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Lyusi

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 10, 2021
93
123
Hi guys!
Today I’ll change my aluminium silver series 9 with SS Graphite! How you guys use your Cellular watches- just GPS or with cellular plan? I don’t think that cellular worth it… what will you advise me?
Thanks
 

dotzero123

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2018
523
490
Philadelphia Suburbs
Get the cellular if you will need or want to leave your phone behind. If you do not need it, don’t buy it. I’ve always bought cellular because I like being able to intentionally (or accidentally) leave the house without my phone.
 

Lyusi

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 10, 2021
93
123
Get the cellular if you will need or want to leave your phone behind. If you do not need it, don’t buy it. I’ve always bought cellular because I like being able to intentionally (or accidentally) leave the house without my phone.
Thank you for your opinion! Yes,my phone is always with me!
 
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Vesbis

macrumors newbie
Jan 22, 2022
20
16
I have cellular (alu) series 8. But without having the service activated. I just wanted to have a cellular watch so that in case of emergency (on my daily walks) I can still use it to call for help even without cellular subscription.
 
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FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,630
2,690
I have cellular active on my watch. Every once in a while I leave the house and realize my phone isn't with me - or the phone battery could die. Doesn't happen often but it's a "Belt and suspenders" approach.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,286
5,123
If it was my money I’d have cellular without activation. Can still make emergency calls.

But my employer pays to activate my watch so I do get to experience it that way too. I still have my phone 99.9% of the time. I’ll now leave it at home while running, but other than that I don’t use the cellular feature.

I don’t have the larger phone. Maybe if I did that would be another factor. It’s just easy to carry around the phone too.
 

Thomas Davie

macrumors 6502a
Jan 20, 2004
586
346
Cellular, because I am a dialysis patient and am always losing my iPhone on the medical transport or in the dialysis unit and I needs comms in case of a medical emergency (I’ve had one before I bought my AW) and I live in an extremely rural area, no car (stopped driving intentionally) and don’t know anyone so….for me a potential lifeline.

Tom
 

BenGoren

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2021
476
1,338
If money is so tight you’re worried about the extra $10 or $15 or so per month to add an active plan for your watch, you can’t afford any Apple Watch — let alone the top-of-the-line model.

If ever there were an example of “better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,” an active cellular plan is it.

Things happen to phones. All the time. The battery runs out (because you forgot to charge it, the charger wasn’t plugged into the wall, etc.). They get dropped. They fall out of pockets. They get left behind under the napkin at the restaurant. They even get stolen.

With an active cellular plan, this is at worst an inconvenience. Today’s Apple Watch is a non-trivially superior smartphone when compared to the original iPhone. Sure, it can’t compete with today’s phones, but, a couple decades ago, it would have been the unquestioned best smartphone by any and every standard (including call quality).

Now, imagine whatever happened to your phone isn’t just a minor annoyance (like a drained battery). If you’ve lost the phone, you can find it pretty easily with the watch — and, if it’s been stolen, lock it from being used to hack your digital life (if you act fast enough).

One step further … suppose the call you want to make when your phone is dead is really critical — your relationship and / or job is on the line. You need a taxi to get your family out of a rough part of town. Your mom is on her deathbed. You’d probably happily pay more than a decade’s worth of service fees just to place one of these calls.

There are times and places to be cheap, subscriptions to cut to save.

Cellular service for an Apple Watch is not one of them.

Cheers,

b&
 

Lakris

macrumors member
Sep 6, 2020
53
37
Norway
I considered the cellular, but the extra price and the subscription cost decided it for me, it's almost 8$ extra pr.month for a service I would almost never use.
I always have my phone with me, so for me the emergency situation other people described is not very likely in my case.
I'm very happy with my aw s9 without cellular and have never been in a situation where I wished I had it.
 

Thomas Davie

macrumors 6502a
Jan 20, 2004
586
346
I considered the cellular, but the extra price and the subscription cost decided it for me, it's almost 8$ extra pr.month for a service I would almost never use.
I always have my phone with me, so for me the emergency situation other people described is not very likely in my case.
I'm very happy with my aw s9 without cellular and have never been in a situation where I wished I had it.
I’ve left my phone on the medical transport on the way back home from dialysis on a Saturday (like am going in today). Only found out I didn’t have my phone after getting at home, weighing myself and finding out I was 225g under weight. Checked my pockets and had my wallet, but no phone. I’m not scheduled for dialysis again until Tuesdays so would be w/o comms for 3 days. Yeah, I could head back into town via a taxi, and grab my phone from the transport company and taxi it back to home. That’s another $80 and equivalent to 6-7 months of a cell phone plan.

And there would have been no way to call for a taxi w/o my watch - so, even w/o an emergency need it still makes sense for me to have a cell plan.

I mean, it’s less than a Big Mac meal, and I def don’t need those

Tom
 

svenmany

macrumors demi-god
Jun 19, 2011
2,052
1,330
I always have my phone with me. I also find it hard to hear things on my watch. I have always bought an Apple Watch with Cellular, but never bothered activating it. I've never been in a situation that I'd wished I had.

But it really depends on where you take calls. I have a friend who is a ship's pilot. He says he would find it very awkward to pull out a phone, whereas it's easy for him to turn over his wrist. Nowadays, you don't even need two hands to answer a call, just a double-tap. Think through the situations when you take calls. Even though you always have your phone with you, if the convenience of answering a call so easily would help, then get cellular.
 

Lakris

macrumors member
Sep 6, 2020
53
37
Norway
I’ve left my phone on the medical transport on the way back home from dialysis on a Saturday (like am going in today). Only found out I didn’t have my phone after getting at home, weighing myself and finding out I was 225g under weight. Checked my pockets and had my wallet, but no phone. I’m not scheduled for dialysis again until Tuesdays so would be w/o comms for 3 days. Yeah, I could head back into town via a taxi, and grab my phone from the transport company and taxi it back to home. That’s another $80 and equivalent to 6-7 months of a cell phone plan.

And there would have been no way to call for a taxi w/o my watch - so, even w/o an emergency need it still makes sense for me to have a cell plan.

I mean, it’s less than a Big Mac meal, and I def don’t need those

Tom
Sure, things like that could happen but in my life situation it's not very likely. People are different, have different needs so many people could use the cellular, but it would be redundant for me and my situation. It's not that I'm greedy that I don't pay the $ but it wouldn't be worth it for me. Its great it's worth it for you and that it worked out so well! :)
 
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