Apple Watch Series 2 review: It’s time to jump in

I’ve been using my Apple Watch Series 2 for over a week. I thought I should share a few observations about my experience and try to explain why I think now is a good time for people who may have been curious about the product to take a look.

Introduced in a blaze of glory after years of speculation, Apple Watch quickly became King of the smartwatch scene. People liked its apps, full feature set and versatility, though people were turned off by application performance speed. Many of the criticisms were answered in watchOS 3 (the new Apple Watch software released this month), which is significantly faster than before on every edition of the Watch. And nearly all the criticisms (bar any aesthetic arguments) are answered in Series 2, apart from the need to make these things truly mobile with a network connection.

Love my Apple watch. Makes traveling a breeze...not having to dig around for a boarding pass, or phone with boarding pass.

Love being able to answer calls when I can’t get to phone, check emails, texts, etc.

I’ve often wondered why you plague Apple Threads when you claim no interest in Apple products. I searched & there are lots of Free Republic threads containing the words ‘Apple Watch’ in the title — lots of interest.

Then I searched for threads containing ‘Pebble Time’ in the title and came up with “Nothing matched your criteria”. In other words ZERO hits with ZERO interest in your favorite product. So I guess you come to Apple threads out of loneliness. Quality attracts.

Nope. Running Android N at the moment. Does that mean I don't get to have an opinion about how the Apple watch looks, or the smart watch concept generally? I read smart watch threads because they always seemed like a great idea back before they really existed. Now that they've been out for a while with different makes and models...just not seeing the utility as compared to the phones themselves. Playing around with a friend's Apple watch last year is what really convinced me the concept was was much more interesting than the reality. I keep looking for the game-changer, but so far no luck.

The Android smart watches have up until recently had the same issue of being tethered to a phone, rendering them more or less mere accessories. Now they say version 2.0 allows wireless Internet access and even full cellular capability without the phone, etc.; the smart watch is supposed to have fully entered the standalone device category. But so what? It's still by necessity a dinky little screen and the phones can basically do it all better anyway. No matter the make or model there's just no there there, IMO. I single out the Apple watch for being butt-ugly, but I wouldn't buy a more aesthetic smart watch at this point either.

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