The Series 3 Red Crown
One of the more anticipated segments of this week’s Apple Event was the Watch. We skipped the Apple Watch Series 4 and felt it was time to upgrade and Series 5 was keenly anticipated. The cellular version we have of the Series 3 has a meaningless red crown – more on that later.
Always On – this was the biggest enhancement during the announcement and it is also a catch up to other smart watches. It is quite annoying when the watch face does not wake up even when lifting the wrist, especially when driving (should not be admitting that here). More so when in the gym and trying to figure out the heart rate and there is just a sea of blackness instead of that sweet little red heart! Seeing visuals of this feature shows a typical Apple implementation. The face is Always On in sleep mode but it lights up and changes in the complication indicate that it is fully awake. And battery life is not affected.
Titanium and Ceramic – never made sense to us to pay more for the higher priced steel material, and now Titanium and Ceramic. We will stick to aluminium.
Compass – this will be of interest to hikers and runners – but integration into maps and the Series 5 indicating in the maps app which direction you are facing can be of value.
Emergency – on the cellular model only, pressing Emergency can bring help in many countries. But not here in South Africa! And boy do we need it.
Series 5 subtle Red Ring
The Red Crown! Which brings us to the Red Crown. Bought the Series 3 cellular model hoping to use it here in South Africa. Had great hopes that our advanced world class mobile operators will surely support the LTE in Apple Watch Series 3. eSIM is still not available for Apple Watch in SA and its a real bummer. Come on you reds, yellow, blacks and blues. How about honouring the red crown. The Apple Watch Series 3 has a red crown. The Series 5 cellular model has a red circle in the crown. The subtle change is cosmetically cool but irrelevant in South Africa.
