If you haven’t yet ordered a new Apple Watch 3, what exactly are you waiting for? Maybe you’re just not yet convinced as to what it can do? Or maybe you’re hesitant to spend that kind of money on technology? A lot of people have criticized the Apple Watch, stating that they don’t really know what it does or what benefit it has. But I am here to tell you.
S3 Chip – Super Fast
The original Apple Watch lacked speed. It was incredibly slow in terms of starting up, or trying to launch apps, and Siri was less than responsive. watchOS updates combined with Apple’s S2 chip alleviated some of this for us in Series 2. Which gave us more than a 50% increase over the series 1, but it was still kind of slow. watchOS 4 will further improve speeds for Series 2 users, but not int he same way that Serie’s S3 chip will. Apple’s new smartwatches are incredibly fast. Apple is sayng that they are 1.7 times faster than the Series 2. Siri on LTE is an instantaneous joy. The scrolling now feels as smooth as it does on the iPhone.
Health Improvements
While older version of the Apple Watch have a number of features to help track your health and movement, they’ve missed out on incorporating an altimeter; the senor tracks your elevation gains as well as flights of stairs climbed. In the previous versions, you had to have your iPhone with you for the watch to be able to track your data. But, with the Series 3, this is no longer necessary. Both the GPS only and GPS + cellular watch models incorporate an altimeter for native elevation tracking.
More Storage
The Series 3 GPS + Cellular has more storage than before. Up until now all models have come with 8 GB of storage, but the GPS + Cellular Series 3 comes with 16 GB of storage. There is no real reason for this increase, but it might have to do with streaming music, or stand alone apps needing more space. Whatever the reason, this is still a bonus for those of you who plan on making this purchase.
No International Roaming
The GPS + Cellular model of Apple’s Series 3 watch is fully-featured in most of the ways that matter: There are no limitations on what you can do on the watch over LTE; it all comes down to the apps you’re using and your overall battery life. But outside of the on-the-watch experience, it’s quite restrictive. This is largely due to space restrictions: Unlike the iPhone, there’s not enough room in the Apple Watch casing to add all the bands necessary to make the watch compatible around the world; instead, Apple is offering six different Apple Watch makes at launch (3 for each size) that cover 1-6 countries each.
As such, Apple is currently prohibiting Series 3 watches from being able to roam internationally on their own. You’ll still be able to use your iPhone’s roaming capabilities to use your watch, but you can’t leave your iPhone behind in your hotel room and place a call on your watch while in a foreign country.
SIM Card Restrictions
Only 10 countries are offering the Apple Watch Series 3 GPS + Cellular at launch, with 17 carriers (6 more carriers will add service later in 2017). If you don’t have an Apple Watch being sold in your country, you’re currently out of luck for purchasing one — and while we’ve noted above that you can theoretically buy an Apple Watch that has the same bands as your carrier, we don’t recommend it
But what about switching carriers on a compatible network? Can you pop in a SIM card? The answer is yes, you can switch carriers at will — but not through a physical SIM card. Instead, this works similarly to Apple’s embedded Apple SIM on the iPad. You can add or cancel service from any available carrier in your region at any time, but it’s all done through the Watch app — no plastic card necessary.
Does Not Work with Android
The GPS + Cellular model may have an LTE antenna, but that doesn’t mean you can use it as a stand-alone device: You still need an iPhone to set up your Apple Watch, and it requires being connected to that iPhone’s cellular plan to function. Sorry, Android (and BlackBerry) fans: If you want to use an Apple Watch, you need an iPhone.