Apple Watch 4: 8 things we want from Apple’s next smartwatch
Everything we'd like to see in the next-generation Apple smartwatch
Apple Watch 4: 8 things we want from Apple’s next smartwatch
We may not see a successor to the Apple Watch Series 3 until much later this year, in September alongside some new iPhones and the public release of iOS 12. But that won’t stop us daydreaming about what it might offer. A holographic screen? Built-in projector? Will we get any of those? Probably not. Instead, here are eight Apple Watch 4 changes that are a bit more likely – and would make Apple’s smartwatch an even more killer piece of tech.
1) A BATTERY LIFE BOOST
This one’s obvious. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an Apple Watch you could wear for a couple of days, including sleep tracking, without it conking out? The obvious problem: how? There’s barely a cubic millimetre of spare space in the whole watch. One obvious bit that could be shrunk is the Taptic engine, the bit that makes the watch buzz in all sorts of sophisticated ways. Shrink that sucker down and there’d be space for more than the 279mAh of battery we get today.
2) FAST WIRELESS CHARGING
The current Apple Watch takes over two hours to charge from flat. And the thing only has a 279mAh battery, just over 10% the size of the iPhone X’s cell. What’s that about? Faster wireless charging is one of the Apple Watch 4 features that could actually pan out. Apple’s AirPower wireless charger is on the way, and we already know it’ll support the Apple Watch.
3) BETTER PERFORMANCE
Apple says the Watch Series 3 gave us a 70% performance boost over the second-gen model. That’s massive. However, apps still take a while to load, even though some are the app equivalent of some ribbon attached to a piece of string. What we’d like to see is an Apple Watch that launches apps almost instantly, just like a top-end phone. The good news is we’ll almost certainly see a new chipset in the Apple Watch. It’ll probably be called the S4.
4) A SMARTER SIRI
Siri is Siri is Siri, right? Not quite. The Apple Watch’s Siri is more limited than the iPhone’s Siri, which isn’t quite as advanced as the HomePod’s Siri. We want to see Siri stop bumping us off to our iPhones as soon as we ask for something that can’t be answered with a 10-word sentence. And, just as important, Apple Watch Siri needs to be quicker off the mark, too.
5) THIRD-PARTY WATCH FACES
Apple has made a bunch of great watch faces for the Apple Watch – but, compared with Android Wear, which welcomes custom watch faces from whoever cranks them out, it’s very restrictive. Apple has already nudged towards proper third-party customisation with Complications, which are like watch face widgets. Maybe it’s time for Apple to finally get go of the reins and give developers a bit more control.
6) FACETIME CALLING ON YOUR WRIST
Here’s an idea we love and hate at the same time. Video chat on your wrist feels like something from Back to the Future II. Just don’t think too much about attention-hungry wannabe influencers latching onto it. Shudder. This would, of course, need a camera built into the watch. Or a carefully placed sensor in its strap. In fact, in March 2018 Apple was granted a patent for a camera that lives behind the display in a phone…
7) 10ATM WATER RESISTANCE
The Apple Watch Series 3 has 5ATM, or 50m, water resistance. This means you can take it swimming, but it’s not designed to handle much beyond surface-level water fun. 10ATM is the next step. You find this kind of water resistance in bulkier sport watches like the Garmin Fenix 5 and Nixon Mission. Here’s a challenge for Apple’s engineers: can you squeeze 10ATM into the next Apple Watch without making it twice the size?
8) ANDROID SUPPORT
Are we dreaming? Android support for Apple Watch? Since the beginning you’ve needed an iOS device to use an Apple Watch. Even to set it up. It would open up a whole new audience for the watch, which is already the best-selling smartwatch by quite some margin. It would actually be pretty complicated, as Siri uses a unique identifier rather than linking directly to your Apple account, for extra privacy points, which would require Apple to release Siri for Android. Unless the Android take on the Apple Watch was very restrictive, which isn’t what we’re after.
