I just took back the se 44mm second gen and bought a new apple watch series 7 red 45mm and I love it I didnt think a 180 more is worth the series 8

I was in a similar boat, but I’ve had mine a couple years now. For me it was the fact it had a wheelchair mode at all, and just as you said picking up every minute here and there of exercise was a huge improvement for me versus a Fitbit (which just thought I took steps). Everything else was a bonus on top, even though the sleep tracking was a slight downgrade at first, but I never expected to love the instant notifications, or answering calls on my wrist while I’m busy doing something else with both hands, or NFC payments. But it’s become indispensable, especially when outdoors. Reaching my wrist up to the card terminal is so much easier than trying to pull it down to the point where I can safely and unseen enter my PIN code. Plus Apple Pay has no limits, whereas Google Pay would fail for me over half the time on anything over £25. So I can actually use it to purchase cross-country train tickets or my groceries. I’d always thought of it as a mere convenience but it’s actually made a large difference to how easily I can access businesses, I used to hold people behind me up for so long. I’m kinda surprised at the bezel size increase, I was impressed with whatever my one is over the originals. Whenever I have to upgrade, I guess it’ll be truly edge to edge. Though it sounds like they actually kept the screen the same and reduced the rest here? Cos mine is 42mm but yours is 41? Anyway. Agree about the straps, there’s so many options it’s not the big deal people made it out to be when it was brand new about HAVING to buy straps from Apple.

One of the biggest frustrations for me on the Apple Watch is that when making a call, EVERYTHING freezes up. I often want to reference a text or use some other app, but apple doesn't think I can handle switching back and forth. Disappointing.

Apple Pay does work on the iPhone as well

Nice review. What size wrist do you have? I have 170-175mm and not sure which one to get. That 41mm looks good on your wrist.

Will the ecg on the watch work with the iphone XS? I'm asking because I heard the apple watch ecg does not work with all iphones.