is a reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
Leaving the house without my phone is the stuff of nightmares. Leaving the house without my phone on purpose? Are you kidding? What if I need to take a picture of something? What will I look at if I need to wait in line? What if disaster strikes or a War of the Worlds happens? The possibilities are too overwhelming. But in the face of all this uncertainty, I (mostly) left my phone at home for the past week — on purpose.
I wanted to see if I could get by with just an LTE-enabled smartwatch, an experiment I’ve been itching to run for a while. I, like many of my fellow elder millennials, look at my phone entirely too much. It’s my job, but still. A break now and then would be nice. I haven’t been convinced by minimalist phones, which never seem to have all the functionality I want. A cellular smartwatch isn’t meant to be an all-purpose smartphone replacement, but it seems like an entirely viable alternative for someone looking to cut back on screentime and stay connected. You can still send messages, read your email, and play your podcasts while you just, like, exist. The dream!
What would it be like? Waiting to pick up my coffee order, not a screen in sight, just vibing? Would I feel more connected with my fellow man? Could I rewire my brain, cure my anxiety, maybe unclench my jaw for two god damn seconds? Sort of, as it turns out. But it wasn’t exactly a snap.
Day one: The Apple Watch starts with an iPhone
I used an Apple Watch paired with my iPhone 13 Mini for this exercise. I was tempted to try it with an Android phone and a Pixel Watch with Gemini, but bringing an AI assistant into the mix felt like introducing too many variables at once. More on that later.
I had visions of myself sitting at a table at a sidewalk cafe, sipping a cappuccino, probably wearing a billowy skirt (I do not own a billowy skirt), reading a newspaper and pausing occasionally just to take in the lovely summer day. The reality wasn’t that glamorous. It was a lot more furious swiping on the watch’s tiny screen, pulled over on my bike to the side of the road, sure I’d forgotten about an important call that afternoon. Often, it looked like me hunched over my wrist, dictating texts in a quiet, direct voice: “On my way home exclamation point.” Mumbling into your watch in public is a great way to look very normal and not weird at all.
It felt awful and wonderful, all at once
That first afternoon, I left my iPhone face down on the dining room table, only to come running back in the front door a few minutes later to log into Strava and Spotify on the phone so they’d function properly on the watch. Just one of several reminders that the Apple Watch’s existence depends on an iPhone. With that done, I set out on my bike unencumbered. It felt awful and wonderful, all at once.
At the coffee shop, I learned that swiping to type on the watch’s teensy keyboard is surprisingly accurate, if tedious. Voice input is definitely the way, but I hate talking to technology in the presence of others, so I either painstakingly type out text replies or — more likely — just don’t respond until I’m at my laptop later. This is more or less what I expected.
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