I'm a geek. If there's anything you should know about me right off the bat, that's it. My high school senior class voted me Most Tech Savvy. That's not to say I'm socially inept (though my friends might argue otherwise), but I do have a particular appreciation for some of life's nerdier things.
Since I was young, I've always loved technology. Just to give a bit of my background with technology, I got my first iPod (4GB, 1st gen nano, black) in second grade and treasured it, as it was the first big piece of technology I owned that was truly mine (aside from my Gameboy). Fast forward 10 years + a month or so (which puts us 4 iPods, 3 laptops - 1 PC, 2 Macs-, 3 iPads, and 5 smartphones - 4 of which were iPhones -, and a Pebble later), and I graduate from high school. That was two days ago. That day, I was given by my family two big graduation gifts: a Conn 8D french horn (omg so beautiful) and a space gray Apple Watch Sport.
I would have gotten the watch when it came out 7 weeks earlier but a few days before that, I demoed it at the Apple Store and was distinctly unimpressed. I went home and told my whole family that I saw no reason that the Apple Watch would be any better than my Pebble had been and that I would happily stick with my Pebble through this first generation of the Apple Watch. Once it came out and I saw my uncle, grandpa, and brother (who also owns a Pebble) all loving their Apple Watches, I saw that maybe I hadn't quite gotten the full experience through the in-store demo.
I set up my Apple Watch at lunch with my family after graduation and immediately started using it, and instantly I could tell that it was a cleaner, more polished experience than my Pebble, and that it remedied some of the biggest gripes I had with my Pebble (responding to certain notifications, receiving notifications on both devices, long wait times to pull data from internet through Pebble app and into apps on the watch). The screen is beautiful, navigation is a breeze with the touch screen as opposed to the Pebble's buttons. The digital crown, though not intuitive for all situations (opening an app, scrolling through short text conversations, emails, etc.) comes in handy for others (customizing a watch face, scrolling through music), and it serves well as a sort of home button. I'm still not completely sold on the long button serving exclusively as a hotkey to the friends menu on a single click, but I appreciate that it opens Apple Pay on a double click. I also expected to miss having an always-on watch face on the screen, but the "raise to activate" feature of the Apple Watch deals with this beautifully, only powering the screen when it senses that I'm looking at it (which means people around me won't be reading my notifications from my watch when I'm not paying attention anymore).
My biggest concern about leaving my Pebble for the Apple Watch was battery life. With my Pebble, I can confidently wring out 5-7 of usage without having to recharge. The Apple Watch is quite a more powerful device and draws quite a bit more power, so I knew that I would have to sacrifice the amazing battery life I had grown used to with my Pebble. But surprisingly, I unplugged my watch at 2:45pm yesterday afternoon. It's now 2:56am (it's summer, I don't feel like sleeping, shut up) and I have been actively using my watch all day. It has 47% battery. I'm shocked. Granted, I don't think this battery life will last, and I still plan to plug my watch in overnight every night (I will plug it in as soon as I publish this post) but it is extremely reassuring to know that I really won't have to worry about my watch dying on me mid-day.
So all in all, my first impressions of the Apple Watch are extremely positive. I still think it has room to grow as a platform, but overall I think the future for the smartwatch is bright. I still love Pebble and appreciate all that it did to change the way I interact with the world through my technology, but now that I have seen such a cleaner iteration of a similar experience, I just can't go back.
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