Apple Watch Series 3 and Watch OS 4
History
L and I have been wearing the Apple Watch "Series 0" (The original version) since it was released. They have become a welcome part of our daily wardrobe. We use them for notifications, workouts, controlling the lights, using Apple Pay, and even telling the time. They are a second more intimate screen for our phones.
Every OS release for the watch has added new features and fixed issues and annoyances with the older versions. Every release has also left the original watch feeling a little slower and little less responsive.
Series 3
We chose the non-LTE Aluminum Series 3 this time around. The same sizes as before, but without the space-grey finish. I got the 42mm and L again got the 38mm. We can use all of the watch bands from the older watch.
Why no LTE? The extra upfront price for LTE combined with the $10 monthly fee per watch just weren't worth it to us. We don't find ourselves wishing we could use the watch to make calls or play music in situations where we do not have our phone with us more than a few times a year. I think we can disconnect for a few hours without missing this feature. I'm sure this will be a great feature in the future.
Water resistance is a great feature that we are happy to have. Not worrying about a rainstorm or a trip to the pool will be nice.
The speed and responsiveness of the Series 3 is night and day compared to the original watch. Everything is faster. This is all the justification needed to update.
The battery life of the Series 3 is amazing. I can easily got 2 days between charging now. With Watch OS 4 I was just making it through a day with the Series 0.
Watch OS 4
Watch OS 4 brings a number of refinements that remove confusion and simplify the watch. There are welcome improvements to the heart rate monitoring, workouts, and list view for the awful application grid. The new Siri watch face has promise, but it needs 3rd party app integration. The Toy Story watch faces are cute, but not something I'm likely to use.
The new Now-Playing screen now lets you change the volume with the crown. Finally! Much easier way to the adjust the volume. I use this every time I cut the grass and I have no idea why it was not this way from the start.
Wants and Desires
Watch OS 4 does a better job of showing the watch face when I turn my wrist. But, I still wish there was a subdued always on time. You can find this feature on competitors devices. Apple just needs to find a way to do this with the Apple Watch that maintains the great battery life.
Custom Watch Faces. I expected Apple to release a Watch Face API by now. There could be a whole section of the Watch App Store dedicated to this. I know there are issues with managing intellectual property theft here. But, it just makes so much sense to allow people to design and sell their own watch faces.
Conclusion
L and I both very happy with this upgrade. It was worth the wait and we have very few complaints. Time will tell if we will regret not getting the LTE version of the watch.