Is the Apple Watch Series 8 a serious health tracker?
Apple made a statement with the new Apple Watch Ultra this year: We want to be on your wrist everywhere you go. The Ultra, marketed as a rugged outdoor machine, boasts incredible battery life, a tough exterior, and emergency beaconing capabilities with its new satellite link technology.
But these hardcore outdoor guys in their ads? That’s just not me. I’m a suburbanite whose idea of exercise is walking my dog. So I bought the Apple Watch Series 8 instead, thinking it was more than enough for me. I was wrong. Here’s why:
1. Battery life is paltry.
If there’s one thing that makes me wish I sprang for the Ultra, it’s battery life.
Apple makes their watch seem like a daily driver. And when it’s running, it really is a productive little machine. The new watch faces allow you to see upcoming calendar events, activity rings, alarm clock settings, and various other complications.
Watch OS9 brings an even bigger punch with sleep stage tracking (surprisingly accurate compared to competitors, according to the Quantified Scientist). That’s great until it dies.
Even with “always on” and “raise to wake” turned off and all notifications set to the bare minimum, the watch will die in about a day. But if you turn everything off, what’s the point of having an Apple Watch? Unfortunately, the only way to get more juice is to fork over $300 more of your hard-earned money and lug around a bulky, overkill machine, the Ultra.
2. Sleep tracking sucks.
The Apple Watch is not a health wearable yet. It all depends on the development of the OS. Watch OS9 seems to be on the right path. The inclusion of sleep stage tracking was something woefully missing in previous iterations. But even still, the health app has severe limitations.
The main gripe I have is automatic sleep tracking. Your bedtimes and wake times are intrinsically tied to the schedule you set on the device. If you fall asleep a little before your bedtime, it won’t count it. If you turn off your alarm before you wake up, that time is also lost.
Fortunately, according to the Quantified Scientist, sleep stage tracking on the Apple Watch is one of the most accurate wearables on the market. But if it can’t track your sleep duration correctly, one of the most fundamental pieces of data to understand if your sleep stages are in the healthy range, accurate sleep stages almost seems useless.
For example, if my REM sleep shows up as 20% of my overall duration, that’s great. Except, my sleep duration got cut off as soon as I turned off my first of many alarms in the morning. That number might look more like 15% if you count my total duration.
3. Don’t count on it as a health intervention app.
Apple’s most significant weakness with health tracking has always been the software. While it does great to manage things like integrating your covid vaccinations or as a mediating app between other more helpful health apps, it cannot stand on its legs.
Apple health’s data visualizations can appear challenging to decipher at first glance and leave it to the user to understand what much of the data means. If you’re a beginner to health wearables, you will find yourself googling a lot: What is HRV? What’s a healthy resting heart rate for my age?
Another issue I have with the app is the lack of feedback. What’s my optimal bedtime? What can I do to improve my sleep? Apple Watch gives no helpful feedback about your health. It’s just a data generator and a poor one at that.
4. Apple Watch always falls behind its competitors in health features.
The Apple Watch released temperature tracking on its hardware and sleep stage tracking on its software this past September 2022. Most wearables on the market have had these features for years. Some could argue that Apple’s delay is a result of mindful perfectionism, as illustrated by the Quantified Scientist’s high marks in accuracy. But if the speed of these feature rollouts indicates how things will look in the future, Apple Watch has a long way to go to compete as a health wearable. How many times will other wearables lap the Apple Watch before the disparity becomes too big?
5. You’re going to find yourself constantly adjusting your settings.
One of the few things that the Oura Ring does well is that it has a “set it and forget it” user experience. Some of it could have to do with the absence of a touch screen.
Oura will track anytime you shut your eyes, even during small naps. There’s no finagling with the settings needed.
Apple Watch, on the other hand, needs some fine-tuning. You’ll find yourself manually setting your sleep schedule rather than having the software find the perfect routine. If you want to start a workout, you might find the auto-detect feature too unreliable. You’ll need a more manual way of doing things.
Most wearables have a baseline period where they get an idea of your rhythms and adjust the software for you. For a product that almost demands that you wear it all the time, it makes you brutally aware of its existence. I yearn for something more “invisible.”
6. Nickel allergies, beware.
Apple claims that they were careful in selecting their watch materials and that only a small number of people should have a problem with skin sensitivities. I’m one of the unlucky few.
Despite swapping out the sweat-clogging sport band for the breathable sport loop, the giant ceramic lug that detects my vitals continually gave me a rash on my wrist.
7. The Apple Watch is more of an extension of your phone.
I often need to remember the Apple Watch detects my vitals. But I can’t help but feel a little comforted knowing I can leave my phone in another room without worrying about missing a phone call or text.
Some features of the Apple Watch I can’t live without, such as the ability to unlock my phone and computer without entering any passcode or Face ID scanning. If I can’t find my phone, Apple Watch has a quick-to-push feature to make my phone vibrate and ring so I can see it wedged in the couch cushions. These niceties made me forget the Apple Watch’s lack of health features for months.
Conclusion: I’ll be returning my Apple Watch.
I’ve persistently tried to live with the rash, taking breaks to ease my skin, but enough is enough. I’ll be returning my Apple Watch.
To be frank, all the benefits of the Apple Watch don’t seem to justify the consistent demand to be tethered to a charging cable. I can’t live with that kind of “battery anxiety.” Most of the benefits of owning an Apple Watch are just “nice-to-haves,” but none are things I’ll surely miss. And none have anything to do with tracking my health.
However, I will miss the silent vibrating alarm. It was just one of those things I didn’t realize I needed until I had it. The ability to not wake up my wife to a blaring bomb siren on my nightstand is a Godsend. Luckily, I found a cheap $20 solution to replace that. So I can still wake up an hour earlier, my wife undisturbed.
