Six Reasons Not To Buy an Apple Watch Just Yet
The Apple Watch is Apple's first entry into an entirely new product category in about five years, and it’s come under much scrutiny during the process of its development and unveiling. Reviewers have finally got ahold of the device and have released a glut of early evaluations. The consensus: The Apple Watch is great — definitely better than most, if not all, of its predecessors — but with some caveats potential buyers should keep in mind. Most critics so far agree that the device seems superfluous, tricky to use, and a little silly at first — but then it quickly grows on you. Reviewers like The New York Times's Farhad Manjoo, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern and The Verge's Nilay Patel have extended cautious thumbs up for the product, but still warn that it’s a flawed device that may not be right for buyers just yet. Here are six reasons why the reviewers are hesitant — and perhaps you should be, too:
1. The Cost
The Apple Watch costs a pretty penny: The cheapest model clocks in at $349, with prices for fancier models going all the way up to an ultra-exclusive $17,000. At those prices, you want a device that does a lot more than look cool. “You only get a charging cable, which is lame,” Patel wrote. “For $700, you should get a nice charging stand, like you get with the $249 Moto 360. Apple makes a stand, but it only comes with the $10,000-and-up Apple Watch Edition models. Crazy.”
Watch It: As was the case with the original iPhone, the high price might be part of the appeal for some show-offs. As Joanna Stern says in her review: "After over a week of living with Apple’s latest gadget on my wrist, I realized the company isn’t just selling some wrist-worn computer, it’s selling good looks and coolness, with some bonus computer features."
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2. The Learning Curve
A surprisingly common complaint was the apparent lack of out-of-the-box workability, with many reviewers claiming that it took them several days of tweaking to get things going just right. Said Manjoo: "Indeed, to a degree unusual for a new Apple device, the Watch is not suited for tech novices." Bear in mind, too, that this is an experienced tech writer who has presumably seen way more than his fair share of badly implemented devices with limited documentation, so if he had to spend time tweaking things, you can bet that your average out-of-the-box, "it just works" Apple user is going to be utterly baffled. Give it a year or so, and they'll have ironed out all the kinks and streamlined things a bit.
Watch It: Tech writers may be more critical than the average buyer, and less wowed by Apple’s cool factor. Early adopters in particular may be willing to scale the learning curve while Apple makes improvements for next generations of the Watch.
3. Battery Life Should Be Better
The Watch is on your wrist — it's always there and is intended to consistently be in use — but reviewers have found that the Apple Watch’s charge ran low after a day of heavy use. Stern’s barely managed to last the course of a full day, and that was while leaning on its "power saving mode," which cut features and dimmed the backlight. “Do you want another tiny computer in your life that you have to worry about and charge every day?” Patel asked.
Watch It: Hey, how often do you charge your smatphone? Is it such a big deal to plug in the device at night while we all wait for battery life to improve across all our devices?
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4. It's Painfully Slow
Here’s how Patel at The Verge summed it up: "There’s no getting around it, no way to talk about all of its interface ideas and obvious potential and hints of genius without noting that sometimes it stutters loading notifications. Sometimes pulling location information and data from your iPhone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi takes a long time. Sometimes apps take forever to load, and sometimes third-party apps never really load at all. Sometimes it’s just unresponsive for a few seconds while it thinks and then it comes back."
Watch It: Apple has already claimed that it will be releasing a series of updates to address these issues. Of course, future generations of the Watch will undoubtedly come with hardware improvements as Moore's Law threatens to overtake us all.
5. It's Not Yet Ubiquitous Enough to Be Needed
The marketing of the Apple Watch frames it as a time-saving panacea: Swipe it at an Apple Pay-enabled checkout counter and complete your purchase without having to whip out your wallet; tap it against a hotel room door to gain entry without fussing with a keycard; or hail an Uber with a quick wrist-call to Siri. The thing is, none of those things have been put in place yet, at least not on a universal scale, so for now the Watch mainly serves to tell the time, browse Twitter, check e-mails and remind you of appointments. There are plenty of other devices that can handle that in the interim.
Watch It: Much like the slow takeover of the smartphone, though, we'll probably see an increased adoption of the technology as developers scope out the market and adoption grows. Have you checked out the App Store lately?
Related: What the Apple Watch Will Do for Apple
6. The Backlash
It's the curse that befalls all early adopters in the wearables industry: No matter how cool or slick a product may be, it’s kinda hard to wear out in public without attracting stares. Early adopters of Google Glass faced similar issues, becoming the unfortunate targets of the derogatory pseudonym "Glassholes." When the day-one fanboys start sitting on public transit, talking into their wrists like a low-budget Dick Tracy, it's hard to imagine they won't come under some kind of ridicule. If you think you can handle a bit of mockery and attention, more power to you.
Watch It: First off, Apple has made a concerted effort to make the Watch as aesthetically pleasing as possible at all points along the price spectrum. Second, those stares and questions are part of the appeal for some buyers. And even if you aren’t looking for added attention, it might not be long before the Apple Watch just becomes part of our everyday scenery. How many people are still asking to look at your iPhone 6 Plus?
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