Somewhat inexplicably, I got the chance to spend a few days testing out the new Apple Watch.

If you’re looking for deep reviews of the technology or extensive rundowns of the features, there are plenty of places you can look. At the end of the day, I’m a pretty normal guy and I wanted to look the watch from that context. Is this a product that a slightly tech-savvy “average” person would find useful?

The Bottom Line (First)

So what does the Apple Watch cost? Like all Apple product lines, there are several options designed to suck the maximum amount of disposable income out of every pocketbook. A basic aluminum Apple Watch Sport starts at about $350, a stainless-steel edition starts around $550 and the penis-envy Gold Apple Watch edition costs between $10,000 and $17,000. Of course, the irony of a $10,000 watch is that anyone rich enough to afford one probably already has someone who answers their phone and emails.

You’ve Got The Look

Like most recent Apple products, the Apple Watch’s form and look is light years better than the competition. If you’re one of the unfortunate souls who purchased an Android-based smart watch, then you’ll be insanely jealous of the compact sleekness of the Apple Watch.

It’s small enough to look like a slightly larger-than-normal watch and there are multiple screens you can use to adopt the default watch face to your needs. You can swap out the watch bands easily, with some of the bands using a magnetic lock to attach themselves to the watch. On the downside, most of the watchbands will run you $100-$300, so most people aren’t going to accumulate one for every outfit.

About That Phone

Like all current smart watches, the Apple Watch serves as a gatekeeper for your phone. Which means that in order to use an Apple Watch, you’ll need an iPhone. Specifically, an iPhone 5. The watch is slightly thicker than you might expect, but even the slightly heavier 42-millimeter version of the Apple Watch feels “right.” The retina display is sharp and there are a couple of different ways to navigate through the screens. You can tap and swipe, but there is also a “digital crown,” which really just looks the standard winder on a mechanical watch. You can use the crown to scroll and zoom, but I found myself just swiping for most tasks.

Steep Learning Curve

Unlike an iPad, Apple’s Watch doesn’t come out of the box ready to easily use. To get the most out of the watch and its features, you’re going to need to configure it to your needs. And that requires a several day learning curve that can be daunting even for the most tech-savvy person. One of the watch’s most useful features is to notify you when you’ve received an important email or text. But teaching your watch (via your phone) to screen your emails is a lot more work than it probably should be. However, once it’s set up, it’s an incredibly useful feature. Rather than pulling out your phone every couple of minutes, you can casually glance at your watch to see if that important email has arrived.

(Thump) You Have Mail

One of the coolest features of the Apple Watch is the way that it notifies you that an important email or text has arrived. The watch more or less lightly thumps you on the wrist. It’s a little difficult to describe the sensation and the first few times it happens, it’s a bit disconcerting. But you quickly get used to it and once you do, it’s an elegant and subtle notification method.

Your Apple Watch Wants To Pump You Up

Much has been made of the Apple Watch’s potential use as a fitness tracker and it’s true that feature is one of the ones most helpful out of the box. The watch uses a series of sensors to track all of the stats you’d expect to see in any fitness tracker. The watch will even remind you to get up and walk around if you’ve been sitting down too long. But there are issues, primarily due to the battery life. Since you’ll have to charge it at night, you can’t use the watch’s fitness functions to track your sleeping habits like you can with most higher-end fitness bands. Depending on the person, that may or may not be a factor.

About That Battery

Apple claims their new watches will hold a charge for 18 hours and as always, that depends on how much you’re using it. My experience is that the charge lasts longer, often close to 24 hours. You charge the watch via a magnetized inductive charging cable that clips to the back. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to fully recharge the phone, which you won’t notice if you’re doing it while you sleep.

Creepy Is As Creepy Does

One of the most practical uses for the watch is using it to interact with iMessage. The Apple Watch offers up a bunch of new animated emojis and scribbles you can use in iMessage.

For me, a lot of them seemed creepy and pointless. But maybe I’m just not the target audience for this feature. And I won’t even get into the odd feature that allows you to send a copy of your heartbeat to another user. It’s intimate and strange in an uncomfortable way and it’s difficult to see who would use it and why.

Phone Home, Dick Tracy Style

The Apple Watch has a built-in microphone and speaker, so you can make and receive phone calls. Okay, technically, you’re making the calls through your Bluetooth-connected iPhone.

The sound quality is fine, but unless you want to look a bit insane, you’ll probably want to talk on the phone using a Bluetooth headset.

Some Other Goodies

You can use your watch to pay for at the cash register using Apple Pay. Well, at least at the stores that use Apple Pay. But it does work well and it’s a pretty seamless experience.

There is also a feature called “Passbook,” which lets you digitally display your boarding pass. My experience is that it’s a clumsy way to do it and it’s probably easier in most cases to just use a printed copy.

The Downsides

Some of the downsides of the Apple Watch are related to the fact that this is Apple’s first product in the line and not everything is quite where it needs to be quite yet. While the Apple Watch native apps work great, the third-party apps range from useless to annoying. But I expect that to change quickly as the market expands. And while you can use Apple’s virtual assistant Siri with the Apple Watch, asking it for anything other than basic help with the watch results in an answer asking you to use the phone directly.

The other big complaint is that the Apple Watch can be slow. Sometimes maddeningly so. You can almost always do things quicker with your phone or laptop, so then it gets down to whether you think the convenience of completing the task on your wrist makes up for the fact that it will probably take twice as long.

So Should You Buy One?

If you’re a hardcore gadget geek or fan of everything Apple, you’re probably going to pre-order one. And it’s not a waste of money. You will use the Apple Watch and for some it is probably a great accessory. But at the end of it all, the Apple Watch is just a high-powered accessory to your iPhone. And if you don’t need that, then it probably makes sense to wait a Watch generation or two before you fork over a few hundred dollars.

At least the Apple Watch can be a practical gadget, unlike the aggressively pointless Google Glass.

Rick Ellis is the Managing Editor of AllYourScreens.com. Follow him on Twitter at @aysrick.