The Apple Watch Series 9 has incremental improvements
Our favorite Apple smartwatch gets even better
Credit:
Reviewed / Apple
Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.
The Apple Watch Series 9, unveiled at today’s Wonderlust Apple Event, looks and functions much like the last few generations of Apple Watch have—and that’s a good thing. With its dependable, easy-to-navigate WatchOS operating system and seemingly endless sea of customizable apps and watch faces, the Apple Watch has been our best overall smartwatch for years. With the introduction of Apple’s new S9 SiP processor, we feel confident that our love affair with Apple’s wrist candy won’t end any time soon.
The Apple Watch Series 9 ups the max brightness to 2,000 nits and includes Apple's new Double Tap gesture feature.
Pre-order at AmazonAccording to Apple, the S9 SiP processor will bring a 30% percent increase in processing power over the last version of the Apple Watch. And thanks to the Series 9's new neural engine, Siri requests are run on the watch, not from the cloud, making responses faster and 25% more accurate. Starting a workout or waiting for Siri to transcribe your voice into a Messages response should be a much faster affair than with previous versions of the Apple Watch. What’s more, the new S9 chipset is more power efficient, which means more time between charges. During Apple’s presentation, the company claimed that Series 9 Apple Watch users can expect up to 18 hours of battery before it needs to be recharged. And ultrawide band connectivity will allow you to find your iPhone with greater accuracy.
One of the Series 9's most interesting new features is Double Tap: simply tap your index finger and thumb together, twice, to answer a call, navigate through your smart stack or control any number of actions in an app.
All of this makes the Apple Watch Series 9 a compelling upgrade for existing Apple Watch owners, and a great first Apple Watch for anyone hoping to pull their iPhone out of their pocket a little less often.
The Apple Watch Series Of course, Reviewed will be putting the Apple Watch Series 9 through its paces as soon as we get our hands on it. And make sure to follow USA Today's live Apple Event coverage.