iApple Products

Even after slapping one on my wrist, I'm still not convinced that the Apple Watch is going to be the next iPhone or iPad. But it's not a bad device.

I got an Apple Watch early Friday afternoon, so I've only just started to test it. But between my interactions with it on Friday, at an Apple store earlier this month and at Apple's unveiling of the watch last fall I've started to form some initial impressions.

I haven't worn a watch in years, so I was interested to see what it would feel like to wear one regularly again. One thing I liked about the watch -- I got the aluminum encased, low-end $400 Sport version -- was how light it is. From a weight perspective, I barely noticed it on my wrist. But I didn't like how thick it is.

The watch itself feels solid and well-built. The screen is bright and colorful. The Sport version ships with a plastic band, which feels something like a Livestrong band -- soft and durable, but cheap. Apple helpfully includes both a large and small band with the Sport watch, which was good for me, because the former was too big for my wrist.

The initial set-up of the watch was fairly painless. The watch only works with an iPhone, so if you've got an Android smartphone, don't even think of buying one. To pair your watch with your phone, you call up the app that you may have noticed on your latest version of iOS on your iPhone. The watch displays a unique image on its screen which the app identifies with its camera. Once it identifies the image, the two devices are paired.

Depending on how many Watch-compatible apps you have on your phone, it may take a few minutes to complete the set-up. The Watch app transfers versions of those apps over to the watch so that you can access them there.

Some of the Watch apps I tested were fun to use. The camera app on the Watch allows you to use the device as a remote control and viewfinder for the camera on your phone, useful if you are trying to take pictures of you and your family with your phone across the room. The map app will give you turn-by-turn directions as you walk down the street so that you don't have to keep staring at your phone. The phone app lets you answer calls right on your wrist.

But it takes a while to get used to the Watch's interface. The device has two buttons -- a cylindrical crown that you can twist and push, and a rectangular button right below it. The only function of the bottom button is to call up your list of friends. That can be kind of confusing if you're used to using a smartphone or other device. When I pressed it, I kept expecting it to take me back to the Watch's home screen or to the app I'd just been using.

Any experience you may have with iPhones and iPads doesn't help; the interface for the Watch doesn't work the same way and offers you few obvious hints on how to interact with it.

It also took a while to figure out how to configure something as basic as the watch faces. I knew from Apple's ads that you have a variety of watch faces you can choose from, from digital readouts to multi-function analog faces to even a classic Mickey Mouse design. But it took me a while through trial and error to figure out how to change the face and then to customize the one I chose.

I also ran into some bugs. One particularly annoying one involved the friends list. By default, I believe that the friends list is supposed to be pulled from the list of favorite contacts you have in your iPhone. But mine didn't show up on my phone automatically; instead, I had to go into the Watch app on my phone to prompt it to transfer the list to my watch.

Even then, the friends list on the Watch was frustrating to use. For some reason, it determined that the phone number I wanted to use for my wife was our home number. It wouldn't let me make a call through it to my wife's cellphone or send a message to her there, either. Although I have four phone numbers for my dad in my phone, it only gave me the option of contacting him through two of those.

Another bug I encountered was that the Watch randomly prompted me to type a passcode, even though it wasn't supposed to, because it was on my wrist and my phone was nearby.

Those problems are annoying, but they're not deal breakers. On the other hand, I haven't seen anything yet that's made me crave the watch enough to buy one for myself.

From what I've seen so far, it's a nice device, but not one to go crazy over.

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or twolverton@mercurynews.com. Follow him at http://ift.tt/1iUDl0r or Twitter.com/troywolv.