When September of 2019 rolled around, I had no intention of upgrading my Apple Watch Series 4 to whatever it was going to be replaced by. My watch was in good shape, it was much better than the Series 3 it replaced, and nothing could tempt me away from it. Then the Series 5 was announced and it only did two things differently. One of the things was inconsequential, the other convinced me to get it.
I didn’t just buy one, I got one for my wife, too. She was also using a Series 4 and wanted the new feature as well.
The feature, of course, was the always-on display. The Apple Watch would finally be a good wristwatch.
I wrote an in-depth review of the Apple Watch Series 3, and after wearing it for a year I upgraded to the Apple Watch Series 4. All of the things I liked about those watches I also appreciate in the Series 5. If you read my in-depth review of the Apple Watch Series 4, you know almost everything about the Series 5, because it’s almost identical. The only major difference is the always-on display, but it changes everything. If you don’t want to read my two older reviews, here’s a lightning round list of things I like…
Good things about the Apple Watch Series 5
- It’s a handy wrist-worn flashlight 🔦
- It’s nice to use it to control podcast playback
- I like using Siri on the watch to set timers
- The screen and the graphics look outstanding
- I like getting the reminders that I set on my phone on my watch
- I love making contactless payments at grocery stores
- I like the Walkie Talkie feature (can only be used to contact other people wearing Apple Watches)
- It’s useful to be able to answer calls on it sometimes
- I like that it unlocks my laptop so I don’t need to enter in a password
- It’s handy to send the occasional text reply with the watch
- The fitness tracking features are nice to have, but I prefer using a Garmin watch for workouts
- If you wear your Apple Watch to bed, it’s a great alarm clock (much better than using a phone)
You’d think for a $429 USD watch I’d be able to come up with a longer list of things I like about it than that, but no. There are some less tangible things I like about it that are difficult to express. It does little things that delight you. The animated way the graphics bounce, looking at the interesting way a photo of my daughter fans out across the Kaleidoscope watch face. The life-like chimes it makes sound sweet. Siri’s voice is so loud and clear that it’s almost freaky. The dark purple of my Midnight Blue Sport Loop watchband pleases me. I even set my watch to make a bird chirp at the top of every hour. This thing has a pleasantness to it.
Now that you’ve read my list of good things about the Series 5 Apple Watch, the question remains…
⌚️ Should you get one??? ⌚️
I’m intentionally jumping into this question early in this review. I think if you want one of these, and you can afford it without putting yourself or your family in any financial hardship, then go out and get yourself one. That’s the only way you’re going to know if it’s right for you. Some people love their Apple Watch, they take to it like a throwing a fish in a lake. That might be you.
I wanted to tackle this subject early, before I get into the negative aspects of the Apple Watch Series 5. This watch is a way to treat yourself to something. Not all decisions need to rational. Look at me. I’ve bought three of them for myself, and two for my wife. I sold three of the old ones after upgrading, but still. You’re about to read some negative things about this watch, but as you do keep in mind that I’ve bought five of them, and at the end of the day I still really like the things.
Bad stuff about the Apple Watch Series 5
This watch it isn’t all chirpy birds and delights. First of all, it’s somewhat biggish and heavy. It’s not full-blown big and heavy, but I can feel it on my arm, and it doesn’t feel small or light. It feels slightly weighty and bulbous.
🔋 = 👎
Battery life is also an issue. When you own an Apple Watch, you’re going to need to charge it just about everyday. You can squeeze two full days out of it if you set the screen brightness low, but what fun is that? The screen is the best part of the thing. Personally, I keep screen brightness at the highest setting. This means I charge it once a day, no way around it. Whether you charge every day, or every two days, it happens far too often, and it sucks.
I also don’t like the charger. It’s a somewhat heavy circular disc that magnetically attaches to the back of the watch. It’s frustrating to need a different charging cable for my iPhone and my Apple Watch. This charger adds no meaningful benefits and makes the overall user experience worse. The other day the magnetic charging disc had attracted small metal filings that I needed to remove. A couple of nights ago the heavy end slipped from my fingers and made a loud crashing sound that almost woke up my kids. As usual, it sucked.
I’m one of those weird people who track their sleep, and using Garmin watches for this purpose is excellent. They provide accurate sleep time and sleep phase data, and it all happens automatically. Apple Watch doesn’t do sleep tracking natively. There are many third-party apps that do it, and I tried a half dozen of them. Guess what… They all kind of stunk compared to Garmin. The data you get from Garmin is far better, and all of the “free” Apple Watch sleep tracking apps are obsessed with getting you to upgrade to their paid features. Subpar health data with endless distractions trying to get you to open your wallet. No thanks.
One of the new features of the Apple Watch software is a stand-alone app store. You can search for and download apps right from the watch. Guess what… I didn’t end up using this.
I also still haven’t used the music storage feature of the Apple Watch. The Series 5 has an impressive 32GB of built-in storage (the Series 4 has 16GB), but it may as well not be there.
The other major new feature of the Series 5 is that it has a built-in compass. In the past seven months, I’ve actually used this two or three times. I guess I don’t need to know which way North is very often, but it was handy to use those few times. I wasn’t lost at sea or anything, there were just a few moments where I was curious what direction I was facing.
Here’s the big 💩
My biggest complaint with the Apple Watch is durability. No matter how gently you take care of it, the screen will get scratched up and look bad.
A big part of my Apple Watch buying cycle was to sell the outgoing model to help pay for the new one. I use a website called Swappa to sell my gadgets, and it was during the process of selling my Series 4 watches (I sold my wife’s as well) that the durability issue truly started to bother me.
I took really good care of my Series 4 Apple Watch, but the display looked awful when I went to sell it. These watches were only 1 year old, but the glass on them both looked terrible.
When I sell things online, I do my best to take accurate photos of the items, so the buyer knows exactly what they’re getting. I hardly noticed all of the micro abrasions on the face of that watch when I wore it, but when I took close-up photos of the screen, I could see how crappy it looked. My wife’s was the same. It made it difficult to sell them. They eventually sold, and I got okay prices for them, but the process wore me out.
You don’t get what you pay for
The Apple Watch I bought was the “GPS” variant, meaning it has an aluminum body and an “Ion-X” glass display. It’s the less expensive version. It doesn’t have the LTE chip to place phone calls without my iPhone around, and it doesn’t have fancy case materials like stainless steel, titanium, or ceramic. It’s the 44mm Space Gray model, and it cost $429. My wife’s 40mm gold model cost $399. Not super expensive for a watch, but not insignificant sums. It should last far longer than a year without looking like trash.
You can play a lot more for an Apple Watch, and when you do, you get a Sapphire crystal display instead of the Ion-X glass that scratches so easily. The Sapphire is much more scratch resistant, but it’s also significantly heavier, and it shatters much more easily if you accidentally drop it. Guess what? That sucks. Bad.
The Sapphire crystal Apple Watches start at $699 for a smaller 40mm, and $749 for the larger 44mm. If you buy one of these things, you’re not getting something you’ll keep and use for many years to come, like a classic analog timepiece. This is ultimately a frivolous expense. It’s a minor, short-term luxury that you’ll perhaps keep and use for two or three years. It can be fun at times, it can make you smile, and they even look sharp sometimes. But it’s important to fully understand what you’re getting into.
Do I think people who spend a lot of money on these things are crazy? No. Even fancy Apple Watches aren’t impressive enough to be true status symbols. Remember, we’re talking about watches here. If you want a status symbol watch, look elsewhere, and bring several wheelbarrows of cash with you to the watch shop. Rolex? Pass. Give me an assortment of Patek Philippe’s to chose from in the morning.
🧠 Final thoughts 🧠
Clearly I’m upset about the scratchy Ion-X glass used on entry-level Apple Watches. With that out of the way, if you want to buy an Apple Watch, I think the Series 5 is the one to get. You can save a significant amount of money getting an older model Series 3 or Series 4, but don’t do it. You need this always-on display.
The always-on thing is far from perfect, though. It can be a bit slow to wake up from it’s half-frozen state sometimes. That’s annoying. When you glance at it during a workout, it doesn’t give you the data you need to see. But, it’s still massively better than the old screens that go black every five seconds.
I love the delights in Apple Watch. I do. I think they’re great. It’s little things like that which Apple does best. But the headaches are real. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I set a timer with Siri, that the watch doesn’t surface the timer app afterward. Seriously. I set an egg timer, and a few minutes later I need to go hunting for the “Timer” app and launch it because the world’s greatest smartwatch isn’t smart enough to do it for me.
This may well be my last Apple Watch. I still like it, but I may be moving on. Let’s see what happens when September rolls around again this year.
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