Apple Watch Smartwatch Review: A Frustrating iPhone Accessory

Apple wants to define the smartwatch. Just as it defined the tablet and smartphone, Apple wants consumers to look at the Apple Watch and say “that’s what every wearable should be.”

It follows a predictable pattern. Apple is not the first to market here. Google’s Android Wear is pushing a year old, and Samsung, Pebble, and half a dozen others have been in this market for longer than that. But like BlackBerry and the smartphone in 2007, Google thinks it has the smartwatch just about figured out.

As we stated in our Android Wear review:

Google has a clear vision of what it wants Android Wear to offer: concise and useful information for the user, pushed out to the user, when the user needs to see it, all available at a glance.

Google thinks this will save time, keep heads out of smartphones, and keep us all engaged in the real world. It will alleviate the smartphone distraction, while still keeping us connected.

The problem for Google is that Android Wear is not quite there yet. The user interface is too awkward, Google Now alerts are too unreliable, the apps are too gimmicky, and the devices require too many compromises, particularly in regards to battery and display.

That leaves a large opening for the Apple Watch. Surely Apple can build a smartwatch with better battery than what the Android Wear delivers. Surely Apple can come up with an intuitive smartwatch OS. Surely Apple can inspire app developers to build must-have apps; the kind that take full advantage of the form factor and improve users’ lives.

Surely, Apple will give us a reason to own a smartwatch. Right?

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