Preliminary Review of Nike+ Apple Watch (Apple Watch Series 2)

Hey, a picture of me, finally!

I'm not sure why it is that I rarely turn the camera on myself these days.  It must be something about busy hands and focusing my camera on food and a certain toddler.

Late one night, with toddler asleep and husband away, I was clicking around on my AppleTV out of boredom and decided to watch the Apple press conference that had taken place the day before. 

I normally watch these each year, but I couldn't look away, particularly from the new Apple watch.  When the first Apple watch came out, I was pretty much like, "that's nice to have, but I have no use for it."  Then I got a FitBit, which turned out to be a fail for me.  I then just got an old-school watch and had been happily using that (mostly at work) for over a year.  Yes, I did not wear a watch before then -- never needed to because I would either check my phone or be in places with a clock.

What is it about this watch drew me in?  Well, the water-resistance for one -- this means that I wouldn't need to remove it for a shower.  Lazy?  Yes.  The activity tracking integration (including swimming) was the other allure, with heart rate tracking and GPS that works independently of the phone.  While I don't leave my phone at home, it's nice to have the option to track without it.  And, I'll be frank, I want to eventually play Pokémon Go on it.

In terms of "real" uses, the best thing is being able to check e-mail and receive texts and calls, even if my phone is stashed away somewhere.  This is VERY handy when my hands are often full with my son and his things.

So I sprung on this watch as a long overdue gift to myself (probably the most expensive thing I've bought for myself in a long time), waiting for the Nike model to come out in late, late October since I liked the sporty band.  If I'm going to be running with this, it better have some ventilation!

Now that I'm nearly three weeks in with it, I thought I'd give a preliminary review of it in the form of a Pro/Con list for anyone who is considering getting one.

Pros:

• Nice style, not as "ugly" as I had feared.  I wear this in the office with no comment.  Very light.
• You can customize the watch face, which helped with the appearance factor.  Mine is set to look like a normal clock face.
• Water resistant -- you can swim, shower, or bathe your toddler with it.  Will also share that it's been puked on by said toddler, and you'd never know.  You can eject water from it by turning the knob, and the sound-waves from the speaker will spit it out.
• Decently accurate heart-rate tracking (so far) without the annoyance of a chest strap.
• Indoor Run: fairly accurate distance detected in spite of my laziness to calibrate it
• Outdoor Run: GPS integration
• Can get e-mail, texts, and calls and speak right into it to input into the phone
• Can turn on Siri without touching buttons
• Activity reminders telling you stand and move at least once an hour, and "breathe" (guided breathing exercises) reminders
• Decent number of useful apps: e.g, Amazon, Lyft, Yelp, the thing I use to log into my work VPN, weather, calendar, maps, ApplePay, Skype, even Instagram
• Notifications come in via little "haptics" that only you can notice

Cons:

• Needs to be charged nightly.  You *might* be able to get a second day out of it if you're not using it intensively (maps, GPS, etc.).
• This probably user error, but I'm having trouble syncing my Activity to other platforms (even Nike Run Club, which you would think should work since this is marketed by them)
• Apps have limited functionality and integration (e.g., my calorie burn doesn't automatically roll into the MyFitnessPal app)
• Siri doesn't always work correctly, but this is true on my phone as well
• Without locking the watch regularly, it's all too easy to have the maps talking to you all of a sudden in the middle of a meeting (yes, this happened to me) or end a workout prematurely
• Locking the phone does not appeal to my laziness and adds a PIN, but it's hard to punch in because of the tiny buttons.

As you can see, the Pros outweigh the cons, and most of the cons are due to user error.  Overall, I'm relieved that I am not regretting my decision to splurge yet.  While it hasn't gotten me to become more active necessarily since I'm pretty self-motivated, I think it will be a great tool to have once I kick my running into gear again.  It's pretty much my next FitBit/Garmin rolled into one.

I'll keep updating this post as I use this a bit longer, but if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to address them. 

Now, my watch is saying I need to get up. :)

 

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FTC Disclaimer: I purchased this product on my own and am expressing my true opinion.