Apple Watch hands on review

Saturday 13 September 2014

The Apple Watch - as it's officially known - has been unveiled.
After months of hints and mystery, Apple has finally taken the plunge and joined the battle for your wrist with its own smartwatch.
As you’d expect with a brand spanking new bit of Apple tech, the Apple Watch has polarised opinion. Some have hailed it as the new Best Thing Ever, some have decried it as Just Another Smartwatch.
You can find all the specs, details and dimensions here; but what's it like in person? We tried one on in Cupertino; read on to see what we made of it.

Design and build

Build quality is what you’d expect from Apple: light (very light) but strong, and slim, too.
The Apple Watch is not nearly as slim as the iPhone 6, and it’s flat, so in form factor it’s not radically different from the other smartwatches on the market. But Apple has been careful to keep it from looking bulky, and even the larger version didn’t look out of place on a dainty female wrist.
The dial – sorry, Digital Crown – looks less obtrusive in real life than it does in Apple’s promo shots. It’s smaller than the dials on most men’s watches, but it’s also very easy to access.
We’re going to use the phrase ‘knob feel’ here, so brace yourself: the Apple Watch’s knob feel is light, with very little resistance and no click. It’s a great piece of design, allowing you to move things on screen without covering them with your clumsy great prod fingers.

Screen

The screen is bright and crisp, and looked at from the kind of glancing angles you’d expect to look at a watch screen from – edge-on while riding a bike or balancing in a crowded train – words and pictures remained nicely readable.
While some of the watch faces look fantastic, this watch will never be able to ape posh fashion watches in the same way as the Moto 360. Well, not circular posh fashion watches, anyway.

Taptic feedback

The demo unit we tried on was running a loop of app demos, a couple of which (including the heartbeat-sharing app) used the ‘taptic engine’, as Apple calls it, or buzzer, as we’re going to call it.

We’re not exactly Haptic Feedback Review Monthly, but there is a difference between nuanced haptics and a flat buzz – Valve’s Steam Controller, for example, uses it to fool your hands into thinking you’re holding something with a different shape – and we think it’s an area that will become increasingly important as wearable tech becomes more popular.
The haptics in the Apple Watch have that sort of nuanced feel, with the heartbeat delivered as a softly detailed pulse.

Verdict

Is the Apple Watch a revolutionary piece of hardware? Yes and no. No, because it’s not a completely different kind of smartwatch, but as with all things Apple, the hardware – even if it’s nicer than anyone else’s – is only half the story.
As with the iPhone, the Apple Watch has a hulking great advantage in the apps department, something that was obvious from its unveling: where Google tends to talk about the amazing potential of Android Wear, Apple talks about big brands that are already signed up and making apps for its platform – apps to find your car, let you into your hotel room, control your smart heating or track and share your exercise, not to mention shopping with Apple Pay.
For that reason, the Apple Watch may be the device that brings the smartwatch to the masses and gets the wearable revolution revolving.

When can you strap in?

Apple's being cagey about when, exactly, you'll be able to slip an Apple Watch onto your wrist; it says only that the Watch will be available in early 2015. Prices will start at US$350 (Rs. 21,000), and it'll be available in three different variants: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition.