Upgrading from the Apple Watch Series 0 to the Series 3

The Decision

My Apple Watch Series 3
and its Bands

When I bought my Series 0, I was extremely excited. I was living on my own for the first time and barely making any money to sustain myself. I could not afford the Watch, but I really wanted to have the first iteration of this product on my wrist. I was one of the earliest adopters, at least from my perspective, since I rarely saw one in the wild. Once the watch finally arrived at my house, I stopped what I was doing and began the excruciatingly long setup process. A bit over two years later, I finally upgraded.

 On September 12, 2017, Apple unveiled the newest iterations of a few of their products. Among these was the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE. Until this point, I’d never felt any reason to upgrade from the inaugural Series 0. Series 1 is a little faster? Cool. Series 2 has GPS? Meh. Series 3 has LTE? Whoa, all of a sudden that meant that I could leave this Rectangle of Obligation (my phone) behind and not worry about it while at the gym, riding my bike, or even just walking around. Please take my money. I already had the AirPods, so music and podcast playback wouldn’t be an issue, right?

 About a week after the Keynote, I went online and ordered the Space Gray 42 mm Series 3 with LTE. I was a little disappointed when I saw that the red dot on the digital 

Red dot on Digital Crown

crown was mandatory for LTE models, but I wasn’t going to let a tiny piece of the aesthetic turn me around; I figured I’d just buy a little sticker or something for it. I picked up my Series 3 the same day and of course set it up as quickly as possible. I was definitely an edge case, but I’ll save that topic for another time. Once I got that thing set up and on my wrist, I tested it out by turning off my phone, waiting for my watch to connect to cellular, and going outside. The first thing I noticed was how the device felt. It was a bit weightier on my wrist, the digital crown felt like it had a different mechanism for clicking, and the animations felt smoother and faster. It already felt like a worthy upgrade. My Series 0 would get stuck and hang on apps pretty often, especially on the August app, but my Series 3 does the job much more quickly and reliably—at least anecdotally.  

Cellular and Navigation

It was time to test out the cellular capability. I swiped up on my modular watchface and confirmed that I was connected to cellular. I initiated a call the manual way, through the phone app, and connected my AirPods. It was seamless. Anecdotally, it still feels like the watch connects to my AirPods faster than my 6S does. I made a few calls and asked what the call quality was like on their end, being careful to never reveal that I was calling through my watch. There were no issues, so I decided that going to the gym without the Rectangle of Obligation would be the next test.

While Apple's Maps isn't my favorite navigation application, it is pretty cool to have my Watch guide me where I need to go. I still prefer to use my phone and open up Waze, but Maps is pretty good in a pinch or when I just feel like going phoneless. 

Playback and Receiving Calls

Changing audio destination

Playing from Music app

I’d read that music streaming wasn’t yet available to the Series 3 over LTE, so I loaded up a ton of songs in the morning before work. After I left the office, I headed over to the gym and played Ultrafluorescent by Oshwa to get a nice test of audio quality going. It sounded just like it does when my phone plays through my AirPods, so I was ready. About 15 minutes in, my wrist began to vibrate; the feedback felt stronger than what I was accustomed to with the Series 0. It was a call from someone in my family, so I answered and said I would call back later. Success! Receiving calls worked perfectly. After the call ended, music gradually rose in volume until it was back at the setting I’d previously been using. Very nice touch.

One huge drawback for me was that I couldn’t play podcasts directly from my watch, i.e. without my phone as a buddy. I love podcasts. I rarely listen to music when I drive, and quite frankly I’d rather listen to podcasts when I work out most of the time.  Overcast’s developer Marco Arment explained in an episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast that WatchOS 4 doesn’t allow native podcast playback. It doesn't even allow the "Send to Watch" feature on iOS. That seems backwards to me. If I can store music on my watch, why can't I do the same thing for podcasts? I also understand that streaming over LTE consumes a lot of battery, but I'd happily trade some battery life for some podcasts. Whatever Apple's reasoning is, I hope they change their minds.

WatchPlayer on Series 3

There is good news, everyone! There is a way to play podcasts on the watch; the downside is that it isn't through Overcast or Apple's Podcast app. The bandaid for this problem is called WatchPlayer, and it seems to work pretty well! It doesn't have my favorite UI, with my being spoiled by Overcast and all, but it's barebones and functional. Using it requires a bit of patience, but it transfers podcasts downloaded inside of WatchPlayer to the watch in a decent amount of time. Also: WatchOS 4.1 beta allows streaming over LTE with Apple Music! Unfortunately, Apple only seeds WatchOS betas to developers, so you might have to wait to get this feature.

Bluetooth

After following all instructions, this error consistently pops up.

After finding that I could play music and podcasts (though rather laboriously) I figured I might as well connect my Watch to my car's bluetooth. What a nightmare. My Watch discovered my 2014 Toyota Corolla's bluetooth, but it just refused to connect. The standard prompt asking me to make sure that the pins match appeared; they did match, so I hit confirm. After about thirty seconds, my Watch told me to make sure that the device I was trying to connect to is online, has bluetooth enabled, and is ready to pair. I tried several times on multiple days, but nothing worked. I tried turning off my phone and letting my Watch connect on  its own, but that didn't work.

Echo Dot connects perfectly fine

Well, bluetooth pairing to my car didn't work, but what about my Echo and Echo Dots? 
Turns out that the lady in a can doesn't have a problem connecting to my watch. My $10 shower speaker had no problems connecting to the Watch, so I have no idea what's going on. If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix these bluetooth issues, please send them my way; I'd really appreciate it! Firmwares at time of writing: iOS 11.0.2 and WatchOS 4.1 beta.

Battery

Wow. What a difference. My Series 0 would be at about 15% at the end of the day, and my Series 3 sits at a comfortable 60%. That's only if it's paired to my phone the whole day, of course. I haven't tried cellular for an entire day yet, but I can't imagine it'll survive more than a couple of hours. Still, I've always been the type of person to have redundant chargers, so I've got a total of three: one at home, one at the office, and one in my car for emergencies. 

The battery life has improved so much that I can use Pillow to track my sleep and then go to the gym in the morning without having to pause to charge! The couple of times that I've done this have left my watch with about 30% remaining—more than enough to get to work and charge it there. Of course, I did have to charge my watch to 100% before going to bed, but that's still an improvement on having to leave it charging overnight. 

For and Against

Pros	Cons
Freedom from the Rectangle of Obligation	No Overcast because of WatchOS 4
AirPods connectivity	Apps still need the phone as a buddy
Snappier Siri and apps	$10/month to add cellular via AT&T in US
Simple to use	Cellular rapidly drains battery
Functionally waterproof up to 50 meters	Strange Bluetooth Issues
I still feel like a secret agent

Verdict

Keep in mind that the watch still needs its paired iPhone to get lots of stuff done, but developers will start trickling updates. This iPhone sidekick is becoming its own full-fledged superhero—we just have to wait for developers to implement standalone functionality.  

I'd say that this is the best iteration of the Apple Watch yet. Because the cellular connectivity is just so liberating, this is the first time I've recommended it to the majority of people who have asked me about it. You don't need to be ultra-tech savvy to get a lot out of this device, but it does help. If you find yourself wanting to stay connected without bringing along your iPhone, this product will fill that gap for you. One thing I've found myself enjoying is not having apps like Narwhal for Reddit to distract me the instant I get bored. The Watch allows me to take in the world around me without having to sacrifice communication with my friends and family, and I prefer being mindful over defaulting to distraction. If you're on the edge of buying this Watch but haven't taken the plunge just yet, I'd say go for it!