Apple Watch needs more than anything
is multi-day battery life, and year after
year we get stuff we don’t need like
faster performance. Sleep tracking
could have been a killer feature if
Apple hadn’t done such a bad job with
it. Grade: C
Roman Loyola: The Apple Watch is the
best smartwatch on the planet. That
being said, it still needs better battery
life. The sleep tracking feature seems
basic, and Apple should improve it in
future updates. Grade: C
AUDIO
New products: HomePod mini,
AirPods Max
Michael Simon: Apple
launched two products
at opposite ends of the
audio spectrum in 2020
and both have their flaws.
While the HomePod mini
is priced much better than
the original HomePod),
it doesn’t sound as good
as its older sibling or
some other speakers
in its class, such as the
Nest Audio. Meanwhile,
the AirPods Max offer
active noise cancelling
and spatial audio to an
over-ear design and studio sound
but cost £300 more than the AirPods
Pro, which aren’t exactly cheap. Both
products were on my 2020 wish
list and both were something of a
disappointment. Grade: CJason Cross: AirPods Max are great
headphones, but quite a bit overpriced
for what you get (and don’t get me
started on that ‘Smart Case’ atrocity).
The HomePod mini is fine hardware
at a reasonable price, but it’s the sort
of product that really relies on Siri to
make it great (as opposed to Apple
Music being the star of the bigger
HomePod), and Siri just isn’t as good
as it needs to be. Apple Music keepsLast year’s Apple Watch Series 6 is a modest step forward
from the Series 5.