APPLE WATCH SERIES 5 REVIEW

Apple Watch Series 5 (GPS + Cellular, 40mm) - Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band
  • Built-in cellular lets you receive calls, send texts, and check your email — even without your phone.
  • You don’t have to raise your wrist or tap to see the time or important information. With the Always-On Retina display, your watch face is always visible.
  • The viewing area stretches deep into the curved corners and is over 30% larger than the Apple Watch Series 3 display.
  • Made for all the ways you exercise, Apple Watch Series 5 has built-in GPS and is swimproof.
  • With the ECG app, you can take an ECG similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram right from your wrist.

Apple needs no introduction. The multinational technological company continues its relentless journey to create smartwatches. The newest addition to that family, the Apple Watch Series 5, was launched in September 2019.

Apple receives competition from Fitbit and Samsung, but it has been able to keep up the competition. Its predecessors have received great improvements. Originally, the Apple Watch was a general communication device used in synchronization with iPhones. Currently, you can use it for fitness, activity tracking, in-built GPS location, music play and social media sharing of data with excellent performance.

Its biggest challenge is the battery life across all devices that lasts for just a day and a half at its best. However, this is a trade-off to all its awesome features that it possesses. Additionally, it requires an iPhone for it to perform thereby limiting other operating systems users.

Our Verdict: This is the best Apple series smartwatch yet. It supports excellent features ranging from phone call receiver, fitness tracking, health tracking, being waterproof, in-built compass, fall sensors and optical heart sensors. The features make it stand above all its competitors in terms of performance. However considering that the device doesn’t support other OS devices, this limits its users. Also, it’s expensive and its battery life cannot support intensive features over a long period of use.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview and Features
    • Always-on display
    • WatchOS6
    • Activity tracker
    • Inbuilt Compass
    • Fitness
    • Cycle Tracking
    • Stay connected
    • Swim proof
    • Apple Pay
    • Battery Life
  2. Apple Watch Series 5 Pros and Cons
  3. Conclusion and Rating

Overview and Features

Apple Watch series 5 takes everything that made the Apple Watch Series 4 great, adds some extra features, and then replaces the older model with this superior one.

Having a watch on your wrist calls for frequent checking of time. During an exercise session or when you’re in a meeting, you only need to glance at your Apple smartwatch series 5 to check the time. Its display never shuts off completely. It helps you check your heart rate and elevation when on the go.

For ‘keep fit’ users, the watch is light and usable during workouts, in addition to day-to-day health tracking. It helps keep track of your heart rate and notify you in case of any deviations from normality. However, this series does not support sleep monitoring for users requiring the feature. Let’s have a look at the advanced features of the device.

Always-on Display

This is the marquee new feature of the Series 5. Continued complaints have finally been heeded to. With the previous models, you had to raise your wrist to see the Apple Watch’s screen. This is the best feature that users are so glad to get with low power consumption. The LPTO screen material and the low power screen controller help the screen run at a refresh rate of once per second compared to other devices 60 times per second.

WatchOS6

Apple Watch Series 5 comes with multiple features, especially in health and fitness in the new WatchOS6 version. Additionally, there are improved multiple watch faces, Siri capabilities and a collection of new apps. There are over a thousand watch faces to select from in the watchOS6. Shift from explorer to newer faces like gradient, meridian, California and many more impressive ones. You will also enjoy live music streaming, better Apple Health summary info, the new independent Watch App Store and the Noise app for monitoring decibel levels.

 Activity Tracker

Another improvement in the Series 5 hardware is the altimeter feature. You can check your elevation either above or below sea level, unlike the original feature of the height climbed or descended. This helps track yourself in outdoor activities such as hikes to determine what height you’ve achieved.

Inbuilt Compass

The inbuilt magnetometer correctly and consistently points in a direction and is stable, unlike the iPhone inbuilt ones. This is a big achievement in rising above the competitor smartwatch manufacturers. Apple seems to be targeting Garmin Fenix that has a variety of features. When it comes to hiking, it’s the best option with longer battery life.

Fitness

To improve fitness experience, Series 5 has introduced changes in Health and Activity apps. They help improve the usability of workouts and fitness. Determine the exercise period variations every day and analyze the trend. However, for the hardware and software features, there are no changes made.

Cycle Tracking

Cycle tracking is a significant improvement in support of women users that need to track their periods. Garmin and Fitbit are the only smartwatches that have similar features and have used them over a length of time. You just need to input your period start and the expected period and will have the predicted next time for the periods. Additionally, you can track your ovulation results to determine or control pregnancy over the iOS Health app.

Stay Connected

Through Bluetooth connectivity, reply to messages or pick calls made on your phone that are out of reach. As long as you’re within the Bluetooth connection range, you will remain connected.

Swim Proof

For intensive swimmers, this is the best smartwatch for you. Check on time, track your progress and challenge your friends on swimming with up to 50 meters support. This also means it’s okay to have it on when having a shower.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay on your wrist is great too. Conveniently and securely pay for stuff or send money over Series 5 Apple Pay. Just double press the large side button and put the reader on the card, just like on a credit card. Therefore, you don’t necessarily need your iPhone to make payments.

Battery Life

Apple smartwatches generally are not for intensive activities. Battery life has been controversial with the Series 5 supporting up to 18 hours of battery life. This is not convenient for many workout sessions and GPS usage. There has not been an improvement from Series 4.

Pros

Always-on display

Emergency SOS

ECG app

Awesome haptics

Offline music

Ability to swap straps

Activity tracking

Cons

Charge overnight due to low battery life

Expensive

Supports iPhone only

Conclusion and Rating

Smart Fitness Geek.com Product Rating: 4.5/5

You still need an iPhone to use the Apple Watch, but the Apple Watch Series 5’s intuitive interface, always on display and wide variety of app support make it a worthy buy. Additionally, Apple kept into consideration a stylish look with a sleek feel on the wrist. The only challenge the watch faces is battery life but with all the other features, it’s a sure trade of.