Watch Series 9
Faster, smarter and with better eco-credentials than before
Apple says the dual-core S9 has 5.6 billion transistors, making it 60% faster than the previous S8
From £399 (41mm)/£429 (45mm) FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES 41mm or 45mm size, Apple S9 chip, Always-On display, up to 18 hours’ battery life, GPS, mobile connectivity options
Apple’s latest smartwatch looks little changed on the face of it – but looks can be deceiving. In fact, the Apple Watch Series 9 is packed with all kinds of changes, most of them good. For a start, this year’s Apple Watch is slightly cheaper than before with prices starting at £399 for the 41mm and £429 for the 45mm, netting you a £20 saving over the Series 8. It also comes in new colours, with the aluminium version available in Pink, Midnight, Starlight, Silver and (Product) Red; and the Stainless Steel (which starts at £699) coming in Gold, Silver and Graphite. Going hand in hand (ahem) with the new colours are a range of new straps, giving Apple the chance to crow about its eco credentials. Team your Apple Watch Series 9 with a Sport Loop, for example, and you’ll end up with buying Apple’s first carbon neutral product. The company has even teamed up with Nike and Hermès to produce eco-friendly versions of their straps and loops, with the company effectively banning leather from its product line-up.
While the Series 9 doesn’t look much different from the Series 8 and Series 7 that preceded it, Apple’s still managed to pack in plenty of innovations – from an Always-On display that can vary from 2,000 nits (making it twice as bright as the Series 8) to as little as 1 nit in low light. Plus it’s also fitted the Series 9 with its new S9 SiP (System in Package), and a second-gen Ultra Wideband chip. Apple says the dual-core S9 has 5.6 billion transistors, making it 60% faster than the S8 SiP inside the Watch Series 8, plus there’s a new fourcore Neural Engine for machine learning tasks. Combining the two enables the Watch Series 9 to perform more on-device tasks than before, helping to protect your privacy when using Siri (since the Watch Series 9 doesn’t have to go scurrying to the internet to find answers to your questions quite so often). It also enables a new Apple Watch feature: double tap.
Fingertip controls
Superficially based on an Accessibility feature known as Double Pinch, double tap enables you to carry out on-watch commands singlehandedly, simply by tapping your forefinger and thumb together twice in quick succession. You can use double tap to do things like make
and take a phone call, reply to messages and play and pause music while doing other things – like walking the dog, lugging the shopping or cleaning up your little one after a messy lunch.
The other big change the Watch Series 9 brings to your wrist is second-gen Ultra Wideband. Ultra Wideband is the tech inside Apple’s AirTags and some iPhones, that enables you to quickly track down mislaid items, and even gives you on-screen directions to guide you to them. Second-gen Ultra Wideband finally brings that to the Apple Watch Series 9 and iPhone 15, enabling you to use your Watch to precisely locate the phone, where you could only make it play a sound or give you a generalised location before.
The final big change is one that’s common to all Apple Watch models from the Series 4 onwards: watchOS 10.
watchOS 10 marks the biggest change to the Apple Watch since the first gen arrived in 2015, reimagining its core apps while refining the interface.
While the changes have made watchOS more visually rich and appealing to use than before, it’s also moved a few things around. Swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen now displays a Smart Stack of widgets, showing your most commonly used apps instead of Control Centre; while Control Centre has been moved to the side button. Plus, there’s a wealth of enhancements for cyclists and hikers, new mental health features and two new watch faces: Palette, which presents an ever-shifting array of colours as the hands sweep around the dial; and Snoopy, featuring the famous dog from the Peanuts cartoons, along with his yellow-bird sidekick, Woodstock.
Every generation of Apple Watch builds on the last and this year’s Series 9 is no different. It’s added a nip here, a tuck there, and has brought new features to the table while refining the stuff you already know and love. The Apple Watch remains the world’s greatest smartwatch. The Series 9 has managed to inch it that bit closer to perfection.
Rob Mead-Green