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The personal site of Jamie Knight, an autistic web developer, speaker and mountain biker who is never seen far from his plush sidekick Lion. View the Archive

Topics: Autism Development

Going from Apple Watch to Apple Watch Series 1.

TLDR:

I don’t feel like i wasted my money, but at the same time the upgrade from the original Apple Watch to an Apple Watch Series 1 is not a must have because watchOS 3 is so good.

The whole story

I’ve only been using the Apple Watch since June. In that time it has had a very positive effect on my life. As an autistic person it has enhanced my autonomy and extended my ability to be independent. That’s very powerful, long term, that also saves me a small fortune in support costs.

With that in mind, it seemed worthwhile to try one of the newer watch on launch. After all, my current watch was only going to fall in value and buy buying early in the cycle i’d get the longest service life from my next watch. To make it all a little easier, my boyfriend wanted my current watch so i had a good buyer lined up.

I’m not a swimmer or runner, so i went with the Series 1 to get the speedier internals without paying for thing’s i didn’t need. The upgrade cost me £90, or about ~£4 a month assuming an 24 month cycle.

Overall i am very happy with my decision. The series 1 is smoother in operation than the original watch. For example, there are less dropped frames during animations and the interface is more responsive. The delay between tapping a complication and seeing something happen on my original watch was noticeable, on the Series 1 it feels immediate.

For the apps on my watch today, the original Apple Watch would have done just fine. So based on my usage today i wouldn’t recommend everyone with an original apple watch go rushing out for the upgrade. However, if its a cheapish upgrade for you, i do think its worth doing for the future proofing.

Published: 25 September 2016 | Categories: Permalink

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