Smartwatch Guides is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
Smartwatch Reviews

Apple Watch Series 4 Review: Hands-on Review and Comparison

This year Apple came with the bang. iPhone XS, iPhone XS MAX and the brand new Apple watch series 4.

Apple has just launched the brand new iPhones which have created a very good impact on the consumers. It is becoming more meaningful to iPhone users. These two new iPhones iPhone XS and iPhone XS MAX are fully upgraded and more dominant till now.

With this excellent products, it has also launched the next generation Apple Watch Series 4.

Apple Watch Series 4 is beautiful. It is awesome. I can’t find the word to describe it. In short, I honestly love this smartwatch.

This is my on-hand review about Apple watch series 4.

It is not just a beautiful but, also it is stunning from design to performance. S4 has been re-designed and re-engineered for every detail.

Before we know about Apple watch series 4, let’s take a quick look of what are the new features in the S4.

Before we know about the Apple watch series 4, let’s take a quick look at what are the new features in the S4. And I like these new innovations.

What is New in Apple Watch Series 4?

  • Larger display up to 30 %
  • Brand new UI
  • Upgraded Digital crown with haptics up to two times faster performance
  • Louder speaker up to 50%
  • Fall detection
  • Built-in electrical heart sensor capable of taking an ECG first time in the industry
  • Cellular
  • GPS
  • Altimeter
  • Swim-proof
  • The most advanced wearable operating system watch OS five

Apple Watch Series 4 Review: Design and Display

All new Apple watch series 4 - design and displayIts all about the stunning OLED display that gives you more charming and elegant look to your wrist. It has same curved corners that perfectly match the shape but, one best change is the Apple watch S4 is thinner and low weight than Apple watch series 3.

Apple watch series 4 - 30% larger screenThe screen is expanded as iPhone and it is 30% larger than the prior Apple watch. So you will get the room to navigate more functions available on the watch face.

The New Watch Faces

The new watch faces come with the bigger display screen also common Apple Watch faces have been upgraded with the developments. Now you can able to customize the watch faces with the pieces of information, apps or features that you need.

For example,

  • You can easily connect the people adding them into the watch face.
  • If you travel too much, you can customize a watch face to track the different time zones.
  • You can create the ultimate health and fitness watch.

Apple watch series 4 watch faces

Generally, I like the health and fitness watch face because I am a fitness freak guy. 🙂 So it is easy to navigate the health and fitness apps because it creates shortcuts of the apps on your watch face.

Also, you can do many things with the watch faces because every part of the UI has been re-designed and more familiar. Apple has created new complications of UI, so you get every information in detail like photos, maps, calendars, fitness apps, etc.

Modular Face

The new S4 comes with exclusive faces, called Infographics Modular, are pleasant. The modular face is re-designed, gives you further detailed and graphical information from apps like stocks, heart rate, activity and even apps from the developers.

Apple watch series 4 review - modular face complicationThe watch face has one best feature called breath app which guides you to take a deep breath just raising your wrist with the three beautiful watch face variations.

Also, there is three new watch face added in it that uniquely interact with the shape of the display.

apple s4 all new watch face

  1. Fire: the flames subtly illuminate with the dial
  2. Water face: you can see how the bubbles splash off the edges
  3. The vapor face looks amazing with rich vibrant color

I think you’re going to love everything about the new displays on series 4.

Overall Design has improved

As Apple watch S4 has two models: The basic model is 40mm x 34mm, while the extended model is 44mm x 38mm. Nonetheless, the bezels around the display have reduced, S4 has not improved overall size.

apple watch series 4 Review - digital crownThe digital crown is subtle haptics now which gives you responsive and mechanical feel especially great for apps to navigate.

Series 4 speaker and micHere mic and speaker both are opposite sides. Speaker is 50 % louder than the previous watch which is surpassing for phone calls, walkie-talkie, and Siri requests. The mic is moved to the counter side as far away from the speaker as possible to reduce the echo when you make the call.

The back side of the apple watch series made entirely of black ceramic and sapphire crystal. It’s highly functional radio waves can now pass through both the front and the back resulting in the improved cellular reception.

These Apple watch series(s) are quite expensive but you can buy the best cheap smartwatches for iPhone users.

Apple Watch Series 4: Performance and Sensors for your better experience

apple watch series 4 processor and chip performanceThe brain of Apple Watch series 4 built with 4th generation Silicon in Package(SIP) powerful new dual-core 64-bit processor and a new GPO both custom designed by Apple silicon team to deliver up to two times faster performance.

Apple Watch being a mini iPhone on your wrist, it has never felt like using one. Even simple apps would take a while to launch. It is difficult to notify any speed enhancements considering the Apple Watch Series 3 was already an excellent performer.

S4 Optical sensorEvery smartwatch such as Samsung, Fitbit, Google’s wear OS has the accelerometer and gyroscope to track all-day activity tracking or even identifying your swim stroke But, the Apple Watch Series 4 has a next-generation accelerometer and gyroscope with twice the dynamic range measuring up to 32

G-forces and can sample motion data eight times faster.

New Emergency Fall detection features

Series 4 detects a fall alongside measuring step tracking, heart-rate sensing, fitness tracking. When you fall while walking, or on a bike, it will automatically make a call 911 of your emergency list.

Is this feature really helpful and why?

Yes, This is a really meaningful feature but we hope you never need in the future. But, You should know about it.

After the studies and getting tremendous data from the thousands of people, one of the teams of the apple has figured out that the Fall is a repeatable motion pattern that happens.

With a new accelerometer and gyroscope, the watch analyzes risk, trajectory and impact acceleration to determine the fall occurs. After detecting a fall, Series 4 reads an alert and from that alert, you can initiate an emergency call also, it sends a message with your locations to your emergency contacts using the SOS feature that has already built into Apple watch.

Optical Heart rate sensor – Proactive Health Monitor

The optical heart sensor has been essential to Apple watch from the beginning. It allows us to calculate the calorie burn during your workouts. Also, it tracks your heart rate when you are resting, or you are working.

But what is new in this Apple Watch Serie 4?

The rear heart-rate sensor has been completely redesigned this time around, with a lot of heart rate potential.

apple-watch-series Heart rateThere is three type of heart rate sensor:

  1. You will get a notification if your heart rate appears to be too low.
  2. The second feature is related to heart rhythm. (The watch keep tracking your heart rhythm in the background. It sends an alert if it detects an unnatural rhythm that appears to be atrial fibrillation. It won’t catch every occurrence of AFib. But this is a pretty useful feature, and it will help people a lot.)

These two feature powered by the optical sensor, the third is made by electrical heart sensor.

3. ECG: there are electrodes placed into the back of sapphire crystal and the digital crown that allows you to take an Electrocardiogram.

apple-watch-series 4 Heart rate - ECG

This is the first ECG (Electrocardiogram) product that directly provided to customers by Apple.

How ECG works in Series 4?

You will have to open the app and put your finger on the digital crown.

The built-in electrodes placed in the back crystal in the digital crown detects electrical impulses from your heartbeat. At here the S4 chip will be activated which converts electrical impulses to signal. The entire process takes just 30 seconds.

After this moment, you will receive a heart rhythm classification if your heart is beating in a normal rhythm. The app will analyze the measurement as sinus rhythm and the app will also analyze atrial fibrillation. It records their classifications as the symptoms in the form of ECG graph. And these data will be stored in the health app as a PDF so you can share it with your doctor.

For this thing, Apple has received clearance from the FDA.

And I believe this is one of the Best Heart rate monitors.

Apple Watch Series 4 Review: Battery

The Apple Watch has always been a “charge it every day” device. The outdoor workout time has been increased to six hours so you can have full GPS tracking which is perfect for those marathons or long bike rides.

S4’s battery life has a limitation that Apple hasn’t solved yet. Qualcomm is encouraging longer smartwatch battery life, which runs more days (weeks), not days.

We’ll be testing full battery life soon.

Apple Watch Series 4: Product models and prices

Series 4 will be available in three Aluminum finish, and the beautiful Stainless finish with GPS and Cellular pricing starts from $499.

The Aluminum finishes have three variation finishes:

  1. Silver
  2. Gold and
  3. Space Gray

And also the beautiful stainless collection comes with polished in three different variations:

  1. Silver
  2. Space black (DLC) and
  3. Gold (PVD).

There are another three different Aluminium finishes Silver, Gold, and Space Gray comes with only GPS pricing starts from $399.

Also, the Apple has launched the two new watch this time:

  1. Apple Watch Nike+ available in silver and space gray aluminum.
  2. Apple Watch Hermès available in polished stainless steel.

Check out the price of all Apple watch Series 4 model’s variant.

Now after this apple watch series review, the biggest question wondering in your mind is,

Should I Upgrade to this Apple smartwatch series 4?

Yes, you should upgrade yourself to the next generation S4. Because it has lots of specialties and the existing features has been upgraded.

If you are an old Apple watch user then, you would know how apple watch adds value to our life. Likewise, you are using Apple watch series 1 and series 2 and also planning to upgrade then, don’t think too much. Just go ahead and get it.

For the Apple watch series 3, It is the tough decision. If you want the advanced features like ECG, larger screen, louder speaker, and more advanced experience then, you should definitely upgrade your self. Before you move from your old S3 to S4 let’s see the comparison of Apple Watch Series 4 Vs. Apple Watch Series 3. We have seen the Apple watch series 4 review which is full of upgradations and modifications.


 

Apple Watch Series 4 vs. Apple Watch Series 3

Apple Watch Series 4

apple watch series 4

Apple Watch Series 3

apple watch series 3

NEW S4 FUNCTIONS
  • 44mm and 40mm case (30 % larger)
  • 10.7mm thin
  • 64 Bit Dual-core S4 Presessor so it is 2x faster then S3 prosessor
  • Electric Heart sensor (ECG app)
  • Second Gen Optical heart sensor
  • Fall detection
  • Digital Crown with haptic feedback
S3 FUNCTIONS
  • 42mm and 38mm case
  • 11.4mm thin
  • Dual-core S3 processor
  • –NA– (ECG)
  • Optical heart sensor
  • –NA– (Fall detection)
  • Digital Crown
FINISHES
  • Stainless Steel (Silver, Space Black, Gold)
  • Aluminium (Silver, Space gray, Gold)
  • Apple Watch Nike+ available in silver and space gray aluminum.
  • Apple Watch Hermès available in polished stainless steel.
FINISHES
  • Aluminium (Silver, Space gray)
  • Apple Watch Nike+ available in space gray aluminum.
FEATURES
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS
  • Barometric altimeter
  • Water resistance up to 50 meters
  • Improved Accelerometer up to 32 g-forces
  • Improved Gyroscope
  • Ambient light sensor
  • 16 GB Capacity
  • All ceremic and sapphire crystal back
FEATURES
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS
  • Barometric altimeter
  • Water resistance up to 50 meters
  • Improved Accelerometer up to 16 g-forces
  • Gyroscope
  • Ambient light sensor
  • 16 GB Capacity (GPS + Cellular), 8 GB (GPS)
  • Ceramic and sapphire crystal back (center)
DISPLAY
  • 44mm 368 x 448 pixels
  • 40mm 324 x 394 pixels
  • LTPO OLED Retina display with force touch
DISPLAY
  • 42mm 312 x 390 pixels
  • 38 mm 272 x 340 pixels
  • OLED Retina display with force touch
CHIP
  • S4 with 64 bit dual core processor
  • W3 (Apple wireless chip)
CHIP
  • S3 dual core processor
  • W2 (Apple wireless chip)
CONNECTIVITY
  • LTE and UMTS (GPS + Cellular models)
  • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz)
  • Bluetooth 5.0
CONNECTIVITY
  • LTE and UMTS (GPS + Cellular models)
  • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz)
  • Bluetooth 4.2
POWER
  • Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (Up to 18 hours)
  • Magnetic charging cable
  • USB power adapter
POWER
  • Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (Up to 18 hours)
  • Magnetic charging cable
  • USB power adapter (GPS + Cellular model only)

Michael Rivera

Hi, I am Michael Rivera, CEO and senior editor of this website - Smartwatch Guides.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
Close