Apple’s first smartwatch disappoints its audience

On Mar. 9, Apple unveiled their first entry in the smartwatch world with the Apple Watch, a device that has fallen miles below public expectation. The company overhyped and under delivered with their watch, as many were shocked to see the poor design, high prices and lackluster interface.

Apple’s first smartwatch features a square design, and will come in three models: the Apple Watch Sport, the Apple Watch and the Apple Watch Edition. The watches across all three models will function the same way, using the same unintuitive crown feature, which requires the user to use a crown on the side of the watch to navigate most of the menus effectively.

The prices of these three models vary, with the rubber watch sport coming in at $349, the standard watch at $599 and the Watch Edition being out of most people’s reach at over $10,000 due to featuring actual gold. Apple products are known for being ridiculously overpriced for the hardware they give you, but $349 for a rubber banded watch is too high of an asking price for a device with such a premium of a price tag.

When putting the Apple Watch against its Android Wear competitors, it is an obvious testament in showcasing the Apple Watch as an inferior product in every which way. The Apple is thicker and bulkier than most Android Wear devices, and doesn’t have the battery life to show for this, as it is estimated that it will get a mere 18 hours. Under heavy usage, it’s unclear whether or not the watch will even last your whole work day. Comparing that to the battery life of an average Android Wear Watch, you can expect to get around two days from most of the devices, nearly 38% better than that of the Apple Watch.

Not all is bad with the Apple Watch, however, as there are some clear advantages of Android Wear offerings in some aspects. The best feature in favor of Apple comes from the watch itself, as it comes with a built-in speaker and microphone allowing users to complete full-fledged phone calls. Also, having built-in NFC, the Apple Watch allows users to make payments via NFC using Apple Pay at compatible receivers at stores. Though don’t be surprised if these features begin to arise in future Android Wear iterations.

Overall, the Apple Watch seems to be poised for failure from a technological standpoint, though as for total sales, it is likely that Apple will break more than even with their launch of the Apple Watch, as they continue to do with all their products. If you are considering buying a smartwatch this April, I suggest you look elsewhere, as the Apple Watch will fail to fit most of your practical needs demanded in a watch.