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Apple Watch Series 8 review: a minor update that won’t impress anyone

The Apple Watch Series 8 smartwatch led me to think about the Japanese business philosophy “Kaizen” – a concept that focuses on continuous improvement in various aspects. Watch Series 7 was a minor update to Watch Series 6, which was an incremental upgrade to Watch Series 5, which in turn was only a small improvement over Watch Series 4. Each time the company released minor improvements, widening the gap between each of its generations and, importantly, with any other smartwatch on the market. And this year, Apple has taken the same path again, so no, this is not an exciting smartwatch update. On the other hand, is it bad?

Characteristics

  • Display: 1.9″ Retina LTPO OLED, 484×396 pixels, 1000 nits, Always-on display, sapphire glass.
  • Processor: Apple S8, two cores, PowerVR graphics.
  • Memory: 32 GB.
  • RAM: 1 GB.
  • Battery: 308 mAh, wireless charging.
  • Dimensions: 45×38×10.7 mm, 42.3 grams.

Case design

Finding differences between Series 7 and Series 8 will be extremely problematic – the thing is that nothing has really changed. The Series 8 comes in the same two sizes of 41mm and 45mm, but this time there are fewer color options as the company dropped green and blue from the palette. And that, in fact, is all. Even the price has remained the same – for the Series 8, the company is asking $400 for the base version and $500 for the cellular model. At the same time, if outwardly the watch looks exactly the same as last year’s model, there are still some significant changes under the hood.

Iron and sensors

And immediately a spoiler – it’s not about a more productive processor. When it comes to performance and battery life, the Series 7 and Series 8 are pretty much the same. However, so is the Series 7 compared to the Series 6. But Apple has added a ton of new sensors to the Series 8 that could well change a lot of smartwatch usage scenarios. For example, you get two body temperature sensors at once, a new high-speed accelerometer and a new gyroscope. It is these innovations that provide two of the most important new features in the Series 8 – women’s health tracking and accident detection.

Actually, rumors about temperature sensors in the Apple Watch have been around for quite some time, although this feature has long become the norm among competitors – Fitbit added one such sensor to Sense back in 2020, Samsung recently implemented the same feature in the Galaxy Watch 5. But the position Apple is fundamentally different from Fitbit or Samsung in this matter – the company has placed one sensor directly under the display, so that it can also measure the ambient temperature, and the second is located on the back panel closer to the user’s skin. And the idea of ​​this approach is to eliminate the influence of ambient temperature for the sake of more accurate readings.

And these sensors work in a passive mode – unlike ECG, heart rate and blood oxygen saturation sensors, you can’t take body temperature readings on demand. You can only get temperature information from your wrist if you have Sleep Focus enabled and sleep tracking enabled. In addition, the user needs to sleep with the Apple Watch on the wrist five nights in a row to set the baseline temperature. And once this is done, you will be able to see deviations from the baseline. That is, you will never be able to look at the watch screen and understand that you have a fever, since the device showed 40 ° C.

True, you can’t blame Apple for this decision – this is exactly the same approach as in Oura Ring and Fitbit. The idea is that the user can track how certain factors such as hard training, illness, or drinking alcohol, for example, can increase the temperature compared to the baseline. And, of course, the Apple Watch Series 8 provides the ability to monitor women’s health in more detail, although it should be understood that Apple smartwatches are just a monitoring tool, but this is not a specialized medical device. And, of course, the Apple Cycle Tracking function can not be used at all, and the temperature tracking function itself can also be turned off.

Accident detection system

Apple has been touting its smartwatch for years as a life-saving device. And while the company has changed direction a bit this year, the Crash Detection feature still feels insanely handy. The bottom line is that the new generation of smartwatches have an improved gyroscope and accelerometer that can change changes in the gravitational force. They also work in conjunction with a barometer, GPS, and microphone to detect vehicle impact, sudden changes in speed, and sudden changes in direction. Using all of the above sensors, the watch can understand that a car, for example, crashed into something.

And if the accident is really serious, then the watch will automatically call emergency services on behalf of the user, but the person is given 10 seconds to cancel the call if the system, for example, has failed or the accident is not so serious. True, I didn’t crash my own car for the sake of reviewing smartwatches, but we tied the watch to a radio-controlled truck, which we then smashed in the office. As expected, nothing happened – the system did not work on the toy vehicle. However, we probably just wanted to play with him. But it is good that the system does not give false positives.

watch OS 9

A while ago, I talked about how much we have to love watchOS 9. For example, every version of the smartwatch operating system has new awesome watch faces – I usually don’t like them very much, but this time Apple made some really cool new ones. Some of the watch faces even make you think that the watch screen is larger than it really is. It’s also worth mentioning performance – redesigned applications like Calendar actually taught how to use a large display. For me, this is really important – you can visualize your weekly schedule and important events.

The Series 8 also received one feature that many consider almost the main advantage of the Ultra watch – we are talking about the redesigned Compass application. If you are an avid hiker, then this is a very cool thing – you can add geographic points of interest and return on your own steps if you get lost in the forest or in the mountains. Improvements have also been made to sleep tracking technology, which now also takes into account the pulse – you can see the stages of sleep in order to assess your condition in more detail. Of course, this is not a perfect implementation, but Apple has made an impressive leap forward compared to watchOS 7.

autonomy

When it comes to battery life, the Series 8 is still a gadget that needs to be charged every day. Although, of course, watchOS 9 added a new low-power mode of operation – it turns off the Always-on display and all sensor readings in the background, limits Wi-Fi connection and cellular communication. What’s more, in this mode, the watch leaves GPS and heart rate intact throughout your workout, so you can end up with up to 36 hours of battery life.

True, these are just statements from Apple – in fact, I could not get 36 full hours of battery life with this mode. If this mode is turned off and the device is used on a regular basis, then the Series 8 worked for me exactly 24 hours, so there was no revolution in this regard. The low power mode is just a way to squeeze more time out of the last percent of the battery to get home and charge the watch.

Workout

If we talk about the sports orientation of the device, then I liked that Apple is significantly expanding the list of available activities. The workout order is easy to set up, plus you now have the ability to track your heart rate in the native Workout app. What’s more, Apple has now added the ability to create your own interval workouts. Yes, Garmin fans are rolling their eyes right now because these are the basic things that should be, but Apple just got it now. But for fans of the company, this is a huge plus, allowing you to move to a new level of sports exercises. But I didn’t like how the multi-workout scrolling feature was implemented – the Series 8 uses touch-screen navigation, but if you’re doing it in the middle of a run and your fingers are sweaty, it’s extremely hard to use.

Review

Obviously, the Apple Watch Series 8 is a great smartwatch. But if you’re already happy with your current Apple Watch, there’s little reason to upgrade to a new model. Most of the features I love so much are actually related to watchOS 9, not the watch itself. And when the software update hits the Series 4 and up, you’ll get most of the cool stuff that makes the Series 8 a great device. What’s more, if you have a Series 5, 6, or 7, then your smartwatch has almost the same performance as the Series 8. Buying a new watch won’t make it faster or make the battery last much longer.

It probably makes sense for Series 3 and 4 owners to upgrade their smartwatches (if you have a Series 2, then all the more time is over). You will indeed get a decent performance boost and of course a new operating system. Also, if you are buying your first Apple Watch, then you should look at either the Series 8 or the more affordable SE version, but in reality the difference between them is negligible. The Series 8 sells for $300, the SE for $250. This purchase will immediately make you understand why this watch is so popular all over the world and why it is so comfortable.

Yes, with the Series 8, Apple has not made another revolution, but this is not necessary. One of the reasons the company rolls out minor upgrades year after year, successfully selling tens of millions of watches a year, is because Apple is already light years ahead of its competitors. The company simply has a formula for success, which is partly better integration with iOS, and until someone else comes up with a better watch for the iPhone owner, it simply does not make sense for the manufacturer to fix what is not broken.

✅ Benefits

  • watchOS 9 works great.
  • Advanced temperature sensor system.
  • Accident detection system.
  • Useful power saving mode.

❌ Disadvantages

  • The watch still needs to be charged daily.
  • The novelty is not much different from the latest Apple Watch models.

This is a translation of The Verge review.

Source: Trash Box

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