It has taken Apple a few years to get here, but the Series 5 version of the Apple Watch is the one to get. If you have been thinking about an Apple Watch for all of these years but haven't done so yet, this is a perfect time. If you have an older model and you are ready to get something better, this is the perfect time for that too. The Apple Watch Series 5 is a great device. Two weeks ago, I wrote a longer overview of the Apple Watch Series 5, and you should consider that part one of this review. This second part of the review adds my own experiences with the Apple Watch Series 5.
From time to time
A little more than four years ago, Apple released the first version of the Apple Watch. It deserves credit for reinventing what it means to be a watch, much like the original iPhone in 2007 reinvented what it means to be a smartphone, but I wouldn't recommend using either one of those devices today. They were full of potential but incredibly limited in what they could do. Apple started to fill in the missing pieces with the Series 2 in 2016, which added GPS, the ability to get wet, and a somewhat faster processor so that it wasn't painfully slow. Series 3 in 2017 added cellular and even more speed. Series 4 in 2018 introduced a slightly larger screen that could show a lot more because the unused space on the edges got thinner, plus it was the first Apple Watch to be fast enough that you no longer really thought much about the speed of the device.
I was happy enough with the Series 4 that I didn't plan to buy a Series 5 unless Apple did something special. But Apple did so, adding a screen that is always on so that it can always tell you the time, and other information on your watch screen. To state the obvious, the ability to always tell you the time is pretty important for a watch. As I am typing this sentence right now, I can glance down at my Apple Watch and see what time it is and the status of my daily activity circles. That's something that I could never do in the past; I'd have to lift up my left arm or perform a jiggle or jerk motion to tell the Apple Watch to get out of its sleep mode.
Sure, that was only a minor inconvenience, but in daily use it makes a big difference. In my law practice, I spend a lot of time every day with my hands on a keyboard as I am typing, and it is great to have the ability to glance at my watch while I'm typing. The alternative — making that movement to activate the screen — pulls me out of my workflow. Also, when I'm in a meeting or in court, the motion required to activate an older Apple Watch screen can draw too much attention, alerting the outside world that I'm checking the time, and thus sending the impression that I'm getting bored or restless. Sure, sometimes I am indeed getting bored or restless, but I certainly don't want to others to know that. Thus, I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that the Series 5 version of the Apple Watch is twice as useful because I find myself using the watch at least twice as often now that I can look and see the time and other information so easily.
The always on display
Here's how the always on display works. If your watch is showing a watch face, after 15 seconds (or you can change this to 70 seconds in Settings) the watch face used to go completely black. But now, it just dims. The amount that it dims depends upon your environment, so if you are in a dark room it will dim even more. Also, there may be some information on the screen that is no longer displayed when in standby mode. For example, if you are using a watch face with a second hand, the second hand will disappear when the screen is dimmed.
I have had no trouble reading the dimmed screen when I'm inside and I glance at the watch. And even when I'm outside, I can usually see the dimmed screen well enough.
If something other than the watch face was being displayed — such as the Now Playing screen for a song or podcast or one of your apps — then the display blurs and dims so much that you can no longer read the screen and a digital clock appears on the top near the right of the screen. Thus, you can glance down at your watch and see what time it is, but you will need to wake the screen to see whatever the app was showing you.
There is currently one exception: the Workout app. If you are using the Workout app and you are in the middle of a workout, after 15 seconds the screen dims but you can still see almost all of the information on the screen. For example, instead of seeing the elapsed time to the hundredth of a second, you just see it to the second, but those seconds and minutes do update. This makes a big difference. For example, I often find that when I'm on a treadmill, or when I'm quickly walking or jogging outside, I want to quickly see some numbers on the Workout app such as the elapsed time, my heart rate, or my distance. But when I'm already moving my arm back and forth, it is particularly annoying and distracting to have to raise or jerk my left wrist, or reach over with my right hand to touch the screen, just to wake up the watch so that I can see those numbers. With the Series 5, I can just glance down and see the numbers as my arm is already moving. It may seem like a tiny change, but it is a major improvement.
Design and battery life
The design of the Apple Watch Series 5 is the same as the Apple Watch Series 4. As I noted in my review of the Series 4, that is a good thing. These last two versions of the Apple Watch use more of the screen and have a slightly larger screen, so you can see more on the watch.
Because the design hasn't changed, that means that battery life hasn't changed either. Even though Apple has done some amazing things to make the always on display work without sucking down too much of the battery, I do notice that my Series 5 uses more battery during the day than my Series 4. Perhaps a small part of that is me using the watch more over the past few days just because it is new, but I suspect that it is also the always on display using more battery life. I wear my Apple Watch all day long, not taking it off until I go to sleep late at night. With my Series 4, I usually had around 40% battery life at the end of the day. With my Series 5, it seems like it is closer to 20%. So in other words, I still have enough battery life to get through a day in which I use the watch quite a bit, but since all rechargeable batteries like this do hold less of a charge over time, I'll be curious to see how the battery life will be doing at the end of the day a year from now.
For now, the trade off is certainly worth it. It doesn't do me any good to have an extra 20% of battery life at the end of the day because I charge my watch every night. But it does to me a lot of good to have an always on display, all day long.
A sense of direction
No other new feature in the Apple Watch Series 5 is as useful as the always on display. Having said that, adding a compass to the Apple Watch does make sense if you are ever using the maps feature on the Apple Watch, such as to give you turn-by-turn directions.
Although you can use your iPhone for walking directions, I'm not a big fan of being that person walking around the city staring down at my phone too much — especially if I'm in another city where I don't know the neighborhood very well. But walking around and looking down at my watch face is quick and fine. The map display on the Apple Watch shows you the street that you need to be walking down, and with the Series 5 you can see which way you are facing. In the two pictures below, in the first picture, I am facing the wrong way, and you can see the rays coming out of the blue dot indicating that I'm not facing the path that I need to be going. In the second picture, I have turned to face the path, and now the rays indicate that I'm faced the right way. It's subtle, but it works to get you faced the right way.
And the rest
As much as I like the new features in the Series 5, what I like the most are the features that have been a part of the Apple Watch for a long time. I vastly prefer getting notifications on the watch — a reminder of an upcoming meeting, an email from someone I've marked as a VIP, a text message, a request to authenticate a two-factor authentication, etc. I also love being able to connect my AirPods directly the Apple Watch and then I can walk around and perform tasks while I listen to music or a podcast without needing to carry around my iPhone. I love being able to turn lights on and off in my house from my watch, thanks my HomeKit setup. And of course, the Apple Watch is fantastic for managing my workouts and encouraging me to be more active.
I'm a big fan of lots of products made by Apple, but my Apple Watch is the only Apple product that is with me all day long, from when I get dressed in the morning to when I go to sleep at night. And because I use a charging dock on my night stand, my Apple Watch is also right next to me all night long, always there to tell me the time using the Night Stand mode.
Conclusion
When the Apple Watch was a young product, the missing features were important enough omissions that the Apple Watch was best for early adopters. I'm sure that Apple will find ways to make the Apple Watch even better for many years to come. But at the current stage of Apple Watch development, with the Apple Watch Series 5, we are now at the point where I believe that anyone who owns an iPhone would find an Apple Watch to be a great and useful product. If you have been waiting for the right time to get an Apple Watch, that time is now.
Click here to get Apple Watch Series 5 from Amazon (prices vary based on model).
