I’ve worn an Apple Watch since day one it went on sale, and mostly for a full year I train: functional strength, running, or on days of too much preload, walking.
An Apple Watch Series 8 Pro (or just Pro, or whatever it ends up being called) as they say, with better physical protection against bumps and drops, is something that sounds good as an argument for tracking down the athletes who today prefer proposals such as those of Garmin, Polar, Suunto and company. However, If this watch does not come with many internal improvements, and only a more resistant case, it will hardly convince anyone. Certainly not for those who need more sports-related functions.
Let’s start with the break
watchOS 9 is perhaps the clearest clue that a new, sportier model is on the way. New features include multi-sport training, easy-to-setup interval workouts, expanded on-screen information during exercise, and other much-requested enhancements over the past few years: the native workout app was getting too poor .
However, still need more so someone who’s really serious about playing sports can consider an Apple Watch without rolling eyes at a Garmin and a company.
To start, Apple does not give any importance to rest, if necessary to recover and perform at the highest possible level so as not to break. I commented Xataka the last day of 2021 (“Give me a break, Apple Watch”) and the situation has not changed with watchOS 9.
While other watches worry about giving us an estimate of the number of hours of rest for full recovery before another intense training session (24h, 30h, 72h…) based on our history and some physiological indicators, the Apple Watch does include it. It’s more: his tendencies encourage us not to take our foot off the accelerator.
Athletic, WorkOutDoors
For this task, to understand how my body is with objective data, not just sensations, and how far I have to push, or whether I have rested enough or not, I found the best possible companion in the application Athletic. Both on iPhone and Apple Watch.
Now that Apple is reining in its acquisitions of other companies, it would be nice if they took control of it and natively integrates all of its functions into iOS, watchOS, Health and the Training app. this way it would be much more complete and we would know how far we can go and when it is better to rest a bit and leave for another day. Because it doesn’t always work with feeling, where self-confidence or desire is often more powerful than reason.
The same as the view while running or exercising that is: the one that watchOS 9 brings us improves a lot on what we had so far, but for the sports hero something like WorkOutDoors is another level. It is true that anyone who owns a Watch can use it, but it is also true that with other watches, in addition to other improvements, there is no need to pay extra, nor to learn an interface that is still complex for its configuration.
Having this information would be a much better starting point for athletes than just extensive physical protection for the watch case. Other points to consider would be the aforementioned body temperature sensor, rather than using it actively, passively: that it can take temperature in the background to get certain patterns or warn us of sudden spikes.
Sure, Battery life. Going through the day with it and leaving it charging for nights or for specific timings might be enough for the civilian population, but for those who go on long bike rides, runs, etc., a few hours of GPS and music use can help. may well fall short. All of these, of course, are comments in the absence of what Apple wants to present to us in a few days. Will everything come?