Out of the box, the new Apple Watch doesn't look like it just underwent a massive redesign. It maintains the same rectangular shape and inoffensive design as its predecessors. It even accepts the same watch bands. But when you turn it on and tap the new, larger screen, it's hard to shake the feeling that the Apple Watch has grown up.
That's because it has. The Series 4 has a new, curved-corner display with 30 percent more screen than earlier models. There's a crown that provides haptic feedback as you scroll, a louder speaker, a faster processor, and a new wireless chip—all packed into a slimmer body. The new model also comes with an updated optical heart rate sensor and the ability to take ECGs. You get all this starting at $399 for a model with GPS, and $499 for a cellular model, in either a 40mm or 44mm case.
It's the combination of hardware and software health features that makes this watch special, as senior writer Lauren Goode wrote in her initial hands-on with the Watch. It's the first Apple Watch to offer fall detection and heart screening, thanks to the new sensors. Apple updated the accelerometer and gyroscope and paired those with real-world research into how people slip, fall, and crash. If you hit the ground and remain inactive for a minute, Siri will now call 911 for you.
Apple advised me against trying to trick the watch into thinking I'd fallen, but I couldn't resist. I tried to trigger a false warning by tripping onto a yoga mat, jumping on the bed, and flailing around while attempting to powerlift. No dice.
The watch's heart screening features weren't available for testing, since they won't release until later this year. When they do, Apple says they'll improve health monitoring. The Series 4 ships with an optical heart rate sensor that keeps track of your heart rhythm throughout the day. It also has electrodes in the crown and back crystal that let you run an ECG to record the heart's electrical activity. If the watch detects an irregular rhythm that appears to be an atrial fibrillation, it will confirm the reading four more times and then send you an alert. You can then immediately take an ECG and give that reading to a doctor. While the ECG app is unique to the Series 4, the irregular rhythm warnings will be available later this year on the Series 1 and onward. Both screenings are cleared by the FDA for people 22 and older.
Both features have come under scrutiny. Senior writer Robbie Gonzalez argued that the new ECG feature could do more harm than good by leading to unnecessary testing, overdiagnosis, and treatment for subtypes of A-Fib that are best left unmedicated. The potential may be particularly real for smartwatch wearers, who tend to be young and active. That population is unlikely to experience A-Fib and unlikely to have occurrences of A-Fib that require treatment, says Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. However, with features like fall detection and larger screens, Apple may also be targeting an older audience. And while future research is required on the subject, this type of device may prove useful to people with high-risk factors for A-Fib, including age, obesity, high-blood pressure, or certain genetic markers, according to Topol.
Besides health tracking, the watch's new optical heart rate sensor should make a difference in capturing exercise data, which I tested while hiking, running, and lifting. In all instances, it performed comparably to the Series 3—good for most endurance training efforts. Optical heart rate sensors can get tripped up by cold weather and jostling, which I tested by hiking at elevation. The Series 4 captured the workout without issue.
On the software side, watchOS 5 continues to refine the watch's UI. Regardless of which Apple Watch you own, you're going to want to update the software. (The latest update is available on the Series 1 and onward.) The new software offers grouped notifications, automatic workout detection, podcasts, and a Walkie-Talkie app, all of which make the watch more pleasant to use. I found myself unexpectedly excited for automatic workout detection—if you didn't measure it, did it really happen?—and runners will love the new rolling mile measurement, cadence, and target pace notifications.
Over the last five days, I tested the $499 44mm Watch with LTE across a variety of different environments and settings. I spent time in the office, hiking and running at altitude, and traveling from New York City to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I currently own a Series 3 and wasn't expecting to notice significant differences between the models. And for the most part, I didn't. The Series 4 doesn't do much more than the Series 3. But by virtue of hardware upgrades, it does almost everything just a little bit better.
Off your wrist, those changes are hardly noticeable. The watch still looks like a watch. But in practice, the larger screen feels as significant as going from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6. The rounded edges and thinner bezel give you substantially more screen space, which make it easier to read and tap. Even the smaller 40mm Series 4 has more screen area than the 42mm Series 3. That changed how I used the watch: I crammed in more complications on each watch face, and I found myself scrolling through texts, looking at heart rate and workout data, and even playing with the News and Photos apps in a way that I hadn't since the watch first launched.
Those first few generations of Apple Watches were slow. They'd lag when opening apps, and could feel heavy during normal usage. That changed majorly with the Series 3. In everyday life, the Series 4 does feel snappier, but it doesn't feel to me to be as significant as the jump from the Series 2 to Series 3. The exception: I found the initial watch pairing process to be much faster with the Series 4 than with prior models.
