سخرت الفنانة السودانية نانسي عجاج من الحملات المضادة التي أطلقها “البلابسة والكيزان” ضدها، عقب إحيائها حفلًا غنائيًا في القاهرة نهاية يوليو الماضي، مؤكدة أنها لا تلتفت إلى التهديدات التي تطالها، ولا إلى الحملات التي تستهدفها، باعتبارها “عديمة القيمة”.

وقالت نانسي، في تصريح خاص لـ«التحول»، إن ما يزعج القائمين على هذه الحملات ليس الفن أو الموسيقى، وإنما صوت الفن الواعي والقضايا والأسئلة التي تطرحها أغنياتها، وأضافت: “نحن الصوت الواعي الموازي للقبح الذي يريدونه”.

وأكدت أن الحفل حقق نجاحًا كبيرًا وفاق توقعاتها، رغم محدودية الحضور الفعلي، مشيرة إلى أن تقييم أي حفل غنائي أو فعالية ثقافية وفنية لا ينبغي أن يستند إلى حجم الحضور وحده، باعتباره متغيرًا يرتبط بالتوقيت والظروف التي أقيم فيها الحفل.

وأضافت: “يجب النظر إلى المحتوى والجودة الفنية والقيمة الجمالية للأغنيات وقدرتها على الاختراق، وليس إلى الكلام المكتوب”.

وأشارت إلى أن المقاطع المصورة والفيديوهات المتداولة على منصات التواصل الاجتماعي تمثل دليلًا على نجاح الحفل وتحقيق أهدافه، وقالت إن التفاعل معها يؤكد أن ما قدمته وصل إلى الجمهور، بغض النظر عن حجم الحضور داخل القاعة.

“هم لا يخافون على الفن.. وإنما من الأسئلة التي تطرحها الأغنيات”

ورأت نانسي أن الحملة المضادة التي تعرضت لها مرتبطة بمواقفها السياسية، وأن الهجوم الشخصي عليها يمثل “مربط الفرس” في هذه الحملات، وقالت إن الذين نظموا الهجوم لم يكونوا قلقين على الموسيقى أو الفن، وإنما “متخوفين من القضايا والأسئلة التي تطرحها الأغنيات”.

وأضافت أن هذه الأغنيات “ستظل موجودة ومحفوظة”، لأنها تسهم في نشر الوعي، معتبرة أن هذا هو السبب الحقيقي وراء خوف خصومها منها واستمرار الهجوم عليها.

وتابعت: “سيجهدون في محاربة الأغنيات وإثبات فشل حفل محدود الحضور، وهذا في حد ذاته إقرار ضمني بنجاح الحفل”.

“سأكون آخر سودانية تعتب السودان”

وحول التهديدات التي تطالها بشأن عدم قدرتها على العودة إلى السودان، قالت نانسي إنها لا تهتم بمثل هذه التهديدات، ووصفتها بأنها “عديمة القيمة”، معتبرة أنها مجرد محاولة لتشتيت الانتباه وجرّها إلى “صراعات عبثية وعدمية”.

وقالت: “أنا موافقة، وهذا إقرار مني، للعلم: سأكون آخر سودانية تعتب السودان”، لكنها اشترطت أن “تعود جميع السودانيين الذين غادروا منازلهم بسبب الحرب، ويستطيعوا العيش بكرامة”.

وأكدت أن الهجوم عليها، أو وصف حفلاتها بالفشل، لن يحل القضايا التي ينبغي حلها، كما أنه لن يلغي الأغنيات التي تقدمها.

وأضافت: “أنا لا أحتاج إلى العودة إلى السودان حتى أقدم أغنياتي، وحتى لو لم يكن في يدي جواز السفر، فستظل الأغنيات موجودة، وستظل المشاكل في مكانها”.

“كلما ازدادوا قبحًا سنزداد إبداعًا وجمالًا”

وقالت نانسي إن الذين يهاجمونها “لا يرغبون في سماع صوت الفن الواعي”، ولذلك يلجأون إلى التهديد والتشويه، مؤكدة أن ذلك لن يدفعها إلى التراجع.

وأضافت: “كلما ازدادوا قبحًا، سنزداد إبداعًا وجمالًا وموسيقى ولطفًا ورحمة، لأننا نمثل الصوت الموازي للقبح الذي يريدونه”.

تستعرض الصحفية “إنغفيلد غورو لارسن فيترهوس” قصة الناشطة السودانية تهاني عباس علي، التي فرت من الحرب وهي تحمل طفليها بين ذراعيها، وتروي كيف حملت النساء الأمهات والأطفال وكبار السن على ظهورهن أيامًا طويلة حتى بلغن برّ الأمان. ومن منفاهن، تواصل تهاني نضالها ضد انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان، ومن أجل ضمان حضور المرأة السودانية على طاولة مفاوضات السلام.

تشير تهاني إلى الهاتفين المحمولين الموضوعين أمامها على الطاولة. تستخدم أحدهما للبقاء على تواصل مع النساء داخل السودان، بينما يربطها الآخر بالنساء في مخيمات اللاجئين بالدول المجاورة. وبين الهاتفين، تشارك في أكثر من 550 مجموعة على تطبيق «واتساب».

لا تتوقف الرسائل عن الوصول؛ فمن دارفور وولاية الجزيرة، ومن مخيمات اللاجئين في تشاد وإثيوبيا، ومن نساء في طريق النزوح وأخريات ما زلن يعشن وسط أتون الحرب. تقرأ تهاني كل ما يصلها.

وتقول: “هذه هي حياتي. ساعة بساعة، ودقيقة بدقيقة، أحاول أن أفهم ما يحدث داخل السودان. أتابع، وأشارك المعلومات، وأنقل أصوات النساء السودانيات في الاجتماعات، سواء عبر الإنترنت أو وجهًا لوجه. أحاول دائمًا مواكبة ما يجري داخل السودان.”

تعيش تهاني اليوم في المنفى بكينيا، وهي محامية ومدافعة عن حقوق الإنسان، ومؤسسة منظمة «نورا» لمكافحة العنف ضد النساء والفتيات.

نشأت في قرية صغيرة بوسط السودان، شرق ولاية الجزيرة، حيث لم يكن تعليم الفتيات أمرًا مضمونًا.

وتقول: “كنت أخوض معركة من أجل الذهاب إلى المدرسة، ثم معركة أخرى من أجل الالتحاق بالجامعة.”

وعندما وصلت إلى الخرطوم عام 2000، اختبرت الحياة في العاصمة للمرة الأولى.

وتضيف: “هناك وجدت نفسي. رأيت كيف تناضل النساء السودانيات من أجل حقوقهن، وكيف وقفن في مواجهة دكتاتورية البشير، ثم لاحقًا ضد الانقلاب العسكري. عندها بدأت أدرك قوة المرأة السودانية.”

وتؤكد: “حتى في زمن الحرب، تتحمل النساء مسؤوليات جسيمة؛ فهن مقدمات للرعاية، ووسيطات، وصانعات للسلام.”

 اندلاع الحرب

في صباح 15 أبريل 2023، كانت تهاني تستعد للتوجه إلى جامعة الخرطوم لإلقاء محاضرة حول حقوق الإنسان لطالبات كلية القانون. وفجأة، اتصلت بها شقيقتها من نيويورك لتخبرها بأنها شاهدت، عبر وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي وشاشات التلفزيون، اندلاع القتال في الخرطوم.

خرجت تهاني إلى شرفة منزلها، وتقول:

“لم أرَ سوى الظلام، ثم سمعت إطلاق النار. ومن الشرفة رأيت جنود قوات الدعم السريع يغلقون الشوارع في الأسفل.”

انتقلت الأسرة إلى شقة أحد الجيران في الطابق السفلي، حيث شعرت بقدر أكبر من الأمان.

وتروي:

“لم يكن لدينا ماء، وكانت المنطقة ساحة حرب. لم نملك شيئًا. كان الأطفال خائفين، ولم نكن نعرف ما الذي سيحدث.”

ومكثت الأسرة هناك عشرة أيام، بينما كانت المعارك تدور حولهم. وخلال تلك الفترة، دخل مسلحون إلى المبنى ووضعوا أسلحة على سطحه.

وتقول:

“قالوا لي: سنحضر لكم الطعام والماء. لكنني شعرت أنهم يريدون إبقاءنا هناك لاستخدامنا دروعًا بشرية. كان المبنى مرتفعًا، وكانوا يريدون استغلاله. أدركت أننا لا نستطيع البقاء.”

كان الأطفال يتضورون جوعًا، ولم يصل أي طعام، كما لم تكن هناك متاجر مفتوحة أو طريق آمن للخروج.

وبعد عشرة أيام، وتحت ضغط الأصدقاء وأفراد الأسرة، اتخذت قرارها بالمغادرة.

وتقول:

“قلت: ليس لدي سوى طفليّ. لا أملك هاتفًا، ولا جواز سفر، ولا أي شيء. سأغادر منزلي.”

وكانت قد عاشت فيه خمسة عشر عامًا.

حملت تهاني ابنتها بين ذراعيها، بينما حمل زوجها ابنهما، ثم خرجا وسط تبادل إطلاق النار، حيث كانت القوات المسلحة السودانية من جهة، وقوات الدعم السريع من الجهة الأخرى.

وتستعيد تلك اللحظات قائلة:

“احتضنّا أطفالنا بهذه الطريقة”، وتشير بيديها إلى كيفية حمايتهما، ثم تضيف:

“إذا حدث أي شيء، فلتخترق الرصاصات ظهورنا نحن لتحمي أطفالنا. لم يكن أمامنا أي خيار.”

وتتابع:

“لم أشعر بالجوع، ولم أشعر بالغضب، ولم أشعر بأي شيء. كنت كأنني آلة. كل ما فعلته هو المضي قدمًا مع أطفالي.”

متابعة  أوضاع النازحين

بعد أن قطعت مع أسرتها نحو 95 كيلومترًا سيرًا على الأقدام، رغم إصابة في ساقها، وصلت أخيرًا إلى منطقة سوبا بوسط السودان، حيث كان أقاربها في انتظارها.

وتقول:

“كان بعضهم يبكي، بينما كان آخرون يشعرون بالفرح. لن أنسى تلك اللحظة أبدًا. رأيت أمي وأبي وأفراد عائلتي.”

لكنها لم تمكث طويلًا.

فقد بدأت، منذ الأيام الأولى، تتلقى تقارير عن وقوع حالات عنف جنسي، لا سيما في مدينة بحري شمال الخرطوم. وفي اليوم التالي غادرت إلى مدني، حيث شرعت في حشد الأطباء والمحامين والصحفيين وناشطي المجتمع المدني.

وتوضح:

“بدأنا نتلقى بلاغات عن العنف الجنسي على الفور تقريبًا. كانت لدينا خبرة اكتسبناها من دارفور، ومن مجزرة عام 2019، ومن انقلاب عام 2021. كنا نعلم أن العنف الجنسي سيُستخدم سلاحًا.”

وسرعان ما أنشأت هي وزملاؤها آلية لتلقي البلاغات وتوثيقها، وربط الناجيات بخدمات الدعم القانوني والطبي، والتواصل مع الشركاء الدوليين.

وتقول:

“بدأنا التواصل مع منظمة الصحة العالمية للحصول على البروتوكولات اللازمة لمعرفة كيفية التدخل. جهزنا المحامين، وأشركنا الصحفيين، ونظمنا أنفسنا لاستقبال الحالات.”

ووثقت منظمات سودانية ودولية انتشارًا واسعًا لجرائم الاغتصاب وأشكال أخرى من العنف الجنسي في السودان. ووفقًا لتقرير صادر عن الأمم المتحدة، فقد حُمّلت قوات الدعم السريع، التي تخوض قتالًا ضد القوات المسلحة السودانية، مسؤولية ارتكاب انتهاكات واسعة النطاق في المناطق الخاضعة لسيطرتها، شملت الاغتصاب الجماعي، واختطاف الضحايا واحتجازهم.

وتقول تهاني:

“تدفع النساء في السودان ثمنًا باهظًا من أجل كرامتهن. تُستخدم أجسادنا ساحةً للحرب. تُغتصب النساء، ويُقتلن، ويُستغللن، ويُجبرن على ممارسة الجنس مقابل الطعام أو الحماية. هذا أمر ممنهج… إنه شكل من أشكال العبودية.”

وتضيف:

“الناجيات من الاغتصاب لا يستطعن الحصول على الرعاية الطبية الضرورية للوقاية من الحمل والأمراض المنقولة جنسيًا. وحتى السيدة التي كانت تقدم دعمًا طبيًا تطوعيًا تعرضت للاعتداء والاغتصاب في محاولة لمنعها من مساعدة الأخريات.”

وتشير إلى أن كثيرًا من النساء فقدن أزواجهن أو أفرادًا من أسرهن، وأصبحن يتحملن وحدهن مسؤولية رعاية الأطفال وكبار السن، كما يواجهن مزيدًا من الانتهاكات عند عبور الحدود بحثًا عن الأمان.

النساء و عملية السلام

إلى جانب عملها في الاستجابة الإنسانية، واصلت تهاني جهودها للدفع نحو إشراك النساء في مسارات السلام. ففي مدينة عنتيبي الأوغندية، ساهمت في تنظيم حوار مهم جمع نساءً من أطراف مختلفة في النزاع، بمن فيهن نساء يرتبطن بالقوات المسلحة السودانية، وقوات الدعم السريع، وفصائل مسلحة أخرى.

وتوضح:

“كانت تلك المرة الأولى التي تجلس فيها نساء من أطراف مختلفة في الصراع داخل غرفة واحدة، ويتفقن على أجندة مشتركة.”

واتفقت المشاركات على أربع أولويات رئيسية، هي: وقف الحرب، والحفاظ على وحدة السودان، وضمان المشاركة السياسية للنساء، ومحاسبة المسؤولين عن الفظائع والانتهاكات.

وتقول:

“إذا لم تكن هناك نساء على طاولة المفاوضات، فلن تكون أجندتنا حاضرة.”

وتشدد كذلك على ضرورة إشراك النساء في المناطق الريفية.

وتضيف:

“لدي عينان؛ بإحداهما أرى ما يحدث في المناطق الريفية، وبالأخرى أرى ما يحدث في المدن والمركز، وأحاول أن أجمع هذين الصوتين معًا.”

لا وقت للراحة

وتقول، ضاحكة للحظة قبل أن تستعيد جديتها:

“لو كنت قد التقيتني قبل عامين، لكنت لاحظت أن شعري لم يكن قد غزاه الشيب كما هو الآن.”

ثم تضيف:

“لكن الأمر لا يتعلق بي وحدي، بل بكل النساء السودانيات. فهن يفكرن طوال الوقت، ويحملن الخوف والمسؤولية والقلق على أكتافهن.”

وتتوقف قليلًا قبل أن تتابع:

“اعتاد الناس الحديث عن الأرقام، لكنها ليست مجرد أرقام، بل حياة بشر، ودماؤهم، وكرامتهم. إنهم أناس لهم تاريخ، وانتماء، وهم السكان الأصليون لهذه الأرض السودانية.”

وتؤكد أنها نادرًا ما تنال قسطًا من الراحة.

وتختتم حديثها بقولها:

“أشعر أحيانًا بالإنهاك، ويصبح الاستمرار أمرًا بالغ الصعوبة. لكن عندما أنظر إلى أطفالي، وإلى النساء والفتيات في المخيمات، أقول لنفسي: ليس هذا وقت الراحة، بل وقت مواصلة الطريق.”

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Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

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• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

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Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

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[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

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Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

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We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

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Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

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[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

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Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Design

For a slightly more opinionated version of the video review above, here’s the male half of the Macworld team arguing (after four months with this device) about whether the Apple Watch is a great or a terrible product:

The Apple Watch is beautifully designed and engineered, with a great look and feel. It’s chunky, rounded body is faintly reminiscent of the original iPhone, yet simultaneously modern-looking and very satisfying to hold. The Apple Watch is also pleasingly comfortable on the wrist.

We’ve seen lots of fitness trackers over the years, and they’ve typically struck us as pretty formulaic: plasticky wristbands with little fashion appeal. One activity tracker brand tried to convince us that their activity tracker was designed to appeal to a fashion-conscious woman; they even thought that women would wear it around their neck like a necklace. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t jewellery. None of the fitness trackers on the market are.

It’s a similar story with smartwatches. Sure, over the past year they’ve become more and more popular with guys looking for the latest tech gadget, but they don’t appeal to everyone. One major issue is that most smartwatches are designed for men. They wouldn’t sit comfortably on a smaller wrist.

[tie_index]Dimensions[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Dimensions

There are two sizes of watch: the 38mm model (which actually measures 38.6 by 33.3 mm) and the 42mm model (which measures 42 by 35.9 mm). Both have a thickness of 10.5mm.

[tie_list type=”checklist”]

• 38mm model: 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm
• 42mm model: 42.0 x 35.9 x 10.5mm

[/tie_list]

Here’s how a 38mm Apple Watch looks on Karen’s wrist:

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[tie_index]Build quality[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Build quality

Speaking of the materials the watch is made from, there are three options: aluminium for the Watch Sport, stainless steel for the Watch, and 18-carat gold for the Watch Edition. The Watch and Watch Edition come with sapphire screens, the Sport version with ion-x glass.

[/padding]

We love the look and feel of the Apple Watch. As we mentioned above, it looks a bit like a shrunk-down version of the original iPhone, and it’s reassuringly robust – after almost a year with the Watch, there no scratches on the body or screen, although the brighter of our two Sport Band straps is starting to look a bit grubby.

Apple doesn’t recommend dunking your Apple Watch first-gen in water. While the watch is rated as water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which should mean it will survive in water up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, Apple describes it as “splash- and water-resistant but not waterproof”. So it’s ok to use it in the shower – as Apple’s CEO Tim Cook apparently does – but it’s not to be taken swimming.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]Having said that, plenty of reckless reviewers have done exactly that, and we’ve yet to hear anyone complain that their watch was damaged by the experience. We don’t recommend taking the risk, and you obviously won’t have a leg to stand on with Apple if something does go wrong since they’ve been careful to only claim it’s water-resistant. But it appears that yes, the Apple Watch is waterproof.[/padding]

[tie_index]Straps[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Straps

While we’re on the subject of straps, which one should you pick to go with your beautiful Apple Watch?

[/padding]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]There are a wide collection of straps to choose from, including: Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and more recently, Nylon band and Hermes straps.

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle

The Leather Loop, Classic Buckle, Leather Loop, Modern Buckle, Woven Nylon and Sport Band options are offered in multiple colour choices while the Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet are only available in two colours. The Sport Band comes in 22 different colours including black, white, pink, yellow, blue, grey, lime green, lavender, antique white, stone and midnight blue, for example.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Screen

While doing our best to extend the watch’s battery life, we wanted to force-quit some apps and found the method of doing so deeply counterintuitive.

Returning to the screen, the resolution depends on the watch you choose. The resolution of the screen on the 38mm Apple Watch (which measures 1.32 inches diagonally) is 272×340 while the 42mm model offers 312×390 on a screen that measures 1.5 inches. Both models, therefore, offer a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, or ppi.

In both cases, the Apple Watch screen is officially rated (or perhaps we should say branded) as Retina-quality, and our subjective experience with it has been great. It’s sharp and vividly colourful and we’ve yet to notice any pixellation.

The touchscreen aspects work terrifically too: it’s highly responsive, and we found we tend to fall back on old habits, swiping through screens whenever possible by using the touchscreen even if a scrolling option is available via the Digital Crown. It ought to be as easy to quit apps and glances as it is on the iPhone – but it isn’t. To quit an app you have to press and hold the side button, and then do the same again. Nobody is going to stumble on that by accident.

[/padding]

[tie_index]User interface[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: User interface

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple’s design expertise is only a small part of what makes the Apple Watch stand out. Another factor in its favour is the user interface. The problem many current smartwatches have is that the UI is packed onto a tiny display and you need to manipulate those tiny visual elements using your fingers, which are inevitably bigger than the elements you’re trying to touch.

Below we examine Apple’s method for controlling the user interface, and the software you can expect to see on the Apple Watch.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Using screen[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Using the Apple Watch screen

One way to use the Watch is via the screen. You can scroll around the screen, tap on items to select them or press harder to get more options – akin to using right click on a mouse. Various gestures bring up other elements of the operating system. For example, Glances are accessed by swiping up on the watch face.

[/padding]

[tie_full_img][/tie_full_img]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

There’s also Apple’s Force Touch technology that determines how hard you are pressing the Watch and will act accordingly. There is a difference between a hard press and a simple tap. (We discuss Force Touch in more detail below.)

[/padding]

[tie_index]Performance[/tie_index]

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Apple Watch review: Speed/performance

One possible weakness of the Apple Watch – depending on how demanding your standards are when it comes to wearable tech – could be its all-around speed. Numerous reviewers have found the interface sluggish in use and noticed a delay before certain actions.[/padding]

Update 8 September 2016: It should be noted that the below section is based on the original watch and not the Series 1 or 2 which feature a 50 percent faster processor.

As with many aspects of this product, experiences have varied among the team, and it’s likely that day-to-day performance is influenced by factors such as apps and Glances currently running. It’s rare to find an app that’s near-instantaneous to respond, as they’ll open quickly but will often hang, leaving us staring at a black loading screen; and syncing processes with the iPhone, over a Bluetooth connection, can be sluggish.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

We’ve also found, as have many users, that third-party apps can sometimes be slow to start up. watchOS 2 looked to speed up third-party apps by allowing them to run natively on the Apple watch, but as we mention in our watchOS 2 section of the review below, we still find apps pretty sluggish and we often give up and end up using our iPhone apps instead.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Digital Crown[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Using the Digital Crown

Apple’s solution to the navigation problem is to use something that has always been a feature of watches in a new way.

The dial on the side of the watch – its proper name is the crown – has been brought into the 21st century and turned into what Apple calls the Digital Crown. This Digital Crown solves the problem of swiping through icons on a minuscule display.

[padding top=”0″ bottom=”0″ right=”5%” left=”5%”]

Below the Digital Crown is another button. This button takes you to the home screen and to the Friends app, from which you can contact your friends (more on that below). This button is also used when you’re paying for things using Apple Pay (more on that below, also).

[tie_index]Battery life[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Battery life

Apple claims that on a typical day, with typical usage, you should get 18 hours of battery life from the Apple Watch. In other words, you ought to be able to get through a whole day, but that will be about it: expect to charge it every night. (Which, incidentally, rules out being able to sleep with the watch on – which is likely to be a disappointment to developers of sleep-related apps.)

In fact, your use may vary. Apple’s ‘typical day’ included a half-hour workout, but if you exercise more than that you may use up the battery quicker – in Apple’s tests, the battery lasted 6.5 hours during a workout (so you should at least be able to run that marathon without running out of battery). If you use the Apple Watch to play music you will also find that to be a bit of a battery hog. Apple got 6.5 hours of audio playback out of the test device before it ran out of power.

[/padding]

[tie_index]Pricing and availability[/tie_index]

Apple Watch review: Apple Watch UK price

Pricing varies depending on the watch and strap you choose. For more information about Watch prices, read our Apple Watch buying advice.

The Apple Watch price starts at £259 in the UK; that’s for the 38mm Apple Watch Sport with a plastic band, and £299 for the 42mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at £479 and the newer Apple Watch Hermes starts at £1000, while the 18-carat gold Apple Watch Edition starts at an eye-watering £8,000.

OUR VERDICT

The Apple Watch isn’t the first ever smartwatch, and it doesn’t really do anything rival products don’t do. But what it does do, it does as well as any smartwatch out there, thanks to Apple’s user interface expertise. It’s a slick device to use, although you should be warned that it isn’t completely intuitive, particularly at first. With use it will become more familiar and user-friendly.