As a follow up to “iBought an iPhone”, I wanted to make some notes on using the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with an iPhone 15 Pro.
Researching the usage has been quite different to actually using the devices.
Even if you pay for every subscription service available.
Even if all of your friends own iPhones.
Even if you don’t care at all about the blue vs green war.
Never buy an iPhone.
I went into this without any bias. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 plainly does not work as advertised.
The iPhone is great and you can work with it’s quirks, but there is no longer any benefit other than being in the Apple ecosystem.
If you have friends who are not in the Apple ecosystem, and you will, then that ecosystem is effectively rendered moot.
Conversely, if you have a Pixel but your friends are in the Pixel ecosystem then there is literally no impact to your life. Features dont suddenly stop working depending on who you interact with.
For me, that is the core thing. PIxel just works and you can own a Pixel for years without missing out on anything.
My entire digital life is self hosted. Calendar, contacts, files, everything except email.
The only subscription that I have now is YouTube Music.
I couldn’t use a bunch of features without Siri. I needed Siri for handfree control of my watch.
Apple says that most of Siris functionality is on-device.
I’ve enabled it. I’m already compromised owning these devices so why not take some of the benefits.
It’s worth noting that Siri doesn’t compare to Google Voice Assistant. Each have benefits and negatives, but Googles is slightly more usable if you’re in the Google ecosystem.
The calendar syncing has been great. No odd issues.
Default Calendar app is perfectly functional and Siri is able to put events into the calendar.
No issues.
iPhone wants a specific VCF format. Nextcloud is compatible but you can have issues with the Address field.
Contacts pictures do not sync oddly.
So long as your cards are correctly configured in Nextcloud, it will fully function as expected and work perfectly.
You need to keep the Nextcloud app open to reliably sync.
All notifications have to go through Apples servers so I’ve noticed that Nextclouds notifications are just generic messages telling you to open the app to find out more.
You can access files via the factory Files app. Retroarch can access Nextcloud files, including keeping its config there.
I can attach things from Nextcloud (ie in the Mail app) but I dont ever really do that.
Honestly, it’s perfectly functional for a personal use case.
Music is a hot mess.
I dropped Plex due to some ethical issues that I had with them.
Spotify supports all features but struggles to handle playback when switching between bluetooth and LTE. You can save music on the watch via the watch which is nice.
Not being able to listen to music immediately was frustrating enough for me to cancel my Spotify subscription finally.
YouTube Music has an app on the watch however you can’t use it on LTE mode. It must be connected to the iPhone to play music.
For YT Music, it does show a “Downloaded” section. I closed the watch app and turned off my phone; accessing the YT Music app on the watch with the phone turned off gives me a message telling me to turn on my phone. I cannot play music at all on YouTube Music without my phone.
Jellyfin is fantastic. Manet is great for listening to music.
You can favorite music in Manet in Carplay and on the watch but you don’t get feedback if a song is liked or not on the watch.
Manet shows up as a generic media service playing on the watch. It’s good for standard media control but without a Watch app there isn’t much that you can do.
So you can’t do phone-less music without Apple Music or Spotify.
I haven’t tested Apple Music but that will be how I handle “offline” or LTE listening if I keep the devices.
Discord, Signal and Session do not properly work on the watch.
I dropped Snapshat when I hit a one-year streak with my girlfriend and switched to SMS only for everything. I still have Discord for my gaming community and a few chats, but that’s it.
All of my friends are Android users. The majority of my family are iPhone users. My girlfriend is an iPhone user.
I made the decision to turn off iMessage and Facetime. SMS on the device is good enough but RCS support is lacking on Telstra.
I can’t send SMS from my watch without my phone connected. I can’t make phone calls from my watch without my phone connected.
This ruins the watch for me completely. I can live with music and workout issues but not the phone and messaging.
I had high hopes of being able to put together a basic message and calling app for the iPhone however I just dont have time to handle that project.
With the Pixel Watch 3 released in a 45mm, I am very tempted to switch over just for the calls and messaging.
The widgets on the watch face are helpful if you take the time to configure them.
I didn’t feel motivated to spend that time configuring it however I was bored on the flight from DFW to ATL and got it done.
On the iPhone, widgets are great now that you have reasonable control over your homescreen layout.
I have all apps hidden unless I use them daily. I use the widget board (right swipe from the home page) with all my widgets configured:
Because I have these at-a-glance info graphics there, I have hidden the apps from my system. This left a lot of room for widgetless apps such as my games, mastodon, banking, etc.
I had to dedicate a whole page to financial apps because there are just too many these days. It is what it is though. I have a nice and clean home screen.
The only issue is that installing an app adds it to your home screen. If you connect four at the top then iOS thinks you’re doing a traditional layout and anything on the second row will move itself.
Day-to-day usage is fine and functional. I do prefer Androids home screen still but I don’t hate iPhones.
iPhone
The smaller size is great. I don’t understand peoples preference for taller phones. I typically read whats in the middle 33% of my screen and swipe to feed reading material into it.
I prefer the smaller screen because it’s more handable. I can reach the left of the phone with my right thumb (and vice versa) which is handy because iPhone doesn’t have a back button activated by edge swiping.
It’s weight is comparable to my PIxel. I had to put my Pixel in a case because the volume rocker had a tendancy to break itself off. I can run my iPhone naked (but with an acrylic screen protector) and it hasn’t been damaged at all.
My Pixel is lighter with the case and significantly lighter without. The iPhones weight isn’t a negative except when wearing looser pants like pajamas.
I actually really like the rounded edge, small uniform bezel and frames glass design of the iPhone. Apparently I’m not alone because the Pixel 9 copied it, dropping the rounded glass. It’s a lot more hand-able but makes edge swiping less reliable.
Watch
The weight is noticeable and worst than I expected. I’ve replaced the ocean band with a braided elastic band from eBay (same as on Amazon but cheaper) and it made a huge difference.
I went to a metal link band for a while and despite making the watch heavier, it distributed it better than the braided band and made the watch feel better to wear.
Unfortunately, the metal band made the watch sit in an un-movable position on my wrist. When squatting, my hand would push against the buttons on the side of the watch and turn my watch off.
This caused my workout data to be lost and cost me a free use point on my Jefit trial.
Without changing my band to suit the occassion, I can’t find a happy compromise between good weight distribution and comfort.
FWIW I favor the braided elastic band but my wrist does sometimes hurt during the day.
I have strong, thick wrists with no RSI and I currently feel pain while writing this.
Form factor is great though. The square is great for messages and workouts. The size is perfect as well.
The watch has taken so many massive hits and shows absolutely no damage at all. I don’t have any protection on it.
My primary use cases for marrying the iPhone with the Apple Watch Ultra 2:
| Feature | iPhone | iWatch |
|---|---|---|
| Make phone calls (over VoLTE, sadly) | Works | Doesn’t work without phone |
| Send SMS | Works, no RCS with Telstra | Doesn’t work without phone |
| Listen to music | Works | Doesn’t work without phone |
| Track my workout | Works | Works |
So my use cases are just not being met.
Notable mentions:
I’m tossing up selling the devices at a loss and buying a Pixel 9 and Pixel Watch 3.
My research from ChatGPT:
| Feature | Phone | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Make phone calls (over VoLTE, sadly) | Works | Works |
| Send SMS (RCS) | Works | Works |
| Listen to music | Works | Works (Jellyfin via Gelli, LTE, no phone) |
| Track my workout | Works | Works (Jefit, Wear OS) |
Android dev is easier than iOS dev too. Flutter makes this so. So it’ll take less ramp up time to solve any gaps that I run into.
I went to JB Hifi and put my AWU2 face-to-face (literally, touching watch faces) with their PW3:
PW2 band support isn’t as good as Apples but you can still get a lot for it. There’s also the Spiggen case that makes it bigger and protects it better.
I already know that I love GrapheneOS and I know that PW3 will perform all desired functions from a Watch.
I cannot get past me $3,000 investment into my iPhone and Apple Watch going to waste. I might get $2,000 seeling on FBM if I am lucky. That will just cover the Pixel Pro 9.
I could potentially sell both, go back to my Pixel 7 Pro XL and buy a Pixel Watch 3. I don’t like the idea of going back to such a large phone though, or at taking a $1,000 loss over five months.
Additionally I have noticed that the iPhone and Apple Watch struggle to negotiate in-car, bluetooth calling and I often have to check all three devices to see where the audio is jumping to. It seems to try each device in order of;
If the car audio isn’t up to scratch, you can’t use your watch to change the calls device. You might be able to use your car. You can use your phone if you don’t value legal ability to drive.
If you have an iPhone, your features stop working the moment you interact with a friend who doesn’t have an iPhone.
It’s unethical for the Apple Watch to not suport VoLTE or SMS over LTE without the iPhone connected.
Conversely, Pixel will work the same regardless of who you interact with. The phone doesn’t drop functionality when interaction with iOS contacts and the watch doesn’t lie about what it can do.
Video calling might require a third party app, but you can’t install Facetime on Android (web, but, yeah whatever). You’re also likely using WhatsApp or Discord in 2024 anyway.
Essentially, you can do it all with Pixel but you can kinda do it with iPhone.
Having your messages and calls jump from iPhone to iPad to Mac* is just not worth it. The world would be much better off if you just supported an agnostic solution such as Discord or Signal. They might not be good now but they’ll get better with your usage and feedback.
Airdrops really nice. It’s also obsolete now that it can be replaced by LocalSendwhich is free, open-source and cross-platform.
Samsung isn’t worth a mention beyond this sentence.
So do yourself a favor and go pure Android. Pixel 9 with CalyxOS or GrapheneOS. It will be the best decision you ever make.
Now that I can put this to rest in my mind, I can focus more on my laptop/desktop/tablet setup at home.