Can the new Apple Watch Series 5 + Cellular replace your smartphone? Probably not...

So are you excited about all of the new goodies Apple just released last week? While most of the rumors were spot on about the lackluster updates made to the iPhone, one of the most welcomed announcements came in the form of the Apple Watch Series 5 Always-On Retina Display.

I know what you’re thinking... That Android watch you’ve had for several years has had this feature from the start. Unfortunately, for those in the the Apple crowd, it just wasn’t an option until now.

Naturally, there were a few other notable bells and whistles that accompanied the announcement. This amalgamation of functionality may cause you to wonder if the Apple Watch Series 5 + Cellular is finally the wearable that will allow you to give up your smartphone entirely. Being the proud owner of every Apple Watch since launch, I’ve been wondering the same thing with each new iteration. Ironically, last week, it finally happened; I forgot my phone on the counter when left for work. 

Instead of fretting, I decided to seize the opportunity and chronicle the entire day, because luckily, I still had my AirPods, and more importantly, my Apple Watch Series 4 + Cellular. 

Keeping the above in mind, it all starts at the crack of dawn...

4:45am - I wake up and check email on my phone as usual, replying to several.

5:20am - Do another check after my workout.

5:55am - Leaving for work and saying bye to my dog, I inadvertently forgot my phone on the counter.  

6:25am - Driving to work for about 15 minutes, I reach for my phone and realize I forgot it home, so it was too late to turn back - guess I’ll be using my Apple Watch for everything today.

7:00am - Realize it’s my friend’s birthday, so will have to send him an SMS to wish him “happy birthday”. Hmmm. Never added a new message thread before (maybe just never needed to). Will have to look that up when I get to the office.

7:05am - Going to train now from my car. Let’s see if Pandora works with my AirPods. Yay, seems to work. Thank goodness.

7:25am - Walking up the block to work, maybe I’ll try sending this message to my friend with the birthday. Sheesh, still can’t figure out how to find my contacts on my watch to send a new message. Oh well, will wait until I’m at a computer to research how to do it.

7:40am - So it turns out that there’s no Contacts app on the Apple Watch. The way you get to your contacts through Messages is a force press on the screen, then tap New Message, and then tap Add Contact and compose your message. The other area contacts are tucked away is in the Phone app (I don’t know why I didn’t try that one earlier, guess I was preoccupied with hustling to the office).

7:43am - Happy Birthday message sent successfully.

7:50am - Darn, no Apple Watch WhatsApp app. Can’t initiate a conversation. I’ll send an SMS for someone overseas to ping me on WhatsApp. Hopefully, it doesn’t break the bank :-). 

7:55am - Having a conversation with a colleague in Singapore over WhatsApp. As long as he keeps sending me messages, I can reply to them with the Apple Watch.

8:15am - I need to make a phone call, AirPods just paired, phone call made. That was intuitive enough so I’ll call it a success.

8:30am - Just had a look at the watch - I’m already down to 79% battery remaining! After using it a whole day I’m usually still at 79%! I sure hope I can make it through to the end.

8:55am - So all my work email alerts come in, but the Blackberry Work email app doesn’t allow me to view or respond to the messages, so it’s kind of torturous to know there’s a message and not be able to view it. Oh well.

9:15am - At least the Blackberry Work meeting alerts on the watch are helpful. They’re descriptive enough to get me to my next meeting in time, although I can’t see the bridge dial-in details if it’s a conference call.

10:15am - Still getting push notifications, including those from my security camera, which is definitely a help and a relief.

10:35am - Received a phone call that I tried to answer with my AirPods. Unfortunately, it took too long for them to pair with my watch when taking them directly from their case, so the call went to voicemail.

10:36am - Promptly received voicemail alert and returned the call with my now already-paired AirPods.

11:30am - Battery check - I’m at 66%. Feeling a bit more capable of making it through the day at this point.

12:20pm - Another phone call came in. This time, I initiated it from the watch, as to not miss the call, and then, put the headphones in, which connected about five seconds into the call.

12:45pm - Sent out a few long SMS messages using transcription. It worked very nicely, where the text appeared quite fluidly. Please note, I’m not on WiFi, therefore, transcription is happening totally over my mobile data plan via AT&T.

1:30pm - Battery check. I’m at 52%. My SMS messages must’ve taken their toll on the battery.

2:40pm - Took another call. I find that the best way to handle them is to answer the call and put AirPods in at the same time. This prevents missing the call, where it will switch to the AirPods once they connect in approximately five seconds.

3:45pm - Have been sporadically sending SMS and iMessages throughout the day without incident.

4:40pm - Battery check. I’m now at 37%. Hoping to make it home with about 10% - 15% to spare.  

5:10pm - Battery check before commute is at 35%.

6:10pm - Battery check when arriving at car was 20% (seems listening to music really put a drain on the battery).

6:35pm - Just had a 10 minute phone call and am now at 12%! Not feeling good about making it home before the battery dies anymore.

7:05pm - Stopped off at the store to pick up some things and the battery is now at 10%.

7:25pm - Took a call at 7:18pm - sad to say, the battery died seven minutes into the call, which translates to about 13.5 hours of usage.

Based on my day with only the Apple Watch + Cellular and no smartphone, one can see that there were many unmet necessities. With this said, I surmise that, unless you consider yourself an extreme minimalist, the Apple Watch Series 5 + Cellular will similarly, not allow you to ditch your smartphone anytime soon. Of course, advances in hardware can change this possibility in the future, but it's most likely a long shot that will not happen during this iteration of Apple's flagship smartwatch. Moreover, having had the Series 5 for a few days now, I can personally report that the battery life has degraded far more quickly than the Series 4. Hopefully, this will be corrected with the typical upcoming software optimizations, similar to previous releases of the Apple Watch.

So what do you think? Do you agree with my observations? Have you already dropped your smartphone in favor of solely leveraging an Apple Watch + Cellular? If not, do you plan on doing so with the Series 5?  

Thanks for reading, where I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks!