quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Also along that same line, what kind of coverage/reception does the watch have? I live in a marginal cell coverage area (2-3 bars pretty consistently). Will the watch necessarily have poorer coverage than a full sized phone?

Most definitely.
 
I had a cellular model Watch a few years ago. I live out of the big city, but we do have 3 good VZ towers here in town (now get 5G on my phone). I have good line of sight to two towers while at home, but there is some distance involved (5-8 miles) I could never get any bars on the watch where we live just northwest of Wickenburg. I could get two or three bars if I went to downtown Wickenburg right next to a tower. Travel to the Valley (PHX), and it lit up like a Christmas tree.
 
The cellular modem in the watch is necessarily smaller and less powerful than what is in the iPhone. I would not recommend it, or depend on it, for anywhere except urban areas with strong coverage. But of course, signal strength in your rural areas could be different than here.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
One thing to note about the Ultra.
You MUST have headphones in order to make/receive phone calls.

Can confirm this is not true. I’ve received calls directly to my Ultra without my ear buds.

Ditto. You can absolutely use the phone feature without ear buds. Ear buds make it a more pleasant experience if it's going to be a longer call, but for quick conversations the watch is perfectly adequate. I have never had any issues with the other party being unable to hear me while talking into the watch microphone either. You do need to hold it up near your mouth when you speak, Dick Tracy style. The speaker(s) on the AW Ultra are also much clearer sounding than on the previous versions of the AW I've used.

I had concerns about it being too large/bulky as well, as I've never been a fan of the giant watch look. But after wearing it for a few weeks that has not been an issue for me - I think it looks and feels fine.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Also along that same line, what kind of coverage/reception does the watch have? I live in a marginal cell coverage area (2-3 bars pretty consistently). Will the watch necessarily have poorer coverage than a full sized phone?

Most definitely.
 
I had a cellular model Watch a few years ago. I live out of the big city, but we do have 3 good VZ towers here in town (now get 5G on my phone). I have good line of sight to two towers while at home, but there is some distance involved (5-8 miles) I could never get any bars on the watch where we live just northwest of Wickenburg. I could get two or three bars if I went to downtown Wickenburg right next to a tower. Travel to the Valley (PHX), and it lit up like a Christmas tree.
 
The cellular modem in the watch is necessarily smaller and less powerful than what is in the iPhone. I would not recommend it, or depend on it, for anywhere except urban areas with strong coverage. But of course, signal strength in your rural areas could be different than here.

The biggest factor is going to be the length of the antenna inside the watch.

The shorter it is with respect to how long an ideal antenna would be, the worse the reception and transmission.

In a watch you're not going to be more than perhaps 1/3 of the length it should be best case.

quote:

Originally posted by barndg00:

I’m coming to believe that I’m the only person in my 40s (43 actually), who loves my old school, analog watch. <snip> Maybe a Gen-X thing, living booth sides of the digital world, but I reject having an electronic device attached to me 24-7.

Aesthetically, I prefer a "real" watch, but the Apple Watch offers a practical advantage, so I wear it 99% of the time.

Older guy (Geezer grade), with crappy balance due to guide rods surgically implanted in hip and thigh, nerve damage and loss of some strength due to Guillain Barré, and just general aging, I had a bad fall in the driveway. The first reaction was to look at one of those "help, I have fallen and I can't get up" dongles to wear with a neck lanyard. Expensive monthly monitoring fee.

A little further research showed that Apple Watches, starting with the 4th generation, have fall detection and will call 911 and also anybody / everybody on your emergency contact list with no monitoring fee. My wife gave me an Apple Watch for our anniversary. The only time I wear a "real" watch now, is if I am with my wife, as I don't need fall monitoring then.

quote:

Originally posted by creslin:
One thing to note about the Ultra.
You MUST have headphones in order to make/receive phone calls.

Incorrect for the Ultra or any Apple Watch. You can take calls right on the watch.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by barndg00:
I’m coming to believe that I’m the only person in my 40s (43 actually), who loves my old school, analog watch. <snip> Maybe a Gen-X thing, living booth sides of the digital world, but I reject having an electronic device attached to me 24-7.

Aesthetically, I prefer a "real" watch, but the Apple Watch offers a practical advantage, so I wear it 99% of the time.

This ^^^^^

As somebody recently noted, somewhere: There are plenty of ways to find out what time it is. What my Apple Watch brings to the game goes well beyond what a timepiece would.

Heck, if all I wanted was a timepiece, I might be inclined to go really old school and carry a pocket watch--complete with chain

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Older guy (Geezer grade), with crappy balance ...

Official Old Guy here, too. I don't know if my balance is "crappy," but it ain't great, either. I look at the fall detection as good insurance.

It works, too. I found out, when, looking at my phone instead of where I was walking, I crashed going down two short steps entering a museum. Luckily, the entire area was carpeted, they were short steps, and I managed to twist myself, cat-like, to land without damaging anything.

Got a fall detection from the Watch.

My apple watch - WOW! Better accuracy than my two
Rolex's (now sitting unused in a drawer).
Apple watch checks for heart problems, etc. Phone
call capable. Only scary thing is that twice now
while my wife and I were discussing something, a
woman's voice came from my Apple watch giving her
ideas on what we were discussing! WOW!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Michael J. Shannon:
Only scary thing is that twice now
while my wife and I were discussing something, a
woman's voice came from my Apple watch giving her
ideas on what we were discussing! WOW!!!

Siri will NOT be enabled on mine. No way no how.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael J. Shannon:
Only scary thing is that twice now
while my wife and I were discussing something, a
woman's voice came from my Apple watch giving her
ideas on what we were discussing! WOW!!!

Siri will NOT be enabled on mine. No way no how.

Set up the watch so that the only to get Siri responses is to say "Hey Siri". No chance you're going to say that accidentally.

Except that it's listening all the time, or else it wouldn't hear, "Hey Siri".

I have it disabled on my phone as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

Set up the watch so that the only to get Siri responses is to say "Hey Siri". No chance you're going to say that accidentally.

It took me a while to figure out why that Siri slut was waking up on my phone.

Sometimes I get my wife's attention by saying, "Hey, Dearie."

I have Siri disabled on everything.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Except that it's listening all the time, or else it wouldn't hear, "Hey Siri".

I have it disabled on my phone as well.

It is listening, but it's listening for "Hey Siri"

What do you think it is doing with everything you say that is not, "Hey Siri"?

Nothing, would be a giant leap of faith IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
What do you think it is doing with everything you say that is not, "Hey Siri"?

Nothing, would be a giant leap of faith IMO.

That's exactly what I think based upon my career as an Electronic Engineer with substantial time spent working Research & Development for various high tech companies.

Doing anything with what it heard would require massive computing power, massive memory, massive algorithms to separate usable from unusuable and massive amounts of people who know all about it. The amount of people is probably the biggest problem. Remember the Ben Franklin quote that "3 people can keep a secret if 2 of them are dead."

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
What do you think it is doing with everything you say that is not, "Hey Siri"?

Nothing, would be a giant leap of faith IMO.

That's exactly what I think based upon my career as an Electronic Engineer with substantial time spent working Research & Development for various high tech companies.

As an engineer, I think you'd appreciate the difference between an algorithm burned into hardware for power efficiency, searching for the turn-on phrase, and a dedicated continuous 64kbps data stream the the cloud processing facility. It's pretty clearly different, and well studied by those who were skeptical and wanted to validate such. The Amazon Echo is the same deal.

That said, I am in agreement that if you want to feel very secure in your privacy, leave all "smart" devices behind.

as far as cellular plan i have been told by all major providers that a cellular plan is required for the Ultra, it only is available in a cellular version. unlike all previous AW that where either a WiFi version or Cellular/WifI version. all providers seem to charge $10 per line and you have to have a cellular line to attach it to. you can use the Ultra without your mobile phone present, it will act as your phone, but you cant just have the Ultra as a primary device and no phone to tether it to.

you can have a separate line for the Ultra than your phone or you can have the Ultra use same line as phone. but you still need a primary mobile cellular line to have the Ultra.

i am on the fence on buying one myself. i had a AW3 42mm cellular, wife has been wearing it for some time now, that i just really couldnt see the display well. i went with a Garmin Fenix 6X about a year or two later and have enjoyed it. has a brighter screen and week long battery life. but i dont like that it doesnt allow any way to respond to text or calls. i still have to access my phone to do that, which is why i wanted a watch to begin with so i wouldnt have to take out my phone for every alert, notification, call or text. could just look at my wrist and reply if needed without having to access my phone. but now that apple has the Ultra i am thinking about giving the Ultra a try. it has a bigger screen and brighter screen now along with better battery life, for an AW.

and since day one i have always said if Apple would pair up with Casio and make a G-Shock Apple watch that it would be the number one seller of all time. and a phone version would be awesome also. so the Ultra is as close as i have right now to that dream model.

quote:

Originally posted by rangeme101:
as far as cellular plan i have been told by all major providers that a cellular plan is required for the Ultra…

Absolutely FALSE. The Ultra is only avail in Wi-Fi+Cell version unlike previous Apple watches which offer Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi+Cell versions.

However, you are NOT required to activate the cellular feature on the Ultra. It will do everything without being on a cellular plan that it will do with a cellular plan with the one exception being receiving calls/texts if you don’t have your phone


My first Apple Watch was a 3, then a 5, went to cellular version with a 7 (never activated the cellular feature though) and now have an Ultra, also without activating cellular.


I always have my phone with me so really no reason for me to have an additional cost.

I have an AW 8, bought as a Christmas present to myself a little early.
I deliberately wanted the cellular model so I could just have it with me at the gym or bike rides, etc.
I paid about $100 more for the cellular model; Verizon had a deal of $5/month rather than $10 for the extra line.
For me the extra peace of mind is more than worth the small cost. What if phone is left behind/lost/battery discharged/falls and breaks?

I thought so much of the feature that I bought my wife an AW SE for Christmas and have the cellular model and extra line for her phone.

In my very limited experience so far, cell reception is about same as for the phone, but I can't swear to it.

Since we're geezers, the fall detection and A fib detection are very worthwhile reasons to have a recent model AW. We also use the sleep tracking feature, having watched a YT video by the "quantified scientist" in which he demonstrates a very high correlation of sleep cycle tracking in the AW (both 8 and SE) and a dedicated EEG used in sleep labs.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:

quote:

Originally posted by rangeme101:

as far as cellular plan i have been told by all major providers that a cellular plan is required for the Ultra…

Absolutely FALSE. The Ultra is only avail in Wi-Fi+Cell version unlike previous Apple watches which offer Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi+Cell versions.

However, you are NOT required to activate the cellular feature on the Ultra. It will do everything without being on a cellular plan that it will do with a cellular plan with the one exception being receiving calls/texts if you don’t have your phone

If rangeme is buying the Watch through a cellular provider, that provider might require a service plan for the watch. A service plan certainly would not be required if the Watch is purchased directly from Apple.