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Here are 14 reasons you shouldn't buy an Apple Watch

applewatchpretty
© Apple

The Apple Watch was going to show Android Wear how it’s done, or at least that’s what we were told - but while the Apple Watch is a lovely device, it’s far from perfect. Here’s what’s wrong with the Apple Watch, and what Apple’s likely to fix.

We’ve spent a couple of weeks with the Apple Watch, and while there’s lots to like - it’s pretty, the engineering is beautiful, there are options to suit everybody and it’s about the only fully featured smartwatch that looks OK on a slender wrist - there are plenty of things we don’t like either.

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The Apple Watch is pretty, but it's also pretty expensive. / © ANDROIDPIT

1. It costs too much

The cheapest one is $349, rising to $399 for the slightly larger 42 mm model. Want a steel one with sapphire glass? $549 and up. Stainless steel bracelet? $1,099. And that’s before you look at the Edition, which is aimed at the kind of people who’ll be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

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The price of the gold Apple Watch Edition is just silly. / © Apple

2. It’s slow

Third party apps run on the iPhone, not on the Watch, and that means they’re often painfully slow. That coupled with very aggressive battery management means all too often you tap, the display goes off, you tap, the display goes off, you tap, and then you give up and pull out the iPhone.

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Unlike Android Wear, third party apps have to run on the phone, not the watch. / © NextPit

3. The apps are crap

All the ones we’ve tried so far are, anyway. Developers clearly made the apps without having used the Watch for very long, if they used it at all. Android Wear’s been out for ages, and as a result apps should benefit from real-world use. In the longer term this won’t be a problem, but for once Android is ahead in the app stakes.

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Apple's own apps are good. Third party ones, not so much. / © Apple

4. It has too few faces

Android Wear is miles ahead here. The reason’s obvious: Apple wants its watch faces to be mainly black to eke out every last bit of battery life, and third party faces packed with details will have an awful effect on the Watch’s longevity. Not what you want immediately after launching your exciting new product. More faces will no doubt come but the standard selection, while good, is hardly plentiful.

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The Apple Watch hasn't got many faces just yet. / © ANDROIDPIT

5. It isn’t waterproof

It’s water resistant, but you probably shouldn’t use it to record your swims.

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It'd be nice if the Apple Watch was waterproof. / © ANDROIDPIT

6. It can’t track your sleeping patterns

You need to charge it every day, so sleep monitoring is out. So is silently waking you in the morning.

7. The Health app is a bit sexist

The Watch ties in with Apple’s Health, which tracks all kinds of health information. But not menstrual cycles, because…well, there’s no good reason why.

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The companion Health app tries to cover everything, but there are glaring omissions. / © Apple

8. Battery life is going to be a problem

Apps don’t currently run on the Watch, but the next iteration of the developer kit will change that. If you think battery life isn’t great now…

9. You can’t wear it on your inner wrist

Bad news for those of us who prefer the face on our inner wrist. Raise To Activate doesn’t work, the digital crown is hard to access and the screen is hard to read if you wear the Watch as an innie.

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The Apple Watch only works on the outer wrist. / © ANDROIDPIT

10. The straps are stupidly expensive

That’ll change - there’s a Made for Apple Watch program coming - but right now a simple leather strap is $149 and a stainless steel one $449. Sure, they’re handmade by angels or whatever, but that’s still silly money for straps.

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Third party straps such as these Casetify ones are coming. / © Casetify

11. It’s so fashionable, dahling

Apple’s been doing a very non-Apple thing and sucking up to celebrities to get the Watch in the fashion pages. Do you want to have the same kind of watch as Karl Lagerfeld and Kanye West?

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The Apple Watch makes a fashion statement...or does it? / © ANDROIDPIT

12. Notifications aren’t quite right

The notifications system doesn’t work too well, especially if you just mirror your phone: apps such as Facebook expect you to look at something, so “Dave updated his status!” without the status and “Julie uploaded a photo!” without the photo are worse than useless. Notifications popping up when you’re doing something like tracking a cycle run is annoying too: they get in the way and stay there.

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Notifications could be better on the Apple Watch. / © ANDROIDPIT

13. It doesn’t have GPS

The phone handles that. Any movement tracking the Watch does without it is guessing, and if you lose it you won’t be able to use Find My Phone-style apps to locate it.

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Apple's watch needs an iPhone to do most things. / © Apple

14. It doesn’t work with Android

Not a surprise, we know, but Apple is no longer anti-Android: its refreshed Apple Music service is expected to get an Android app this summer. A big part of the iPod’s success was due to Apple making it work with Windows. Could the Apple Watch app end up on Android? Stranger things have happened.

What do you think? Has Apple changed the game, or has it just made a nice bauble for people with more money than sense?

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Gary Marshall

Gary Marshall
Freelance writer

Former lion tamer, Girls Aloud backing dancer and habitual liar Gary Marshall has been writing about technology since Google was two guys in a garage. He's written for many fine magazines, newspapers and websites, written a range of how-to-books and a novel, co-written a BBC documentary series and dishes out weekly tech advice on BBC Radio Scotland.

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8 comments
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  • 1
    Michael Dobson May 26, 2015 Link to comment

    At the end of the day it's about personal preference I wouldn't buy one but then again I'm not a fan of apple anyway. They are too far behind samsung and others. They need to think of something different to do rather than copy samsung


  • 1
    Ehren Biggs May 23, 2015 Link to comment

    I think it says something about the quality of the product when included amongst the 14 reasons you shouldn't buy it are:

    Heath App doesn't measure menstrual cycles
    Doesn't work with Android (you expected this)?
    It's fashionable
    You can't wear it on your inner wrist (although you could, it just wasn't designed to work that way)


    The rest of the list is either a matter of personal taste or a problem that exists on every first generation device


  • 1
    Ehren Biggs May 23, 2015 Link to comment

    I wish it was less expensive and I'm excited for the day where the apps are faster but that is not an uncommon occurrence in a first generation device. I've also been relatively pleased with the battery life, I've always worn watches and never once worn one to bed so taking it off at night was a part of my routine anyway.


  • 1
    Ehren Biggs May 23, 2015 Link to comment

    I bought an apple watch on launch day and I just ordered another one this morning. My take on this article, obviously it's from an android website but there are some valid points on why someone may want to wait for AppleWatch 2...like third party apps not being polished or there not being many watch bands/faces available yet (but not being able to wear it on your inner wrist??? come on that was a stretch)...that being said the watch has really changed how I interact with people both at the office and in real life - I spend much less time buried in my phone and that was my unexpected best feature.


  • Leonardo 11
    Leonardo May 23, 2015 Link to comment

    Haha don't buy anything apple period!!!!


  • 4
    mehulpatel May 22, 2015 Link to comment

    ha ha bingo android pit :p


  • Rogue Tomato 15
    Rogue Tomato May 22, 2015 Link to comment

    I can give you between 349-15,000 reasons why I wouldn't buy an Apple watch.


  • 11
    Deactivated Account May 22, 2015 Link to comment

    15 It's Apple their products suck and are not made well.

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