(lively music)
- Last year was a big one for the Apple Watch.
On top of a new Series 8, 2022 ushered in a 2nd Gen SE
and introduced the world to the rugged Ultra.
But in 2023, we've got a new Series 9
and an Ultra 2 that, on the surface,
are pretty much identical to last year's models.
For the tech-savvy, it probably feels
like a bit of a letdown, but listen,
iterative Apple Watch updates have more
or less been the norm for a while.
Each year, we get a new watch
with a nearly identical design,
one, maybe two marquee features
and some software updates that also get pushed
to older versions of the watch.
At this point, the bigger questions are what's actually new?
Is that enough to upgrade?
And if you're gonna buy a new Apple Watch,
which one makes the most sense?
So let's figure that out.
(upbeat music)
Let's start with design.
One of these is the original Ultra
and the other is the Ultra 2.
I'm gonna give you two seconds to figure out which is which
and both have the new straps.
So good luck.
It's this one but the point is is that come on,
they look the same.
Meanwhile, this is a pink 41-millimeter Series 9
and a 45-millimeter Series 9 in stainless steel.
Aside from the straps and colors,
they very much look like the Series 8,
the Series 7 before that, and so on and so forth.
Just like the design, a lot of the materials
in the watches and new straps are recycled
because Apple is truly committing
to the whole carbon neutral thing.
Regardless of whether you take Apple's carbon neutral claims
at face value,
this really isn't something you're gonna notice
in terms of how the watch or straps feel.
The Sport and Trail Loop, for example,
look and feel pretty much the same.
The most interesting watch accessory
is the new fine woven material.
It's meant to be Apple's leather alternative
because the company is just not going
to be making leather accessories anymore.
Fine woven doesn't feel like leather
but it's got a soft suede-like texture.
But I haven't had it long enough to tell you
whether it develops a patina
or how it holds up long term to sweat or oil.
(lively music)
So what's really new here is the S9 SiP and watchOS 10.
Now, the S9 SiP is a new processor
and unlike the Series 7 and 8,
this is meant to be a more significant update
to performance and capabilities.
Performance-wise, the S9 has a 30% faster GPU
and a four-core Neural Engine
that's supposedly twice as fast
as the Series 8 at machine learning tasks.
But companies say stuff like this all the time.
What does it actually mean?
The more powerful S9 SiP is supposed
to deliver a better Siri experience.
Specifically, better accuracy for dictation
and on-device Siri processing
means you can theoretically do more
with it even without an internet connection.
To test that, I'm gonna dictate a few long sentences
and tongue twisters on the Series 9
and the original Ultra, which has the S8 chip.
Then we'll compare the results just to see
if there's a notable difference.
- [Siri] What do you want to say?
- [Vee] Artificial amateurs aren't at all amazing.
Analytically, I assault, animate things.
Broken barriers bounded by the bomb beat.
Buildings are broken, basically I'm bombarding.
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter,
but the butter Betty bought was bitter
so Betty bought a better butter
but the better butter Betty bought was better
than the bitter butter Betty bought before.
Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me.
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo, Figaro, magnifico.
Mind makes marvelous moves, masses.
Marvel and move, many mock what I've mastered.
- [Siri] Okay, sending.
- [Director] It had enough.
- It's had enough but this is still going.
So honestly, I was impressed with both versions of Siri.
They were pretty accurate
at getting all those tongue twisters down.
I don't know, there wasn't that much of a difference
between the two.
Sometimes the Ultra was more accurate,
sometimes the S9 was more accurate.
In each case, I think it was pretty impressive,
though I will say the S9 did go for longer,
so it was slightly better, slightly.
Next, we're gonna turn on airplane mode
on the Series 9 and the original Ultra
and try to issue some basic Siri commands
for everyday tasks.
Hey Siri, set a timer for five minutes.
There you go.
Hey, Siri, set a timer for five minutes.
- [Siri] Five minutes counting down.
- This really wasn't a competition,
it was more of a demonstration.
I knew the Ultra was gonna fail.
It's just to show you that you can do more things on board
with Siri in the event that you don't have your phone.
(lively music)
So another thing about the S9 SiP
is it's supposed to be more power efficient.
That said, Apple hasn't prioritized
taking those power savings
and turning it into longer battery life.
Instead, it's decided to make the screens brighter.
The Series 9 now goes up to a max brightness
of 2,000 nits while the Ultra 2 goes up to 3,000 nits.
I've worn every version
of the Apple Watch from the Series 2 onwards.
So believe me when I say that this isn't something
that you're gonna notice right away.
Another reason why it might be hard
to see a difference is Apple makes ample use
of the watch's ambient light sensor.
Meaning even if you have it on maximum brightness,
it still takes into account your surroundings
and makes adjustments.
You'll most notice the difference
if you're outside in direct lighting
and happen to have an older model on hand for comparison.
The whole point of brighter screens
is that they ought to be more readable
when you're out in direct sunlight.
So I wanted to see how that actually translates
when you're outdoors.
As for battery life, I haven't noticed
a huge substantial difference.
Without any of the low power modes enabled,
I've so far got a maximum of about 25 to 30 hours
on the Series 9 and about two and a half days
on the Ultra 2.
I've had these watches for about a week
and this hasn't been my most intensive training week.
So take from that what you will.
(lively music)
On top of the S9 SiP,
the Series 9 and Ultra 2 also have a new U2 chip.
This means you can get the same precision finding
Apple introduced with AirTags while looking for your phone
but in the event you're due for a total upgrade this year,
we went on a little scavenger hunt
in The Verge's office to show you how it works.
One I can only use sound.
The other has precision finding.
Let's go find my phones.
It's a beautiful day to go look for some phones.
Get it, U2, "Beautiful Day."
(Vee chuckling)
I'm funny.
I can tell you've hidden them far away
because there was no sound that I can hear
and it says it's not in range here.
So we're gonna keep searching.
Oh, scavenger hunt.
Oh, I think I heard something.
Oh, oh, this says I am heading closer.
Oh, but now we're getting, oh, oh, now it's telling me
it's back in that direction.
Okay.
Oh, we are getting closer.
It's somewhere in here.
(phone ringing)
Oh, here. It's in here.
Oh, push.
(door sliding) (Vee grunting)
(phone ringing) (Vee gasping)
Here we go.
Well, I found it.
Gotta find this guy.
Oh, but it's connected here.
That means I'm getting closer.
(whooshing sound)
I can hear it.
(phone ringing)
Okay, I think it's in here.
(phone ringing)
Hey, it's somewhere here.
(phone ringing)
Okay, found it.
(Vee cackling)
Found both of my phones.
This one was a lot easier to find.
Obviously the one with precision finding was a lot faster
because the range was quite large.
I could see which direction I had to go in.
The other one, you know, I could hear it.
They both work. One is just more efficient.
If you're like me and you keep losing your phone
and you have to do this multiple times a day,
it saves you a lot of time.
It saves your friends from having to call your phone,
saves you from having to go,
can you hear the (Vee imitating ringing)
so you're less of a burden is what I think.
(lively music)
The most novel feature on the Series 9
and Ultra 2 is the new double tap gesture
or as we at The Verge have been calling it the pinchy pinch.
If your hands are occupied, you don't have
to do the whole tap your watch with your nose thing.
The tech behind this is pretty cool.
Basically, the sensors in the watch can detect changes
in blood flow when you're making these gestures
but it's not really new.
With watchOS 8, Apple introduced AssistiveTouch,
which is an accessibility feature that lets people
with limb differences control their Apple Watches.
Double tap is more of a system-wide update
and it's turned on by default.
It's a lot more contextual
in that it handles the primary action of an app.
Let's use a timer as an example.
So from my watch face, unlike with AssistiveTouch,
I can't just select the timer.
I have to ask Siri to do that for me
but I can pause, restart, or end the timer
once it goes off by doing a pinchy pinch.
This feature won't arrive until October
but Apple gave me a Series 9
with a beta version of the double tap software
so I could try it out for this review.
And I quite like it,
though it's not without its quirks.
For starters, the watch has to be awake
for the gesture to work.
There's also a learning curve.
When I first tried the demos at Apple Park,
I was a little too aggressive with my pinching.
There are also little pauses baked in
to prevent accidental triggers
but that meant sometimes my timing was also thrown off.
That said, you get used to it relatively quickly.
My main gripe is it's just not as customizable as I'd like.
Because it's supposed to be contextual,
Apple's mostly gone and decided what the gesture will do
in each app for you.
Sometimes that's very intuitive.
With replying to text,
it defaults to opening up a reply with a voice message.
I get why.
But for me,
I kind of wish it would let me scroll the quick replies,
pause on the one I want, and then I don't know,
triple tap to select the reply I wanna send.
That said, you can customize what the gesture does
for music playback and the widget stack.
For example, you can either pause and play
or skip a track and for the widget stack,
you can either scroll through them or select one.
I just wish there was more of that.
Ultimately, there's a lot more that I like
about double tap than dislike.
It's awesome that you aren't limited
to your index finger and thumb.
You could use your middle finger, your ring finger
or even pinky fingers.
The pinky and ring finger aren't as effective for me
but the middle finger works pretty well.
It's great that you have alternatives
in the event you lose or break a finger.
I also think opening up one-handed use is hugely convenient
and makes the Apple Watch a much more useful device overall.
Samsung also has gestures on its Galaxy watches
but overall, this is a lot more intuitive and reliable.
It's just a very powerful example
how accessible design really benefits everyone.
I hope Apple continues to iterate and improve
on double tap and that other smart watchmakers follow.
But do I think it's worth upgrading for?
That depends.
(lively music)
If you have a Series 4 or a Series 5 and earlier,
I think you will notice enough
of a difference that you'll feel happy.
But if you have a Series 7 or a Series 8,
there really isn't enough
of a compelling reason to spend money here.
If you just bought an Ultra
or if you have an Ultra already, cool your jets.
This is for people who haven't bought an Ultra yet.
That's who the Ultra 2 is for.
Every year, Apple says
that this is the best Apple Watch they've ever made
and this year, they are correct.
The Series 9 and Ultra 2
are the best Apple Watches they've ever made.
It's just not the best by a whole lot.
I liked a lot of the new features that came to both watches.
Personally, I would love precision finding.
I'm just not going to buy an iPhone 15 to get it.
But hey, you know what?
There's always next year and rumor has it,
next year's Apple Watch is probably going
to be the best Apple Watch they've ever made too.
(Vee chuckling)
Hey, guys, thanks for watching, but no, seriously,
rumor has it that next year for the 10th anniversary
of the Apple Watch, Apple has something really big planned.
I mean, they did it for the iPhone.
Why not for the Apple Watch?
Just saying.