Apple Watch

  • The watches are smaller than expected. Part of it may be due to the curvature of the watch.
  • The standard stainless steel Apple Watch is quite handsome, and the best looking of the bunch.
  • In general, I found the non-black/grey versions to look better than their darker counterparts. The space grey/black make the devices look more gadget-y to me.
  • The Apple Watch Sport look and feel nicer than I expected, and definitely not cheap. It just doesn’t look as classy as the stainless steel ones.
  • The digital crown feels great, and works well. It’ll take a little getting used to using it. I still instinctively go for the touchscreen.
  • The Milanese loop feels really nice, and the link bracelet is very well made. I do find the link bracelet a little dated for some reason.
  • The sport (fluoroelastomer) band is much nicer than I originally imagined. It’s extremely comfortable, and feels silky and soft to the touch.
  • In general, swapping watch bands is pretty quick and easy. I’m not sure it’s something I’d do daily though.
  • I really like the Taptic Engine. It does feel more like a tap than the typical vibration. The one thing that blew me away was that the Taptic Engine would kick in when you bounce off the end of the list, giving it a rubberband-y sensation.
  • Force Touch works well as well. It feels like a proper click when you press harder on the screen.
  • Icons on the home screen are a little small. I did hit the wrong icon a couple times. It sort of can be worked around by centering the icon and then zooming into the app with the crown.
  • The device only had first party apps, and many didn’t work since it wasn’t connected to an iPhone. The built-in functionality did feel fine.

The new MacBook

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Clicking!®

It really does just feel like a normal Apple trackpad. Well, until you press harder and start triggering the Force Click behavior. When done in normal circumstances (for example, on a word, which would pull up its definition), it just feels like a second click that’s available after the first click. In QuickTime Player, Force Click on the fast forward/rewind controls would have several different levels that varies the scrubbing speed based on the pressure applied. Force Click just feels natural, and is brilliant. I can’t wait to get a Mac that has this.

Is it actually clicking?

The new keyboard, on the other hand, will be polarizing. It’s got barely any travel when you depress a key. The key travel is probably about the same as the trackpad travel on the old trackpads. That I can get used to. Reduced key travel also reduced the gutter depth between the keys. I never realized how much I rely on that to correct for my hand drifting as I type. There’s still a gutter there, it’s just a lot less prominent. Overall, I think it isn’t a dealbreaker, but it’ll take some getting used to.

Everything else

The new MacBook isn’t a speed demon, but is probably snappy enough for most tasks. The max scaled resolution of 1440x900 is not ideal for Xcode, but for everyday typical use, I think it’s a solid machine, especially if you don’t plug a lot of peripherals into your computer.