Apple officially announced the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 at the Wonderlust event taking place at 0:00 a.m. on September 13, becoming the latest addition to the company’s smartwatch line.
According to The Verge, one of the biggest changes in the Apple Watch Series 9 is the new S9 SiP (System in Package) which includes 5.6 billion transistors, a 30% faster GPU, and 4 Neural Engine cores. This brings improvements regarding Siri requests being handled on the device. The watch also has a second-generation ultrawide chip for more accurate searching. Another improvement is a brighter screen Apple says the screen can be up to 2,000 nits bright, twice the maximum level users can get from the Watch Series 8.
The Watch Series 9 also offers a “double tap” feature, allowing users to touch their index finger and thumb together to do things like answer a phone call. It is similar to the Tapping feature that Apple introduced with Vision Pro. The company already offers something similar through AssistiveTouch. Apple said the “double tap” feature will roll out next month.
Apple Watch Series 9 will have these in Pink, Starlight, Silver, Midnight, and Red for aluminum case version. For stainless steel versions, there will be colors Gold, Silver, and Tha n what
The smartwatch will ship with watchOS 10 – Apple’s latest smartwatch operating system that brings a series of major improvements, focusing on a widget stack accessible by turning the digital crown and versions Significant updates to many core apps on the Apple Watch.
As for the Watch Ultra 2, this smartwatch has a design that looks quite similar to its predecessor, meaning most of the upgrades are on the inside. While the Watch Ultra 2’s hardware has been upgraded, some of the biggest changes users will see this year are in watchOS 10 with redesigned widgets and app icons, as well as new features. New mapping and cycling for the watch interface.
Compared to its predecessor, the Watch Ultra 2 offers a screen with a brightness of 3,000 nits, making it the brightest screen the Apple Watch has ever had. Apple claims users will get 72 hours on a charge when the device is in low power mode, and the frame is made from 95% recycled titanium.
Both the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 can be pre-ordered now for $399 and $799 respectively before they ship on September 22. WatchOS 10 will be released on September 18.