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Nearly All of Apple's AirPods Get Sweet Deals in This 1-Day Woot Sale
Nearly All of Apple's AirPods Get Sweet Deals in This 1-Day Woot Sale
If you're looking for a new pair of wireless earbuds and use Apple devices, there aren't many better choices than a pair of AirPods. And, thanks to a one-day sale at Woot, you can save on pretty much every model of AirPods that Apple currently offers with AirPods deals starting at just $115.
The AirPods Pro are Apple's most advanced wireless earbuds and Woot has them on sale in Grade A refurb condition for just $140. They offer active noise cancellation and silicone tips so you can immerse yourself in the music, or you can use the transparency mode when you need to be more aware of your surroundings. With the charging case (included in this price) the battery can last over 24 hours on a charge.
For a more affordable pick, go for Apple AirPods 2 in this sale. These are offered brand new with a one-year Apple warranty for just $115. That's $14 less than buying them directly at Apple and even lower than Amazon has then on sale for right now. While the AirPods 2 aren't the most advanced model on the market any more, they still boast some impressive specs and are a great choice for those on a tighter budget. They're equipped with the same H1 chip as the AirPods 3, so they have the same fast connectivity, and they support hands-free Siri access.
If over-ear headphones are more your bag, you'll be pleased to learn that Apple's AirPods Max are also on sale at Woot for only $370 in factory refurbished condition. That's around $180 less than their price brand new and, since they have been reconditioned by Apple, you can trust that they will look and work like new. Apple's first full-size headphones are chock-full of high-end features like noise cancellation, spatial audio and easy integration with Apple devices. You'll enjoy up to 20 hours of listening time per charge, too.
This Woot sale, which also features essential charging gear for your AirPods including Apple's MagSafe Charger, is set to expire tonight or when items sell out. The AirPods 3 were also included in the sale but sold out within a few hours so it remains to be seen how long the other models will last.
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How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker
How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker
The Apple Watch, like many modern health trackers, can measure an almost dizzying number of statistics. It added blood oxygen saturation measurements to that growing list in 2020, and reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg suggest a temperature sensor could be next. But what I really want is more ways to make sense of that data... and more context to go along with it.
Who knows whether any of these capabilities will ever arrive on the Apple Watch. Apple is doing a lot of things right, but there's room for improvement.
More customization for daily goals
A day doesn't feel complete if I don't have at least one Activity Ring. But not every day is the same, and the Apple Watch shouldn't act like it should be: I want different move and exercise goals depending on the day of the week. On days when I'm commuting to the office and know I'll have time for a long workout, I'd like to set higher goals for my exercise minutes and burned calories.
I also imagine setting a schedule like this could be helpful for building a regular exercise routine. While you can change your activity goals anytime on the Apple Watch, there's no way to customize goals according to specific days. – Lisa Eadicicco, Senior Editor
Apple Watch's Workout app.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Scores for readiness and sleep
After living off and on with the Oura Ring and several Fitbit trackers for the last few years, I've gotten really used to having both sleep tracking and a holistic type of daily "readiness score" as part of my daily watch feedback. A readiness score indicates whether your body is rested enough for a heavy workout or if you should skip the gym. The score takes a variety of factors into account, such as sleep, recent activity and heart rate variability among other metrics.
Similarly, a sleep score indicates the quality of your slumber through statistics like time spent asleep and whether you were tossing and turning, along with other elements. Both Oura and Fitbit offer their own versions of sleep and readiness scores.
To be sure, readiness scores and sleep scores aren't necessarily perfect predictors of anything, but neither are daily activity rings. I find the calculation of activity, sleep, heart rate and other factors boiled into an overall score interesting as a correlative snapshot of how I might be feeling.
Both Fitbit and Oura also fold temperature into the mix: Changes in body temperature, resting heart rate and breathing rate could possibly flag a change in how well I'm feeling. Again, it's not perfect, but Apple seems well overdue to add these features to the Apple Watch. – Scott Stein, Editor atLarge
The Apple Watch could improve how it tracks rest.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
More focus on recovery
I'd love to see the Apple Watch lean more into recovery and rest. If the past couple of years have taught me anything, it's the importance of listening to my body. The activity rings are a great way to motivate me to move, but some days it's just not practical to close them -- especially if you feel unwell. Let's have a flag or toggle on the watch to signal when you need a rest day. And perhaps adjust the Move circle to instead reward that recovery or mindful rest.
With all the health data the Apple Watch already gathers, like heart rate variability, sleep and overall activity, it makes sense to consolidate this all into an easy-to-understand metric. Maybe it's a score like Scott mentioned. Or it could be another ring that is automatically filled with how "ready" you are and changes daily based on your body's responses.
With the mindfulness app in WatchOS 8 and meditation activities within Fitness Plus, Apple already has the tools to support rest and recovery. Let's see it come full circle. – Lexy Savvides, Principal VideoProducer
The Apple Watch could perhaps do more with AirPods.
Sarah Tew/CNET
AirPods health tracking with Apple Watch
There's huge potential for AirPods to pair even more closely with the Apple Watch -- beyond just music. Perhaps it's measuring heart rate or blood pressure from the ear to complement the existing heart-health features on the Apple Watch. Maybe it's even more robust with your ear acting as an additional lead for the electrocardiogram app. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities known for his Apple product predictions, sees promise here, too. He pointed to the addition of health management functions as a potential way for Apple to grow AirPods shipments in the future, according to an investors note MacRumors viewed. – LexySavvides
The Apple Watch could also try out weekly goals as seen on Amazon's Halo app.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Weekly fitness goals
The Apple Watch's Activity Rings are an excellent reminder to get up and move every day. Unfortunately, I haven't found an equivalent that's as motivating for quantifying progress on a weekly basis.
Amazon's Halo app and fitness tracker made me realize the value of setting activity goals by the week instead of by the day. Instead of a daily goal, Amazon sets a weekly objective of 150 points that you earn by being active. (Points are subtracted if you're sedentary for too long, too.) Measuring weekly activity gives me a better snapshot of how active I generally am throughout the whole week. I could have an extremely busy day and exceed my Apple Watch's move goal, but that might be a fluke. A weekly target may make it easier to establish consistency.
Plus, measuring weekly activity makes every bit of movement feel like it counts. A brisk walk to the subway won't be enough to close my Apple Watch's daily Activity Rings, so it almost feels pointless. But it's comforting to know it's contributing toward my weekly Halo activity goal. I'm not saying Apple should replace daily goals with weekly ones, but it would be nice to at least have the option.
There are other ways to track weekly and monthly progress on the Apple Watch, but none of them have felt as rewarding as closing an Activity Ring. For example, you can view your weekly and monthly activity in Apple's Fitness app. There's also a section in the app that shows how your last 90 days of activity are trending compared to the previous 365 days. Apple also rewards you with special app badges for meeting certain milestones, like working out all seven days in the same week or reaching your move goal 500 times. – Lisa Eadicicco
The Amazon Halo View.
Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Apple never discusses product plans before publicly announcing them, so there's no telling whether any of these wish list features will become a reality. We're expecting to learn about the Apple Watch's next major software update at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company typically announces new Apple Watch models in the fall. If Apple's history is any indication, we can expect health and wellness to be a large part of both announcements.
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How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker
How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker
The Apple Watch, like many modern health trackers, can measure an almost dizzying number of statistics. It added blood oxygen saturation measurements to that growing list in 2020, and reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg suggest a temperature sensor could be next. But what I really want is more ways to make sense of that data... and more context to go along with it.
Who knows whether any of these capabilities will ever arrive on the Apple Watch. Apple is doing a lot of things right, but there's room for improvement.
More customization for daily goals
A day doesn't feel complete if I don't have at least one Activity Ring. But not every day is the same, and the Apple Watch shouldn't act like it should be: I want different move and exercise goals depending on the day of the week. On days when I'm commuting to the office and know I'll have time for a long workout, I'd like to set higher goals for my exercise minutes and burned calories.
I also imagine setting a schedule like this could be helpful for building a regular exercise routine. While you can change your activity goals anytime on the Apple Watch, there's no way to customize goals according to specific days. – Lisa Eadicicco, Senior Editor
Apple Watch's Workout app.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Scores for readiness and sleep
After living off and on with the Oura Ring and several Fitbit trackers for the last few years, I've gotten really used to having both sleep tracking and a holistic type of daily "readiness score" as part of my daily watch feedback. A readiness score indicates whether your body is rested enough for a heavy workout or if you should skip the gym. The score takes a variety of factors into account, such as sleep, recent activity and heart rate variability among other metrics.
Similarly, a sleep score indicates the quality of your slumber through statistics like time spent asleep and whether you were tossing and turning, along with other elements. Both Oura and Fitbit offer their own versions of sleep and readiness scores.
To be sure, readiness scores and sleep scores aren't necessarily perfect predictors of anything, but neither are daily activity rings. I find the calculation of activity, sleep, heart rate and other factors boiled into an overall score interesting as a correlative snapshot of how I might be feeling.
Both Fitbit and Oura also fold temperature into the mix: Changes in body temperature, resting heart rate and breathing rate could possibly flag a change in how well I'm feeling. Again, it's not perfect, but Apple seems well overdue to add these features to the Apple Watch. – Scott Stein, Editor atLarge
The Apple Watch could improve how it tracks rest.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
More focus on recovery
I'd love to see the Apple Watch lean more into recovery and rest. If the past couple of years have taught me anything, it's the importance of listening to my body. The activity rings are a great way to motivate me to move, but some days it's just not practical to close them -- especially if you feel unwell. Let's have a flag or toggle on the watch to signal when you need a rest day. And perhaps adjust the Move circle to instead reward that recovery or mindful rest.
With all the health data the Apple Watch already gathers, like heart rate variability, sleep and overall activity, it makes sense to consolidate this all into an easy-to-understand metric. Maybe it's a score like Scott mentioned. Or it could be another ring that is automatically filled with how "ready" you are and changes daily based on your body's responses.
With the mindfulness app in WatchOS 8 and meditation activities within Fitness Plus, Apple already has the tools to support rest and recovery. Let's see it come full circle. – Lexy Savvides, Principal VideoProducer
The Apple Watch could perhaps do more with AirPods.
Sarah Tew/CNET
AirPods health tracking with Apple Watch
There's huge potential for AirPods to pair even more closely with the Apple Watch -- beyond just music. Perhaps it's measuring heart rate or blood pressure from the ear to complement the existing heart-health features on the Apple Watch. Maybe it's even more robust with your ear acting as an additional lead for the electrocardiogram app. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities known for his Apple product predictions, sees promise here, too. He pointed to the addition of health management functions as a potential way for Apple to grow AirPods shipments in the future, according to an investors note MacRumors viewed. – LexySavvides
The Apple Watch could also try out weekly goals as seen on Amazon's Halo app.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Weekly fitness goals
The Apple Watch's Activity Rings are an excellent reminder to get up and move every day. Unfortunately, I haven't found an equivalent that's as motivating for quantifying progress on a weekly basis.
Amazon's Halo app and fitness tracker made me realize the value of setting activity goals by the week instead of by the day. Instead of a daily goal, Amazon sets a weekly objective of 150 points that you earn by being active. (Points are subtracted if you're sedentary for too long, too.) Measuring weekly activity gives me a better snapshot of how active I generally am throughout the whole week. I could have an extremely busy day and exceed my Apple Watch's move goal, but that might be a fluke. A weekly target may make it easier to establish consistency.
Plus, measuring weekly activity makes every bit of movement feel like it counts. A brisk walk to the subway won't be enough to close my Apple Watch's daily Activity Rings, so it almost feels pointless. But it's comforting to know it's contributing toward my weekly Halo activity goal. I'm not saying Apple should replace daily goals with weekly ones, but it would be nice to at least have the option.
There are other ways to track weekly and monthly progress on the Apple Watch, but none of them have felt as rewarding as closing an Activity Ring. For example, you can view your weekly and monthly activity in Apple's Fitness app. There's also a section in the app that shows how your last 90 days of activity are trending compared to the previous 365 days. Apple also rewards you with special app badges for meeting certain milestones, like working out all seven days in the same week or reaching your move goal 500 times. – Lisa Eadicicco
The Amazon Halo View.
Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Apple never discusses product plans before publicly announcing them, so there's no telling whether any of these wish list features will become a reality. We're expecting to learn about the Apple Watch's next major software update at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company typically announces new Apple Watch models in the fall. If Apple's history is any indication, we can expect health and wellness to be a large part of both announcements.
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Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
I'd love to say that when I first put on the Apple Watch, I'd never seen anything like it before. But of course, that's not true. By late 2014 I'd been surrounded by smartwatches for a few years. So when Apple announced it was making its own watch, my thought (as so often with Apple) was: finally.
The first smartwatch I reviewed at CNET was the Martian Passport, an analog watch that could make phone calls. It sounds so primitive now, but it was cool in early 2013. The Pebble Watch followed, and the Steel version became my favorite: It was like a Casio watch turned into a useful little pager-assistant. It was simple and had long battery life, and it was great.
There were others, too: Samsung's first smartwatches were ambitious (a camera?). Google's first Android Wear watches arrived in 2014. Meanwhile, there were Fitbits and Jawbone trackers galore.
I say this to lay the groundwork for the Apple Watch and what its impact was. Like the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch... but it made the biggest footprint. It was another step validating that a world of wearables was here to stay.
I was able to wear the Apple Watch a month before it went on sale. I spent a ton of time with it, getting used to both how it handled phone calls, and the activity tracking rings. I looked at my heart rate measurements. I accidentally ordered an Xbox One with an early Amazon app.
The Watch was, much like the first iPhone, sometimes feature-limited. But it also had some features that already stood out.
My original review was updated a year later, which you can read here. Some parts have changed, clearly, and Apple has updated the OS. But I'll comment on what I wrote then, and how I felt, and how that's evolved. Quotes from the original review are in italics.
The gold Apple Watch, way back when.
James Martin/CNET
An excellent design, with luxury overtones
Apple wants you to think of the Apple Watch as fine jewelry. Maybe that's a stretch, but in terms of craftsmanship, there isn't a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech. Look at the Apple Watch from a distance, and it might appear unremarkable in its rectangular simplicity compared with bolder, circular Android Wear watches. It's clearly a revamped sort of iPod Nano. But get closer, and you can see the seamless, excellent construction.
The first Apple Watch came in aluminum, steel and ramped all the way up to a gold model costing more than $10,000. Compared to other smartwatches, it screamed luxury.
Certain touches felt luxurious, too: the fine-feeling Digital Crown, which spun ever so smoothly like a real watch part, for instance. The OLED display, which was a first for an Apple product, looked crisp and bright.
The most amazing part, maybe, were the watch bands. Apple created a really nice series of specially designed straps, from a steel link to a clever magnetic Milanese mesh that were extremely expensive and impressively engineered.
Its watch face designs were great, too, and they integrated some information from the iPhone that aimed to add at-a-glance ease of use. There was a Mickey Mouse watch face that danced! The Solar face showing sunrise and sunset, and the astronomy face that showed planetary alignments and moon phases, felt like magic. I wanted more, but Apple's assortment of watch faces was limited, and it didn't allow for third-party watch face design. That's still the case now.
A lot of the Apple Watch reminded me of the strides Apple began with the iPod Nano, which also had watch mode... and a Mickey Mouse watch face.
Sarah Tew
New technologies at first: fantastic haptics, a force-sensitive display
All Apple Watches have a new S1 processor made by Apple, that "taptic" haptic engine and a force-sensitive and very bright OLED display, which is differently sized on the 38mm and 42mm models. The watch has its own accelerometer, gyrometer and heart-rate monitor, but no onboard GPS. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone or your home network. There's a built-in speaker and microphone, but no headphone jack.
As I wore the watch on the first day, I felt a rippling buzz and a metallic ping: one of my credit card payments showed up as a message. Apple's "Taptic Engine" and a built-in speaker convey both a range of advanced taps and vibrations, plus sounds. Unlike the buzz in a phone or most wearables, these haptics feel sharper: a single tap, or a ripple of them, or thumps.
Sometimes the feelings are too subtle: I don't know if I felt them or imagined them. My wrists might be numbed from too many smart devices. I set my alerts to "prominent" and got sharper nudges on my wrist.
The first watch introduced some ideas that eventually made their way to other iPhones. A "taptic engine" delivered on some amazingly refined vibration effects, ranging from a purr to a ping to a gentle tap. These were way ahead of what anybody else was doing -- and they weren't just a gimmick. The notification types associated with unique vibrations felt distinct. Sometimes, the vibrating taps on the first Watch weren't as powerful as I wanted. But with later updates, the haptics made parts of the interface seem real: virtual wheels, clicking as if moving with invisible gears.
The more advanced haptics made their way to the iPhone next, making us used to them now. Other phones, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch, and VR accessories, have evolved haptics since, but the Apple Watch was the first mainstream device that upped the haptics game.
Force Touch was another wild idea: Apple made its watch display force-sensitive, meaning a deeper press could work like pushing a button. Though this idea was refined further into 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch was a technology that never became as necessary as expected, and current iPhone models have dropped the pressure-sensitive display tech completely.
The Apple Watch still has Force Touch, though, and I think it always will.
Digital Touch: I never used it much after that.
Sarah Tew
Lots of features. Too many features?
As you can see, this is a lot of stuff. Did I have fun using the watch? Yes, mostly, but there are so many features that I felt a little lost at times. There are so many ways to interact: swiping, touching, pressing harder into the display, a button and a clickable digital crown-wheel. Plus, there's Siri. Do I swipe, or click, or force touch or speak? Sometimes I didn't know where an app menu was. Or, I'd find getting back to an app I just had open would require an annoying series of crown clicks, swiping through apps, then opening the app again.
There's a reason I used the word "complicated" to describe my feelings using that first Apple Watch. Setting up bits of information, called complications, was slow and not always intuitive. Apps took a while to load, and were sometimes so slow that it was easier to check my phone instead. Quick glances and notifications, and phone calls, were fine. Apple Pay on the watch was clever, but would I use it? I wished the watch had more battery life.
I didn't like the overcomplicated feel. The design of the OS, and the card-like swappable mini-view apps that used to be on the Watch like a dock, changed over time. It's gotten better since.
Storing music on the watch, while it took a while to sync, was easier than attempts on Samsung Gear or Android Wear. Of course, I had to hunt for a good pair of Bluetooth headphones to connect with the watch.
Today I still forget to dive into and make the most of the apps on the watch. I just dusted off Walkie Talkie: it's cool. There's noise monitoring. One app lets me remote control my iPhone camera, which has been a huge help for my stay-at-home self-shot videos. The Remote app helps me when I lose the Apple TV remote every other day.
Third-party apps, and the grid of options? It turns out I don't use them much at all. I don't dig down deep into the layers of functions. I prefer what's on the surface: watch faces, and their readouts. But I've come to appreciate the watch's surprising number of options and settings. It's better than not having them at all.
The rings were the beginning.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Fitness: The ring idea was just the beginning
The Apple Watch doesn't work any fitness miracles that the rest of the wearable world hasn't already invented, and it doesn't ship with any new magical sensors that change the game. But the Apple-made integrated fitness apps, Activity and Workout, are far and away the best fitness apps on any existing smartwatch that isn't a dedicated "fitness watch" (Samsung Gear, Android Wear, Pebble and the like). A clever three-ring method of tracking daily activity, which simultaneously measures and rewards daily calorie burn, active exercise and standing up, feels like a fusion of rewards and metrics seen on the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, Fitbit and others.
I appreciated Apple's complete-the-ring motivational activity tracker, which felt inspired by wearables like the Nike FuelBand (not surprising, since Apple's head of fitness, Jay Blahnik, arrived from Nike). For the red ring's daily goals, it's great. It felt too easy to complete the blue Stand ring, and it still does.
There are tons of fitness advancements Apple has made on the Watch in the last five years: GPS, resting heart rate, workout controls, social sharing, third-party app integration, swimming, modes for accessibility, activity trends -- and I haven't even discussed Apple's massive health aspirations like adding ECG, checking for falls, monitoring elevated or irregular heart rate or women's health tracking. There is some form of coaching and motivation, too. But I'd still love to see more of that. I hit a wall when trying to be fit, and there's only so much watches seem to help.
The first Apple Watch was more of a Fitbit. Now, it's more of a health companion. Those two worlds still feel like they need to dovetail and grow. There are missing features, too, like sleep tracking, which feels like the inevitable next step.
You still need an iPhone, just like in 2015.
Sarah Tew
It was, and still is, an iPhone accessory
Much like most other smartwatches, the Apple Watch isn't a standalone device -- it's a phone accessory. Android Wear, Samsung Gear, Pebble and others work the same way. But here, you must own an iPhone 5 or later to use the Watch. A few Apple Watch functions work away from the phone, but the watch primarily works alongside the phone as an extension, a second screen and basically another part of your iOS experience. It's a symbiote.
One thing I noted back then was that you needed an iPhone to use the Apple Watch. Unlike other wearables that can pair with Android or iOS, or even sync with a computer, the Apple Watch was always designed to live symbiotically with the iPhone.
That's still the case now. Even with independent cellular options, and an on-watch App Store, you can't use the Watch without pairing to an iPhone. And it still won't work with Android. It's a shame, because a fully standalone watch could be a really helpful tool for many people who don't have iPhones, and it could even be a phone alternative (for kids, maybe).
Apple's AirPods created a gadget trinity where the Watch, the iPhone and AirPods can all work seamlessly together. But that trinity is an expensive one. The entry price of the Apple Watch has dropped, at least. But it feels like an extension of the iPhone more than its own device, even now.
The Apple Watch Series 5: much better, with a few similarities.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Today: the best watch in a war of attrition
You don't need an Apple Watch. In many ways, it's a toy: an amazing little do-it-all, a clever invention, a possibly time-saving companion, a wrist-worn assistant. It's also mostly a phone accessory for now. In the months and years to come, that may change: with Apple's assortment of iPads, Macs, Apple TV and who knows what else to come, the watch could end up being a remote and accessory to many things. Maybe it'll be the key to unlock a world of smart appliances, cars and connected places. In that type of world, a smartwatch could end up feeling utterly essential.
I think back to what the Apple Watch was competing against back then: Jawbone, Pebble, Fitbit, Google's Android Wear, Samsung's watches, the Microsoft Band. A lot of competitors are gone now. Fitbit was acquired by Google. Samsung still has watches. Garmin makes lots of dedicated fitness watches. There are still plenty of more affordable relative newcomers, too.
The original Apple Watch, with the Pebble Steel, Moto 360 and the original iPod Nano with wristband (clockwise from top left).
Sarah Tew
In a field of fewer alternatives, the Apple Watch's consistent addition of new features and ongoing performance improvements has made it the best option. It's Apple's commitment to gradual improvements that has made it a stand-out watch now, especially compared to the struggles of Google's Wear OS.
The Apple Watch is still an iPhone accessory. And it's still not an essential product. But it's become a really fluid and useful device, one with lots of key upgrades that work, and one that's a lot easier to use.
What's the best smartwatch now? The Apple Watch. That doesn't mean I don't want to see improvements: battery life, sleep tracking, a watch face store and most importantly, Android support and true standalone function. If the last five years are any indication, Apple will tackle these problems on its own... time.
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
I'd love to say that when I first put on the Apple Watch, I'd never seen anything like it before. But of course, that's not true. By late 2014 I'd been surrounded by smartwatches for a few years. So when Apple announced it was making its own watch, my thought (as so often with Apple) was: finally.
The first smartwatch I reviewed at CNET was the Martian Passport, an analog watch that could make phone calls. It sounds so primitive now, but it was cool in early 2013. The Pebble Watch followed, and the Steel version became my favorite: It was like a Casio watch turned into a useful little pager-assistant. It was simple and had long battery life, and it was great.
There were others, too: Samsung's first smartwatches were ambitious (a camera?). Google's first Android Wear watches arrived in 2014. Meanwhile, there were Fitbits and Jawbone trackers galore.
I say this to lay the groundwork for the Apple Watch and what its impact was. Like the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch... but it made the biggest footprint. It was another step validating that a world of wearables was here to stay.
I was able to wear the Apple Watch a month before it went on sale. I spent a ton of time with it, getting used to both how it handled phone calls, and the activity tracking rings. I looked at my heart rate measurements. I accidentally ordered an Xbox One with an early Amazon app.
The Watch was, much like the first iPhone, sometimes feature-limited. But it also had some features that already stood out.
My original review was updated a year later, which you can read here. Some parts have changed, clearly, and Apple has updated the OS. But I'll comment on what I wrote then, and how I felt, and how that's evolved. Quotes from the original review are in italics.
The gold Apple Watch, way back when.
James Martin/CNET
An excellent design, with luxury overtones
Apple wants you to think of the Apple Watch as fine jewelry. Maybe that's a stretch, but in terms of craftsmanship, there isn't a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech. Look at the Apple Watch from a distance, and it might appear unremarkable in its rectangular simplicity compared with bolder, circular Android Wear watches. It's clearly a revamped sort of iPod Nano. But get closer, and you can see the seamless, excellent construction.
The first Apple Watch came in aluminum, steel and ramped all the way up to a gold model costing more than $10,000. Compared to other smartwatches, it screamed luxury.
Certain touches felt luxurious, too: the fine-feeling Digital Crown, which spun ever so smoothly like a real watch part, for instance. The OLED display, which was a first for an Apple product, looked crisp and bright.
The most amazing part, maybe, were the watch bands. Apple created a really nice series of specially designed straps, from a steel link to a clever magnetic Milanese mesh that were extremely expensive and impressively engineered.
Its watch face designs were great, too, and they integrated some information from the iPhone that aimed to add at-a-glance ease of use. There was a Mickey Mouse watch face that danced! The Solar face showing sunrise and sunset, and the astronomy face that showed planetary alignments and moon phases, felt like magic. I wanted more, but Apple's assortment of watch faces was limited, and it didn't allow for third-party watch face design. That's still the case now.
A lot of the Apple Watch reminded me of the strides Apple began with the iPod Nano, which also had watch mode... and a Mickey Mouse watch face.
Sarah Tew
New technologies at first: fantastic haptics, a force-sensitive display
All Apple Watches have a new S1 processor made by Apple, that "taptic" haptic engine and a force-sensitive and very bright OLED display, which is differently sized on the 38mm and 42mm models. The watch has its own accelerometer, gyrometer and heart-rate monitor, but no onboard GPS. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone or your home network. There's a built-in speaker and microphone, but no headphone jack.
As I wore the watch on the first day, I felt a rippling buzz and a metallic ping: one of my credit card payments showed up as a message. Apple's "Taptic Engine" and a built-in speaker convey both a range of advanced taps and vibrations, plus sounds. Unlike the buzz in a phone or most wearables, these haptics feel sharper: a single tap, or a ripple of them, or thumps.
Sometimes the feelings are too subtle: I don't know if I felt them or imagined them. My wrists might be numbed from too many smart devices. I set my alerts to "prominent" and got sharper nudges on my wrist.
The first watch introduced some ideas that eventually made their way to other iPhones. A "taptic engine" delivered on some amazingly refined vibration effects, ranging from a purr to a ping to a gentle tap. These were way ahead of what anybody else was doing -- and they weren't just a gimmick. The notification types associated with unique vibrations felt distinct. Sometimes, the vibrating taps on the first Watch weren't as powerful as I wanted. But with later updates, the haptics made parts of the interface seem real: virtual wheels, clicking as if moving with invisible gears.
The more advanced haptics made their way to the iPhone next, making us used to them now. Other phones, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch, and VR accessories, have evolved haptics since, but the Apple Watch was the first mainstream device that upped the haptics game.
Force Touch was another wild idea: Apple made its watch display force-sensitive, meaning a deeper press could work like pushing a button. Though this idea was refined further into 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch was a technology that never became as necessary as expected, and current iPhone models have dropped the pressure-sensitive display tech completely.
The Apple Watch still has Force Touch, though, and I think it always will.
Digital Touch: I never used it much after that.
Sarah Tew
Lots of features. Too many features?
As you can see, this is a lot of stuff. Did I have fun using the watch? Yes, mostly, but there are so many features that I felt a little lost at times. There are so many ways to interact: swiping, touching, pressing harder into the display, a button and a clickable digital crown-wheel. Plus, there's Siri. Do I swipe, or click, or force touch or speak? Sometimes I didn't know where an app menu was. Or, I'd find getting back to an app I just had open would require an annoying series of crown clicks, swiping through apps, then opening the app again.
There's a reason I used the word "complicated" to describe my feelings using that first Apple Watch. Setting up bits of information, called complications, was slow and not always intuitive. Apps took a while to load, and were sometimes so slow that it was easier to check my phone instead. Quick glances and notifications, and phone calls, were fine. Apple Pay on the watch was clever, but would I use it? I wished the watch had more battery life.
I didn't like the overcomplicated feel. The design of the OS, and the card-like swappable mini-view apps that used to be on the Watch like a dock, changed over time. It's gotten better since.
Storing music on the watch, while it took a while to sync, was easier than attempts on Samsung Gear or Android Wear. Of course, I had to hunt for a good pair of Bluetooth headphones to connect with the watch.
Today I still forget to dive into and make the most of the apps on the watch. I just dusted off Walkie Talkie: it's cool. There's noise monitoring. One app lets me remote control my iPhone camera, which has been a huge help for my stay-at-home self-shot videos. The Remote app helps me when I lose the Apple TV remote every other day.
Third-party apps, and the grid of options? It turns out I don't use them much at all. I don't dig down deep into the layers of functions. I prefer what's on the surface: watch faces, and their readouts. But I've come to appreciate the watch's surprising number of options and settings. It's better than not having them at all.
The rings were the beginning.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Fitness: The ring idea was just the beginning
The Apple Watch doesn't work any fitness miracles that the rest of the wearable world hasn't already invented, and it doesn't ship with any new magical sensors that change the game. But the Apple-made integrated fitness apps, Activity and Workout, are far and away the best fitness apps on any existing smartwatch that isn't a dedicated "fitness watch" (Samsung Gear, Android Wear, Pebble and the like). A clever three-ring method of tracking daily activity, which simultaneously measures and rewards daily calorie burn, active exercise and standing up, feels like a fusion of rewards and metrics seen on the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, Fitbit and others.
I appreciated Apple's complete-the-ring motivational activity tracker, which felt inspired by wearables like the Nike FuelBand (not surprising, since Apple's head of fitness, Jay Blahnik, arrived from Nike). For the red ring's daily goals, it's great. It felt too easy to complete the blue Stand ring, and it still does.
There are tons of fitness advancements Apple has made on the Watch in the last five years: GPS, resting heart rate, workout controls, social sharing, third-party app integration, swimming, modes for accessibility, activity trends -- and I haven't even discussed Apple's massive health aspirations like adding ECG, checking for falls, monitoring elevated or irregular heart rate or women's health tracking. There is some form of coaching and motivation, too. But I'd still love to see more of that. I hit a wall when trying to be fit, and there's only so much watches seem to help.
The first Apple Watch was more of a Fitbit. Now, it's more of a health companion. Those two worlds still feel like they need to dovetail and grow. There are missing features, too, like sleep tracking, which feels like the inevitable next step.
You still need an iPhone, just like in 2015.
Sarah Tew
It was, and still is, an iPhone accessory
Much like most other smartwatches, the Apple Watch isn't a standalone device -- it's a phone accessory. Android Wear, Samsung Gear, Pebble and others work the same way. But here, you must own an iPhone 5 or later to use the Watch. A few Apple Watch functions work away from the phone, but the watch primarily works alongside the phone as an extension, a second screen and basically another part of your iOS experience. It's a symbiote.
One thing I noted back then was that you needed an iPhone to use the Apple Watch. Unlike other wearables that can pair with Android or iOS, or even sync with a computer, the Apple Watch was always designed to live symbiotically with the iPhone.
That's still the case now. Even with independent cellular options, and an on-watch App Store, you can't use the Watch without pairing to an iPhone. And it still won't work with Android. It's a shame, because a fully standalone watch could be a really helpful tool for many people who don't have iPhones, and it could even be a phone alternative (for kids, maybe).
Apple's AirPods created a gadget trinity where the Watch, the iPhone and AirPods can all work seamlessly together. But that trinity is an expensive one. The entry price of the Apple Watch has dropped, at least. But it feels like an extension of the iPhone more than its own device, even now.
The Apple Watch Series 5: much better, with a few similarities.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Today: the best watch in a war of attrition
You don't need an Apple Watch. In many ways, it's a toy: an amazing little do-it-all, a clever invention, a possibly time-saving companion, a wrist-worn assistant. It's also mostly a phone accessory for now. In the months and years to come, that may change: with Apple's assortment of iPads, Macs, Apple TV and who knows what else to come, the watch could end up being a remote and accessory to many things. Maybe it'll be the key to unlock a world of smart appliances, cars and connected places. In that type of world, a smartwatch could end up feeling utterly essential.
I think back to what the Apple Watch was competing against back then: Jawbone, Pebble, Fitbit, Google's Android Wear, Samsung's watches, the Microsoft Band. A lot of competitors are gone now. Fitbit was acquired by Google. Samsung still has watches. Garmin makes lots of dedicated fitness watches. There are still plenty of more affordable relative newcomers, too.
The original Apple Watch, with the Pebble Steel, Moto 360 and the original iPod Nano with wristband (clockwise from top left).
Sarah Tew
In a field of fewer alternatives, the Apple Watch's consistent addition of new features and ongoing performance improvements has made it the best option. It's Apple's commitment to gradual improvements that has made it a stand-out watch now, especially compared to the struggles of Google's Wear OS.
The Apple Watch is still an iPhone accessory. And it's still not an essential product. But it's become a really fluid and useful device, one with lots of key upgrades that work, and one that's a lot easier to use.
What's the best smartwatch now? The Apple Watch. That doesn't mean I don't want to see improvements: battery life, sleep tracking, a watch face store and most importantly, Android support and true standalone function. If the last five years are any indication, Apple will tackle these problems on its own... time.
