Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS, 44mm) - Space Gray Aluminum with Black Sport Band (Renewed)

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LTE calling depletes the battery faster than hammering the GPS. This reaffirms the point that this is purely meant as an addition to your phone, rather than a futuristic wrist-based replacement for it. A subtler design change is that the sensor array that sits on the bottom of the watch has been shrunken down, resulting in a less bulbous look. This means the Apple Watch 4 sits closer to the wrist than before. It’s a small design tweak – one you’ll only notice if you’re upgrading from a previous model – yet it’s something I have constantly been impressed with. More passively, you also get notifications if your heart rate is too low or too high while at rest. This is a more precautionary feature, and since I'm in relatively good health, I never received a warning. The Apple Watch 4's key feature is really its design - we say that because while the extra health benefits are something that are worthy and really make this an attractive device for those in need of them, the pool of people this is relevant to is smaller than just those looking for a new watch. There’s been little change in the design of the Apple Watch since its introduction – until now. The Series 4 is the first real reinvention of the wearable. I say reinvention, but if you’re familiar with previous Apple Watches then you’ll instantly feel at home with the Apple Watch Series 4.

The larger screen and more rounded edges are much nicer to look at and offer more functionality, and it also adds in some extra features too that are designed for those who are a little more vulnerable or suffer certain health conditions. Another improvement is processing power, thanks to the new S4 chip with dual 64-bit processor, which really shows in app loading times. The basis of this Activity app is three rings, each of which you’re encouraged to fill up during the day. One is Movement, another Exercise and the final, Stand. When you first set-up the Apple Watch you’ll be prompted to enter some basic details – gender, height, weight etc – and then it’ll give you suggested targets for each, You can, of course, alter these manually afterwards. As an example, I selected 800 calories burned in movement, 30 minutes exercise and to stand at least once every hour throughout the day. There’s still no way to include flights of stairs climbed as part of your daily goal, something Richard Easton requested in his Apple Watch 3 review. Apple’s vision of this watch is clearly something you wear during the day and plonk on the magnetic charger at night. That’s fine by me, even though I would appreciate it eventually becoming a multi-day wearable.This feature isn’t being aimed at me though; that’s made clear by the fact it’s turned off by default for anyone under 65. As someone who knows the problems accidental falls can cause, this feature alone would instantly make me want to recommend this to older relatives. That’s not something I would have said about a mass-market smartwatch before.

We've yet to test it out ourselves - we hope to soon - however, we were able to see it in action during our demonstration from Apple, where you need to activate the app on the phone and then hold the Digital Crown down to complete the electrical circuit in your body. The improved performance also helps Siri react faster, and considering the slightly dodgy voice-assistant is still a big play here, that’s a bonus. Siri can be initiated by either holding down the Digital Crown or raising the watch and saying, “Ok, Siri.” There's also a set of heart rate notifications, including one that's looking out for atrial fibrillation (AF), meaning you'll get a pop-up if there's anything that looks sketchy with your heart with regards to this condition, which could lead to life-threatening complications. Replacing the display can cause issues with Apple Pay. If possible, to reduce the likelihood of problems, delete all your Apple Pay account info before the replacement, and then re-enter it with the new display installed. This spits out a set of data from the ECG to your Health app on the iPhone, which can be exported as a PDF and give information on rhythm to a physician, plus you're able to write notes to contextualize what was happening at the same time.The most notable change on the inside has to do with heart rate monitoring. The optical sensor on the underside of the watch is now surrounded by an electrode. This will enable electrocardiogram readings in Apple's upcoming ECG app. The Series 4 also sports an improved accelerometer and gyroscope, which are essential for the new fall detection feature. Being able to stream music directly to the watch and take any incoming calls means you can head out for a 10km run with just your watch and some AirPods. When you’re running you’ll also get heart rate data – again this data was comparable to both the older Apple Watch 3 and a Fitbit Charge 2 I was using as a comparison. Inbetween the Digital Crown and side button is the microphone, while the speaker has been shunted to the other side. This is to try and avoid any interference between the two. Battery life is one of the few areas of the Apple Watch Series 4 that hasn’t received a huge update. Apple makes the same ‘all-day, 18 hours of usage’ claim it made for the Series 3 and during my time with the watch it has met, and often exceeded, that.