Apple Watch Series 12

The audio note taking feature is extremely off-putting to me and can't believe it was so prominently showcased.

It's made even worse by the fact that only the newest watches support this, but their external designs are unchanged from past ones, so there's no way to tell who's always listening to everything (I have an Ultra 2, likely my last one).

Is this something most people want?? At the very least I'd appreciate a notification like the unknown airtag thing to tell me I'm being eavesdropped.

Apple Watch is hitting diminishing returns feature-wise. I'm happy with my Series 11 but "it has more accurate heart sensors" isn't really revolutionary, and I believe some of the Apple Intelligence features will be backported anyways.

With fast charging, battery life hasn't been an issue; I just put it on the charger while in the shower and that does the trick.

On what legal footing does this recap feature stand? In fairly certain there are a non-zero amount of laws prohibiting audio recording without consent. And this wrist mounted always listening thing is likely to end up in a lot of places it should not. Probably burried in the end user agreement that it is 100% the users fault.

Moved to Garmin.

Maybe less powerful but battery life is the most important feature for me.

FTA: “Apple Watch Series 12 now offers the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch.12 The S11 chip also enables the brand-new Steps complication, so users can track their steps in real time, right from their watch face”

That must mean they’re very confident about the accuracy. I look forward to reviewers trying to beat their detection model.

Apple killed support for three generations of Apple Watch hardware with its latest OS update: Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, and the original Apple Watch Ultra. So much for its commitment to the environment, perfectly capable hardware is being sent to the bin.

There's literally no new features on the watch. Adding in AI nonsense.

I really just want an Apple version of the new Fitbit Air.

I had an Apple Watch for five years. Battery didn't even last a day.

I realized generally I have my phone or laptop with me all the time anyway, I don't need a watch with weather or app widgets.

So in June I bought the fitbit air and it's great. Battery life lasts about 6-7 days. No distracting screen. MUCH more comfortable to sleep with since it has no buttons and a smaller form factor.

If Apple made their own version of the Air but with Apple Pay I would switch back over in a heartbeat.

I think Apple Watch is a great device for wearing to gym, to sleep, and somewhat during the day + occasional quick text reply maybe, and otherwise forgetting all about it, because the true value lies in what's being collected in the Health app. Stop trying to do things on it imo. Maybe there are a couple of useful things you can do, or if you're a runner, maybe you can leave your phone at home. I don't have these use cases, but it's valuable to me even without them.

My recommendation is: buy the cheapest material one every few years. I only ever had 2 and 5 (upgraded due to always on screen), and am considering to finally upgrade to 12.

Maybe it's just a general fatigue from AI, notifications, microphones, and cameras everywhere, but I'm pretty sure my next watch will be something from Germany or Switzerland containing springs and gears.

My left wrist had formed an indent where I wore my se3. It was not worn tight, I tried different straps. In 6 months it looks like the tissue underneath has mostly moved away. I can feel my bone when I touch it. My right arm by contrast looks full like a regular arm.

Looked up apple watch indent reddit and I saw much more serious cases after years of use.

I’ve worn a samsung watch for a year it didn’t leave a mark, casio watches, none. Until apple fixes that weird dome shape never wearing one again. That watch is staying in the box it came in.

Edit: There seems to be people promoting other brands in this thread. Just want to make clear I do not recommend the samsung one either. Don’t want to be labelled as such. Just get a regular watch. Wear it when you go outside and take it off when inside. You were never using the mostly inaccurate health data anyway.

Moved from my ultra 2, to a simply casio gshock 5601u, could not be happier, I am so sick and tired of all the notifications, stats, blah blah blah following me all over, from my macbook, iphone, that I just don't need it on my watch as well. I just don't care anymore about tracking everything and uploading to strava, or whever, and this comes from someone that, have over 100k km's logged on strava. I know the vast majority of people love it, and I love stats as well, but all the connected devices, is just getting too much, I am activily trying to go more simple, offline, outside of work.

The only thing I've ever wanted is an apple watch that's thinner than the first one, my wrists are big enough I don't need a chonker. I don't care what time it is anyways

I wish they made it stupid thin. I wear my Whoop everyday, even sleep with it on. I could never do the same with an Apple Watch due to it's size but also due to the notification anxiety.

I am looking forward to 3rd party testing on most accurate heart rate. Because I have both Series 11 and Google Fitbit Air and the Air is so much better in everything, from accuracy, when to track and display of information.

I just wish they made a band without all the hassle. I don't use my Watch for anything other than Stop watch, Alarm Clock and Health Tracking.

I will try the Audio note taking, although my current Boss constantly lie and deny she have said something I am not sure how useful will this feature be.

Switched from apple to garmin to coros, not looking back. Coros blows everyone out of the water from a user experience standpoint, and they offer excellent value.

I wish they would make one without all the health crap. Drop the sensors and add more battery.

I only really care about a few things (besides telling the time):

    - notifications
    - unlocking a Mac on proximity
    - Apple Pay
    - alarms
    - skipping a song

Had Apple not made the transcript/rewind feature a top line feature but put it down in an accessibility feature, I wonder if it would have changed the perception. I'm actually surprised they didn't do this as this is how they tend to test features before wider rollout.

Looks like Apple Watch Series 12 still doesn't have dual frequency GPS. Makes it a hard sell for someone who wants to use it as a running watch.

The main reason I stopped using an Apple Watch is the lackluster battery life; in this series Apple claims 10 hours of battery life for outdoor workouts but without an iPhone. How is that realistic? If I’m going out for a hourlong run perhaps I don’t bring my iPhone, but I’m doing a multihour outdoor workout I would surely bring my phone, and certainly the extra Bluetooth communication would decrease battery life. It’s a silly metric.

Very creepy. I don't like it

I was actually quite impressed with the AI note-taking and other features, and I could see myself using them, so I did like that.

With health, I really wish Apple would truly lean into health...go nuts and try to become effectively a super primary care provider. Integrate with blood tracking, automated diagnostics, something much cooler.

The problem with these kind of wearables today is this is just not very actionable. You have this data, and nobody ever really looks at it. "You had a bad night sleep, maybe sleep more." Yeah no kidding. I want it to say: "Hey we noticed this trend, it could be indicative of X, we recommend Y test. Would you like us to send it to you within 2 hours so you can get more data?"

There are legal prohibitions against one-sided recording in some states (for example, mine).

Am I liable if my watch starts doing this? Or is Apple if it does this by default without even my consent?

I have no idea if the law cares about the privacy features Apple mentioned (no accessible audio, no speaker ID) if the audio was clearly captured at some point.

This thread is just PR people from other watch brands astroturfing.

I sometime joke we would oneday wear an always-on recorder and be happy about that. Looklike today is that day

I can't imagine not having a Garmin watch! Battery life and ability to forget I have it on constantly is a main feature for me

It seems absolutely ridiculous to have to recharge a watch everyday and I've read sleep tracking on the apple watch is suboptimal.

I own a Withings Scanwatch 2 (and owned a nokia steel hr before that) and can confidently say it is just enough smart watch for me.

When I saw the part where the guy records the waitress and then re-reading the transcript. FFS just talk to them like a regular human being. If you did this to me I would just be supremely grossed out.

I’m way too unc for this. I’m out. I’m officially done with “tech”.

Wanted to look at the study's data, but the link seems to be broken. https://www.apple.com/HRAccuracy/

Every single AW I’ve owned has this weird problem: when I go for a run it often doesn’t show my HR even after 10 mins, sometimes even longer. Super irritating.

I’m in Europe with an Ultra 2

There’s no chance we get the AI features so those don’t factor in at all

I guess it’s a bit more frequent sensors for the rest of the world? Not very compelling to upgrade.

Honestly, the killer smartwatch feature for me is being able to quickly click a button to find my iPhone. Everything else I use it for feels like I'm just trying to justify spending hundreds of dollars on it. I record all my workouts and my sleep patterns etc., but I never use that data for anything. I wish I could buy a $10 digital watch that also had a "find my iPhone" button.

The best thing I ever did was buy an e-paper display watch (pebble) which lasts weeks not hours.

Anyone know how/why this one can take so many more HRV measurements? I mean the other ones can. What makes this one take more often? Guessing they are just setting it to do more. This is one thing that really annoys me is that it will go 4-6 hours without taking any measurements. When I am sitting down working etc.

I tried Google”s new Fitbit for a couple days but it only does them at night!!

they keep doubling down on HRV metrics

except optical HRV at the wrist is garbage

it cannot even measure when there is any movement

you'd think someone would come up with the technology to use the skin contact as a single lead ECG without requiring a second contact point by the other arm (or leg)

guess that's a generation or two away

suunto has the right idea with their tiny movesense ECG and it's even open-source

Staying with Garmin just for amazingly long battery life… and instinct series has solar too

Apple needs to move the health data storage, at least optionally, to the home pod/apple tv. My phone is my main interface, but it's not the only interface. And many of the devices that interface with the health app are not mobile. My blood pressure monitor, my bathroom scale. Test results from my doctor. And so on. These should be synced/stored on either my home device and exposed through an app on my phone/desktop/laptop.

oh come on, i bought my series 11 last week!

i'm going to miss out on all those amazing new features, like... an improved heart rate variability measurement

> Apple Watch Series 12 continues to offer up to 24 hours of everyday battery life and now offers up to 10 hours of battery life during an outdoor workout — 25 percent more than the previous model.

Are they really bragging about this pathetic performance? The charge in my Pebble lasts 20 days.

How can you sleep with a charge that lasts that short?

Disappointing. Instead of making battery life better that would benefit all of the Apple Watch users, here are some random AI features that most of you never gonna usa, and some new colors.