LTE version is more expensive than the one that just has GPS, and you will need to pay for data as well to use the LTE functions.

So in case that you like to have the freedom from your phone the LTE version is the one to go, but if not you are good to go with the regular version that is cheaper and has all the enhancement from the Series 3 just like the improved battery life, power, screen, and fitness abilities but without the higher price.

So for those that would like to get the best smartwatch on the market, there’s no better than the Apple Watch 3, but don’t forget that the LTE version is a good choice only if you would like to get your phone at home and don’t be carrying everywhere.

In case you would like to know how it compares with the latest Fitbit Versa check our Review:

Apple Watch 3 vs Fitbit Versa