TechSmartwatches6 things I wish I’d known before buying Apple Watch Series 7Apple’s Watch is one of the best smartwatches around, but it isn’t perfect – and that means the Series 8 won’t be eitherWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechSmartwatches6 things I wish I’d known before buying Apple Watch Series 7Apple’s Watch is one of the best smartwatches around, but it isn’t perfect – and that means the Series 8 won’t be eitherWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Apple’s Watch is one of the best smartwatches around, but it isn’t perfect – and that means the Series 8 won’t be either
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
I’ve had theApple Watchsince the very first version, so naturally I’m currently wearing theApple Watch Series 7. And while I love it dearly – I think it’s thebest smartwatchforAppleusers – it still has some flaws, some of which are quite important. It also has some great features that not everybody knows about.
I think both the good and the bad will be carried across to theApple Watch Series 8, which we’re expecting tolaunchtwo weeks from now. So here are six things I think you should know about theApple WatchSeries 7 and most likely the Series 8 too.
1. Charging it is a pain
While the Apple Watch charges wirelessly, it just looks at my various wireless charging pads with disdain: it’s Apple’s magnetic charging puck (or a licensed third party equivalent) or nothing. So that means packing an extra charger or buying a spare for travel.
It’s also a real pain if like me you want to charge your phone on a stand overnight: if you don’t position the watch perfectly, it’ll lock on magnetically but it won’t charge. In a typical week I’ll get this wrong at least one day out of seven, and that’s a pain because…
2. The battery life still isn’t brilliant
3. You can automate it
Time for some positivity. Using shortcuts you can make your Watch change based on the time of day, the Focus mode you’re in or your location – so for example you can have one Watch face with its set of complications for work, a different one for when you’re doing the big weekly shop and something much more Zen for when you’re at home. It’s incredibly easy to set up and works brilliantly.
4. Messages never, ever send
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5. It’s not as pretty as it used to be
Apple changed the colour options with the Series 7, dumping the gold aluminium option and replacing it with what Apple calls “Starlight” but I’d describe as “bland, silvery beige”. It’s a lot paler in the metal than it looks in the official photos and just isn’t as much fun. And that’s a shame because it’s the only colour that really works when you’re getting dressed up for a night out: the others are too dark and in the case of the red and blue ones, a bit garish. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of colour – I have the PRODUCT (RED) strap for casual wear – but for me at least, Apple dropped its classiest colour.
6. It really needs some new faces
The range of available Apple Watch faces is much better than in the first few editions, but it’s still pretty poor compared to the range of options onAndroidsmartwatches or watches from the likes ofGarmin. I appreciate that Apple doesn’t want to fill its gallery with poor quality third party faces – I’m a veteran of Winamp skins, WindowBlinds and other computer customisation apps, so I’m vividly aware of just how horrible some custom designs can be – but when Apple introduced the larger display of the Series 7 it only added two new faces to take advantage of the extra space.
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