Apple Watch review: beautiful hardware spoiled by complicated software

Apple's much hyped smartwatch is carefully crafted with a masterful design, but poor battery life and confusing software mean curious consumers should wait

Apple's first attempt at a smartwatch shows promise with notifications, voice calls and fancy pressure-sensitive taps, but is very much an expensive first generation product with bugs, quirks and confusions.

Apple is late to the smartwatch game. The first smartwatches were launched by Microsoft in 2004, but were dead within four years. In 2013 Pebble relaunched the smartwatch category after a very successful crowdfunding campaign and went on to sell more than 1m watches by the end of 2014.

Pros: beautiful fit and finish, comfortable, magnetic charging cable, Taptic engine, Force touch, folding UK plug

Cons: one-day only battery, apps slow to load, relies entirely on the iPhone, inconsistent user experience, steep learning curve