The brand new LTE Apple Watch Series 3 will start shipping this Friday. But we’re just finding out that there could be issues with connectivity. In a review, The Verge found that cellular service was unreliable, and handoff wasn’t working as it should.
Connectivity
Apple replaced Lauren Goode’s review unit, but she had problems with the second Apple Watch too. The company eventually acknowledged the issue in a brief statement:
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular. We are investigating a fix for a future software release.
The LTE Apple Watch is supposed to seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and LTE. This is the “handoff” feature. In the review, Lauren says that if she walked away from her iPhone, the Apple Watch would take several minutes to switch to LTE. Sometimes, it wouldn’t work at all.
Other things to keep in mind: the LTE Apple Watch won’t work with prepaid phone plans, and streaming Apple Music on the watch won’t be available until next month. Right now, we don’t know when the next software update for watchOS will be. So until then, LTE connectivity problems are something to keep in mind if you want to purchase the Series 3.
Funny how issues such as these occur so quickly and are discovered by real end users like Lauren. Given how common the connectivity issues are amongst reviewers (whom I think are probably competent end users), makes one wonder about testing scenarios within the Apple sphere. Still though, it is the first release so “keep in mind” is prudent and wise advise.
This is a total non story. This is more hype bs than the ‘iPhone 6 bends’. News outlets desperate for clicks. This same thing happens when your iPhone hooks into a bad WiFi connection which clobbers your cell connection. A quick software update can change this behavior. I couldn’t disagree more with the conclusion of this article that “keep in mind”, there’s nothing to keep in mind here. Bunch of noise IMO.
So if the watch hasn’t shipped yet how do you know this? If this is a developer that has an early version then he is in violation of his agreement with apple and should be terminated immediately.
The embargo on Apple Watch Series 3 reviews lifts today, so it was perfectly fine for The Verge (and others) to publish their review.