Apple Watch Series 9
The Apple Watch Series 9 may look almost identical to the Apple Watch Series 8, but it has a more powerful S9 chipset and a second-generation UWB chip. These allow features such as local Siri processing and Precision Finding. It also has a new double tap gesture for controlling your Apple Watch with just one hand.
Apple Watch Series 8
It’s got a great design, heaps of sensors, and more features than you’ll probably know what to do with. While its battery life isn’t the best on the smartwatch market, fast charging makes charging it daily a little less painful.
The latest versions of Apple’s popular smartwatch have arrived, with two new models being revealed at Apple’s Wonderlust event. There’s the Apple Watch Ultra 2, an updated version of theApple Watch Ultrathat first appeared in 2022. There’s also new update to the main Apple Watch line-up, too, with the launch of the Apple Watch Series 9. Apple Watch upgrades don’t usually tend to be hugely dramatic, but there are always some useful additional features. Is the new Apple Watch worth the upgrade? We go head-to-head with the Apple Watch Series 9 vs Series 8 to which comes out on top.
Price, availability, and specs
The Apple Watch Series 8 was $399/£379 when it launched last September. It’s currently availableon Amazon from just $309, with the price often dropping close to the launch of a new model. The new Apple Watch Series 9launches from $399/£399, and you can pre-order it now with the new model available from September 22nd.
Apple Watch updates are usual incremental changes rather than bringing significant changes, so how do the specs match up? Let’s take a look.
Design and build
If you’re hoping to show off your Apple Watch Series 9 and have people notice that you’re rocking the very latest model, be prepared to be disappointed. As with most Apple Watch upgrades, there’s very little external difference between the Apple Watch Series 9 and its predecessor. The cases are exactly the same size, at 45x38x10.7mm for the 45mm version and 41x31x10.7mm for the 41mm version.
The design is unchanged, so you’ll be hard-pressed to tellwhich series of Apple Watch you’re wearingunless you go for the new colour option, which we’ll come to later. With next year marking the tenth anniversary of the launch of the first Apple Watch, it’s likely that there will be more significant changes with the release of the Apple Watch Series 10.
The smaller Apple Watch Series 8 has a 1.7-inch always-on Retina OLED display, with the larger model having a 1.9-inch display. The Apple Watch Series 9 sticks to the same size displays, but there’s a significant difference in brightness. The Apple Watch Series 9 can go as bright as 2,000 nits, which is double the 1,000 nits of theApple Watch Series 8. In addition, with the Apple Watch Series 9, you can go as low as 1 nit if you need to use your Apple Watch Series 9 without disturbing other people.
The Apple Watch Series 8 is available is four different models, two different finishes, and six different colours. you may opt for a 41-mm model or 45-mm model each with either GPS only or GPS and cellular. There’s a choice of aluminium or stainless steel cases, with the aluminium models being available in Silver, Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT) RED, and the stainless steel available in Graphite, Silver, and Gold.
The Apple Watch Series 9 adds a new colour to the aluminium range: Pink. Otherwise, all of the same colours and models as with the Apple Watch Series 8 are available.
Both models have blood oxygen sensors,an ECG, fall detection,Emergency SOS, and temperature sensors that can help with features such as fertility tracking. The Apple Watch Series 9 doesn’t add any new sensors but uses those sensors to power a brand-new feature. Well, kind of.
The Apple Watch Series 9 introduces the ability to interact with your Apple Watch by double tapping the index finger and thumb of your watch hand together, in a gesture called Double Tap. Apple says that it uses complex algorithms that look at factors such as the accelerometer and the change in your blood flow to determine when you’ve performed the action. you’re able to use the double-tap gesture to activate the primary button that’s on your screen. For example, you can double-tap to answer a call, stop a timer, snooze your alarm, play or pause music, oropen widgets.
However, it’s possible to get a similar feature on your Apple Watch Series 8 by turning on Assistive Touch in the Accessibility settings, which you may use to interact with your Apple Watch using gestures such as pinch, double pinch, clench, and double clench.
A key difference between the models is that the Apple Watch Series 8 runs on the Apple S8 chipset, while the Apple Watch Series 9 runs on the new S9 SiP. The updated chipset has 60 per cent more transistors than in the Apple Watch Series 8, and the GPU is 30 per cent faster. The four-core neural engine also offers machine learning capabilities that are twice as fast as on the Apple Watch Series 8.
In real terms, it allows the Apple Watch Series 9 to offer something that should be a significant improvement; the ability to process some Siri requests directly on your Apple Watch rather than sending them to the cloud. That means even when you don’t have a great network connection, you can still use Siri to perform common requests, such as asking Siri to start a workout. It also means you can access or log health data using Siri on Apple Watch Series 9, with queries such as “How much did I sleep last night?” or “how doesmy Move ringlook today?”. However, the feature won’t be available in English and Mandarin until the end of the year, with other languages coming later.
There’s also a second-generationUWB chipin the Apple Watch Series 9, which makes finding your iPhone using your Apple Watch even easier. The Precision Finding feature will tell you how far away your iPhone is and in which direction, with haptic feedback and a chirping sound indicating when you’re close. The new chip also allows interaction with a HomePod; as you get close to your HomePod when it’s playing, your Apple Watch will automatically open the Now Playing screen to allow you to control the music. If nothing is playing, you’ll see a smart stack with suggestions for media you might want to play.
The Apple Watch Series 8 has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasting up to 18 hours. Despite the more powerful chip in the new Apple Watch Series 9, Apple still rates the new model as being capable of lasting up to 18 hours between charges. Both are capable of fast charging from 0 to 80 per cent in about 45 minutes.
Both the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Series 8 can run thenew watchOS 10. One of the most significant features of the new OS is the addition of a smart stack of widgets accessible from any watch face. These widgets are customisable, allowing you to access the apps or information you need with just a swipe or a scroll of the digital crown. There are also some new health features, including the ability to track the amount of time spent in sunlight, and a new way to track your state of mindwithin the Mindfulness app. And probably most importantly of all, there’s a new animated watch facefeaturing Snoopy and Woodstock.
Green credentials
There is one final difference between the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Series 8, and this is one that’s possibly the most important. The Apple Watch Series is 9 is the first ever Apple product that is available in options that are completely carbon-neutral, as part of Apple’s ongoing mission to make all of its products carbon-neutral by 2030.
The carbon-neutral option is any aluminium Apple Watch, which uses recycled aluminium, paired with the newSport Loop bandthat’s made with 30 per cent recycled materials. Apple states that this combination has a 78% reduction in carbon footprint, and the remainder is offset by investment in nature-based projects. There’s even a new logo of a circle of green leaves that indicates that the Apple Watch combination you’re buying is carbon-neutral. No Apple Watch Series 8 combination can claim to be completely carbon-neutral.
Apple Watch Series 9 v Series 8: Should you upgrade?
If you’re buying new, the Apple Watch 9 is the way to go. You get a screen that’s twice as bright, a fancy new double tap feature that’s always on, an upgraded UWB chip that supports some useful new features, and the warm glow of knowing that your Apple Watch isn’t contributing to the destruction of the planet. And whilst theprice of the Apple Watch Series 8will be lower now that it’s being phased out, it’s probably worth shelling out the difference.
The Apple Watch Series 9 may look almost identical to the Apple Watch Series 8, but it has a more powerful S9 chipset and a second-generation UWB chip. These allow features such as local Siri processing and Precision Finding. It also has a new double-tap gesture for controlling your Apple Watch with just one hand.
If you already own an Apple Watch Series 8, there’s probably not enough to make you desperate to upgrade. Even the double tap feature is something that you can mimic on your Apple Watch Series 8. The one thing that might convince you to upgrade is the on-device processing for Siri commands because Siri can often be next to useless on an Apple Watch Series 8 if you don’t have a great network connection.
The Apple Watch Series 8 has a great design, heaps of sensors, and more features than you’ll probably know what to do with. Its battery life isn’t the best on the smartwatch market, but fast charging makes it easy to charge daily and the fitness features are superb.
