It’s been a couple of weeks now and my overall enthusiasm with the newest Apple Watch continues to be hard to contain. With all its improvements, definitive direction toward wellness, FDA Clearance and nods from the American Heart Association it comes as no surprise.
Looking back at early generations of the Apple Watch, it was once a device without clear purpose. They had poor battery runtime and had to remain connected to an iPhone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi for their data features to work. Series 3 made a solid effort at being able to untether by adding cellular functionality. But, the signal strength was often less than stellar and its battery life while improved suffered when struggling to get a good connection.
Apple Watch Series 4 appears similar in design to its predecessors, but has refinements that are quite striking when compared side by side. The enclosure is thinner and the screen goes out to its edges.Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS + Cellular), has been redesigned to improve connectivity, has superior power efficiency to its predecessors, and now features an edge to edge screen that looks less cramped and can display more information. It provides me a “connected freedom” that cannot be understated especially since I own a Plus sized iPhone. I can carry out the day’s errands or go out walking with the kids and leave my phone at home. It has everything I need to be connected – GPS, Cellular, and LTE for data are all packed into the Watch. I have access to maps, can get directions, make calls, text, email and even listen to Apple Music along the way. And, with 16 GB of onboard storage, I can store music, podcasts and audiobooks to listen to offline when connectivity isn’t available.
The Apple Watch Series 4 (right) has a much bigger display but an enclosure that is only slightly larger that its predecessors. These images displayed at full screen on the watches help to highlight the difference. Note how cramped the older generation (left) screen now appears.While it’s impressive that such a small wearable can do all this, connectivity is just one of its features. Health and Fitness tracking has been the Apple Watch’s strongest characteristic and has iteratively gotten better to become one of its best. Now, with Apple Watch Series 4, it appears that feature has become its core purpose.
The key component to its success in this area has been the Watch’s Optical Heart Rate Sensor. Confirmed to be among the most accurate on the market, there have been well documented cases in which the Apple Watch and its heart monitor have actually saved lives. Now, built into Apple Watch Series 4 is an added Electrical Heart Rate Sensor that can operate as a Lead-1 ECG that can further detect serious forms of irregular heart rhythm and record the waveforms to present to your Doctor.
The integrated ceramic and sapphire crystal back contains both the Optical and Electrical Heart Rate Sensor arrays. Ceramic also helps to strengthen the Watch’s radio communications.The Watch’s accelerometer and gyroscope have also been improved and can now detect if you’ve fallen. When a fall is detected, the Watch delivers an alert in which you can initiate an Emergency SOS and can even auto-initiate it if the Watch senses you are immobilized for one minute. Emergency SOS calls 911, notifies your emergency contacts, sends your current location, and displays your Medical ID Badge on the screen for emergency personnel.
Helpy Features (GPS + Cellular):
- Works with All Previous Generation Watchbands!
- Larger Display
- Louder Speaker
- Thinner Enclosure
- Electrical Heart Sensor (ECG app)
- Optical Heart Sensor
- Fall Detection
- LTE and UMTS
- Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz)
- Bluetooth 5.0
- GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS
- Barometric Altimeter
- Water Resistant (50 meters)
- 16 GB Storage
- All-Day Battery Runtime (up to 18 Hrs)
The Apple Watch Series 4 is compatible with all my first generation Watch Bands!
The Apple Watch Series 4, particularly the GPS + Cellular model, is a phenomenal upgrade from even its Series 3 predecessor. It’s faster, has a larger screen, great battery life, and all squeezed into a thinner enclosure with an integrated ceramic back that helps to strengthen cellular communication. Coupled with all its proactive health monitoring and Emergency SOS capabilities, Apple has re-engineered, refined, and matured a device that by design will not only help to improve one’s quality of life, it may even help to preserve it.
The Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS + Cellular) starts at $499. Visit apple.com for details.