Apple Watch Series 3 review: If you've been waiting for the right time to buy, it might be now

What is the Apple Watch for?

I ask this because everyone has their own, very different answer. The usefulness of the fitness capabilities is one regular reply. Or the convenience of seeing that text you’re waiting for on your wrist instead of diving into your bag for your iPhone every time it pings.

Others enjoy using the Maps app for finding their way around, especially the subtlety of receiving a tap on your wrist to tell you to turn right so you don’t have to have your expensive smartphone blazing bright in your hand when you’re navigating an unfamiliar part of town late at night.

The Watch is Apple’s most personal gadget.

But the new version, called Series 3, will change those answers again. Though it looks largely like current models, it’s quite different under the bonnet.

Most importantly, it comes with LTE connectivity. That is, the Apple Watch is no longer slave to a nearby iPhone.

Could this version be the one you’ve been waiting for?

Design

This is easy. If you like the look of the previous Apple Watches, you’ll like this one. If not, not.

Series 3 looks almost identical to earlier models – technically it’s a quarter of a millimetre thicker but let’s not quibble.

The only design difference appears on the Digital Crown – the winder on a traditional watch – which is now emblazoned in a glossy red which looks good. That red dot indicates you have the LTE-capable version.

Beyond that, it has the same Retina display, shaped in that most Apple of designs – a rectangle with curvy corners. Some may have been wishing for a circular Watch, but Apple has consistently preferred this shape because it’s ideal for reading text such as emails or news headlines.

The Digital Crown sits on the right edge of the Watch, with what’s imaginatively called the Side button beneath. There are no other buttons.

As before, charging the Watch is done by placing it on a satisfyingly smooth, concave puck which connects to the Watch’s underside. That underside is convex, both to fit the puck perfectly but also to ensure the Watch presses efficiently against your skin so the heart rate monitors can measure your heartbeats by studying how your skin colour changes.

As with last year’s Series 2, the latest Watch is water-resistant to a depth of 50 metres, so it works well for swimming or surfing, for instance.

There are several colour finishes for the Watch, three kinds of metallic casing, two sizes and two special collaborations (Hermès and Nike). Full details are below. This degree of customisation is another reason the Watch is so personal. And I haven’t even mentioned the bunch of different available Watch straps.

Cellular connectivity

The LTE connectivity has changed the functions of the Watch hugely.

Now, you can go running with your Watch, without your iPhone weighing you down, and when you’re done, make a phone call to hail a ride to get home.

You can send a text, command Siri, navigate using Maps and more, all without your iPhone.

There is also a wi-fi only version of the new Watch, called Series 3 with GPS as opposed to Series 3 with GPS and Cellular. It’s £70 cheaper but is available in an aluminium finish only.

With this GPS-only version of Series 3 you can still go for a run without your iPhone and the GPS will record your run accurately. The difference is, because the Watch needs a data connection to use Maps, navigation is not possible without LTE.

Apple has pulled off a technological trick here. The Watch, which saves space thanks to an electronic rather than a physical sim card inside it, uses the same phone number as your iPhone.

This means you need a separate data plan for your Watch, of which more later, and, please note, to make the most of the Watch you’ll need to be on EE as right now it’s exclusive to this network, though this will change. In any event, both Watch and iPhone need to be on the same network.

And, curiously, you can’t roam overseas with your Watch just yet. The details aren’t yet clear but it seems to be a technical issue rather than a carrier-based one. Of course, you can use your Apple Watch abroad in every way except cellular connectivity, but it is a strange omission.

There’s one other cellular advantage: soon, Apple Music subscribers will be able to stream music straight from Apple to the Watch, so you can listen through your wireless headphones but without your iPhone with more versatility than before.

The standout feature for me has been making calls on the Watch without the phone with me. I know what you mean, it’s all too Dick Tracy for words, and perhaps I’m so British I won’t do that many of these calls, but I’ve enjoyed the convenience of knowing I can.

Call quality has been consistently good – better than making calls before which relied on the strength of the connection to the iPhone nearby. There’s also the simple interface and the freedom of having my hands free which has made this a very good experience, even when I’ve felt self-conscious.

Performance

The Series 3 Apple Watch has a new dual-core processor, the S3. If you’ve used an Apple Watch from the first version you’ll know it sometimes seemed slow (not at telling the time, that’s accurate to 50 milliseconds, but at opening apps or loading screens and so on). That got faster with software revisions. But the processor this time is lightning-fast. Apple claims a 70 per cent speed uptick compared to last year’s processor. Whatever the figures, this is a fast, responsive gadget – helped by an improved interface in the latest software, watchOS 4 which is also available for earlier versions of Apple Watch, providing you’re running iOS 11 on the Watch.

The Series 3 chip makes other extra features possible so that, for instance, Siri can now talk back on this Watch model – previously the virtual personal assistant showed answers on screen only. There’s also a new Siri watch face which assembles personal information when you need it, telling you your next appointment, estimated commute time and so on.

I’ll return to the Watch faces separately but suffice it to say there’s a bunch of new ones in the latest operating software including, oh joy of joys, a Toy Story watch face. This means that when you raise your wrist you can see Buzz, Woody, Jessie and even Woody’s wonderful horse Bullseye cavorting in a series of slick animations. Along with the time, obviously. The new watch faces are also available on earlier Watches that have updated to the just-released watchOS 4.

The Watch now comes with an extra sensor, a barometric altimeter. No, it’s not so the gadget can predict the weather for you, it’s to count the flights of steps you climb or descend and to make it possible for third-party apps to show vertical descent in snowboarding, for example. All of which there’s a more accurate calorie-burning measurement going on.

The Watch needs nightly recharges – actually when I’ve forgotten it has always got me through the next day with no problem, but if I’m sleeping, why shouldn’t the Watch? Apple claims the battery life to be 18 hours, though I’ve found it exceeds this.

Health monitoring

This has just got a lot more interesting, not least because of much more detailed heart rate measurement.

Apple has been measuring heart rate to a deep level since it launched the first Watch, including recording an ambient rate in the background.

Now, the Watch is calculating new metrics as well as showing them more visibly. For example, Watch users have let Apple know that they sometimes found, in checking out the heart rate data in the iPhone Health app that they have an elevated heart rate when they weren’t active. Sometimes this is down to people experiencing panic attacks and sometimes tachycardia, a condition which can cause a racing heart rate when not being active. This may not be a serious issue, but for sure it’s good for your doctor to know about it. Now users can set a threshold between 100 and 150 beats per minute – the default is 120bpm. And here’s the clever thing, the Watch will only notify you if you hit this threshold after you’ve been inactive for 10 minutes.

It won’t go off in a scary movie – it’ll start checking things out then but it’ll keep monitoring to see if the rate stays elevated for a longer period or if it calms down again when the terrifying moment has passed.

There are also better fitness details in the latest watchOS to make it easier to measure more kinds of workouts, along with smarter coaching messages to encourage you to hit your activity targets – measured by closing a series of rings onscreen. If you’ve used this and seen the following day that you were within spitting distance (or at least jogging distance) of hitting your target but you missed without knowing, the app now knows when to nudge you to tell you that a 12-minute walk will close the ring, say.

And when you hit the target, a festive, firework-like animation onscreen can make you feel glad you did so.

All these health monitoring features are also available to current Watch users thanks to the latest software, by the way.

Watch prices and models

As before, there are two sizes of Apple Watch – 38mm and 42mm. And a range of colours and materials for the case. The most affordable is aluminium, which costs £399 in the smaller size case, £429 in the larger. If you don’t want cellular connectivity, knock £70 off those prices. Choose from gold, silver and space grey colour finishes.

There’s also a stainless steel case – it looks the same but has a sapphire crystal front instead of glass and costs £599 for the 38mm version, £649 for 42mm. It comes in a space grey stainless steel finish as well, which is highly attractive.

That’s nothing, however, compared to the Apple Watch Edition, the premium version made of ceramic which costs £1,299 or £1,349 depending on size. The Grey Ceramic model is stunning.

There are also Nike+ and Hermès special versions with dedicated Watch faces and specific bands. The Nike+ models cost the same as their non-Nike+ counterparts, and the Hermès ones cost from £1199 and have gorgeous leather straps. In fact, the Hermès stainless steel case with fauve Barenia Leather Single Tour Deployment Buckle is now the most expensive Apple Watch you can buy, at £1,399.

There’s also the Series 1 Watch still available, which doesn’t have GPS or cellular and is only splashproof. It comes in silver or space grey aluminium anc costs £249 or £279 depending on case size.

For connectivity to cellular, you need to have an EE pay-monthly or sim-only plan for your iPhone, which needs to be iPhone 6, iPhone SE or more recent.

You can pick up an Apple Watch from EE free with a Smart Watch plan which costs £25 a month. That’s for the aluminium 38mm case. There’s a one-off upfront cost of £29.99 for the 42mm model, or £129.99/£159.99 upfront for the stainless steel models. The plan gives unlimited data, so you can call, stream music, text and so on as much as you like.

Alternatively, if you buy your Watch for the full price, for example from Apple, you can connect using the EE 30-day smart watch plan: it’s free for six months with unlimited data then 10GB a month for £5 a month. This requires an iPhone on an EE SIM-only or pay-monthly plan.

Verdict

Early signs are that the versions with cellular capability are the ones that are selling especially well. This makes sense as the difference in ticket price is just £70 between cellular and non-cellular. At this modest price difference, why wouldn’t you choose the more powerful, more versatile Watch?

I’ve barely touched on the advantages the new watchOS 4 software brings, with its much-improved interface, News app, improved Music app and more. Health and fitness monitoring is at its best on this new Series 3 Watch, the responsiveness of the new chip is a real benefit and above all, the freedom of not being attached to a nearby iPhone has turned out to be a lot more important than I imagined it would be.

The Apple Watch is an immaculately built, elegant-looking watch with brilliantly configurable apps and features.

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy one, the addition of cellular connectivity means this may be the right moment.