I personally hate that the Shuffle is dead. It was a prime example of a device that did one thing only and did it well. No love for minimalism these days, I suppose.
https://www.aliexpress.com/price/mp3-player-usb-drive_price....
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S1_MP3_player
(I played around with S1s when they were really popular; they're a cute little Z80-based embedded system. It's rather surprising that they are apparently still in production, for over a decade now.)
If the watch itself can store it, hell I'll buy one today. Anything to avoid lugging the phone on a run.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204691
Funny enough, the Shuffle had 2gb capacity over the past 7 years. I'm guessing that was the sweet spot for Apple.
I'm in the android ecosystem, and have had 2 watches that do this: Moto 360 Sport, and now have Polar M600 that can store music (from Google Play), and which allows running without a phone.
There are couple of things that I find off-putting about the experience and tend to simply stick with airpods + iphone.
1) You only get a few options in terms of what music you put on your phone. You cannot simply select the albums you want, you can choose these options:
* Classical Music
* My Top Rated
* Recently Played
* Top 25 Most Played
* 90's Music
* Playlists
I would much rather upload specific albums instead and find it really annoying that I have to jump through hoops to accomplish that goal.
2) Airpods really struggle to switch between iphone to iwatch. Half of the time they cannot pair correctly. My macbook pro and iphone have no troubles at all pairing but the iwatch seems to struggle a lot.
If those two things do not bother you then go for it. When you have the music you want on the iwatch and the airpods pair correctly, it's a really nice experience especially with exercising.
I use an Apple Watch Series 2 for running and cycling. The S2 has GPS, so Strava works without the iPhone. I love it, but I have two gripes:
1. Only one playlist (up to 2GB) can be synced to the watch at any time. This is an annoying artificial limitation.
2. The heart rate monitor can be spotty. Around 10% of the time, it picks up my cadence instead of my pulse. I've tried every possible combination of orientation and band tightness.
For exercise, I much prefer the watch to a phone + armband. It's less weight. It's far easier to glance at. And it's waterproof, so I don't have to worry about damage from rain or sweat.
If you're interested, you might want to wait before buying one. It's been almost a year since the last update. Apple will likely release new hardware before the holidays.
It has battery life that lasts almost two days, which is more than enough for most people.
How is it exponentially more breakable? By what measure?
The Shuffle was great and still easier to use than the standalone music playback capability of the Watch.
Why are people here so intent on misrepresenting the cost of Apple gear? You don't need to spend a grand on an iPhone to get an Apple Watch to work and you don't need to spend a grand on an Apple Watch either.