Apple Watch: Waste or Great?

Kirsten Thomas

APPLE WATCH IN ACTION. Students can be seen throughout the school day wearing Apple Watches. This allows students to listen to music, receive notifications, and track their fitness all from their wrist. If you have an iPhone and are interested in the Apple Watch, ask a friend who has one their opinion on the watch before purchasing.

You have seen them around school, your jobs, and maybe even at home. Are you interested in the Apple Watch? If you are looking to invest in one, you are in the right place.

Apple offers a few different types of watches: the Apple Watch Series three, Apple Watch Nike plus, Apple Watch Hermes, Apple Watch Edition, and Apple Watch Series one.

For more information on the specific watches themselves (which include cellular/non cellular and the material of the watch) click here.

If you already have an iPhone, the Apple Watch can be useful depending on your needs and easily connects with your iPhone.

If not, you may want to consider looking into a Fitbit and compare its functions to the Apple Watch.

“The Fitbit is also geared towards people who want a smartwatch primarily for health and fitness functions,” said Nicole Pomarico at hellogiggles.com.

But if you have an iPhone and link it to the Apple Watch, you get all notifications from your phone on your watch (this may not always be true if you do not have cellular or your phone is out of range). But once you get the logistics worked out, the function is great.

If you are into tracking your health, the Apple Watch is a great fit for you. Tracking things such as your blood pressure, calories burned, time standing and exercise throughout the day, you can monitor many aspects of your health.

Other features not made by Apple can also be compatible with the Apple Watch, including some that are not approve by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration).

“The AliveCor KardiaBand, a sensor compatible with the Apple Watch, can detect dangerous levels of potassium in blood with 94 percent accuracy.

“Though the US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved KardiaBand for this purpose, it is an interesting step forward considering that, right now, the condition is usually caught using invasive blood tests that use needles,” said Angela Chen at theverge.com.

Plus, aspects of your watch can be controlled and viewed in more detail from your phone.

One downside is that you cannot listen to music unless you you want to play it out loud or have airpods – there is no headphone jack on the watch. If you like to exercise and listen to music but do not own airpods, you may still have to take your iPhone on jogs with you.

Another con to the Apple Watch that is quite annoying is the band piece. When you purchase your Apple Watch, you have no choice in the band that comes with it.

Apple assigns one based off of popular color combinations and puts that in the box with your watch. You can buy another band for the steep price of $49 and up.

If you are going to spend hundreds of dollars on a watch, the least Apple could do is allow you to pick out the band of your choice.

If price is a factor for you, the Fitbit seems to be on the less expensive side.

“The Fitbit Versa is available for preorder now and launches in April for $199.95, making it much less expensive than both the $329 Apple Watch Series 3 and $299.95 Fitbit Ionic.

“The company is also releasing a $229.95 Versa Special Edition that includes support for Fitbit Pay, its mobile payment service,” said Lisa Eadicicco with time.com.

All in all, the Apple Watch is a pretty neat device that gives a new perspective to Apple users. It is a way of staying connected without having to always have your phone out.

An easier way to track health and receive notifications from your wrist is here: the Apple Watch. If you are looking to track your health and/or receive notifications without having your phone out, the Apple Watch is for you.


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