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Comment by testmasterflex | Hacker News Reader

Can someone sell me an Apple Watch?

What is a feature you can’t live without?

Ever since getting my Apple Watch I basically don't use my wallet anymore since Apple Pay is so convenient and ubiquitous where I live.

I look at my phone less because I just glance at my wrist for new notifications and don't get hooked into a whole 15 minutes of distraction.

Using Siri is surprisingly easy and not awkward when you can just lift your wrist and speak quietly into the watch.

Nice 2FA 2nd factor, quick spoken messages ("tell wife on my way"), Apple Pay (killer app - much easier than phone or wallet), Strava/workouts, plays music/audible on AirPods or BT headset, opens my garage, can lookup calendar without opening phone or PC.

This all applies to other smart watches: getting the vibration on my wrist for notifications is the killer feature. When I travel without it, I miss so many notifications because I didn’t feel my phone vibrate. Similarly, having the vibration on my wrist makes a big difference in not sleeping through my wake up alarms. I can’t recall the last time I slept through one.

It pushing me to be active, Siri and Wallet are probably the ones that I use the most. Instantly getting to glance notifications doesn't hurt either. And while Siri may have trouble understanding me properly, I still use it constantly to control the house and set timers since I can do it by simply lifting my wrist.

I can detach further from my phone because notifications go to my watch. I hate being tethered to my phone, so that's the killer feature for me. With the cellular model, I leave the house without my phone sometimes, which is nice. When I worked in the office, the phone stayed in my bag most of the day.

How realistic is it to go out all day with just the watch, and no phone?

It’s hard to give that a fair simple answer. What it doesn’t do great is texting, so your laptop/tablet/phone are still clear better choices there. Maybe the new one is better there with swipe.

So if I’m sitting at your laptop and have signal/imessage up, I can lose track of my phone, but that’s kinda cheating. For little outings like the grocery store or gym, you can definitely leave the phone and just dictate what you need to. So for a WFH day with little outings, you can easily just leave your phone on the charger and ignore it all day. But for a full day out and about where you might text a bunch, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to do it all on the watch. If the new swipe thing changes that, I’ll be very happy, but I’m not betting on it.

Notifications on my wrist let me receive phone calls/alarms without waking up my partner. That is probably my big reason, but since I use it for that, I also use it for run tracking and fitness+ app.

Personally, the wallet, health tracking, and music w/o phone is enough to justify the purchase for me. Actually, jogging / exercising without my phone is enough to justify the cost.

Having music and podcasts without taking my phone with me to go for runs or bike rides and still having the ability to make a call in case of emergencies.

Unlocking my Face ID iPhone while wearing a mask, using time-of-flight from the watch on my wrist.

It works perfectly.

What’s time-of-flight?

Measuring the communication latency between the iPhone and the Apple Watch to determine the distance. If it isn't close enough (2 meters or so from the watch), iPhone won't unlock.

Autosleep app. The best sleep tracking I've used so far.

By using it for around 3 months I figured out patterns that lead to better sleep. Highly recommended.

Gamifying my exercise and workouts, also making it more social.

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