One week in

Apple Pay Octopus has been in service for a week so I asked for some Apple Watch field impressions on Twitter. Overall, users seem pretty impressed:

I am using it daily and it is really out of this world. I use it on my watch and now I can literally go out for a jog or hike with just wearing the watch.

It works perfectly on my AW so far. But from I’ve heard on LIHKG, there some users facing the difficulties on the express mode. Mostly are requiring passcode when going through the gate.

It’s mostly positive. However there’re times where the reader isn’t sensitive enough and need to linger the watch longer. Also going to work first thing in the morning but forgetting to enter pass code in the apple watch is frustrating since it doesn’t inform you need to unlock.

Been using AW Octopus everyday. Use cases include MTR, tram, ferry, 7-11, eating meals at all sorts of restaurants like Tai Hing, Ki’s Roasted Goose, Pret etc. Octopus on Apple Pay drastically improved HK’s cashless experience. It’s definitely okay for me to go out with only AW. Not even with my phone. Feels really good. The speed of payment is also very remarkable. However, the reader in Tai Hing seems to need an extra second to detect my AW, not sure why. Plus AW users might want to wear it on the right wrist, which makes passing MTR gates easier.

Using it everywhere. All good and same speed as physical card, expect bus and some small shops were like a heartbeat slower. Also twice there was no “ping” confirmation sound. Tried AW on my right for mtr, its only good for that, imo left is more comfy for other occasions…

… after so many years of waiting, finally an apple pay suica experience in HK.

You can follow the Twitter thread here. I have noticed a few small gate lag hiccups on my Apple Watch Suica since upgrading to watchOS 6.2.5/6.2.6. The lag is especially noticeable if a workout is in progress. The passcode request at the gate could indicate that Express Transit is deactivated somewhere along the way, either by a loose band activating the wrist detector into thinking Apple Watch was taken off the wrist, or it could be something else.

My Apple Watch insisted that I create a 6 digit passcode recently and disabled the 4 digit passcode option for a few days. Who knows, the passcode requests that some HK users are seeing could be a watchOS bug or an Octopus reader side issue that can be addressed with a firmware update.

Apple Watch is still prone to OS version performance issues that disappeared from iPhone with A12 Bionic and Express Transit with power reserve. Apple Pay transactions on A12 Bionic and later bypass most of the iOS layer and are directly handled in the A12/A13 Bionic Secure Enclave and Secure Element. It makes a big performance difference for Suica and Octopus.

Hopefully the next watchOS update will improve Suica and Octopus performance. Better yet let’s hope that Apple Watch 6 introduces a Apple S6 chip with Express Transit with power reserve. That would solve the watchOS version NFC performance issues for good, just like it did for iPhone.