 I actually decided a couple weeks ago not to review the Apple Watch. Yet. Not because it isn't an important product or because I couldn't get one or whatever, but because I felt like this piece of technology strapped to my wrist was in such a state of early access that given Apple's recent announcement of Watch OS 2, I should probably just wait. Then I realized that Watch OS 2 is coming in the fall, and Apple legitimately expects people to buy this thing and use it for months before those improvements materialize. So while I might still take another crack at it with more emphasis on functionality once that software update arrives, I've definitely got some words to say in the meantime. Time. Corsair delivers Real Neckar- Oh here I have one, huh? Real Neckar Nothing with their new Strafe mechanical keyboard featuring genuine German made Cherry MX key switches. Click on my chin to learn more. I'm gonna move my chin now, just the three for a loop. I know, I know, I've teased this one before, but I'm really releasing it soon this time. Drop a like on the video if you want to see us build a PC inside a mini fridge. It's gonna be awesome. For today though, the Apple Watch. It's available in an umpteen, bajillion different models. So let's start with some of the things that differ between them. You can get a 38 millimeter or 42 millimeter face to suit your wrist size, a $350 to $17,000 price tag to suit your wallet size, a variety of construction materials ranging from aluminum with IonX glass on the sport models to stainless or gold with sapphire crystal glass on the more premium ones, and enough strap options to choke a horse ranging from plastic to leather to stainless steel. Then there's the similarities. There are body sensors on the bottom of all models. In fact, the hardware is identical down to a mere 8 gigabytes of onboard storage. Actually kind of funny if you think about it. They've all got two buttons, a lower one for frequent contacts and the upper crown for bringing up the home screen and for scrolling vertically, which is a funny throwback to my Blackberry days actually. Funnier still because it comes from Apple, the inventor of momentum-based touch on everything because f**k scroll wheels. Anyway though, I picked up a 38 millimeter Apple Watch non-sport non-edition with a milanese loop band because I thought it looked kind of cool. So some of my comments will be specific to this skew, but most of my feedback will be general observations about Apple's first wearable. That is to say if you don't count tricked out iPod Nanos. The fit and finish of the Apple Watch isn't perfect. My crown button is a little spongier than it should be, especially when you got to double tap it sometimes, but overall I would say it's outstanding. It's worlds better than the Moto 360, the shining hope for Android wear enthusiasts who wanted a really premium feeling option, and it makes the LG G Watch R, still my personal favorite smartwatch, feel like a geeky gadget rather than a piece of jewelry, particularly because of its plastic screen. And you know what? Maybe that's the point here, isn't it? If we evaluate the Apple Watch as a smart wrist-mounted wearable, a category that it appears to be trying to invent in spite of arriving somewhat late to the party, it falls short of the functionality delivered by smaller companies months or even years ago. And if we evaluate it as a watch, you know, a timepiece, then I don't know about you, but the fact that I can't check the time with a discreet glance at my arm when cornered by a talkative neighbor or during an unsatisfactory sexual encounter where I'm on the bottom without it being extremely obvious that I'm bored is simply unacceptable. I mean, sure, it can be woken a number of ways by gesturing, double tapping or pressing the crown, but if a real watch company released a watch that required any of that kind of b**** to find out what time it is, we'd laugh them out of town. Which doesn't mean that it's all bad. It's a very forward-thinking product, and I'll say more on that later, but for now, navigation with subtle vibes when turns are coming up is solid. The wireless charger is a nice, finally Apple inclusion. The ability to set the watch FaceTime a few minutes ahead felt like they really designed this product for me personally. Phone conversations are surprisingly easy to hold with the on-watch speaker and microphone with FaceTime support coming, and the 272 by 340 pixel OLED display, a first for Apple, is very sharp with retina-class pixel density and super high contrast, making it easy to read in pretty much any condition and easy to forget where the LCD ends and the border begins. Gorgeous. It's just too bad that the battery life sucks the big one. Without enabling power reserve, which lasts a very long time but turns off literally all functionality other than pressing a button to show the time, the Apple Watch couldn't even make it past lunch on the second day, both times I forgot to charge it, and this is with what I would consider very moderate use. There are just so many compromises in this product that all come back to battery. Gesturing to turn on the screen, no always listening, hey Siri, the lightning fast display timeout when I pause to think for a second while using it, the fact that the watch only buzzes and avoids turning on the display at all to show incoming notifications, I mean, that last one is what iOS lorded over Android for so long. Apple knew that that was important years ago, but simply couldn't overcome the engineering challenges, or at least not in a way that wouldn't force them to compromise on the design or vision for this product to make that a reality. Because that's what happened here. Just like those early flash-based iPods that held like 50 songs and seemed like a pathetic replacement for the hard drive based models that held thousands, Apple is making moves six steps ahead of their opponents. They could have pulled out Wi-Fi or reduced the performance of the Apple Watch's SoC to make it a more sensible and well-rounded product today, but instead they've set the internal goal of what a smartwatch should be, a computer on the wrist, and now they're just playing a waiting game until the product they want can actually be manufactured. And I see why they did it, because what comes first? The chicken, the interactive computer on your wrist that Apple is trying to build, or the egg, the software that will run on that computer and make it functional. Either one of them is useless without the other, and Apple can't sit and wait forever while developers only work on Android Wear or Pebble stuff. So they launched what is essentially a development kit, a product that can be coded for that's functionally the same as what's coming, and that allows Apple to collect valuable customer feedback like, hey, it shouldn't take two touches to dismiss notification, hey, being able to interact with hangouts or Gmail messages in addition to iMessage would be cool, hey, starting navigation with Siri shouldn't require me to touch the device, which is super inconvenient when I'm on a motorcycle, hey, this thing is useless as a music remote, one of the only things I do with my smartwatch, until it defaults to music control on wake when I'm playing music and supports third-party media apps like Sonos and play music. But one that will seem like an early adopter toy once the one with the always-on display, not to mention always listening Siri and stuff like that, arrives. Okay, so then Linus, should everyone who bought one feel like an idiot? Well, I'd say it depends why they bought it. If they bought it to have a great smartwatch, then yes. If they bought it as a fitness tracker, especially the one I got that's telling me I'm progressing in my walking workout when I'm sitting writing this review and slips off from sweat when I play badminton, then yes. If they bought it as a fashion accessory that looks good, shockingly on both men and women with the same design, way to go Apple, and that like white earbuds in the 2000, tells the people around them how hip and cool they are, then I guess not. I mean, I've seen firsthand, it's a killer conversation starter and not just with my fellow geeks like my other smartwatches. So the answer to that one then is that the value is in the eye of the beholder. And while many will find better bang for the buck in a $20 sport watch, the Apple Watch delivers at the very least an unassailably better value proposition than like a high fashion pair of shoes or something. They'll both be simply dreadful and you won't want to be seen in public with them in a year, but at least the Apple Watch will do something in the meantime. And why don't you do something about paying too much for your mobile bill? Ting.com, that's the mobile carrier that's focused on customer service. Why speak to a robot when you call your cell phone provider? You can get put through directly to a person with Ting, and you pay only for what you use with the average Ting bill clocking in at only about $24 per month per device. And if you're stuck with a contract, you can switch to Ting and they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to $75. So head to linus.ting.com and try their savings calculator where you enter your last few bills and find out, hey, would I actually be saving money on Ting or not? Don't take my word for it. Do that. And also if you use our link, you get $25 in service credit or towards a new device. So that's a nice little bonus as well. Thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, I think you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, buying a cool t-shirt like this one, or even with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So click that little button at the top right corner to check out Luke's video on the top five uses for the Intel Compute Stick, a little tiny computer. It's not that tiny. Well, it's pretty tiny. It depends on how you define tiny. It's bigger than this one, but also quite a bit more functional. From plastic to leather to stainless.