Series
- The Apple Watch Series 9 screen is fantastic in terms of brightness and resolution.
- The Apple Watch Series 9 double-tap control is the big exclusive feature of this generation… and it falls a bit short.
I’ve been testing the Apple Watch Series 9 for three weeks for this review, and we’re going to see how the new generation of Apple’s smartwatch performs and, above all, whether the new features of this model justify an upgrade if you own one of the previous models.
Technical specifications of the Apple Watch Series 9
Case 45 mm
45 x 38 x 10.7 mm
39 grams
Display Retina LTPO OLED
Always-On display
484 x 396 pixel resolution
326 pixels per inch
Processor: Apple S9
Storage: 64 GB
Sensors SpO2
Heart rate
ECG Accelerometer
Altimeter
Compass
Ambient light sensor
Crash and fall detection
Temperature sensor
Water Resistance
50 meters and swimproof
Battery Up to 18 hours of battery life
Up to 36 hours of battery life in Low Power
Price
Our model: 599 euros
Starting from 479 euros
The Apple Watch Series 9 dimensions are identical, and the only difference between the two models in the technical specifications, in terms of construction, is that the Apple watch Series 9 is 0.1 grams lighter in both the 41-millimeter and 45-millimeter versions compared to the previous generation.
The design is indistinguishable from that of the previous generation, following the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Joking aside, since that tiny weight difference is completely insignificant, Apple Watch Series 9 has followed the maxim that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We don’t know what will happen next year, when the original model turns ten years old (we all know what Apple did when the iPhone turned ten – the disruptive iPhone X), but for now we’re sticking with this square design that works so well for some things.
The debate about whether square or round watches are better is something we’re not going to get into in this analysis of the Apple Watch Series 9, but it’s clear that it’s a design that works for them, that many companies copy with designs heavily inspired by the Apple Watch Series 9, and that it has some very recognizable elements, such as the off-center crown on one of the sides.
I really like that the crown has that red perimeter, as it adds an interesting design element, but what’s truly important is that the feel and overall experience remain excellent. It’s a very, very solid crown that allows you to navigate the system quickly and precisely.
When you rotate it, it provides a subtle haptic vibration that feels great and gives that ‘feedback’ as if you were touching a mechanical component. It’s not as realistic and satisfying as the bezel on the Galaxy Watch Classic, but the response is very solid. There are many very, very good crowns on the market, but having reviewed the most premium models from other companies this year, the Apple Watch Series 9 crown is still the smoothest.
What I don’t like so much is the elongated button. In terms of design, yes, it looks great because it’s perfectly aligned with the body and is very discreet. Furthermore, the resulting ‘click’ when you press it is fantastic and it responds perfectly, but the fact that it has no raised surface at all isn’t ideal in some situations.
The feel and response of the crown is perfect, but I would appreciate a little more texture on the side button.
In this Midnight color, however, dirt is quite noticeable. Fingerprints show up easily, soap residue after washing dishes is evident, and after a workout, it will also be somewhat dirty from sweat. It’s something that comes off with a quick wipe with a cloth or the edge of your shirt. And I have to say that on the Apple Watch Series 9 website it looks more bluish, but it’s practically black.
And the back is made of ceramic with a cluster of sensors in the central part, a raised design that perfectly matches the convex shape of the charging base, and the famous strap changing system that continues to work just as well as in the first generation.
Regarding this, if you’re wondering whether you can use straps from 38 or 41 millimeter models on a larger Apple Watch Series 9, don’t worry because they look great. For the test, I had one of the microfiber straps and the new Nike one (which has a spectacular feel and very, very premium finishes), but for exercising and changing things up, I’ve used my smaller straps and yes, there’s a small gap at the ends, but it’s unnoticeable in everyday use.
Impressive screen in any situation.
There are no changes in design, and as for the screen, although the specifications are the same as the previous generation, the brightness is absolutely incredible. It’s, as I like to say, a quality-of-life improvement, since you don’t have to worry about finding the right angle to see it on the sunniest day of the year. You’ll simply be able to see the screen perfectly.
It’s unusual to see such a significant leap in performance from one generation to the next in any of these areas, but in this case, we’ve gone from a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits in the Series 8 to a maximum of 2,000 nits in this Apple watch Series 9. In fact, it’s the same brightness that we liked so much last year in the Apple Watch Ultra. The minimum brightness is 1 nit, which is used in extremely dark situations and makes the screen barely visible, but it’s useful for nighttime use.
The sensor that automatically adjusts the brightness depending on the situation works wonderfully, and in a scenario like being outdoors on a sunny street and then entering a shop, it sets the screen brightness exactly where it should be. I haven’t had to manually adjust the brightness even once in these three weeks.
As for the rest? The experience is the same as what we had in the previous generation. The screen is still OLED with a 1.9-inch diagonal on the model with the 45-millimeter case. The resolution is 484 x 396 pixels, which gives us that “Retina” density that Apple calls 326 pixels per inch.
The icons and all the information on the screen look great, and the colors are rich and deep. The Watch OS interface takes full advantage of the black background to make everything in color stand out especially well. In addition, the touch response is very good, and the fact that it’s an LTPO panel (lowering the refresh rate in Always-on Display mode to save battery) remains a significant advantage.
I’m not a big fan of the oleophobic coating, as fingerprints show up easily on the screen. Yes, you can wipe them off easily with a cloth, but especially if you’re using Always-on Display mode or a watch face with a black background, the fingerprints are quite noticeable.
I do like the hydrophobic protection, which turns off the screen when water falls on it and makes the drops slide off so that, if we touch the screen, there aren’t many interferences or strange animations.
And since we’re talking about protection, the Apple Watch Series 9 features IP6X dust resistance and water resistance up to a depth of 50 meters. The glass is Ion-X on the aluminum models and sapphire on the stainless steel models. The sapphire glass is more resistant to bumps and scratches, but I have the Ion-X version, and since it’s a watch, it’s inevitably bumped against walls or weights a few times, and after three weeks, it’s still in perfect condition.
As smooth as ever
The Apple Watch Series 9 screen and design (especially on a watch) are very important elements, but the software and that much-touted Apple ecosystem are what make the Apple Watch Series 9 the best watch if you own an iPhone. I’m not saying anything new; it’s something we mention in every review of an Apple watch Series 9, but the user experience is simply incredibly polished.
Let’s start with the hardware. We have the Apple S9 dual-core 64-bit SiP (the processor, that is). It has a four-core Neural Engine (an NPU), and there’s a single 64GB storage option that serves for both apps and music.
When we talk about the pure performance of the watch itself, we’re talking about a tremendously stable and, above all, fast device. Navigation through Watch OS is flawless, with very smooth animations and very short loading times for native apps. Multitasking works very well, and if you’ve opened an app, returning to it is instantaneous simply by tapping its icon.
With third-party apps, it depends a lot on how well each app is optimized. For example, I have half my house fitted with Meross smart plugs, and their app opens perfectly. However, the Roborock app takes ages to open. Xiaomi Home also takes a while, but Google Maps, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Kernel work flawlessly.
It’s clear that the processor is powerful, and that’s evident in the smooth performance when doing anything, such as when you’re training and you leave the tracking screen to open your email or a message that comes in, reply without any problems (using the on-screen keyboard, a voice-to-text system that works great, or with predefined phrases), and then return to the training screen.
However, the Series 8 is still very relevant, and the previous generation is much the same. In fact, the main new features, such as the new widgets, the ability to switch watch faces with only one active at a time, the new cardio zones in workout mode, and the medication app, have more to do with watchOS 10 than with the watch itself.
And Apple’s update policy is very extensive, so watches 10, whether it works better or worse, is available from the Watch Series 4 onwards. There is one feature that is exclusive to this Apple Watch Series 9: the double-tap function, which I want to discuss in more detail later.
Something else that’s noticeable with the Apple S9 SiP is that Siri is faster. I don’t use Siri much, to be honest, but when I’m washing the dishes or playing video games, I do tend to ask the assistant for things, and the processing, since it’s done within the system, is faster in this generation. It’s not instantaneous; we’re not quite there yet, but it’s really smooth.
Table of Contents
Double tap vs Assistive Touch
However, as I mentioned, there is something that is unique to this model: the double tap gesture. You shouldn’t buy devices relying on future software updates, and that’s the reason (in addition to thoroughly testing the battery) why we’ve taken a little longer to publish our review of the Apple Watch Series 9.
As we mentioned, most of the new features in this model have to do with screen brightness, overall system speed, and the double-tap gesture. It was announced as one of the major features for the Apple Watch Series 9 at the launch event, but the function wasn’t released until October 25th with the arrival of Watch OS 10.1.
According to Apple Watch Series 9 this double-tap gesture is exclusive to the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 due to the new processing and NPU capabilities of the new Sip, but it was actually already possible to control the Apple Watch Series 9 by clenching your fist or tapping with your index finger and thumb.
This feature was previously found in the accessibility options (and, in fact, it’s still there on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2), but on these devices, there’s a separate setting for this gesture. In the ‘Settings’ menu, you can find the ‘Gestures’ section between ‘App Layout’ and ‘Accessibility,’ and it works very similarly to what the accessibility option already offered.
Double-tapping is more limited than accessibility touch controls.
It’s true that the accessibility feature allows you to navigate through each screen, since, as its name suggests, it’s an accessibility setting, but with the double tap we can only interact with the apps and screens configured for it.
The feature is called ‘double tap’, literally, so it’s somewhat more limited than the accessibility gesture control, but the truth is that it’s more useful than I thought for certain situations where using both hands would be more inconvenient.
But in the end, seeing that it’s more limited than the accessibility gestures, I still don’t understand why it’s only possible with the latest generation processor. In fact, right above you there’s a video where I show what you can do with the double tap and what you can do with the taps and the fist-clenching gesture from the accessibility settings.
Doing sports with the Apple Watch Series 9
We’ve already mentioned that the Apple Watch Series 9 has a lot of health features to help us monitor ourselves and our surroundings, but it’s clear that we also need to talk about its more sporty side.
Aside from the wide variety of sports we can monitor, we can also perform interval training and, as with the previous generation, certain sports have clearly defined aerobic zones. If you select running or stationary cycling, you can see which performance zone you are in by navigating through the different screens.
Workout statistics can be viewed afterward on both the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Fitness or Health app on your iPhone, and I consider the data to be quite comprehensive. It’s not the most detailed data available (and sometimes the heart rate is displayed with bars, which is a bit confusing), but you have what you need to compare workouts.
If you’re walking or running, it automatically switches to automatic exercise mode (almost always, there are a few occasions when it hasn’t detected that I was exercising when it should have) and I have to say that the GPS works well.
As always with these types of watches, there is a margin of error, but based on my tests, it doesn’t cut corners excessively, it doesn’t indicate that I’m going through the sides of buildings or walking on the roof, and on a couple of occasions, when passing through exactly the same point, except for a couple of sections, the measurements were identical.
Within the Health app you have more statistics, and here you can delve as deeply as you want into different health sections, some of which are very interesting, such as stride analysis, the length of your steps, or gait asymmetry.
Everything you tap on has two or three paragraphs of explanation, and if you’re curious and want to take care of yourself, it certainly doesn’t hurt to read them. Ultimately, though, many of these features and statistics depend more on the iPhone than the Apple Watch Series 9, but if you bought a Watch for health reasons, you should know that the Health app is very comprehensive.
The ring system remains robust and encourages you to train, as do the medals. And if you’re worried about the accuracy of the sensors, I don’t have an oximeter to compare my blood oxygen level, but the Fitbit Charge 6 and the Apple Watch Series 9 give me almost identical heart rate readings during exercise. Furthermore, compared to a chest strap, the heart rate readings are also very similar during workouts.
Battery life of almost two days, although it depends on what you do.
When we talk about battery life in a mobile phone, we can track our usage, and we also have the clear data of screen-on time and total battery life. This is always helpful for providing more context, but with a watch, it’s a bit more complicated.
Apple tells us that the Apple watch Series 9 new models have a battery life of 18 hours under the following conditions:
- 90 time checks.
- 90 notifications (vibration not specified).
- 45 minutes of app usage.
- A 60-minute workout playing music from the watch via Bluetooth.
Based on my experience, I haven’t had to charge the watch every night, as Apple suggests. In fact, I’ve gotten almost two days of use out of it without much trouble, and I wouldn’t consider my usage to be light.
Below, I’ve included some of the measurements I’ve obtained and the watch face I used to achieve them, in case you want to test it out if you currently own an Apple Watch Series 9:
Now, I have to say that these measurements are based on the battery being at 100% until the watch completely dies, and this is not the most advisable approach. In fact, with my personal watch, I always try to charge it when it reaches 20%. If, for whatever reason, I’m away from home, I’ll let it run down further without a problem, but when it gets to that level, it’s time to charge it.
With conventional use, without trying to push the battery to its limits, I recommend charging it while you work or study. This way, you keep the battery within a healthier range, and these are times when, if you receive notifications, you have your phone or computer screen nearby.
Furthermore, this way you can take advantage of the sleep tracking feature without worrying about whether you’ll wake up the next day with enough battery life for the rest of the day or if you’ll have to carry the charger in your bag. Because yes, there is a low-power mode that disables several functions, limits the sensors, and turns off the connection (it only works for checking the time), but it’s better not to reach that point because it excessively limits the essence of a smartwatch.
Regarding charging, when connected to a 20W PD charger, the charging times are as follows:
- 5 minutes – 10
- 10 minutes – 24
- 15 minutes – 30
- 20 minutes – 37
- 25 minutes – 43
- 30 minutes – 52
- 35 minutes – 58
- 40 minutes – 70
- 45 minutes – 78
- 50 minutes – 88
- 55 minutes – 91
- 60 minutes – 94
- 65 minutes – 98
- 68 minutes – 100
I was surprised that it went from 10% to 24% in five minutes, but after that initial surge, it stabilizes with a more linear and slower charge until it reaches 100%.
Apple Watch Series 9, Xataka’s opinion
And, ultimately, the Apple Watch Series 9 is an interesting upgrade depending on the watch you currently have on your wrist. If you’re coming from a Series 6 or an SE model, buying the latest model guarantees two things.
The first is that the performance will be superior thanks to greater fluidity and exclusive features that have been introduced with the latest generations. The second is that it will become outdated later because the processor is much more powerful and supports more years of updates
It’s not a revolution, but it is extremely solid in all its aspects.
Now, it’s clear that this is a great option if, as I said, you’re coming from an Apple Watch Series 9 that’s three years old. The brighter screen is an absolute delight in any situation, and the automatic brightness system works perfectly. Furthermore, the S9 is an extremely powerful SoC and doesn’t negatively impact battery life.
And the most important point is that it remains the best watch to pair with an iPhone due to the excellent communication between devices from the same family. If you’re considering upgrading or want to switch from a fitness tracker to a smartwatch, it’s the best companion your iPhone can have without going for the price, and size, of the Apple Watch Ultra 2.