iPhone 13 Pro Max is the best advert for a cellular Apple Watch yet

Apple Watch Family Setup: Everything you need to know
Apple Watch Family Setup: Everything you need to know (Image credit: Apple)

Not very long ago, I wrote about how surprised I was that I'd become accustomed to the heft of my iPhone 13 Pro Max so quickly. I stand by that, and I wouldn't swap my iPhone for a smaller one. But that doesn't mean that I don't have thoughts. And opinions.

I always have opinions.

Let's start with the opinions and get to the thoughts later. My opinion, until recently, was that the idea of a cellular Apple Watch was pretty insane. Why would your watch need its connection to the internet when your iPhone is always with you anyway? It can just piggyback off of that, right?

Well, yes and no. The reason some people want a cellular Apple Watch is simple – they want to be able to go for a run without an iPhone flapping around in a pocket or strapped to their arm like some sort of Cupertino-approved ad. I'd generally thought that wasn't all that big of an issue anyway, suggesting that iPhones aren't that big or heavy and that it couldn't really be that much of a problem. I was wrong, of course, but I didn't know it at the time.

Fast forward to today and my first week with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Can you see where this is going yet?

Iphone 13 Pro And Iphone 13 Pro Max

Iphone 13 Pro And Iphone 13 Pro Max (Image credit: Rene Ritchie/ iMore)

It turns out; it sure would be nice to be able to leave my iPhone at home and still have notifications and whatnot on my wrist. Who knew?!

Now, to be clear, I haven't become a fitness fanatic overnight. I've no intention of going running with or without an iPhone – unless someone's chasing me, and even then, I'd want to know how far I'd need to run first. The time I've found myself wishing I could leave my iPhone at home is much more mundane – it's the school run because I do have to pick the kids back up at some point.

Will all of this, be enough for me to admit my iPhone 13 Pro Max is too big? Not – now that I think about it properly, the idea of a cellular watch just makes more sense than it doesn't. It just took a use case for me to find a reason to want to get one for myself.

And sure, that huge iPhone might have helped me along the way, but it's more than manageable enough for when I leave the house – I just want the option of leaving at home when I know I'm just popping out for a while.

So we can all agree that I'm all-in on Team Pro Max right now. But what about those on the periphery? Could a cellular Apple Watch Series 7 be the answer to their iPhone 13 Pro Max anxiety? I reckon so, although there's no doubt that's an additional expense that many won't want to foot the bill for.

Still, money no object? A cellular Apple Watch and an iPhone 13 Pro Max could be the best iPhone setup ever.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.