dymmas

I have an AWU - I chose it over my normal aluminium base model update as I hike and snowshoe a lot.

I sold my Garmin GPSMAP66 handheld for funds to go toward the AWU purchase.

I kind of wish I’d kept the Garmin. I’ve found the AWU is a really good Apple Watch, but a just-average tool for navigating and gathering stats for long trips.

Apple really is not the “standard-bearer” in this category at all: navigation options rely on third-party apps and internet connections, battery life is still lousy compared with Garmins, and I can’t wear it over my hard shell jacket without turning off wrist protection, which exposes my data to anyone who happens to get access to the watch.

It just isn’t there yet at all for what it has been marketed as.

Actually the more I engage with the Apple Classical app the more it acts as a foil to the Music app. It's just light years better.

The full titles and not truncating is the main difference. It's not limited by two lines as Apple Music is. I can see the full title of each song.

Browse is also light years better. Objective breakdowns of Composers, Periods, Instruments (!) etc, rather than like in Apple Music, which is a presentation of genres and playlists I have no interest in (nor have any control over what is presented).

You can’t download to listen offline.

🤦‍♂️

The app experience is great. Hopefully they adopt it for the Music app.

What is the Sony Signature Sound?

Beautifully lush and warm, yet at the same time detailed. Or to some, muddy and veiled. Depends who you ask. For me, I love it on their Signature Series (high-end gear). The bluetooth offerings (ie the XM4) are good for what they are, but can get muddy (ie hard to separate the frequencies).

I sold my mini 5 a few months ago in anticipation of this one. I picked it up Friday.

it is everything I expected but…not a huge amount more; and, in some ways, a bit less.

Despite loving the great-looking new form factor I can’t help but feel the rounded edges of the previous design suited one-hand holding better.

Relocating Touch ID to the side actually makes it harder as there is no visual indication as to where the button is (apart from the hard-to-see front camera).

No Smart connector means there will never be a cute little keyboard similar to the ones for the Pros.

And finally….the space between the icon grid and the bezels is huge! One more column of icons could easily fit each side.

I’m a little underwhelmed but given the lockdown we are currently in (Melbourne) Apple have said you have until the stores open up for returns, so much longer than the usual two weeks. Hopefully more tinkering will get me used to these shortcomings!