apple watch series 5

Apple Watch Series 5 Space Black Stainless Steel Unboxing

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IMG_7367Look! A power brick!

IMG_7369The microfibre watch cover is way better than the paper one in the Series 6.

IMG_7370 The shiny!

IMG_7374Not intending to use the Milanese Loop as it is known to leave permanent scratches on the SBSS DLC coating.

Yes I know. Why will I buy a Series 5 watch when the Series 6 exists?

The End of the Line for the SBSS

The Space Black Stainless Steel(SBSS) Apple Watch is (almost) no more. With Series 6 Apple retired the SBSS from the normal line (only a variant remain for the Hermès Apple Watch) and introduced the Graphite in its place. Personally I much prefer the look of the Graphite, as it shows off the shininess of the stainless steel much better than the SBSS ever could.

Weaker DLC Coating?

There have however been concerns that the Graphite’s Diamond-like Coating (DLC) is not as strong as that of the SBSS. The dlc process coatings carbon on top of the stainless steel to make it resistant against scratches, and it is the carbon that gives the SBSS and the Graphite their black color. The Graphite’s lighter color implies that less carbon has been used in its coating process, and thus the weaker resistant against scratches. Therefore the SBSS is still the choice if you want the strongest protection against scratches.

Is the weaker DLC Coating for the Graphite an Issue?

I do not think it matters. When you buy a Gold or Graphite (or SBSS) stainless steel Apple Watch. if you managed to scratch hard enough the silver underneath will show through the Graphite or Gold coatings, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it. If you have the bare stainless steel you can always polish away the scratches with metal polish. The PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) and DLC (which is a kind of PVD) coatings on the Gold and Graphite (and SBSS) Apple Watches do provide a protection layer against scratches, with the DLC being the better of the two. Nevertheless if you are worried you should either buy the bare stainless steel model, or one of the aluminum ones (so your heart does not bleed everytime you get a scratch unfortunately).

The Stainless Steel Apple Watches are the Ones to Get

That said, since the SBSS may become rare going forward, I decided to purchase one for my collection (at an amazing discount from a land far away, where the sun wakes the earliest) with the help of a great friend. Looking at the watch close makes me appreciate the subtle shininess that is only obvious when you are near to it. The stainless steel Apple watches have always been the better experience, with the added weight on your wrist and the shinier look of the sapphire-infused cover glass. You feel like you are wearing a piece of jewelry and not a cheap tech toy.

Conclusion

I love the SBSS. And all my other Apple Watches. I noticed that the ECG app is on the SBSS. That is not the correct behaviour for a watch originating from Japan. Therefore it will be a mystery for me to solve in a different post.　Edit：Solved. iOS 14.2 activated the ECG app in Japan.

Have a Series 0, 1 or 2 Apple Watch and wondering if you can use it on iOS 14? Find out here.

Apple Watch Series 6 (PRODUCT)RED Aluminum and Blue Aluminum Unboxings

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Thanks to a friend, I am able to do the PRODUCT(RED) unboxing. The blue watch I had purchased when the watch was first announced, but subsequently returned when the bundled band did not fit into the watch’s slots.

The PRODUCT(RED) Series 6

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The Blue Series 6

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The blue watch is very dark

I first unboxed it in a indoor environment with only artificial lighting available, and at first sight I did not like it. In most less than idea lighting, you will not be able to tell the Blue watch from the Space Grey watch. The shade of blue on the watch looks pretty nice if you are in strong, bright lighting, but for most other situations, the blue watch is going to look very understated. If that is what you are going for, the blue watch is worth considering. However, I went to the Apple Store to take a look at the PRODUCT(RED) watch when it was just out, and the blue just looked really dull next to the bright and shiny thing that is the PRODUCT(RED) watch, even in Apple Store lighting.

Band pairing is an art

Unlike the relatively safe colours out for the Apple Watch so far, the blue and PRODUCT(RED) watches will NOT look nice when paired with certain watch band colours. If you made a bad pairing, everyone is going to know that you have no taste. However, for those who are either band savvy or just plan to use the bundled band, you are going to be just fine.

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Nah.

Public Service Announcement regarding the geniune Apple Sport Bands this year

…and especially this season. I was first made aware of this issue when the bundled Deep Navy sport band did not fit into my blue Series 6, and I had to return the watch. After much discussions with fellow genuine ‘Apple Watch Band masketeers’ online, we discovered that the quality control of the sport bands are extremely lacking this year, especially for the bands announced with the Series 6 and SE. The two main complaints are either the band is too thin and can not lock into place when slot into the watch, or the band is too thick and cannot even fit into the slots in the first place. There are cases where only one or two (out of three) of the sport band parts in the box have this issue, so for now the advice is to buy directly from Apple where you get the choice of returning or a direct swap (within 14 days from purchase) if you find such issues. If you buy in store and try it on there and then, you can get an immediate swap if the bands do not fit.

Cannot afford a new Apple Watch this year? Dying to find out if your Apple Watch Series 2, 1 and 0 can pair with iOS 14 phones? Find out..

The Curious Case of the Demo Apple Watch Bands

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What we have here are two original Apple Watch Bands that have curious packaging – they are being labeled as DEMO and Demo – Not for Resale. Obviously someone either can not read English or just blatantly decided to ignore that line, if not these will not be here right now.

I have personally verified that both bands are genuine (there are a bunch of tell-tale signs for knock-offs) and unused.

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The boxes themselves are void of any designs or any prints, and are completely white (save for the dirt on them). Labels are affixed on them to indicate the contents.

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The first box’s label read “Apple Watch 42mm Flamingo Sport Demo” while the second read “42MM Space Orange/Anthracite Woven Nylon Band” and both have “Demo – Not for Resale” printed on the same label. A quick check reveals that e Woven Nylon was introduced in the Fall of 2017 and the Flamingo Sport Band was introduced in Summer of 2017. So maybe the format of the label changed during the span of six months.

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The contents of the boxes, however, are exactly like those of the usual retail packaging, with one exception – there is no extra slip of paper for the usual Terms and Conditions. Otherwise it looks exactly like the usual three flap packaging with the cutouts that hold the bands in.

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What I have gathered online is that these demo watch bands are not officially listed in the sales system, and are offered to Apple Premium Resellers for the primary purpose of displaying them or for customers to try on. Why they are being sold without any signs of usage is a mystery, and probably has more to do with the ineffectiveness of Apple to control their third party resale channels in certain countries, as well as the integrity of the humans involved. So who gets the money from the sale? My guess is that Apple does not get a single cent from the purchase.

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Are these rare? Probably not. If you know where to get them from, you will likely find a bunch of them from your usual genuine Apple Watch band sources.

I do not plan on keeping the boxes, they arrived slightly dirty and dusty, and knowing where they came from make me feel unsafe in keeping the packaging (I guess it is as dangerous as buying stuff from Amazon US). So the contents of these boxes, along with some others, will go through a soap and water cleansing regime, before being added to my growing collection of original Apple Watch Bands.

About that titanium Apple Watch….

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Want to know how well a particular finish (stainless steel, aluminum, etc) for iPhones/Apple Watches will hold up over time? Apple Store display units are usually the best indicator.

Raw stainless steel on the silver models get scuffed easily while the black, gold and now midnight green stainless steel models have a special coating to keep them pretty well protected against scratches.

This year is the first time since Apple last used titanium in their products almost 19 years ago (Titanium G4 PowerBook) and titanium is not known to have much resistance against scratches (camping/outdoor peeps will know).

Apple however stated that the space black titanium model has a diamond-like coating (like the space black stainless models) applied on them, while the natural brushed titanium finish has a “new surface treatment that is stain and fingerprint resistant”.

How do they fare?

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Not so well, when you are talking about the natural brushed titanium model (well Apple never said their surface treatment will prevent scratches). The space black model is much more resistant to scratches but looks a fair bit less “titanium-ish” than the natural brushed model.

I guess if you wanted to buy a titanium watch you are probably looking for a “well-used” titanium look (like people who collect titanium utensils) in the first place.

It is worth noting that although the titanium models are priced 100USD higher than the stainless steel models, like all Apple Watch Edition models they come with a limited edition sport band each. That is a value of 49USD alone (more if you consider the fact that you can’t get the bands by simply purchasing them from Apple). So the titanium models are really just 50USD or so more expensive than the stainless steel models, making them the cheapest Apple Watch Edition watches ever release.

If you always buy the stainless steel models maybe the titanium models will be a good upgrade this year.

If you like the look.