Is upgrading your Apple Watch even necessary anymore? — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So, when the new iPhones were announced,
2. 0:01I was actually watching that event live.
3. 0:04And as I've made videos on, I made the
4. 0:06upgrade to the iPhone 17. But, there are
5. 0:08actually two other products that kind of
6. 0:10caught my eye that I wanted to look into
7. 0:11a bit more. One was the AirPods Pros,
8. 0:14but what this video is about is the
9. 0:15second thing, which is the new line of
10. 0:17Apple Watches. So, I'm going to go into
11. 0:19which one I currently have and kind of
12. 0:21how I use it day-to-day and how that
13. 0:23made me realize that Apple Watches very
14. 0:25rarely need to be upgraded and it's
15. 0:27almost hard to justify upgrading one for
16. 0:30most people. So, I guess to start, the
17. 0:32watch I have currently is the SE
18. 0:34generation 1, which came out just over 5
19. 0:37years ago now in 2020. But, I bought it
20. 0:39about 3 years ago for just under $115
21. 0:43used. And today, you can pick this up
22. 0:45easily under $100 used, but I'm not
23. 0:48actually sure I would recommend doing
24. 0:50that. I'll talk about that more later.
25. 0:52But, this past September, like always,
26. 0:54the iPhones get the most attention out
27. 0:56of any new release, but to be completely
28. 0:59honest, that's for a good reason. Like
29. 1:01at this point, from, you know, little
30. 1:02kids with sticky peanut butter fingers
31. 1:04playing Roblox to people collecting
32. 1:06social security,
33. 1:08everyone has a phone. Debatably,
34. 1:10everyone needs a phone.
35. 1:12Maybe not those children, but you get
36. 1:14the point. And that is just not the case
37. 1:16when it comes to a smart watch. But,
38. 1:18that didn't stop me paying attention to
39. 1:20it during the event and honestly, the
40. 1:22SE3 looked like a pretty good upgrade.
41. 1:24There's a few features on there that I
42. 1:25would like until I realized I was also
43. 1:27getting some of those features on my
44. 1:295-year-old watch, which really made me
45. 1:31think and question and therefore birth
46. 1:33the whole idea of this video, why would
47. 1:36someone even need to upgrade their
48. 1:37watch? Now, I came to a few conclusions
49. 1:39to actually answer that question, but
50. 1:41first I just wanted to talk about what
51. 1:43made me not upgrade myself. Now, I saw
52. 1:45three features that were kind of
53. 1:46appealing to have in an upgrade. One was
54. 1:48the blood pressure tracking, one was the
55. 1:50always-on display, and the final one was
56. 1:53the sleep score. Personally, I always do
57. 1:55wear my watch to sleep because I just
58. 1:57think it's cool to track how many hours
59. 1:58of sleep you got. So, you know, one
60. 2:00morning, as I do, I was just checking my
61. 2:02health app, went to sleep, and I saw the
62. 2:04sleep score button there.
63. 2:06What? Now, maybe I misinterpreted it,
64. 2:08but I thought they made it sound pretty
65. 2:10clear that that feature is only going to
66. 2:12be available on the new lineup of
67. 2:14watches. So, you know, that really made
68. 2:16me question, do I even need an upgrade
69. 2:18to my watch? No. Do I even need a watch
70. 2:21at all?
71. 2:22No.
72. 2:24Should I delete this channel and get a
73. 2:25real job?
74. 2:27Probably.
75. 2:29Anyways, the main reason I decided not
76. 2:31to upgrade is because it seems like the
77. 2:33Apple Watch just hit a wall. And I mean
78. 2:35that in a good way, like it hit a nice
79. 2:37wall, like a like a memory foam wall.
80. 2:39But, what I'm trying to say is the Apple
81. 2:41Watch is just the type of device that
82. 2:43you really don't need a lot to benefit
83. 2:45from the core functions of it. Like out
84. 2:47of my Mac, phone, and watch, the watch
85. 2:49stands out the least, but it definitely
86. 2:52improves a lot of little things
87. 2:53day-to-day and I feel like it just plays
88. 2:55its role well in the ecosystem and, you
89. 2:57know, bringing the other devices
90. 2:59together. Like on my day-to-day basis,
91. 3:00I'm using it to like, you know, check
92. 3:03time.
93. 3:04Believe it or not, watches are getting
94. 3:05pretty good at that, but also check my
95. 3:07notifications, tracking things like my
96. 3:09steps, my heart rate, and again, my
97. 3:11sleep. And just those other little
98. 3:13things like automatically unlocking my
99. 3:15MacBook. But, to answer the big question
100. 3:17of who would actually upgrade their
101. 3:18Apple Watch, well, you kind of got to
102. 3:20know what is actually in each of the new
103. 3:22watches. Now, there's three tiers of
104. 3:24watches, the SEs, the Series, and the
105. 3:27Ultras. And the SE3, starting at $249,
106. 3:32that seems like a pretty good deal. But,
107. 3:35I've came to the conclusion that that's
108. 3:37only a good deal if you're buying into
109. 3:39the Apple Watch system as in you don't
110. 3:42have one already. Because it gets kind
111. 3:43of interesting when you compare the new
112. 3:45SE to my SE. Just by scrolling through
113. 3:47all the features, there are very few
114. 3:50differences. It has what I would assume
115. 3:52is a much better chip, but honestly, I
116. 3:55don't think I would notice the
117. 3:56difference. In terms of the display,
118. 3:58down to the sizes available, everything
119. 4:01is the exact same except the one thing
120. 4:03that I think would be nice to have,
121. 4:06which is the always-on display.
122. 4:08Personally, I don't see the appeal of it
123. 4:10on a phone. I have it turned off, but on
124. 4:12a watch, that makes sense. But,
125. 4:14honestly, as it is now, it's just a
126. 4:15little wrist flick up and the screen is
127. 4:17on and I'm good to go, so
128. 4:19I'm not really sure it's worth spending
129. 4:21$250 for that. And even a lot of the
130. 4:23tracking stuff is the same. One thing
131. 4:25that would be cool is the wrist
132. 4:27temperature feature. And as you can see
133. 4:29here, again, my SE on the left, the new
134. 4:31SE on the right. Sleep score says it's
135. 4:33only available on the new SE, but I beg
136. 4:35to differ. Although, to be fair, I can't
137. 4:37actually access the sleep score on my
138. 4:40watch. It has to be through the health
139. 4:41app on my phone.
140. 4:43But still, I pretty much have it
141. 4:44available. And look, even for the
142. 4:45battery, both of them are rated for up
143. 4:47to 18 hours. Although, this one is
144. 4:50lacking the fast charging capability,
145. 4:52which could be useful. So, the question
146. 4:53for me was less, do I want to upgrade or
147. 4:56do I mind dealing with some minor
148. 4:58inconveniences?
149. 5:00And I'm okay dealing with some minor
150. 5:01inconveniences. These watches are pretty
151. 5:03much the same from features they do
152. 5:05have, like battery life, display, the
153. 5:08health tracking features to things that
154. 5:10they both don't have, like the blood
155. 5:13oxygen tracking. But, if we compare the
156. 5:15newest SE to the newest Series 11, you
157. 5:18can see that the Series 11 does have a
158. 5:20few nice little upgrades. It has double
159. 5:22the screen brightness and I assume a
160. 5:24slightly better display itself. And I
161. 5:25think the biggest upgrades are here with
162. 5:27the health tracking, which does include
163. 5:29the blood oxygen app. Like for me, it's
164. 5:31not that big of a deal. I would like to
165. 5:33track it, but I'm a pretty healthy boy,
166. 5:36so I guess it's not that necessary. So,
167. 5:37I thought the blood oxygen was like
168. 5:39getting your blood pressure, like you do
169. 5:40at the doctor's, but turns out it's not,
170. 5:43so that's yet another reason for me not
171. 5:45to upgrade. And it's also rated for
172. 5:47about 6 more hours of battery life. But,
173. 5:49other than that, it's pretty much the
174. 5:51same watch as the SE3, except the price
175. 5:54for this starts at 400, which is $150
176. 5:57more. And then there's the Ultras, which
177. 5:59are ultra expensive, if you will,
178. 6:02starting at double the cost, which is
179. 6:04$800. Now, for the Ultra, there actually
180. 6:07are a good amount of upgrades. I'll just
181. 6:08go over the biggest ones that I noticed
182. 6:10and well, literally big is the screen,
183. 6:12which is the biggest and also the
184. 6:15brightest. If I was like a big hiker or
185. 6:17something, I wouldn't mind spending the
186. 6:19$800 because out of any of these
187. 6:21watches, this one has the chance of
188. 6:22saving your life the most. It has
189. 6:24emergency SOS via satellite and also a
190. 6:28siren, which
191. 6:30I'm going to see if I can find a video
192. 6:31of that.
193. 6:35It's up to 115 decibels. It's pretty
194. 6:38loud. If you're big into like the the
195. 6:39good old H2O sports, like swimming or
196. 6:41scuba diving, this is, you know, the
197. 6:43watch for you. And it has like 20 more
198. 6:45hours of battery life, so if you get
199. 6:47lost in the woods and attacked by a bear
200. 6:49and die,
201. 6:50at least your watch will be charged. I
202. 6:51think the real upgrades for Apple
203. 6:53Watches aren't upgrading from generation
204. 6:55to generation, but instead from lineup
205. 6:58to lineup. And the newest generation
206. 7:00just offers the most recent tech for
207. 7:02each. So, like for me, going from the SE
208. 7:04Gen 1 to the SE Gen 3, not much is being
209. 7:07upgraded. But, if suddenly I would
210. 7:09became a big hiker kind of guy, it might
211. 7:12make sense to start looking at the
212. 7:13Ultra. And if you don't have a watch, I
213. 7:15think these choices are pretty simple. I
214. 7:17think by default, if you just want basic
215. 7:19watch features, the SE is perfect. If
216. 7:22you want slightly better health tracking
217. 7:23features, the 11 is great. And if you're
218. 7:27a hiker, big-time athlete, or just
219. 7:30bougie, then you should get the Apple
220. 7:32Watch Ultra. And really, I think the
221. 7:33only people that should get an Apple
222. 7:35Watch are people that want an Apple
223. 7:37Watch because in reality, you don't
224. 7:40really need it. But, to clarify,
225. 7:42obviously, if your watch is running slow
226. 7:44for like the basic functions, like
227. 7:45opening notifications, responding to
228. 7:47texts, things like that, then you should
229. 7:49consider an upgrade. But, considering
230. 7:51mine is perfectly fine and 5 years old,
231. 7:53I feel like the bar is pretty low. Now,
232. 7:55much like a phone, the watch can do a
233. 7:56lot more than its main function of
234. 7:59telling the time. You can send texts,
235. 8:01take calls, check your reminders, check
236. 8:04the weather. And, you know, a phone's
237. 8:05main function is communication,
238. 8:08but the ceiling is just so much higher.
239. 8:10You can watch movies, play games, make
240. 8:14movies. Like I guess no one's using
241. 8:15their watch for doom scrolling at night.
242. 8:18At least, I don't think that's possible.
243. 8:19Please do not make that a reality. That
244. 8:21would be an even sadder world than it is
245. 8:23right now. Like the average time in a
246. 8:25day someone spends looking at their
247. 8:27watch is far less than them looking at
248. 8:29their phone. Like I'm sure the people
249. 8:31who upgrade their phone every year don't
250. 8:33upgrade their watch every year, and I
251. 8:35think that's saying something. I know if
252. 8:37I was going to upgrade something to get
253. 8:39a bigger screen and a better battery,
254. 8:41it wouldn't be my watch. Like I'm sure
255. 8:43there are older Apple Watches than mine
256. 8:45that are still working well enough to
257. 8:47the point where the owner doesn't even
258. 8:48have to question if it's time to upgrade
259. 8:50or not because it's just working. When
260. 8:52it comes to the features that makes the
261. 8:54Apple Watch special that I'm actually
262. 8:56taking advantage of day-to-day,
263. 8:58upgrading it wouldn't make those any
264. 9:00better, so it just makes so much more
265. 9:02sense for me to keep it. But, with that
266. 9:04being said, I don't think I would
267. 9:06recommend getting an SE Gen 1 in 2025.
268. 9:09Although, it definitely is still working
269. 9:11very well, it can't update to the latest
270. 9:13watchOS, so if you're anything like me,
271. 9:16I would just recommend buying the latest
272. 9:18SE Gen 3. It's going to be best for
273. 9:20longevity, but honestly, anything within
274. 9:22the past 1 to 2 years, you're going to
275. 9:24be fine. But, it does appear to be time
276. 9:27to end the video, so thank you for
277. 9:29watching and feel free to subscribe for
278. 9:31more tech content.