Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) [GPS 40mm] Smartwatch with Starlight Aluminum Case with Starlight Sport Band S/M. Fitness and Sleep Trackers, Crash Detection, Heart Rate Monitor, Retina Display

This review is from the perspective of a blind user and a musician.I was already in the Apple ecosystem, but I've been struggling with Android watches for a long time now. Ironically the best I've ever owned was an Alexa-enabled cheap-o, but when I saw the SE 2nd gen on sale for only $170 I finally took the plunge. I'm really happy I did, with one small caveat.First of all, the bad: again, I am a blind user. The accessibility on these watches is amazing, for the most part. Where I stumbled was with the passcode to unlock the watch. I didn't think to set it up so that it unlocks with my phone, and ended up locked out of my watch for a full 45 minutes before I gave up, went into the Watch app on my phone, and reset the watch completely.So, my advice to my fellow blind users is this: turn on voiceover while setting up your watch. Even if you don't need it later, you can turn it back off again, but during setup it will save you an hour of headaches.Watch face options: there are a plethora of great options, but the one I chose is called Numarals Duo for its huge font. But, I later found out that the watch does this neat trick. You can press and hold the watch face with two fingers and Siri will speak out the time, or you can even set up a haptic feedback system where the watch will silently tap your wrist to tell you what time it is. Game. Changing.Since I don't use my watch to answer messages (because I'd rather use my phone and dictate them that way), I've found I actually get almost 36 hours of battery by simply turning off raise to wake, and having Siri listening (You can just press the digital crown button and get her that way anyway).Lastly, apps! Oh my gosh this is the BIG REASON to own an Apple watch. I'm a musician, and I've been eyeing haptic feedback metronomes lately. They cost an exhorbitant amount of money, well more than an Apple Watch for JUST THE metronome. Or, you can buy an Apple Watch and get the iOS app, like Haptik, or its free alternative (the name escapes me, but it's not hard to find).The watch charges so fast that I don't think twice about using it as my metronome for a couple of hours, then toss it on the charger while I work on something else.

Love it! Helps and motivates me to get active to hit my goals. It also connects to your phone through Bluetooth. I was under the impression that you had to get a new line through your carrier for you to get notifications about messages and calls. So that was a good surprise.

Still learning about this toy but so far, I am loving it. Haven’t had a watch for years so it’s nice not having to grab my phone. PLUS lots of other fun stuff!

My first Apple Watch!! Love it but had to learn quickly that the battery does not last for more than 24-30 hours. So I make sure to charge it.

Great watch for the price drop. I got it for a gift and the person loved it. It works great, I would just be careful with the band size you buy, as I didn’t check and got a larger band size by accident and couldn’t gone down a size.

The first Apple Watch I received had been opened and the boxes were dingy and stained. I did see some reviews of this occurring to them and I thought for sure this would not happen with an Apple product. I did reach out to Amazon and let them know receiving an opened product for a “new” item ordered is not acceptable and deceitful. Amazon sent me a replacement Apple Watch which did come brand new and in never before opened Apple packaging which I appreciate hence the 4 stars and not lower. What I didn’t like is the return label for the 1st watch received was not prepaid by Amazon and that cost came out of my pocket. If you are going to sell a “new” customer returned item at least give it a discount and disclose it.So on the actual Apple Watch, I got it to replace my Fitbit sense and I will say I am preferring my Fitbit more for core activity tracking and app notifications. I had to download a steps app to be able to select daily steps as a “complications” in the Apple Watch face. I am not liking the activity rings being pre-selected and wish I could edit those to something more meaningful to what I want to track and see. I have yet to see how the sleep tracker works. And I have app notifications that aren’t compatible with the Apple Watch such as Eufy security so they won’t display on the Apple Watch.I don’t like that I have to charge it everyday. I usually charge my Fitbit every 3 days and on my way home or to work. The Apple Watch will take longer to charge and I don’t want to do it at night as then I can’t track my sleep. I do like that you can respond to a text message from the Apple Watch itself and the notifications are more colorful and detailed.Like my husband said, I just need to give it a try so I will. We shall see if I end up keeping or giving it to my daughter in a few months.

It does almost everything the more expensive generation watches do… without a phone line! Answer/make calls, text and monitor heart with no problem. ❤️

Love this watch. It helps me track my daily activities and fitness. Very handy when I need to use a calculator or set a timer.