My Thoughts on the Apple Watch Series 5: A Balanced Review

As I sat down to write about my thoughts on the Apple Watch Series 5, I couldn't help but think that I'm not alone in wearing an Apple Watch while chatting with the CEO of Microsoft. In fact, I'm sure many of you are doing the same thing right now. But what's interesting is how this has become the default at this point – the Apple Watch is everywhere, and it's hard to imagine a world without it.

I chose to go with the 44mm model instead of the 40mm version, mainly because I like the bigger face and battery. Although I don't have a huge wrist, I think the 44mm model looks just fine on me, and I'm happy with my decision. As for the color, I went with Space Gray Aluminum, which keeps the dark matte finish that I've come to love on my previous Apple Watches. I've had no durability issues whatsoever, so I can confidently say that this is a solid choice.

Now, let's talk about what's new and exciting in the latest Apple Watch model. While there weren't many major changes announced during the presentation, one feature stands out above the rest: Always-On Display. This means you can see the time and other essential information on your wrist even when you're not actively using the watch. I have to admit that I was skeptical about this feature at first – would it be useful enough to warrant a full-price upgrade? But after spending some time with the watch, I'm convinced that it's worth having.

Of course, as with any new technology, there are trade-offs. For instance, the Always-On Display means that your battery life will take a hit. I noticed this right away – on a day with high brightness, frequent notifications, and regular workouts, my battery would be dead by noon. But when I turned off the Always-On feature, I was able to get over two days of battery life out of it, which is incredibly impressive.

Another feature that caught my attention is the compass built into the watch. While I'll never use the Compass app itself, I love how accurate it is when using Maps – it's like having a personal GPS assistant on my wrist. And then there's the Noise App, which can detect potentially damaging levels of noise and alert you to them.

Now, let's talk about one feature that has left me scratching my head: the Apple Watch chooser interface for picking apps. I have to say, this is probably the worst user interface in any tech product – ever. It's clunky, confusing, and just plain frustrating to use. I've seen better design work on an iPhone 11 review from last year. That being said, it's not a deal-breaker by any means.

Overall, my experience with the Apple Watch Series 5 has been overwhelmingly positive. While it may not be a necessary upgrade for those who already have a previous model or one of its predecessors, I can see why this would be the watch to get if you're always on the go and want the latest and greatest features. And as I said earlier, if you disable the Always-On feature, this is essentially the same watch as an older Series 3 or 4 – only available for a fraction of the price.

As I wrap up my review, I have to say that it's been a wild ride getting here. From the Always-On Display to the Noise App and the compass, there are plenty of features that make this watch worth having. So if you're thinking about making the switch or upgrading from an older model, take a closer look at what Apple has to offer – I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up guys mkbhd here i bet i'm not the only one to speak to the ceo of microsoft while wearing an apple watch and i bet i'm not the only one to chat with bill gates with an apple watch on and i bet he's also probably noticed though what is that it's not that i'm trolling nobody doing that is trolling it's just that it's the default at this point the apple watch is everywhere it's the default smartwatch for the iphone which is also everywhere so after a couple of my tweets some of you guys wanted to know my full thoughts on apple watch series 5 the latest and greatest version of it that just came out for this holiday season spoiler alert i've already tweeted most of my thoughts but i'll put them all in one video here in one place so i have the 44 millimeter instead of the 40 for that bigger face bigger battery even though i don't have a huge wrist i think it looks just fine and i went with space gray aluminum so i keep that dark matte finish and i've had no durability issues on my other aluminum apple watches and yes just to get it out the way i do wear it on my right wrist even though i'm a righty i guess i'm just backwards like that so if you remember that apple event just a couple weeks ago there weren't really all that many new features with the new apple watch you know there's a new brushed titanium finish that looks really cool and there's also the other ceramics and stainless steel and things like that and there's some other new features and some new bands but really the main new feature of apple watch series 5 is the always on display so technically speaking this new apple watch is able to maintain the always on display with a new display technology that keeps it lit up dimly but lit up all the time at a variable refresh rate so it's called ltpo which stands for low temperature polysilicon and oxide which doesn't really matter as much as just knowing that this involves a special controller and certain hardware that's only in apple watch series 5. so there can't be a software update to make the series 3 or series 4 do always on it's just in series 5. so the display itself it'll look just as good and it'll get just as bright and it's just the familiar oled you're used to looking at but now it's always on so typically when you're using an apple watch the oled refreshes at 60 frames per second 60 hertz that's why animations are smooth everything looks normal and a secondhand if you have one on your clock face sort of smoothly rolls around in a circle this is still the case here with this new version but when you stop using it or you put it down it goes into always on mode the display dims and it ratchets down to refresh as low as 1 hertz or one time every second which is fine because it hides the second hand and it doesn't have to show you constantly refreshing information and things smoothly on the screen so it can still show you the time all the time and save a ton of power by not still refreshing at 60 hertz so okay what are the benefits of this always on display you may ask if you've never used any other smartwatch well if you've had an apple watch before then you're already used to this gesture you have to do to get it to recognize that you're looking at it and to light up whatever your latest notification is or to just see the time sometimes you can get pretty good at it doing it subtly but it's a pretty obvious gesture but of course sometimes it's just kind of hard or just straight up inconvenient to do that whole gesture and you just want to be able to glance over at it and see the time or just check something real quick without the whole obvious wrist movement maybe you're driving or riding a bike and don't want to switch to one hand or maybe you're typing and you just want to look down and glance at the time without stopping or maybe you're in just a social situation or it'd be kind of rude to check the time with the huge sweeping gesture so these are all real situations and that is why people wanted always on just the glanceability but the most controversial trade-off here with always-on is battery life so apple claims that the variable refresh rate is what will help you not obliterate your battery life it's going down to this way low power mode and it's true it doesn't completely crush your battery but i have definitely noticed that having the always on display always on does hurt your battery life i personally went from ending the day with 50 something percent left to ending a normal day with 20 to 30 left and that's not the end of the world that's definitely still clearly all day battery life for my usage which is high brightness getting plenty of notifications frequent workouts things like that but i did still notice that hit and on a day with a longer outdoor workout where it's using gps and it's just always on you can actually get close to killing the apple watch in a day which i never did before always on and i did some more on and off testing with this and some of you were actually skeptical about it when i tweeted about it saying it was the noise app in the background or some other things with software that i should check out but i don't need any more proof than the fact that when i turned it off i was getting to noon with 90 plus percent battery life left which is incredible and that's that's legitimately two day battery life that i wasn't getting when i turned always on back on so that's something i've noticed at this point i kind of just turn it on when i want to and then turn it off when i know i'm going to be having a longer day it's only a quick couple taps away in the settings i switch wrists sometimes so i'm used to diving in the settings to change the wrist orientation so i just do that often i'll just turn always on off sometimes so if i'm out at night i'll usually turn it off because it's slightly annoying to be the guy with the glowing wrist all night but in a normal day at work during the day i'll leave it on it's a balancing act it's a little more thinking than i had to do before but it's also a feature i've never had before so i guess i'm willing to do that some other small thoughts the compass built in now is pretty sweet i will literally never use the compass app but it is cool that it's more accurate to tell you what direction you're facing when you're using maps and the noise app is also kind of cool you can add a complication to your watch face or just use the app to monitor noise levels and it'll tell you when the environment you're in has potentially damaging levels of noise and just the thought about the blob app chooser interface i just gotta say i think this might be the worst ui in any apple product in any tech product in like the last decade i think we can all agree on that um i've changed it to list mode maybe uh maybe figure out a grid mode or something for picking apps on the watch apple just saying but overall honestly it's it's kind of similar to that iphone 11 review where like it's an apple watch like you already know what it does it's the same design some subtle tweaks and really one main new feature i think uh the fact that i've disabled the always-on display so often is kind of hilarious like if you would disable it if you wouldn't use the oezon stuff very often then this is about as good as a series three or series four in which case you can pick one of those up from apple or on amazon for a pretty steep discount so i'll link those below that's a better deal but other than that i just kind of like the way the apple watch has been it's not a necessary upgrade but for the stuff i usually do which is having the great display telling the time workouts notifications that's just basically it i mean anything extra is a bonus apple watch continues to firmly deliver on all the things you expect it to um and if you've always wanted always on then this is the apple watch to get but anyway that's about it quick review but if you want the next stuff it's coming up quick it's tectober there's a lot happening i'll catch you guys in the next one peace\n"