Apple Admits Its Brand-New Watch Has Trouble Connecting To Cell Service

While Apple has been busy bragging about the fact that its new Series 3 smart watch has integrated cellular communication capabilities — meaning you don’t need to connect it with your phone anymore — just before it starts shipping those devices, the company is admitting that they’re having LTE connectivity problems.

The Verge’s Lauren Goode reports that she experienced unreliable cell service while writing her review of the Apple Watch Series 3: When she was out and about without her phone, the watch seemed to be struggling to connect to unknown WiFi networks instead of cellular service.

Apple replaced her review unit, and yet, the problem persisted.

She’s not alone: Other reviewers reported similar problems, including Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal. She writes that she and her colleague “experienced cellular connectivity issues on three separate pre-production models, in two different states, on two different 4G LTE carriers.”

At the time, Apple told her they hadn’t seen those issues in testing, and that the company was “looking into it.”

After that review and others were published, Apple eventually admitted that there’s an issue, giving both The Verge and WSJ the same statement.

“We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular,” Apple said. “We are investigating a fix for a future software release.”

It’s unclear at this point when that software release will happen.

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