Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE review

**Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE: A Comprehensive Review**

When Apple announced the new Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE last week, they made a significant fuss about its ability to send messages or make phone calls directly from your wrist, even without your iPhone nearby. The company showcased a woman on a surfboard in the middle of the ocean receiving a call on her Apple Watch Series 3. Intrigued by this innovation, we decided to test it out before heading out for a surf.

### Design and Key Features

By now, you’ve likely noticed that the new Apple Watch Series 3 looks almost identical to its predecessors. However, there are a few notable differences. The crown of the watch now features a red dot, designed to distinguish LTE-enabled watches from non-cellular versions. Additionally, the Series 3 incorporates an antenna built directly into its display, a faster processor that Apple claims makes the watch 70% quicker, and an electronic SIM for LTE connectivity.

Pricing-wise, the base price for the Series 3 with LTE is $399. There’s also a non-LTE version available for $329, and the Series 1 model without LTE or GPS starts at $249. It’s worth noting that if you opt for the LTE version, you’ll need to factor in an additional $10 monthly cell connection fee.

### Personal Experience: Testing LTE Connectivity

Based on my personal experience, I’m not entirely convinced that upgrading from last year’s Apple Watch Series 2 is necessary. The connectivity without a phone didn’t work as well as advertised for me—whether I was in a coffee shop, walking around my neighborhood, or even out in the middle of the ocean. During our test, I attempted to make a call using the LTE feature but encountered issues where the signal was either nonexistent or weak, leaving me with only one bar of service at times.

In an attempt to connect with *Verge* videographer *Gear*, I managed to place one successful call from my wrist, but subsequent attempts were less reliable. The experience highlighted that while LTE connectivity is a convenient feature for rare instances like running errands without your phone or in emergencies, it’s not consistently reliable yet.

### Battery Life Concerns

Battery life has been another area of concern, especially given the added strain from LTE connectivity. My initial review unit had some issues where the battery drained quickly, sometimes reaching dismal levels within hours. However, after receiving a second review unit, the performance improved as expected.

If you’re not using LTE, you can typically expect a day to a day and a half of charge life—comparable to other Apple Watches. Once LTE is activated, however, the drainage becomes more noticeable. After spending several hours shooting video, my watch dropped to 30% battery, which isn’t ideal but manageable. Without LTE usage, I could potentially get a few more hours out of it.

### Software Updates and Enhancements

Despite these challenges, Apple has consistently delivered software updates that enhance the user experience. The latest updates include new watch faces like the dynamic *Toy Story* face, a kaleidoscope design, and a visually appealing *Theater* face that adapts to show calendar appointments or wallet content. Notably, Siri now offers voice responses on the Series 3.

The app dock has also been redesigned for better usability. When you press the side button, the vertically oriented app dock allows swiping and scrolling via the crown, making it easier to navigate while reducing the “less at a glance” feeling.

One of my favorite updates is the enlarged keys on the unlock screen, which improves accessibility and ease of use.

### Health and Fitness Tracking Innovations

Health and fitness tracking remain a primary focus for Apple Watch users. This year’s updates include several improvements in this area. For instance, starting a workout now defaults to “open goal” instead of requiring you to choose between distance, time, or calories burned. When finishing a workout, the watch presents a simple “done” button rather than asking you to save or discard your session—a feature that could prevent accidental data loss.

Swimming features have been refined to track different stroke types during laps, and a barometric altimeter has been added for elevation sports like skiing or hiking. Additionally, there’s now a multi-sport mode allowing you to transition seamlessly between activities in one workout session.

The most significant changes revolve around heart rate sensing. The Series 3 can display your resting heart rate and alert you to spikes when not actively working out, potentially indicating irregularities or health issues.

### Apple’s Response to Connectivity Issues

During the production of our review video, Apple released an official statement addressing connectivity issues with the Series 3. They acknowledged that joining unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without cellular service could prevent LTE functionality and assured customers they were working on a fix via a future software update. While this explains some of the problems I encountered, it remains unclear when the update will be rolled out or how effective it will be in resolving these issues.

### Conclusion: Should You Buy the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE?

The decision to purchase the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE boils down to your willingness to pay $400 plus a $10 monthly fee for a feature that, in my experience, offers rare convenience. The battery drain and occasional unreliable service left me unimpressed, but I can see how someone might find value in having LTE connectivity for quick errands, workouts without their phone, or emergencies.

For now, I’ll stick with other wearables that better meet my needs. However, if you’re drawn to the idea of having LTE on your wrist and are willing to overlook its current limitations, the Series 3 might still be worth considering—especially once Apple iron out the kinks in future updates.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhen Apple announced with new Apple watch series 3 with LTE last week it made a big deal about the fact that you should be able to now send a message or make a phone call right from your wrist even when you don't have your phone in fact the company showed a woman on a surfboard in the middle of the ocean getting a phone call on her Apple watch series 3 so we decided to test before we head out surfing let's run through some of the basics first by now you've probably noticed that this new series 3 Apple watch pretty much looks the same as old Apple watches but there are a few differences the crown of the watch now has a red dot on it which is supposed to differentiate LTE versions the Apple watch from non-cellular versions for whatever reason the series 3 watch also has an antenna built directly into its display it has a faster processor which Apple Plains makes the watch 70% faster and of course it has the electronic sim for LTE the base price of this series 3 watch with LTE is 399 dollars there is a non LTE version of the series 3 watch and that cost just 329 dollar so it is a little bit less and then there's the series 1 watch which doesn't have LTE or GPS and that's 249 dollars but if you opt for the series 3 watch with LTE you're gonna have to factor in a monthly cell connection fee which is going to cost you an extra $10 per month for people who do decide to pay for that the real value is probably going to come from those rare instances when you want to run out for coffee or go for a jog without your phone and you just really want the option to call or text message to someone if you need to but based on my personal experience I'm still not convinced I need to upgrade from last year's Apple watch Series 2 and this is partly because the watch's connectivity without the phone didn't work all that well for me whether I was in a coffee shop going for a walk in my neighborhood or out in the middle of the ocean Wow doesn't look like I've service out here hey Siri call it turns out that having an LTE equipped SmartWatch in the middle of the ocean isn't really all it's cracked up to be I was able to call verge videographer gear and pave one time from my wrist oh wait now I either had no service or a only had one bar of service it didn't always work that well I tried using series that didn't work all that well series not working out here I have one bar so yeah I mean I guess it's good in case you really need it but it wasn't super reliable okay let's talk about battery life since that's really what's going to be impacted the most by having LTE and a SmartWatch I've had a really mixed experience with the series 3 and that's partly because the first review unit I had there's something wrong with it Jerry wasn't working it wasn't always connecting to LT even it was supposed to and a battery was draining really quickly I mean it was it was dismal so Apple sent me a second review unit and that one I think has been working more like it's supposed to if you're not using LTE you can probably expect to get a day to a day and a half out of the watch per charge just like you would with another Apple watch once you start using LTE you will experience drainage though we've been out here shooting for a few hours now and around noon I hit the 30% mark on the watch which isn't terrible but once again not as good if you're not using LTE I can probably get a few more hours out of it at this point but I'm definitely gonna have to charge it again today sorry for the interruption but we have an update during the production of this video Apple released an official statement addressing some of the connectivity issues with Apple watch Series 3 and here's what they had to say we had discovered that when Apple watch series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular the company also said it is working on a fix that will be issued in a future software update so that sort of explains some of the issues I've been having trying to get the watch to connect to LTE but we still don't know exactly when this new software release is going to be put out well how exactly it's going to fix things okay back to our regularly scheduled review so if you're like me and you're not 100% sold on the idea of LTE and the watch and you're gonna want to know about the software updates because these are the things they're gonna roll out to all Apple watches and change the experience for everybody not just people who buy the newest hardware I will say this Apple has consistently made software updates to the Apple watch over the past few years that I've really made it a lot easier to use this tiny touchscreen and this year is no exception there are some new watch faces like a Toy Story watch face and a kaleidoscope watch face the most significant of these is a dynamic Theory watch face which changes to show you things like calendar appointments and stuff that pops up in your wallet in fact Siri even talks back to you on the Apple watch series 3 the app dock has also been redesigned again now when you press on the side button the app dock is vertically oriented which means you can not only swipe through it but you can use the crown to scroll through it and it's a little easier on the eyes although it does feel like you're seeing less at a glance if that's possible honestly one of my favorite updates is that the keys on the unlock screen are a lot bigger it's the little things not surprisingly some of the software updates are around health and fitness tracking since health and fitness tracking is a big reason why people buy and use something like an Apple watch now when you go to start a workout it goes to open goal by default rather than making you go through the process of choose distance or time or calories burn just to start a workout and if you happen to use one of those other metrics regularly then it will default to that instead when you finish a workout now the watch just shows you a done button that you can tap rather than showing you save or discard because I get this sends a lot of people will probably accidentally discarding their workouts after they were done there are new swimming features it breaks it down into what kind of stroke you used when you were swimming laps there's a barometric altimeter now which people who do elevation sports like skiing or snowboarding or hiking will appreciate and there's now a multi sport mode so you can one workout and immediately start another but the biggest changes are undoubtedly around heart rate sensing now with watch OS for the watch will show you things like your resting heart rate and if you opt into it it will also show you spikes in your heart rate when you're not working out which could signal some type of irregularity or issue all of this is part of a larger effort to offer more value through the existing hardware and software that Apple has because honestly wearables only have so much value and the companies that make them know this they have to keep adding in more software features to make it just work better so should you buy the Apple watch Series three with LTE for $400 plus that $10 per month fee it really depends on how much you're willing to pay for what I think is a very rare convenience of having LTE on your wrist without your phone around personally I'm not buying it I mean I just didn't find it to be all that convenient it drained the battery life and I even had some instances like out in the ocean today where it didn't always work but if you really like the idea of having it for running quick errands without your phone going out for a run we're having it in case of emergencies then that makes sense but for me I'll stick to other wearables youwhen Apple announced with new Apple watch series 3 with LTE last week it made a big deal about the fact that you should be able to now send a message or make a phone call right from your wrist even when you don't have your phone in fact the company showed a woman on a surfboard in the middle of the ocean getting a phone call on her Apple watch series 3 so we decided to test before we head out surfing let's run through some of the basics first by now you've probably noticed that this new series 3 Apple watch pretty much looks the same as old Apple watches but there are a few differences the crown of the watch now has a red dot on it which is supposed to differentiate LTE versions the Apple watch from non-cellular versions for whatever reason the series 3 watch also has an antenna built directly into its display it has a faster processor which Apple Plains makes the watch 70% faster and of course it has the electronic sim for LTE the base price of this series 3 watch with LTE is 399 dollars there is a non LTE version of the series 3 watch and that cost just 329 dollar so it is a little bit less and then there's the series 1 watch which doesn't have LTE or GPS and that's 249 dollars but if you opt for the series 3 watch with LTE you're gonna have to factor in a monthly cell connection fee which is going to cost you an extra $10 per month for people who do decide to pay for that the real value is probably going to come from those rare instances when you want to run out for coffee or go for a jog without your phone and you just really want the option to call or text message to someone if you need to but based on my personal experience I'm still not convinced I need to upgrade from last year's Apple watch Series 2 and this is partly because the watch's connectivity without the phone didn't work all that well for me whether I was in a coffee shop going for a walk in my neighborhood or out in the middle of the ocean Wow doesn't look like I've service out here hey Siri call it turns out that having an LTE equipped SmartWatch in the middle of the ocean isn't really all it's cracked up to be I was able to call verge videographer gear and pave one time from my wrist oh wait now I either had no service or a only had one bar of service it didn't always work that well I tried using series that didn't work all that well series not working out here I have one bar so yeah I mean I guess it's good in case you really need it but it wasn't super reliable okay let's talk about battery life since that's really what's going to be impacted the most by having LTE and a SmartWatch I've had a really mixed experience with the series 3 and that's partly because the first review unit I had there's something wrong with it Jerry wasn't working it wasn't always connecting to LT even it was supposed to and a battery was draining really quickly I mean it was it was dismal so Apple sent me a second review unit and that one I think has been working more like it's supposed to if you're not using LTE you can probably expect to get a day to a day and a half out of the watch per charge just like you would with another Apple watch once you start using LTE you will experience drainage though we've been out here shooting for a few hours now and around noon I hit the 30% mark on the watch which isn't terrible but once again not as good if you're not using LTE I can probably get a few more hours out of it at this point but I'm definitely gonna have to charge it again today sorry for the interruption but we have an update during the production of this video Apple released an official statement addressing some of the connectivity issues with Apple watch Series 3 and here's what they had to say we had discovered that when Apple watch series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular the company also said it is working on a fix that will be issued in a future software update so that sort of explains some of the issues I've been having trying to get the watch to connect to LTE but we still don't know exactly when this new software release is going to be put out well how exactly it's going to fix things okay back to our regularly scheduled review so if you're like me and you're not 100% sold on the idea of LTE and the watch and you're gonna want to know about the software updates because these are the things they're gonna roll out to all Apple watches and change the experience for everybody not just people who buy the newest hardware I will say this Apple has consistently made software updates to the Apple watch over the past few years that I've really made it a lot easier to use this tiny touchscreen and this year is no exception there are some new watch faces like a Toy Story watch face and a kaleidoscope watch face the most significant of these is a dynamic Theory watch face which changes to show you things like calendar appointments and stuff that pops up in your wallet in fact Siri even talks back to you on the Apple watch series 3 the app dock has also been redesigned again now when you press on the side button the app dock is vertically oriented which means you can not only swipe through it but you can use the crown to scroll through it and it's a little easier on the eyes although it does feel like you're seeing less at a glance if that's possible honestly one of my favorite updates is that the keys on the unlock screen are a lot bigger it's the little things not surprisingly some of the software updates are around health and fitness tracking since health and fitness tracking is a big reason why people buy and use something like an Apple watch now when you go to start a workout it goes to open goal by default rather than making you go through the process of choose distance or time or calories burn just to start a workout and if you happen to use one of those other metrics regularly then it will default to that instead when you finish a workout now the watch just shows you a done button that you can tap rather than showing you save or discard because I get this sends a lot of people will probably accidentally discarding their workouts after they were done there are new swimming features it breaks it down into what kind of stroke you used when you were swimming laps there's a barometric altimeter now which people who do elevation sports like skiing or snowboarding or hiking will appreciate and there's now a multi sport mode so you can one workout and immediately start another but the biggest changes are undoubtedly around heart rate sensing now with watch OS for the watch will show you things like your resting heart rate and if you opt into it it will also show you spikes in your heart rate when you're not working out which could signal some type of irregularity or issue all of this is part of a larger effort to offer more value through the existing hardware and software that Apple has because honestly wearables only have so much value and the companies that make them know this they have to keep adding in more software features to make it just work better so should you buy the Apple watch Series three with LTE for $400 plus that $10 per month fee it really depends on how much you're willing to pay for what I think is a very rare convenience of having LTE on your wrist without your phone around personally I'm not buying it I mean I just didn't find it to be all that convenient it drained the battery life and I even had some instances like out in the ocean today where it didn't always work but if you really like the idea of having it for running quick errands without your phone going out for a run we're having it in case of emergencies then that makes sense but for me I'll stick to other wearables you\n"