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Apple Watch Series 4 Review

2019-03-05 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 9:44 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: Sponsor segment present

Ali reviews the Apple Watch Series 4 after six months of daily wear: it adds only small conveniences (notifications, Apple Pay, music control, maps, two-factor codes) and fails his three-question test, so it is objectively not worth £400, but he thinks it worth buying for anyone who can comfortably afford it, and not for anyone who would have to save up.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Sponsor mention and intro: six months with the Apple Watch Series 4

00:00:29 — Overall conclusion: small conveniences, a pretty accessory, worth it depending on circumstances

  • ★★★ Ali loves his Apple Watch Series 4 and uses it every day; it adds a small amount of convenience through notifications, Apple Pay, music and audiobook control, maps and two-factor authentication. — 00:00:29 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Ali thinks the Apple Watch Series 4 looks really pretty as an accessory that goes with every outfit, and that it signals to people that he is into tech. — 00:00:29 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Ali puts the price of the Apple Watch Series 4 at 400 pounds or 400 dollars. — 00:00:29 · Apple Watch

00:01:31 — Speed and screen compared with the Series 1

  • ★★ Ali says that since about 2015 the specs of phones, iPads and similar devices have made no real difference to anyone's life, but for the Apple Watch they still matter. — 00:01:31 · iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
  • ★★ Ali's earlier Apple Watch Series 1 was so slow that taking out his phone was quicker; he has never once noticed the Series 4 being slow. — 00:01:31 · Apple Watch
  • ★ The Apple Watch Series 4 has much thinner screen bezels, so Ali's 44 mm model feels about the size of his old watch but has a lot more screen. — 00:02:00 · Apple Watch
  • ★★★ None of Ali's uses of the Apple Watch Series 4 is life-changing: they are very small conveniences in day-to-day life, which he personally thinks worth the 400 pounds. — 00:02:00 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Email notifications on the Apple Watch let Ali decide whether he needs his phone or iPad, or reply to or archive an email from the watch, so he spends less time checking his phone and triaging email. — 00:02:00 · Apple Watch, iPad

00:02:17 — Five use cases: notifications, Apple Pay, music and audiobook control, maps, two-factor codes

  • ★ Ali gets a few tens of Instagram message requests a day and likes seeing them on his Apple Watch at work as a little burst of happiness. (playful) — 00:02:51 · Instagram, Apple Watch
  • ★★ Apple Pay on the Apple Watch is why Ali no longer carries a wallet: the vast majority of UK shops now accept contactless. — 00:02:51 · Apple Watch
  • ★ When Apple Pay on the watch fails, Ali says you look foolish and have to get your phone out and use Face ID instead. (playful) — 00:03:20 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Paying with the Apple Watch instead of Apple Pay on the phone saves about two seconds each time, which Ali calls no big deal but nice. — 00:03:49 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Ali changes or shuffles the songs Alexa plays on Spotify from the Spotify app on his Apple Watch. — 00:04:12 · Spotify, Apple Watch
  • ★★ The Apple Watch Series 4 is waterproof, so Ali wears it in the shower and skips songs on his Bluetooth speaker from it. — 00:04:12 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Finding new places in London, Ali sends Apple Maps directions to his watch and follows its turn-by-turn vibrations without looking at his phone. — 00:04:42 · London
  • ★★ Turn-by-turn directions on the Apple Watch work only with Apple Maps, not Google Maps. — 00:04:42 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Instead of using an authenticator on his phone, Ali reads two-factor authentication codes from the Dashlane app on his Apple Watch, saving a few seconds a day. — 00:05:11 · Apple Watch

00:05:30 — Dashlane sponsor read

  • ★★★ Ali's three-part test of whether something is objectively worth the money: does it make him happier, remove a salient negative, or let him do or make something that adds value; the Apple Watch fails all three. — 00:06:10 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ By that test, Ali argues, spending 400 pounds on a watch will never be objectively worth it, let alone the thousands some people spend on fancy watches. — 00:06:10

00:06:29 — Is it worth the money: objectively no, subjectively yes if you can comfortably afford it

  • ★★★ Ali does not regret buying the Apple Watch Series 4: although objectively not worth the money, he thinks it subjectively nice to have, provided you can comfortably afford it. — 00:06:59 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ As a student tutoring to save up the 300 to 400 pounds, Ali would not buy the Apple Watch: a digital camera, a Kindle with non-fiction books or an Audible subscription would add far more value. — 00:07:28 · Kindle, Audible, Apple Watch
  • ★★ If you are financially stable and would be reasonably okay spending that much on an ordinary analogue watch, Ali says by all means get the Apple Watch. — 00:07:58 · Apple Watch
  • ★★ Ali thinks signalling, showing people what sort of person you are, is a strong part of why people spend money on luxury products such as the Apple Watch. — 00:08:27 · Apple Watch
  • ★★★ Ali says a techie who can comfortably afford the Apple Watch will not be disappointed, but anyone who cannot should not save up for it and should buy a camera or a Kindle and non-fiction books instead. — 00:08:27 · Apple Watch, Kindle
  • ★★ Ali says we should all be more candid about money: he can comfortably afford 400 pounds on a watch and think nothing of it. — 00:08:56

00:09:30 — Sign-off

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Apple Watch Series 4

Also: Organizations: Instagram

Places: London

Products: Apple Maps · Apple Pay · Apple Watch · Audible · Dashlane · Face ID · Google Maps · iPad · iPhone · Kindle · Spotify

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