The Apple Watch Series 3 which comes with its own cellular connection was launched last week and even demoed by enabling a phone call to a user paddle boarding in Lake Tahoe. Early reviews of the new Watch, however, seem to have uncovered some serious issues with its LTE connectivity.
Checking out the review of Lauren Goode of The Verge showed the reviewer having a difficult time getting Siri to work on cellular as well as not being able to make calls on the Watch which often had one bar of signal.
Not good for a product that promises to work independently from the iPhone and is specifically targeting runners and surfers who may not want to take their phones with them. LTE has other issues, including battery drain and (down to 30% by noon).
Apple did acknowledge the issue with a statement. "We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular,” an Apple spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are investigating a fix for a future software release.” They did not specify if this 'fix' will come as an independent firmware update or in a larger update to Watch OS 4 (which was just released yesterday, impressions to follow).
Apple Watch Series 3 with Cellular is available to Bell customers and comes to market tomorrow. A Series 3 without cellular and the Series 1 variants will be available in Apple Retail Stores tomorrow.