Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore, digs into the differences between the Series 3 Apple Watch and the previous Apple Watch models, as well as the differences between the GPS-only and GPS+cellular Series 3 models.
A few points that stand out:
The GPS + Cellular Series 3 has double the storage capacity: 16GB to the GPS-only’s 8GB.
And:
the GPS-only Series 3 is limited to just aluminum Sport and Nike+ casings (silver, gold, or space grey) with their Ion-X glass screen. In contrast, the GPS + Cellular Watch retains the higher-end casings formerly present with the Series 2 in addition to the aluminum Sport and Nike+ casings. This includes options like stainless steel, white and grey ceramic, and Hermès steel.
And:
All Series 3 GPS + Cellular watches have a red dot on the Digital Crown.
And the biggest point of all, on battery life while talking via the Apple Watch:
3 hours connected to iPhone, 1 hour w/ Cellular
Three hours connected via my iPhone might as well be infinity. If I’ve got my iPhone, I’m going to be talking using my iPhone. I talk via my Apple Watch very rarely, and usually for very short calls when I just can’t get to my iPhone.
One hour battery life talking on my Apple Watch without my iPhone seems extremely low. If I make a half hour call, presumably that’s half my battery gone. Gonna need a recharge.
Perhaps Apple’s marketing research shows that likely buyers want the freedom to not carry an iPhone (runners, for example), want to stay in touch, but don’t anticipate making calls on a regular basis. That would work.
Good, detailed post from Serenity. Check it out if you are thinking about moving up to the Series 3.
Also, from the photos on the Apple website, it looks like there might be a watch face that’s exclusive to the LTE watch. If you look at the face on the main shot, with the red hands, it’s not on the photos of the non-LTE watch, and that face isn’t in watchOS 4.
The Apple Watch Series 3 LTE Stainless Steel w/ Milanese Loop will be my first Apple Watch. I don’t expect to use the phone capability much. I will be using the health and fitness features a bunch.
This is a pointless metric since no one is gonna use their watch for calls unless it is a dire emergency, in which it is a short call. “Help-pick me up, I lost my phone.” or “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” What we want to know if how long will it last with find-my-friends running in the background so I can track where my elderly father is or my 12 year old kid (remote monitoring seems a killer app even if a bit expensive) The really question is how long does it last as an always on data link?
I use my existing watch for non-emergency calls – around the house when I’m away from my phone and computer. For sure I’d rather use the phone or computer but if someone rings I’ll take it on the watch if it would take more than 5s to use another device.
I use my phone + airpods for lengthy conference calls all the time. Pretty easy to imagine someone using a watch + airpods instead.
“[expands]: 16GB to the GPS-only’s 8GB”
All the better to store NOTHING until Apple gets their act together regarding audio content (spoken and non-spoken) on the watch…
This is the future. I’ve been saying this for a while now.
That LTE red dot is awful.
That’s correct. The Explorer face is Series 3 exclusive.
Yeah so do i, when i have no hands to use, but again those are cases where extended battery life is irrelevant and presumably you’d have your charger if need be.
Interesting point about the airpods. Never used mine with the phone. It could make it more tolerable. Maybe someone will come up with a battery pack wrist strap for those folks who cant make it to their phone.