Apple introduces Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 with new S9 SoC and UWB chip
Apple has announced its new Apple Watch smartwatches. The Apple Watch Series 9 and the new Apple Watch Ultra both get a new S9 SoC, a UWB chip and a new ‘double tap’ gesture. The smartwatches will be released soon.
The Apple Watch Series 9 gets a new S9 soc. That chip has 5.6 billion transistors, a GPU that is 30 percent faster and a Neural Engine with four cores. According to the manufacturer, this allows the watch to perform AI tasks twice as quickly as its predecessor. With this improved Neural Engine, requests to the Siri voice assistant will now also be executed locally on the smartwatch, and no longer via the cloud. This means that those requests work faster and even without internet, just like on the iPhone. The Series 9 also allows users to request their health data from Siri. For example, users can ask about the status of their activity rings or how long they slept.
The Apple Watch Series 9 will also receive a UWB chip for the first time, with which users can use the new Name Drop function from iOS 17, among other things. It will also be possible to more accurately find the location of an iPhone via an Apple Watch Series 9 with uwb.
Apple is also introducing a new gesture with the new watches: Double Tap. Users can operate their Apple Watch by tapping their thumb and index finger together twice. That action activates the ‘primary’ action of an app. For example, users can snooze an alarm, play or pause music or call up the smart stack on the home screen of watchOS 10.
The screens of the Apple Watch Series 9 remain unchanged compared to the Series 8, at 41mm and 45mm. According to Apple, the screen achieves higher peak brightnesses of 2000cd/m², compared to 1000cd/m² with the Series 8 watches. For use in the dark, the screen can also dim darker, to a minimum of 1cd/m². According to Apple, the Series 9 is its first product that is completely CO₂ neutral.
The watches will be available with an aluminum casing in the colors midnight, starlight, silver, pink and red. Variants with a stainless steel housing will be available in silver, graphite and gold. The Series 9 will be available on September 22 from 449 euros.
Apple Watch Series 9. Source: Apple
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Apple is also launching Watch Ultra 2. This smartwatch also has a new S9 SoC with an improved Neural Engine, UWB chip and double tap gestures. Apple provides the new Ultra smartwatch with a better screen this time, which achieves peak brightnesses of up to 3000 cd/m².
Apple is also introducing a new watch face for the Watch Ultra: Modular Ultra. This digital watch face shows more information on the 49mm screen, including altitude. In addition, night mode, where the watch face dims and turns red, will now be automatically activated using the ambient light sensors in the watch.
According to Apple, the Watch Ultra 2 will have the same battery life as its predecessor. This lasts up to 36 hours ‘with normal use’. With the low-power mode, this can be extended to 72 hours, the manufacturer claims. The casing will continue to be made from titanium, although this time, according to Apple, it is 95 percent recycled. The Watch Ultra 2 will be available from 899 euros.
The watches shown will be available with watchOS 10, which Apple previously announced. This software version gets a new interface with a greater focus on widgets. That OS update will be released on September 18. Apple further reduces the starting price of the Watch SE from 299 to 279 euros.