Hacker News Reader

Comment by salamandersauce | Hacker News Reader

What is years ahead? It has a better SoC than competing watches for sure but what's the point? I wouldn't be surprised if the first Apple Watch has a faster SoC than my Fenix 5 Plus but other than the time it takes for it to make up a random running route I don't really care because the device feels snappy. My Pebble felt snappy too. I think other than EKG (don't care about that) my Fenix has all the same sensors, GPS, NFC for payments, HR monitor, accelerometer, altimeter, WiFi, bluetooth etc. I do wish it was a little more open like Pebble to get some of those weird little apps back though.

To me, a power hungry OLED touch screen seems like doing the important things wrong. It's harder to see in the sun, doesn't work with gloves or when it's cold, you need to actually LOOK at it to do something like pause music or change the album.

View on HN

The functionality. I can use it as a flashlight, call, dictate messages, listen to music without phone, control my phone camera, use it for 2FA, map navigation, notifications with images and control smart home stuff. And yes, much of this convenience is due to the walled garden. I never had issues reading the screen, which I did have with my color screen pebble.

I can do most of that on my Garmin. Really only stuff that requires mic is not doable because it doesn't have a mic. And I guess notifications "with images". Heck some of it like 2FA I did on my Pebble!

I can’t compare with the Garmin, but the Pebble experience was subpar. I stopped wearing mine after a few weeks and gifted them to my mother after a while (she loved the pebbles but had constant issues with connectivity on Android). On the other hand, I expected to return my Apple Watch (it was an impulse buy due to a discount). But it really grew on me. It’s actually a “it just works” product (which I can’t say of a lot of Apple products these days). A friend of mine has a Garmin, but afaik he can’t do much with notifications. On the other hand I have quick replies, voice to text or depending on the app quick actions. That’s just not in the same ballpark. Do I need it? No. But it’s really convenient once you got used to it. I don’t know how many times I set the timer with Siri because my hands were full or dirty. If a second SIM card wasn’t so pricey in Germany I would probably get one and leave my mobile at home most of the time.

Yeah, quick replies only work if you have Android with Garmin and other smart watches because Apple doesn't let them.

The only thing I really hate about the Garmin is that they kneecap CJK support by region locking it.

> If a second SIM card wasn’t so pricey in Germany I would probably get one and leave my mobile at home most of the time.

This reminds me: it's silly that the Apple Watch eSIM has to be from the same provider as one's iPhone, and some providers which offer a phone eSIM don't support provisioning it for the Apple Watch, and vice versa.

A better SoC usually means better power efficiency, where the speed means it can get through tasks faster under the same wattage, so it helps battery life.

Which is then completely blown by the screen anyways? It's not like you're tearing up complicated calculations on your watch. This makes sense on other devices but not so much on a watch. My Garmin lasts a week with the screen always on, several hours of GPS on and music playing during workouts. The most draining thing is music.

Yes but those screen features are what some people ask for (and always on can be disabled).

The watch also does do quite a bit of processing on device, especially cellular ones. It's quite a different beast than the Garmin, even though they have crossover

Reply on news.ycombinator.com