Apple Watch Series 5 review: the best smartwatch

(intro music) - Here it is. It's the new Apple Watch Series 5. It's... you know what? It's great. I have used many different smart

watch

es in my life and this one is the

best

. If you have an iPhone and can afford the $399 starting price, it doesn't get any better. So, I know. I revealed the full

review

at the top of the video. But keep

watch

ing because I want to tell you what's new in Series 5 and also what's new in watchOS 6, but I also want to see if we can find out why no other

smartwatch

is even close to achieving this. (intense hip-hop music) Okay.

So what's new in the Series 5, at least, compared to last year's Series 4? Honestly, it's not much, really just three things. Okay, four if we count that Apple offers more material options for the case. You can get it in aluminum, steel, titanium and ceramic. This one is made of aluminum and is physically identical to the Series 4, which was already great. They have larger screens than older Apple Watch models, and the screen is the second really new thing about the Series 5. It's always on. Finally. See, both the Series 5 and Series 4 have a special type of OLED display that Apple developed.

It is a low temperature polycrystalline oxide or LTPO for short. What does that mean? Well, it means things like pixels and displays like the mobility of electrons. What really matters is that the Series 5 has many other chips that allow it to have a variable screen refresh rate, so the Series 5 can change the pixels on the screen up to 60 times per second or as little as once per second . That allows it to use radically less power than other displays. You know, your watch doesn't need to update as frequently when it's just in ambient mode, and that saves battery life.

So now, instead of the screen just being off, it shows a dimmed version of the watch face and actually still has some color to it, something other

smartwatch

es don't have. And of course, when you raise your wrist, it rings in full color, just like any other Apple Watch. But all this means is that you can check the time without being, you know, that jerk who obviously looks at his watch in the middle of a conversation with someone. Now, the big question is, does that always-on screen hurt battery life? And my answer is that it doesn't seem to hurt much.

Apple claims that it still has the same 18 hours of battery life that every Apple Watch is supposed to have. And it works for me, even with heavy use. But there's not much more to it than that. Last year, the Series 4 surpassed that 18-hour claim. Simply put, you should plan to charge your Apple Watch every day. And yes, I know there are smartwatches that last weeks or even months, but none can do what the Apple Watch can do. The third new feature is a built-in compass, which works well and even gives you something interesting called a confidence cone that gets narrower as you become more confident about exactly where north is.

Now, if you have a magnetic watch band, that can ruin it a little bit, but, you know, magnets. This is how they work. The fourth novelty is that there are more cellular bands in the cellular version, which means you can make emergency calls internationally. Now, you should know that that doesn't mean it will work for regular cell phone Apple Watch devices. Apple still needs to close deals with carriers for that to work. So, new materials, always-on screen, compass and international emergency calls. All in all, it's a really minor update, but you know what? It doesn't matter because the Apple Watch is miles ahead of the competition.

I think there are a few reasons for that. One is the processor. Apple is much better than anyone else at making smartwatch processors. Another is integration. Apple allows the Apple Watch to do Apple things with the Apple iPhone that it won't let other companies like Fitbit or Wear OS or Samsung or Withings do, like reply to iMessages. Only the Apple Watch can do that. But also, watchOS is really good. The new version here is watchOS 6 and it will come to all Apple Watches except the first. Now, within this, there are new watch faces, as usual. I like that you can set more of them to be one color.

I wish there were more watch faces or actually third party options. I could get a pretty good dial on this watch, but I can't get the perfect dial for me. The biggest new feature of watchOS is the App Store, which lets you install apps without having to take out your phone, except the first time you use the App Store on the Apple Watch, where you have to enter your password on your phone. And then sometimes you install apps on the Apple Watch and it needs its main app on the phone to work for the first time.

It's not completely independent yet, is what I'm saying. Now, I guess it's nice to be able to install an app in a pinch directly on your watch, but this important feature isn't really a big deal for me. Maybe when the Apple Watch becomes a little more independent from the iPhone, it will matter more. Then there's the Cycles app, which lets you record and track menstrual activity. Now, this app isn't for me, but I will say that I wish Apple had paid more attention to women's health sooner. However, when talking to people at Apple, it's clear that they put some care into this app.

It is scientifically cautious and thoughtful in its design. Therefore, it could help you keep track of information that could be useful to you or your doctor. But look, fertility can be a really difficult thing, so if you're using it with children in mind, you should talk to your doctor before doing anything with the information it provides. We'll see. What other thing? Siri. Siri is here and can identify songs. It can also display search results from the web and allows you to click on web pages. And what I like most about the Apple Watch is still that you can load small web pages on it.

It's something fun. Oh, another thing. There is an option for the watch to detect ambient noise levels and warn you if it is too loud for your safety over a long period of time, plus I like to watch the noise meter go up and down. This shows me that the train I ride every day makes too much noise. The main thing I'm missing is sleep tracking, which for me and my health is much more important than closing a foot ring or whatever. However, there are third-party applications. I use Sleep++, but it seems pretty obvious that Apple will add it next year.

Okay, so why is the Apple Watch so far ahead? It's not like it has an LTPO display or a noise meter or any of the features I just mentioned in this

review

. It's the fact that I'm talking about functions this way. With any other smartwatch, and I'm not talking about Garmin watches, Wilderness, Hiking, Sporting, Mountaineering, whatever. I'm talking about wrist computers. With those things, I usually have to check if it can last more than 12 hours or if it can open apps in less than 10 seconds or respond to a text message or if the software has a lot of bugs.

That was actually pretty bad on the first Apple Watch, but it quickly changed, so now Apple is getting to work on completing more advanced features. It's like the Apple Watch is in high school and taking AP courses while everyone else is repeating seventh grade for the third time. Sure, the Apple Watch hasn't reached its full potential yet, but right now, this is an extraordinary success. ♪ Ah, that's still going on ♪ ♪ Ah, I can't keep an eye on it ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ (Laughs) Hello everyone. Thanks so much for looking. Let me know in the comments if you're getting an Apple Watch, and if you're an Android user, let me know what you think you could do because I don't have a good smartwatch answer for you.

Also, if you missed it, Neil and I reviewed iPhones yesterday and you should definitely check out those videos.