The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever.

The first Fiat 122, which came out in 1962, had a famously tiny fuel tank. The car could drive only five miles between fill-ups.

Remember what Fiat did to make things better? They added windshield wipers and reclining seats!

OK, I made all of that up. It’s a metaphor—for the Apple Watch.

It’s the best-selling smartwatch, but that’s not saying much. Apple (AAPL) won’t even reveal how many people have bought them. That’s a strange behavior, in Apple’s playbook.

If you ask someone whose wrist is not graced by an Apple Watch—and that’s most people—why they haven’t taken the plunge, they usually offer one of two responses.

First, there’s the battery life. Good heavens: 18 hours! This is a watch you have to take off and charge every night, as though it’s a phone or a laptop. It’s like having to charge your shoelaces every night, or your hat.

Second, there’s the Why. Why do you need a smartwatch? Is it such a burden to glance at your phone to see your text messages? Where’s the killer app?

Apple has had 18 months to ponder these challenges—and now, at last, we can see the fruits of its efforts. Welcome to the Apple Watch Series 2.

It costs $370 to $1500, depending on the materials you want for the case and the band. The actual electronics—the features—are identical across all those models. (Except for the Nike model. It adds two new watch faces and a plastic band with little holes in it. Somebody pinch me.)

So: Has Apple addressed the battery life? Has it addressed the Why?

Nope.

What’s new in Series 2

Physically, the new watch looks identical to the first one. It’s no slimmer. In fact, it’s a millimeter thicker than the original, which was no wafer to begin with.


By David Pogue.
Full story at Yahoo News.