As you have read in the past I was not a huge fan of the Apple Watch Series 3 when I first tried it last year. If you remember I ditched the Apple watch for a Fitbit Charge 2. This year I decided to try the Apple Watch Series 4 with LTE.
This device has come a long way in the health market. Apple has added
- Fall Detection
- Echocardiogram Features
- Low Heart-Rate Alerts
All of which I find both very cool and really put Apple far ahead in the health market.
I was not a huge fan of the old Apple watch as I found the screen a bit small for my fingers. I got the 44mm this time around and I really have no issue touching the screen and being accurate. I think this was one of the main turn-offs for me personally.
Compared to the Fitbit I do find the step counter to be much more accurate on an Apple Watch. Many times with my Fitbit I would be sitting there watching TV with my 6-month-old daughter and the Fitbit would congratulate me on reaching my step goals. Just from my daughter moving around it would count that as steps with the Apple Watch this does not happen anymore.
I did find on the Fitbit that I liked reading my messages on my wrist but the not being able to reply was kind of a pain. This could have been fixed with a more expensive Fitbit like the Versa or Blaze. I can’t really blame Fitbit for that as I could have bought the more expensive model. I do like controlling my music on Apple watch that is another feature that could have been fixed by again a more expensive Fitbit.
The App support for the Apple Watch has gotten much better since I tried the Apple Watch Series 3 a little over a year ago. Pandora is now back on the watch after they abandoned their Apple watch App only a few weeks after I got mine. Audible and Audiobooks.com both now have Apple Watch Apps and you can now Sync books to the Apple Watch which I really like and enjoy. I have since started using Pocketcast for podcasts and again there is an app for that as well on the Apple Watch.
The reason why these apps are so huge for me is that my Apple Watch Series 4 is connected to LTE and I can use the apps when I go walking and use my Apple watch on the go and do not need to bring my iPhone. Plus with the addition of eight more gigs of storage, I am able to offline more content to listen to at any given time.
While at times I still think that Fitbit does have better daily tracking if the tracking is not accurate I don’t see the point. I can honestly say the one place that Fitbit still has the Apple Watch beat is with battery life. The Fitbit I wear around the clock 24/7 except once every 5 or 6 days when I need to charge it for an hour or two.
With the Apple watch if I want to track my sleep I need to charge the watch during the day or charge it first thing in the morning. The only way around this is to use the Pillow app which monitors your sleep via your iPhone. While it’s not as accurate as wearing my Apple Watch to bed its a workaround that does an ok job.
The one thing I really like about the Apple Watch is that it unlocks my MacBook Pro via Bluetooth. While this sounds stupid I really like that fact that it saves me having to type in my password five or six times a day and can save me a few seconds a few times a day.
The one thing I have had to get used to is the Apple ring health set up for walking, standing and exercising. While I am not a huge fan of the ring system when you connect it with the workout functionality it does make some sense.
Overall I do like the Apple Watch Series 4 better than the Series 3. I think the bigger screen and better accuracy along with more apps support really does put the Apple Watch Series 4 over the top for me and I now prefer it over the Fitbit.