The first round of Apple Watch reviews are in - is it the big success that people were predicting, or a slightly disappointing timekeeper? Read on to find out...
Farhad Manjoo wasn't sure at first:
"It took three days - three long, often confusing and frustrating days - for me to fall for the Apple Watch. But once I fell, I fell hard."
He went on to talk about the device's flaws:
"The Apple Watch is far from perfect, and, starting at $350 and going all the way up to $17,000, it isn't cheap. Though it looks quite smart, with a selection of stylish leather and metallic bands that make for a sharp departure from most wearable devices, the Apple Watch works like a first-generation device, with all the limitations and flaws you'd expect of brand-new technology...
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"I grew used to calling on Siri to set kitchen timers or reminders while I was cooking, or to look up the weather while I was driving. And I also grew used to her getting these requests wrong almost as often as she got them right...
"Other problems: Third-party apps are mostly useless right now. The Uber app didn't load for me, the Twitter app is confusing and the app for Starwood hotels mysteriously deleted itself."
Manjoo ended on qualified criticism:
"The first Apple Watch may not be for you - but someday soon, it will change your world."
Joshua Topolsky was annoyed by the constant interruptions:
"I'm in a meeting with 14 people, in mid-sentence, when I feel a tap-tap-tap on my wrist. I stop talking, tilt my head, and whip my arm aggressively into view to see the source of the agitation. A second later, the small screen on my new Apple Watch beams to life with a very important message for me: Twitter has suggestions for people I should follow. A version of this happens dozens of times throughout the day - for messages, e-mails, activity achievements, tweets, and so much more."
But he was impressed with the build quality:
"The hardware of the watch is beautiful in a surgical way. The little cube of metal and glass wouldn't seem out of place in a futuristic lab or sci-fi movie. It is very much an Apple product: clean, sleek, remarkably solid...
"It's an impressive package. After using it, I had no question that the Apple Watch is the most advanced piece of wearable technology you can buy today."
He thought that, although accurate, telling the time on the device wasn't perfect:
"But what about the watch as a timepiece? I've found the experience somewhat inferior to that with a conventional wristwatch, due to one small issue. The Apple Watch activates its screen only when it thinks you're looking at it. Sometimes a subtle twist of your wrist will do, but sometimes it takes … more."
Joanna Stern sees the Apple Watch as a fashion accessory:
"After over a week of living with Apple's latest gadget on my wrist, I realized the company isn't just selling some wrist-worn computer, it's selling good looks and coolness, with some bonus computer features."
She's very positive about the device, but doesn't think you should get one:
"People who can identify it immediately ask if I like it, and if they should buy one. I've told most: No...
"The Apple Watch makes you look good. But the next one is bound to make you look even better."
Nilay Patel thinks it has the potential to be a success:
"It's... the first smartwatch that might legitimately become a mainstream product, even as competitors flood the market. Apple has the marketing prowess, the retail store network, and the sheer determination to actually make this thing happen."
He sums up by saying that no one knows what a smartwatch should actually do:
"There's no question that the Apple Watch is the most capable smartwatch available today. It is one of the most ambitious products I've ever seen; it wants to do and change so much about how we interact with technology. But that ambition robs it of focus: it can do tiny bits of everything, instead of a few things extraordinarily well. For all of its technological marvel, the Apple Watch is still a smartwatch, and it's not clear that anyone's yet figured out what smartwatches are actually for."
Matt Warman also isn't sure the watch has a purpose, but he likes it anyway:
"'What does it do?' That's the question that anyone who cares about the Apple Watch wants answered. There are a host of answers, and while I've not yet found one that's utterly compelling, this is by far the best smartwatch I've used."
He didn't have any problems with battery life:
"Even using the Watch intensively, it never struggled to last a whole day, and once made two full days, just."
Mark Prigg found that it cured his iPhone addiction:
"As a phone addict, I can rarely go ten minutes without checking my handset. However, after a day or two with the Apple Watch, a strange thing happened - I completely stopped checking my phone."
He finishes on a positive note:
"Tim Cook boasts that the Apple Watch will be the first smartwatch that matters - and he is absolutely right. That's not to say the watch is perfect at launch, and the loading time for apps needs to be addressed. However, this is something that may well have improved - or disappeared altogether - by the time the final apps are available. Overall, after a week with the Watch, I wouldn't want to be without it now - if only because I'd have to go back to fishing my phone out of my pocket every five minutes."
