Apple watch discount

[braumeister]

Since the Apple Watch is frequently mentioned here, this might be of general interest.

B&H Photo is selling the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular for as little as $269.

DW and I have the Series 2 (before they included cellular) and we love them. This is the best discount I've ever seen, so if you don't need the latest tweaks (fall detection, etc.) then it looks like a good deal.

 

[MichaelB]

That does look like a good price. DD just replaced her older Apple Watch with a Garmin because of the price, this isn’t going to make her happy.

So far I haven’t bought; I haven’t worn a watch in decades and even when I worked didn’t like one on my wrist. Maybe I’ll skip a technology generation and go directly to an implant.

 

[JDARNELL]

Maybe I’ll skip a technology generation and go directly to an implant.

I am waiting until I can close one eye and have a heads up display on the inside of my eye lid LOL

 

[ziggy29]

I am keeping an eye on these. I use some Apple products but not really a fanboy. I am interested primarily because I've heard several examples of them being able to provide "early warning" for heart problems that could become serious or fatal if left untreated.

 

[Lsbcal]

That does look like a good price. DD just replaced her older Apple Watch with a Garmin because of the price, this isn’t going to make her happy.

So far I haven’t bought; I haven’t worn a watch in decades and even when I worked didn’t like one on my wrist. Maybe I’ll skip a technology generation and go directly to an implant.

I had a Garmin Vivofit. This was pretty basic with no GPS.

I just bought an Apple Watch series 4 last week. Very impressive. Really accurate as I took it to the track. Makes me very aware of my pulse rate when running. Has a great way to show activity.

I have paired it with some apps like the cool but simple Due app for reminders. Now I get a wrist buzz when I have a reminder and I can easily bump the reminder up an hour too.

I fell about 1 month ago in the park running (lots of rocks) and took a hard fall on the rib cage. That was a wake up call. Now DW can contact me since i don't run with a phone. Has a nice SOS signal too.

Several other useful features.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

This is a good price for the series 3 42mm w/cell. I picked up the series 3 42 mm w/o cell for $240 on a Black Friday deal. $30 more for the cell version is worth it (although I have felt no disappointment in not having the cell option, especially given the ongoing monthly $ if I were to have a cell version activated).

One thing good about the cell version is that it is capable of 911 calls even with out a cell plan.

 

[W2R]

I am keeping an eye on these. I use some Apple products but not really a fanboy. […]

I have become more and more disgusted with Apple in recent years, because of what I perceive is much higher, and in fact insanely high prices for some iPhones. The idea of spending over $1,000 for a cell phone makes me no matter how many thousand bells and whistles they add to it. Although I still use my iPad, I stopped using iPhones at all and I am reluctant to purchase further Apple products. This is probably a really good price for an Apple watch, but I guess an Apple watch just is not on my shopping list.

 

[COcheesehead]

I’ve found the best prices for Apple products are at Costco and are advertised in store only. I picked up my last two iPads, the prior years’ model, for in the low $200’s.


And for what it’s worth, I love my Apple Watch.

 

[WestUniversity]

Apple obviously charges for their products what the market will bear.

That said I am “all-in” the Apple ecosphere. I never would have believed I would leave PCs for Apple, but I have been all Apple since 2012 when I bought my MacBook Pro.

The thing I like about their products, aside from the fact that they simply always work, is how everything flows seamlessly together between all my devices.

My MacBook Pro is about 7 years old and keeps running like a champ. I did upgrade my RAM a year or so ago to keep up with the changing software.

It has easily outlasted my last two, possibly three, PC laptops combined.

And yes I have an Apple Watch as well. It was a gift, otherwise I don’t think I would have bought it for myself. That said however it amazing how much it’s grown on me...

 

[audreyh1]

I have become more and more disgusted with Apple in recent years, because of what I perceive is much higher, and in fact insanely high prices for some iPhones. The idea of spending over $1,000 for a cell phone makes me no matter how many thousand bells and whistles they add to it. Although I still use my iPad, I stopped using iPhones at all and I am reluctant to purchase further Apple products. This is probably a really good price for an Apple watch, but I guess an Apple watch just is not on my shopping list.

Apple sells less expensive phones. I find it interesting when people feel angry because Apple sells their fanciest phones at a high price. Nobody is obligated to buy it. It’s a luxury item.

 

[Lsbcal]

I always bought PC's because of the Apple Mac pricing. I avoided the iPhone because of the pricing and thought the watch was unnecessary for me.

Last November after a bad experience with a Google phone I bought a new iPhone XR for $750. For the quality I would say it is worth it. Now Google has a problem I think as their Pixel 3 was priced too high.

The Apple watch series 4 was pricey but I could find nothing to touch it's capabilities. And it works very well with the iPhone. I'm very much into fitness so it fulfills a health/fitness "want" for me. And what the heck, the stock market is up so I bought the watch.

 

[W2R]

Apple sells less expensive phones. I find it interesting when people feel angry because Apple sells their fanciest phones at a high price. Nobody is obligated to buy it. It’s a luxury item.

EXACTLY!!! That's my point. I am not obligated to buy it or any other overpriced phone from any company that I feel charges stupidly high prices for their phones, and I won't. That's my privilege and nobody can tell me there is one single thing wrong with exercising that privilege.

 

[Lsbcal]

But W2R, you are making so much in the stock market. What are you going to buy if it's not an Apple product?

 

[W2R]

But W2R, you are making so much in the stock market. What are you going to buy if it's not an Apple product?

I dunno. Hopefully I would find something out there that feel like spending money on.

 

[COcheesehead]

Can anyone name a product more loved and hated at the same time than Apple?

 

[24601NoMore]

Long time Apple fan, but I do think that the company has lost much of it's ability to innovate since Jobs passed and Cook took over. Did get 2 XRs for DW and me during a BOGO deal right before I ER'd, so that we could move to the T-Mobile 55 and over plan and save some pretty significant dough every month on service (over AT&T). That said, the XR while "nice" isn't that big of an improvement over my iPhone 6 or DW's 5, and we both miss the smaller form factors of the old phones we had.

Back to the watch - I seriously thought about buying a Series 4 about a week ago - primarily for fitness tracking as I was getting tired of lugging my phone around to track my Polar H10 HRM strap. Wound up buying a Polar M430 instead for $150'ish over $499 for a S4 w/Cellular or $399 w/o Cellular, as it's (from my research at least) a better product if fitness tracking is the main use case/need..that, and I'm an "old retired guy" now so have to watch my pennies! The other thing about the Apple Watch that really made me hesitate is reported battery life and needing to charge it pretty much daily/every other day. That, and the lack of any kind of sleep tracking - at least currently.

Still, at ~2X the cost of my Polar M430 the S3 @ B&H does look like a pretty good deal..but I can't really think of much I'd do with it aside from fitness tracking, and for that the M430 is a pretty good product. Plus, the battery lasts pretty much all week, and it does basic sleep tracking - both advantages over the S3/S4 so far..

 

[steelyman]

I’ve had a Fitbit Versa for about 8 months now. It provides the basics of what I want in a wrist watch (quick glance at the wrist to check time) plus activity and sleep statistics, including sleep stage scoring.

I don’t know how long it will last but if it turns out to be not long I’ll take another look at alternatives including Apple Watch.

 

[aja8888]

Can anyone name a product more loved and hated at the same time than Apple?

Tesla's.

 

[Lsbcal]

I’ve had a Fitbit Versa for about 8 months now. It provides the basics of what I want in a wrist watch (quick glance at the wrist to check time) plus activity and sleep statistics, including sleep stage scoring.

I don’t know how long it will last but if it turns out to be not long I’ll take another look at alternatives including Apple Watch.

That is a nice watch. My son got me one for my birthday but it had a defect with the band.

That is when I realized I needed a watch that has emergency calling for running in remote areas. Also I like the GPS because it is very accurate. If I could run with my phone I guess the watch would be unnecessary.

 

[ziggy29]

Apple sells less expensive phones. I find it interesting when people feel angry because Apple sells their fanciest phones at a high price. Nobody is obligated to buy it. It’s a luxury item.

This is true, but it's rather telling that the prices they promote now are "with trade-in", and without a trade-in they sell for a lot more. The cheapest model does sell for $449 without a trade-in, but it's a couple generations old and may not be getting updates and security fixes for much longer as a result.

And the prices they quote with trade-in are "as low as" $X, meaning that unless you are trading in a phone that is still powerful and marketable you'll probably pay more than $X, since the quoted trade-in prices seem to be $200-250 less than the prices with no trade-in. So you can get $200 or more off... if you already have a phone that doesn't need to be replaced!

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

This is true, but it's rather telling that the prices they promote now are "with trade-in", and without a trade-in they sell for a lot more. The cheapest model does sell for $449 without a trade-in, but it's a couple generations old and may not be getting updates and security fixes for much longer as a result.

And the prices they quote with trade-in are "as low as" $X, meaning that unless you are trading in a phone that is still powerful and marketable you'll probably pay more than $X, since the quoted trade-in prices seem to be $200-250 less than the prices with no trade-in. So you can get $200 or more off... if you already have a phone that doesn't need to be replaced!

I bought my child a iPhone 6s for $100 (brand new). Works great and is a fine phone. I use an iPhone SE and it too is fine and dandy.

There is (and should be) a large premium for being on the latest and greatest, but it does not have to be super expensive to enjoy the Apple ecosystem.

 

[ziggy29]

I bought my child a iPhone 6s for $100 (brand new). Works great and is a fine phone. I use an iPhone SE and it too is fine and dandy.

There is (and should be) a large premium for being on the latest and greatest, but it does not have to be super expensive to enjoy the Apple ecosystem.

I know they still work great for those who aren't power users. But the concern is that support for these older models, most notably security updates, may soon be going away.

 

[mickj]

The cheapest model does sell for $449 without a trade-in, but it's a couple generations old and may not be getting updates and security fixes for much longer as a result.

I disagree, my younger kids have iphone 5s and they continue to get the latest security fixes and updates. That never happens with most android phones.

(NOTE: iphone 5s came out in 2013)

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ios-12-proves-if-you-care-about-software-updates-buy-an-iphone/

 

[ziggy29]

I disagree, my younger kids have iphone 5s and they continue to get the latest security fixes and updates. That never happens with most android phones.

(NOTE: iphone 5s came out in 2013)

Likely to be the end of the line, though. It depends on whether or not a device supports iOS 12 right now. The 5s does; the other iPhone 5 models do not. So I would not expect any more updates when iOS 13 (or 14 if they are superstitious) rolls out -- though I'd like to be wrong here. That said, getting 6 years of support is unusual for a smartphone.

And yes, Android phones probably don't get updates for as long.... but they are more affordable to upgrade, too, so that's sort of a wash.

 

[Lsbcal]

This is true, but it's rather telling that the prices they promote now are "with trade-in", and without a trade-in they sell for a lot more. The cheapest model does sell for $449 without a trade-in, but it's a couple generations old and may not be getting updates and security fixes for much longer as a result.

And the prices they quote with trade-in are "as low as" $X, meaning that unless you are trading in a phone that is still powerful and marketable you'll probably pay more than $X, since the quoted trade-in prices seem to be $200-250 less than the prices with no trade-in. So you can get $200 or more off... if you already have a phone that doesn't need to be replaced!

Trade in's seem to be a chancy process. Our son tried to trade in his iPhone 7 which was quoted as $200. But then when they received it they only offered $50. Apparently because of a small ding on the case.

When we bought our iPhone XR's they were offering $50 (as I recall) for my wife's Nexus 5 but then that was offer disappeared before she could use it.