The world’s most popular watch just got better. Apple Watch Series 9 brings a new S9 system in package (SiP) with 60% more transistors than the outgoing S8 series chip. It boasts a 30% faster GPU and a new 4-core NPU. This will obviously speed up the OS with faster animations and it’s claimed to offer 18 hours battery life. But that’s not all – the S9 SiP allows Siri requests processed on the device, which means much faster results as they don’t go to the cloud and back. Apple also promises 25% more accurate voice dictation. Siri can also now access your Health data making it easier than ever to check up on your key metrics.
Double Tap is arguably the killer new
feature on the Series 9. This is a new pinch gesture using your thumb and index
finger similar to how you operate the Apple Vision Pro headset. It works by
sensing changes in your blood flow and wrist movement via the accelerometer and
gyroscope sensors. Double Tap allows you to play/pause music, snooze alarms,
scroll through widgets, pick up or hang up calls. Apple Watch Series 9 comes in
the same 41mm and 45mm sizes with Bluetooth and cellular trims. The display can
now crank our up to 2000 nits peak brightness and it also down to 1 nit when
you don’t want to blind yourself late at night.
Watch 9 also gets a new UWB chip which
brings improved location tracking. You can still locate and ping your paired
iPhone with even better precision. You also get improved integration with
HomePod speakers. Watch S9 boots WatchOS 10 and comes in aluminum and stainless
steel casings. Color options include starlight, midnight, silver, (PRODUCT)RED
and pink for the aluminum model. The Stainless Steel version gets Silver, Gold
and Graphite options.
Apple also announced a new FineWoven
material watch strap which – a smaller carbon footprint than leather. The Watch
9 series is also completely carbon neutral. Apple will also match your
electricity bill by investing in renewable energy sources around the world. Apple
Watch Series 9 starts at US$ 399 with pre-orders later today while open sales kick
off on September 22 in the first wave of countries.
