by Joe Lonergan
How accessible is the Apple Watch Series 8? In the latest of our Technology Product Reviews, Joe Lonergan shares his thoughts about this smart watch that comes with new features including a skin temperature reader, a low power mode for longer battery life, crash detection, new health stats, and much more.
Product description
Apple Watch Series 8 smart watch. Fully accessible VoiceOver screen reader. Siri enabled voice assistant for hands-free use. You can take calls and reply to texts from your wrist.
Measure your blood oxygen with sensors on the back of the watch to monitor overall health. Check your heart rhythm with the ECG app. Includes an always-on retina display. Track your daily activity and see your trends in the Fitness app on iPhone. Measure workouts like running, walking, cycling, yoga, swimming, and dance.
New safety features. Car crash detection and improved fall detection. New back track feature for adventurous types who like hiking. This feature will help you if you get lost and allows you to add waypoint markers on your way.
Temperature sensing. For female users of the Apple Watch Series 8 some new women’s health features have been added and Apple has said the following:
Understand your cycle like never before. Apple Watch Series 8 has an innovative sensor that tracks your temperature while you sleep, so you can see changes over time. Cycle Tracking uses this data to provide a retrospective estimate of when you likely ovulated. When combined with your heart rate and logged cycle data, you’ll get a detailed view of your menstrual cycle, this will also provide more accurate period tracking and this data is held securely in the Health app on your iPhone and can be accessed with a passcode, touch, or face ID. Apple pay on your wrist.
Improved 18 hours of all day battery life and 36 hours on low power mode.
Stronger than ever before, Apple Watch Series 8 is designed to be really strong. It is crack resistant, dust resistant and water resistant. And of course, it can tell the time.
Unboxing / What are my first impressions?
Really comfortable on the wrist. Looks great, silicone strap feels very secure. After taking it out of the box I had to put on the strap myself, it was easy enough once I worked it out, it just slides comfortably into place and locks onto the watch securely.
I was happy that VoiceOver worked straight away to help with set up. VoiceOver can be turned on and off quickly by pressing in the digital crown three times.
Set up was easy as you would expect from an Apple device, I just had to hold my iPhone close to the watch and I got the option on the screen of my iPhone to start set up, I followed the prompts until set up was finished.
What did I like?
I liked the way the watch felt on my arm. It looked good and felt very comfortable. I am a big fan of the fitness tracking and I find it motivating because if I found I had not hit my move goals I would get up and go for a walk.
I liked getting discreet notifications on my wrist such as messages and timers. Some versions of apps were good such as voice memos and Hive heating controls, mini versions of this type of app were easier to use on the watch.
VoiceOver is very good on the watch and has mostly similar gestures to the phone. Occasionally I answered a call on the watch but only for very quick calls.
Sometimes I liked to control media on my home pod mini from the Apple Watch. This was handy as I did not always have to call out loud to the Siri voice assistant. But saying that I found Siri was good on the Apple Watch itself as I could start a Siri shortcut from the watch or send a quick message using Siri. I also used Siri to start and end workouts like outdoor walk.
I was also able to add Apple Wallet to my watch which can be handy, but in general I prefer to use Wallet from my iPhone.
I discovered that the sleep tracking has become more accurate in this version of the watch due to the improved sensor in Series 8.
What didn’t I like?
My list of what I do not like is not as long for the Apple Watch Series 8 because in general I love the product as an accessible smart watch. The battery is better as I got about 18 hours between each charge and up to 36 hours in low power mode, but I still long for the day I can get a week’s charge from a smart watch similar to some Fitbit products.
I wish it was easier to turn up and down the volume on the watch, because you have to access the VoiceOver rotor and flick up and down for volume. This just feels like too many steps.
I would also have liked to use the built-in speaker to listen to media or audio books but you have to use earphones or in my case AirPods, But I did find one cool app on the app store called Streamlits which allows you to play radio through the built in speaker.
Accessibility from a low vision perspective
Low vision users have features like zoom which is a built in magnifier in Apple watch. It can adjust magnification up to 15 times the native size. You can use the digital crown to navigate across the screen or you can use two fingers to move across the screen.
Other low vision solutions include on/off labels which makes it easier to see if a specific setting is on or off.
Grey scale is another filter that can be enabled to assist users whom colour might affect visibility. This setting can be set system wide.
Other ways to enhance visuals include bold text, reduced motion, reduced transparency, and extra-large watch face, which has numbers that take up the entire screen that makes it easier to view the time.
Some of the analogue watch faces you can choose are also easy to see for some users as they have a dark background with bright clock hands. As you can see from the options above there is lots of options for low vision but this still does not mean it will suit all low vision users so personal preference and vision circumstances will come into play when choosing a smart watch.
The edge-to-edge display can also be an advantage for low vision users as it appears to make the screen bigger and allows you to type a little easier on the onscreen keyboard and that is also the case for VoiceOver users.
Accessibility from a no vision perspective
The Apple watch Series 8 is fully accessible for a user with no vision, as it has the VoiceOver screen reader installed, and also some actions can be performed using the Siri assistant.
Is there much of a learning curve?
If you are buying an Apple watch you will already be an owner of an iPhone so the learning curve should be manageable for most people especially voiceover users as you will be using the same gestures to navigate the watch as you would on the iPhone.
Did it meet my expectations?
Yes, it met my expectations. It provided me with access to an accessible smart watch and fitness tracker through the use of VoiceOver.
Current price
€499
To whom would I recommend this product?
Apple users that are looking for an accessible smart watch.
You can check out a video review of the Apple Watch Series 8 on the Labs YouTube Channel: