Apple Watch Series 3 review: the 4G phone watch

Apple Watch Series 3 review overview

A beautiful and useful product designed for multiple uses, whether one is sporty or not

Released in September 2017, the Apple Watch Series 3 is a smart health connected sports watch, third generation of the Watch, a watch designed for sport and everyday life. Apple released a fourth version of its watch in 2018, and Apple Watch Series 5 in 2019 ,read our detailed Apple Watch Series 3 review.

If the first two models (Series 1 and 2) were still very perfectible, this last vintage has reached a maturity which makes it a rather attractive watch for the possibilities it offers.

The Apple Watch 3 is a neat and elegant design, functions for sport and health with many downloadable apps, an on-board mp3 player allowing you to take your favorite playlists on your wrist, contactless payment, an assistant smart speaker (Siri) and smart health connected functions such as telephony without Smartphone, access to news, guidance to a destination, and very soon, access to Apple Music to listen to music in streaming. This watch has everything to please, whether one is sporty or not.

2 models: with or without 4G!

The latest Watch is available in 2 versions. So be careful during your purchase:

• The Watch 3 GPS: equipped with a GPS but without the 4G chip (no connection to the cellular network).

• The Watch 3 GPS + cellular: equipped with a GPS and a 4G chip recognizable by the red sticker stuck on its “winding” button. It can connect to the cellular network in 4G and therefore allows you to make calls, connect to the Internet and much more without having to turn on your phone (which by the way must be an iPhone). It is worth 80 € more than a GPS model.

Apple Watch 3 features

Apple launches with its range Series Watch, a watch that targets everyone (sporty or not) and which offers a range of services for sport, health and everyday life. Without replacing a Smartphone, it provides essential functions that allow you to do without it where it is bulky (to play sports for example).

Outline and new features of the Watch Series 3

• • A 4G chip to connect to the cellular telephone network without a Smartphone and thus benefit from the associated functions (telephony, SMS, email, streaming music, news, find a hotel, know the arrival time of a flight, etc.), including a SOS function to warn a person if necessary.

  • More health and sports functions such as cardiac monitoring, the display of your daily activity in visual form, a fractional function and HIIT for running, a single application for your fitness and health data.

• Access to more than 40 million music tracks and a 4G radio: this soon available function will allow you to listen to music in streaming via a subscription to Apple Music. Otherwise, the watch can already store more than 1000 titles and listen to them via an on-board mp3 player.

• Contactless payment: thanks to Apple Pay, you can pay for your purchases without taking out your credit card or smartphone. This function is also available on older models of Apple Watch (requires an iPhone 5 or later versions).

• An intelligent assistant who listens to you and speaks: As on the iPhone, Siri answers your questions and can even speak to you or make an instant translation via a built-in speaker or bluetooth headphones.

• Many sensors including GPS and GLONASS, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometric altimeter to accompany you in your outdoor or indoor sports.

• monitoring your performance, challenges and advice, including a system of rings to be completed daily, to motivate you to move, share your data in real time with your friends and much more.

• Improved design with new cases and bracelets for a more chic look and even greater comfort.

• 70% faster dual-core processor for excellent responsiveness and smoother display and navigation.

Learn more about the new features in the Apple Watch Series 3: Comparison of Apple Watch 3 vs 2 and 1: the differences, which one to choose?

Design: a chic look to wear everyday

The Watch Series 3 comes in a rectangular aluminum, stainless steel or ceramic case with a curved glass on the sides, which gives it a very chic look. You have to love the rectangular shape, Apple still does not offer, for this series, a round case. The Alu model is the lightest. On the other hand, the Inox model is more resistant. The ceramic model (new on the Watch) is both beautiful, ultra-resistant, lighter than stainless steel (and it feels) but also much more expensive! Two case sizes are available: 38 or 42 mm. The watch remains relatively thick (11.4 mm, 0.9 mm more than the previous model). It must still be recognized that having so many sensors in such a small housing is a real technical feat!

Apple offers for its watch a collection of interchangeable straps (sold separately): rubber and braided nylon 1 or 4 colors for sports, leather and Milanese (fine stainless steel mesh that adapts perfectly to the wrist, with magnetic closure) for the city. A new bracelet also makes its appearance, the Sport Loop, light, in nylon, slightly stretchy, which closes like sneakers with velcro and which therefore adjusts with precision.

Watch 3 has a color OLED touch screen (340 x 272 pixels for the small 38mm model, 390 x 312 pixels for the 42mm model). A function Force Touch allows you to access more options simply by pressing the screen more strongly. In addition to the touchscreen, the watch is equipped with a digital crown (Digital Crown), a wheel-shaped knob offering more controls to the watch, such as the possibility of zooming in and out with a simple movement of finger. Finally, the Watch 3 screen can be personalized. It is possible to define several screens and to change them with a simple swipe of a finger.

Ergonomics and navigation: simplicity and great responsiveness thanks to a new OS and a much faster S3 processor

The Watch 3 works under a new OS (WatchOS 4) which brings improvements, in particular more dials and a more practical dock. The apps can be displayed in a honeycomb or linearly with a vertical scroll. The “wind up” button makes it very easy to scroll through or zoom in to select one. Navigation is made simple.

Apple is also introducing a dual-core processor 70% faster than the previous one. The watch thus gains a lot in reactivity and finally becomes usable. The apps open almost instantly instead of taking ten seconds!

Call with your watch, without a Smartphone!

Great novelty of this 3rd generation Watch, the GPS + cellular model has a 4G LTE and UMTS chip and an eSIM (virtual SIM) allowing it to connect to the cellular network like a standard phone and to receive and pass phone calls, send SMS and much more. You can answer your calls while cycling or running!

Note that this service requires having an iPhone (even if it is turned off) and paying a subscription in addition to the one you already have for your phone (the watch reuses the same number). The service is currently only offered by Orange and its subsidiary Sosh, while waiting for other operators to offer it. It is currently free for 6 months and will then be billed at € 5 / month. This is an additional investment to take into account if you want to use your phone watch without your iPhone!

The sports watch connects by default to your iPhone if it is on and located nearby. Otherwise, it automatically switches to your personal Wi-Fi network (health home) or, failing that, to the cellular network. Watch 3 is equipped with a sensitive microphone and a speaker. The sound quality is quite satisfactory and allows you to easily follow a telephone conversation. It is also possible to use AirPods or other bluetooth headphones to listen to music or make calls.

Be aware that an hour’s conversation is enough to drain the battery and that the watch heats up a bit during its use in phone mode. The quirky will therefore not be up to par if you like spending hours on the phone, but that is not the objective here either. An SOS function also allows you to call a pre-programmed number and even display your medical file on the watch screen for emergency personnel.

Find a restaurant, let yourself be guided, follow the news

No need for a Smartphone to find your way, search for a restaurant, hotel or bakery around you: just ask your watch and it will show you a route to follow! You can follow the news, check your email and reply by talking to Siri, manage your calendar, know the arrival time of a flight and much more. Voice assistance (see below) also simplifies navigation.

Pay for your purchases with your watch

With Apple Pay, Apple’s contactless payment system using an NFC chip, it is possible for you to pay for your purchases without taking out your iPhone or credit card, a bit of a gadget but very practical if you go running and that we stop for a drink or a bite to eat. Not all banks accept this payment system yet, but Apple is currently developing new partnerships to generalize it. This function is available on the Watch even if you have an iPhone that does not have this function.

40 million songs accessible via streaming and a radio without a Smartphone!

The Apple Watch 3 has an mp3 player and 8 GB of memory (16 GB on the Cellular model) to take and listen to your favorite music and listen to it during your sport via bluetooth headphones (AirPods or other).

But thanks to the connectivity (cellular version), the watch will also be able to connect to Apple Music, Apple’s online music store, and will thus allow access to more than 40 million songs available for listening in streaming. This service is not yet available but will be soon. It will require a subscription. The watch will also allow you to listen to the radios of the Apple Music station. Finally, the music app has been revised to automatically synchronize playlists (favorite mix, discovery mix) and remember the songs most listened to.

Siri: the intelligent personal assistant who listens and speaks

The Watch Series 3 integrates Siri, the famous personal assistant available on the iPhone. Siri was already present on the Watch Series 2 but on the Watch 3, he can now speak to you! You can ask your questions and receive a voice response. You can query Siri to request a route, view or manage your calendar, reply to an email, suggest a mix of musical pieces, make an instant translation and much more.

Functions for sport and health, including an activity tracker

The Apple Watch 3 is not just a smart health connected watch for communicating, navigating, listening to music or paying for your purchases. It is both an activity tracker and a multisport watch. Apple has reinforced, on this model, the functions specific to sport and health. Admittedly, the Apple Watch does not provide all the monitoring and assistance functions for athletes, such as stride analysis and other advanced analysis tools, and is therefore not intended for advanced sports use, but it is sufficient for occasional sports use.

The activity tracking function tracks your daily efforts while motivating you to move. The watch uses a system of rings to be completed to achieve defined objectives. She challenges, encourages, advises. Its dial displays the most relevant data for monitoring your health. It can even keep you posted on the progress of your friends wearing the Watch and encourage you to compete with them. In short, everything is done to help you stay in shape. Apple has also highlighted the exploitation of the heart rate (optical sensor on the wrist) by displaying the extreme values ​​of the day, the average, the recovery level and alerts on low or high pulse values, enough follow your physical condition as well as possible.

The sports functions, more developed on this new model (notably the Exercise app), allow you to be followed in your sport (running, cycling, swimming in the sea or in the pool, etc.). The watch records your route data (route, elevation, distance, etc.) and provides a summary of your performance that you can load on your Smartphone, PC or share on social networks. And if you do not find what you are looking for with the activities on offer, it is possible to download dedicated apps to assist you during your outing (yoga, tennis, swimming, running, etc.). Also new on Watch 3, the watch allows you to follow interval training (interval work, HIIT).

For followers of activities that are linked, such as triathlon, it is possible to combine performance without stopping Watch 3. That said, for this kind of activity, it is better to turn to a dedicated watch (see our comparison of best watches for triathlon).

Indoor sports (spinning, elliptical, treadmill) are not forgotten. Thanks to its accelerometer, the smart health connected watch can assess the distance traveled. Apple is also working with sports equipment manufacturers so that its watch can communicate with their devices.

If you like the challenge between friends, this sports watch can inform you of their progress (if they wear the Apple Watch 3) and thus encourage you to compete with them.

A watch that speaks! VoiceOver: the visually impaired help function

The Apple Watch 3 is a watch that speaks and vibrates to communicate with the visually impaired. The VoiceOver screen reader follows your gestures and informs you via the watch’s speaker by describing the information on the screen. This function is compatible with the apps integrated into the Watch and is available in 35 languages. More discreet, a pulsation system allows you to know the time simply by touching the screen. It is also possible to change the font size and zoom the information on the screen up to 15 times thanks to the Digital Crown, a wheel-button located on the side of the case.

18h of average autonomy

The announced autonomy of the Watch 3 is 18, provided you use your watch reasonably (for example 1 hour of jogging and a little use in 4G). In pure watch mode, its autonomy can reach 30 hours. On the other hand, the use in sport mode, with the GPS, and especially the use of 4G, leads these figures. We fall below 10 am if it is used for sports or to listen to on-board music and about 1 hour in the event of a 4G telephone conversation.

To maintain its autonomy despite the additional functions provided in this model, Apple has worked to reduce the consumption of its components, in particular that of the chip managing the wireless connection. Less greedy (50% savings!) It is also faster (85% gain for bluetooth and Wi-Fi).

The watch is recharged using a magnetic connector provided by Apple while waiting for the release of the AirPower, a universal charger that the brand should deploy soon. The charge is a bit long: allow about 2 hours for a full charge.

Best offer

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Our opinion on the Apple Watch Series 3. Should we buy it?

Apple finally offers a model that has reached maturity and whose apps become usable thanks to a much faster dual-core processor (excellent responsiveness compared to the previous model). We liked the design of this watch and its versatility, especially the fact that it is suitable for everyone: whether or not we do sports. It combines the advantages of a sports watch, an activity tracker and a city watch while offering the possibility of making phone calls, listening to music, paying for purchases, checking emails, get various information on the Internet, all without a smartphone nearby!

That said, it constitutes a substantial purchase, especially since you must have an iPhone (even if it is not turned on) and pay an additional subscription to benefit from 4G. The investment therefore invites reflection, in particular for a non-sporting use where the added value remains meager for people who are used to taking their phones everywhere with them. We can however buy the model without 4G, cheaper, to benefit from all the new features and improvements without the advantages of connecting to the cellular network.

For athletes, this watch allows you to start light with music to listen to and possibly the advantages of 4G without the disadvantages of a Smartphone to carry. It therefore competes with the Tom Tom Runner 2 and the Tom Tom Runner 3 which carry an mp3 player with 3 GB of available memory to carry your music and listen to it with bluetooth wireless headphones. However, it remains insufficient for further sporting use. For this, it is better to turn to the very complete Garmin Forerunner 645 Music, a smart health connected GPS watch for the Running released in January 2018 with an MP3 player, 4 GB of memory and a chip for contactless payment. Otherwise it will be necessary to acquire this watch in addition to a watch dedicated to sport (see our comparison of cardio GPS watches).

People who already have an Apple Watch Series 1 or 2 and are satisfied with it should not be disappointed by this version which is much more reactive and fluid and whose technical improvements, and of course 4G, make it really attractive.

As the holiday season approaches, this watch is certainly a very nice gift that should not disappoint!

We liked

• “Swiss army knife” side of the watch (wealth of functions, number of sensors)

• Design, touch screen, Force Touch function, ease of use

• 4G chip, connectivity without Smartphone (Cellular model)

• More advanced sports functions, split mode

• Smart assistant Siri speaking

• Contactless payment

• Very good responsiveness of apps

• Built-in speaker

We’d have liked

• More autonomy (6 p.m. only)

• Requires an iPhone

• 4G subscription to pay extra for the cellular model

• Charging a little slow (2h)

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Features of the Apple Watch Series 3

Weight27 to 35 g (body only)

Housing dimensions38.6 x 33.3 x 11.4 mm (38 mm model)42.5 x 36.4 x 11.4 mm (42 mm model)

Display272 x 340 px (38mm) and 312 x 390 px (42 mm)Touch OLED

Autonomy announced18h (up to 30h observed in watch mode)

GPSGPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS

MultisportsYes

Recommended activitiesRunning, hiking, swimming pool + downloadable apps

Activity trackerYes

ConnectivityiOS. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G transmission (cellular model)

Heart rate monitoringYes (wrist)

AltimeterYes

BarometerNo

GyroscopeYes

Interchangeable strapYes

Memory8 GB (GPS model)16 GB (Cellular + GPS model)

Waterproof5 ATM

OthereSIM and 4G connectivity on the Cellular model, color touch screen, induction charging, WatchOS 4 operating system, 4G radio, integrated microphone and speaker, mp3 player

The Watch is equipped with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS for satellite reception, recording your route or following a route. It has a barometric altimeter for reading the altitude and the difference in altitude (walking, hiking, running, etc.), a gyroscope (movement detection), an accelerometer (for indoor sports), a sensor wrist heartbeat and a light sensor. An intelligent assistant, Siri, listens to you and speaks. The watch has 8 GB of memory (16 GB for the Cellular model), enough to carry more than 1000 musical titles. The Cellular & GPS model also has a 4G chip and an eSIM card (mini chip simulating a SIM card and using data from your SIM card).

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW