Pretty sure this is a mistake since it’s the same price as the one without cellular and it should be $100 more. But it’s up now and people are successfully buying it.
Yes, the model is two years old. It doesn’t have the heart health monitor, fall monitor, or the “always on” feature. But it’s still a really good smart watch (I’m still using this model). And the current generation costs $500 more.
You will need to also have an iPhone with an active contract. The watch can be physically distant from the phone and still send and receive texts and calls, but they share one phone number. Plus your cell company will probably charge you an extra $10/month for the watch, because they can.
No one else has matched this price and my guess is they won’t. But then a lot of retailers have this marked as a discontinued model (it’s not, you can still buy it at Apple.com for $299). Maybe Walmart just has a lot of inventory they want to sell? The price as of this writing is from Walmart itself, not a third party seller.
Anyway, if the only thing stopping you from an Apple Watch with cellular was the price and you don’t need the advanced health monitoring, this is the deal. Just pretend you bought it two years ago and still like it.
Next day update
They’ve now dropped the price of the noncellular model by $10 (so they are no longer the same price) and labeled the cellular “Special Buy.” Both for inventory sold from Walmart itself, not third parties.
That means a couple of things:
A) it’s not a mistake
B) other sellers won’t match the price
C) they probably acquired some inventory from someone else who wanted to focus on the newer models
D) this is probably a loss leader rather than a close-out, but in either case when this specific inventory is gone, the sale price likely will be, too
Yes, and many of the newer bands also fit even though the case sizes are slightly different. I just bought a new watch 4 band for my watch 3 last month and it fit fine.
Note: the 38mm is petite and was intended for women. Not saying guys can’t wear it (after all it is 2019). I’m thinking that the price has something to do with an overrun on this model.
At the end of the day, I picked the 38mm because not only does it work just as well as the 42mm, but it looks like a watch — not a smart watch — when sitting on my wrist. If I’m going to wear something every day, it needs to feel natural no matter what else I’m wearing with it: dress, workout clothes, business clothes, loungewear, you name it.
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The 42mm, on my wrist, looks a lot less clunky than any other piece of smartwatch tech I’ve tried — but it still feels more like a piece of technology than a trusted accessory. The 38mm, for me, strikes the perfect balance.
I’ve pondered the cellular model, but my only iPhone is technically a work phone. So I’m pretty sure I can’t pay my own data plan for the watch and still have it linked with my phone.
