I am a big Apple fan; have an iPhone 6 Plus, rMBP, iPad Air and have been a long time Apple guy. I am also a 1st generation plunger; had the 1st gen iPhone, iPad, and rMBP. I preordered the 42 mm Stainless Steel Apple Watch with Sport Band on the 10th and am set to get it on release day (24th). I decided finally to check it out in person and get a feel for it. Tired of waiting. To be perfectly honest, I left disappointed and even considered canceling the preorder. Here were my concerns/observations;
-42mm felt small and "cheap". It was difficult to tap icons and frequently found the OS to be unresponsive in general. Some of this can be fixed with OS updates, but the size felt a little small to do much of anything. I have a 42mm Citizen Eco Drive which feels well built and solid. The Apple Watch felt like a Timex Ironman you could get at Target for $50.
-The sport band was very nice. But the leather bands felt cheap and almost like plastic. Glad I preordered the sport band because the other options didn't appeal to me. The leather loop in particular was not something I would recommend.
-The tactic vibration would get annoying very quickly. Several times it vibrated and felt as though my shirt was catching on the watch when it was really just vibrating. Definitely did not feel like someone tapping me. I also could see how annoying routine alerts could get. I also found that many of the notifications or email/messages really does require your phone to do much of anything.
-The screen was nice but the functionality or OS was not intuitive and left me frustrated. The button below the digital crown seemed to be more suited to a sleep/wake/power on button and it was routine for me to tap it. The crown itself seemed like a joke; I didn't like using it and found myself relying on the touch screen. Which brings me to the biggest gripe; several times I tapped icons and nothing happened only to open up the wrong app 2-3 seconds later. The Apple employee helping me also noticed this issue and said that "we had some complaints" about the responsiveness as well. She was able to tap the icon after 3-4 tries (hitting the wrong icon as well). Yes that may get ironed out with future updates, but with the size of the watch makes tapping an icon seem like a chore.
Overall I am still considering canceling the preorder. However, has anyone found out if you can actually return the watch within 14 days if you don't like it? Also, will native applications speed up the app experience or due to the reliance on data from the phone it will continue to be slow. I really wanted this to be an awesome product and am very disappointed after seeing it in person.
-42mm felt small and "cheap". It was difficult to tap icons and frequently found the OS to be unresponsive in general. Some of this can be fixed with OS updates, but the size felt a little small to do much of anything. I have a 42mm Citizen Eco Drive which feels well built and solid. The Apple Watch felt like a Timex Ironman you could get at Target for $50.
-The sport band was very nice. But the leather bands felt cheap and almost like plastic. Glad I preordered the sport band because the other options didn't appeal to me. The leather loop in particular was not something I would recommend.
-The tactic vibration would get annoying very quickly. Several times it vibrated and felt as though my shirt was catching on the watch when it was really just vibrating. Definitely did not feel like someone tapping me. I also could see how annoying routine alerts could get. I also found that many of the notifications or email/messages really does require your phone to do much of anything.
-The screen was nice but the functionality or OS was not intuitive and left me frustrated. The button below the digital crown seemed to be more suited to a sleep/wake/power on button and it was routine for me to tap it. The crown itself seemed like a joke; I didn't like using it and found myself relying on the touch screen. Which brings me to the biggest gripe; several times I tapped icons and nothing happened only to open up the wrong app 2-3 seconds later. The Apple employee helping me also noticed this issue and said that "we had some complaints" about the responsiveness as well. She was able to tap the icon after 3-4 tries (hitting the wrong icon as well). Yes that may get ironed out with future updates, but with the size of the watch makes tapping an icon seem like a chore.
Overall I am still considering canceling the preorder. However, has anyone found out if you can actually return the watch within 14 days if you don't like it? Also, will native applications speed up the app experience or due to the reliance on data from the phone it will continue to be slow. I really wanted this to be an awesome product and am very disappointed after seeing it in person.