Right from the off the Apple Watch got a tremendous amount of negative reaction. Reviewers said it was under powered, looked strange and the OS felt like a confusing mess. Some had valid points about watchOS, and ever since Apple have been stripping away parts to make it more cohesive. Yet the hate for the ‘honeycomb’ layout app grid remains – but I like it.

There is no denying that the original watchOS was confused and full of half baked ideas. However as time has progressed Apple have zoned in on notifications and health as the selling points. Working hard to streamline the OS and make apps load faster. In watchOS4 Apple allowed users to switch to an alphabetic list of apps instead, which many uses immediately did. However in my honest opinion this layout takes much longer the get to the apps you need.

The honeycomb allows you to quickly find the app you need and tap straight on it. All the icons are familiar because they are the same ones we stare at each day using our phone. By presenting them on one screen the speed of selecting an app is much quicker than scrolling a long list of apps in alphabetical order.

Perhaps the much larger issue is the fact that many of the stock app icons are too similar and easily confused. The timer and stopwatch ones are strikingly similar but still immediately obvious which app is which. With a little work on customising the layout you can have something familiar, easy to access and useful immediately accessible by just pressing the crown.

Couple this with finally app makers realising that not every platform needs an accompanying watchOS app, and the future looks extremely bright (and light) for Apples most personal device. Embrace the honeycomb, don’t scroll through lists to find the app you need, because scrolling down to Workouts is a chore in itself.