Apple Watch Series 3 LTE

My 3rd and final Pebble is having some issues with sticky buttons, so it's days are numbered. I've got a couple of "nice" analog wrist watches, but hardly ever wear them because I prefer the calendar reminders and vibrating alarm clock on the Pebble.

The wife wants an Apple watch, so I figured I'd jump on the band wagon and suggest she go ahead and buy two, if she's going to be going to the apple store. I can't decide if I want the LTE or not.......I can't think of any reason that I'd ever leave my iPhone 6 at home. I could possibly see stuffing it in a dry box while boating, leaving it in my backpack at work, or stuffing it in a gym locker, but maybe I'd leave it behind?

Anyone have any experience with the LTE models yet? Is it worth it?

 

The Time Steel has been amazing and I seriously considered ordering a couple of backups, but it's only a matter of time until an iOS update makes them stop working. I really just want calendar notifications, but I think I'll give the apple watch a try and maybe embrace the extra features. Making calls and leaving the phone at home sounds very enticing.

 

Christmas came super early, as my wife and I bought each other non-LTE apple watches and we were dying to use them for a Thanksgiving 5k. I had to remove a bunch of pointless apps and disable the majority of the notifications, but I'm very pleased. It doesn't have the pebble battery life, but I've been able to squeeze two days out and the GPS tracking is sweet.

I can't ever see my self actually leaving my phone at home, so I picked up a $25 Pelican box that we can take paddle boarding and sailing. I haven't tried it out yet, but in theory we should be able to get our calls on the watches while the phones are safe in the pelican box on the sailboat.

 

I just picked my wife and I up Apple Watch 3 non LTE editions this afternoon. You can basically do anything with it that Siri on OS 11 will let you do, including dictate texts and other functions. I’ve already dictated a few texts since it’s much faster than picking up the phone and honestly more accurate than autocorrect.

I don’t see the point of the LTE unless you’re going to jog a lot with the watch. Otherwise you should usually have the phone close enough to use the watch for every feature anyways. The LTE doesn’t give you full iPhone features anyways, just the ability to call, text, and stream Apple Music. If you need to always have your phone on you for work or personal reasons it could be worth it but otherwise it feels like a huge cash grab given the limited functionality and service charges.

 

I was just wondering this question as I'm planning to get a pair of watches for my wife and I. Looks like non-LTE for me. Thanks for posts guys, saved me some google time.

 

Coincidentally it's pretty good about known wireless networks. The battery on my phone died Friday afternoon and I didn't feel like getting my lightning cable out of the truck, and I noticed that the watch stayed connected WiFi and iMessage and Facetime kept working.

 

Yup, it'll hop on local Wifi if it's open and verified to be a legit hotspot. I'm not sure how Apple can tell that but whatever. One thing I'm curious about, my carrier in Canada supports WiFi calling. I wonder if the watch does, I might have to try next time I'm out and in a Telus hotspot.

 

I've not tested wifi calling, but I read it was supported. I had to disable it on my iPhone 6 because it was murdering the battery life.

 

Yep, it works. I just enabled wifi calling and powered my phone off.

 

This is the selling point for me. Being able to ditch the phone when I'm on a bike ride, working out, out on the water or at the beach. Also there's something awesome about just being able to ditch your phone in general, I don't have to obsessively check my phone for work emails/calls.

$70 more for Cellular capability and $10/mo to add it to my Verizon plan, IMO that's a worthy up charge for the functionality.

 

One of my coworkers went the LTE route after getting watch envy and I've made a few observations:

1) He complains about poor LTE signal and spotty calls when he's indoors or under tree cover.
2) That $10 is more like $19 after taxes and surcharges.
3) I still regret not going LTE.

 

I'm not sure about #2 but I can only speak for Verizon. I use their share plan with an iPhone, iPad and wifi hotspot on there... the iPad and hotspot are treated as connected devices and they show on my bill as $10/mo... My taxes and surcharges add up to $4.41/mo which is 2.8% of my overall bill. So quick math says the watch service roughly costs $10.28/mo.

 

Hence why I said unless lol. Out on the water a water resistant iPhone should be fine too. My comment was tuned towards people who are on the fence. If you already are begging to ditch the phone for the watch then the LTE makes sense. Here most people sign 2 year contracts, and on average here that's an extra $400 in charges over the average life of a device to pay just to ditch the phone with limited functionality of the watch. Good for some, not for most.

Now if Apple would unlock the watch from the iPhone then maybe it's a different story, but then I doubt the plans would be $15 a month for adding the watch (cost in Canada).

 

I have an IPhone 8+ and can’t decide which smart watch to get.

I was kinda set on the Non LTE series 3 (cant really see myself leaving my phone behind plus screw giving the phone company $10 more a month for LTE).

Then I keep checking out the Samsung Galaxy frontier Gear S3, but I hear you lose a few of the capabilities pairing it with an iOS device.

Fitbit has a new $200 option (Fitbit Versa) coming out next week that looks like an Apple Watch and has pretty good reviews online.

Then there are all the Garmin options (I’m thinking forerunner 235 or the 735xt or a Fenix?) but they are not touchscreen but are supposedly amazing none the less.

Any input?

I guess I’ll ad that I do hike and bike so the gps (tracking my hikes and bikes) and HR options would be nice.

 

I had a high end Garmin a few years ago. The Apple Watch 3 was miles ahead of it. The software, like anything Apple, just works together seamlessly with the iPhone and Apple Watch.

My brother has a Samsung watch. I'm not sure which one but he got it a few months ago. He hates it.

 

I believe the new Fitbit got a lot of Pebble's code with the buyout, and I loved my pebble....

I really do find that I'm much more likely to leave my phone in my backpack (or sitting on my kitchen counter), and respond to quick messages and calendar reminders from the watch, which really has me regretting not going the cellular route. I've hit a point where I no longer wish to be glued to my phone constantly and would probably be on-board if apple would release a flip phone that could pair with the watch and stream music.

 

Makes sense. I doubt we will see any low end phones from Apple in the future. This was a so-so year for Apple with slowing growth. I think they will shake things up by making the iPhone 7 a new low end model, the iPhone 9 as their standard, and an iPhone Xs as their high end. Basically eliminate the plus models and SE. It makes sense financially and that’s all Apple cares about.