Hands On With the Apple Watch Series 5

The Apple Watch started out as a way to bring apps to your wrist, but Apple soon discovered that few people want to bring apps to their wrists. Fitness tracking came next, and Apple Watch owners love their activity rings. But not everyone is into fitness, so the Apple Watch is reinventing itself again as a general-purpose health and safety device.

It monitors your heart, detects falls, protects your hearing, and tracks your cycles. Apple has realized that not everybody wants to run a marathon, but everybody wants to feel better.

The Apple Watch Series 5's killer feature, though, is its always-on display. That's going to drive some upgrades, I think.

I took a quick look at the new Apple Watch before a full review; read on for my first impressions.

5th-Generation Apple Watch

The new fifth-generation Apple Watch positions itself more as an all-purpose health companion than a fitness watch. That may expand its market, but the real thing that's going to get people to upgrade is the new screen.

It's Still Visible

When you put your wrist down, the screen stays on. This required Apple to find a whole new screen technology, called LTPO, but it's a big step forward in usability. Apple says the watch can still maintain 18 hours of battery life even with the screen on all the time.

Watch Styles

The Series 5 watch comes with a wide range of bands and bodies. There's a Nike version, an expensive Hermes leather version, and a standard model, as well as aluminum, stainless steel, ceramic and titanium bodies.

New Compass Feature

There are some other new features in the Series 5, too. This app shows the built-in compass. But the Compass is more likely to be used by third-party apps, such as running and mapping apps.

Now Hear This

We couldn't test a lot of the Watch's safety and fitness features during our hands on. It monitors your heart rate, makes global emergency calls, and tracks your menstrual cycles. One new feature we did enjoy was the noise sensor, which tells you how loud a room is (and offers up a great reason for leaving one).

Apple Watch Bands

The Apple Watch dominates the general-purpose smartwatch category right now. Apple wants every iPhone owner to have one, and now it has a strong argument for why they should, even people who don't need notifications on their wrists. We'll have a full review up soon on PCMag.com.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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