Apple Watch Series 9 review, why you should buy it right now

Apple Watch Series 9 review: The Apple Watch has become a staple accessory for tech enthusiasts and fitness fanatics alike. With each new iteration, Apple continues to refine and improve upon its already impressive smartwatch lineup. The latest addition to the family is the highly anticipated Apple Watch Series 9.

In this review, we’ll take a closer look at what sets the Series 9 apart from its predecessors and why it might just be the best Apple Watch yet. From its sleek design to its advanced health monitoring features, we’ll explore all that the Series 9 has to offer. So, if you’re in the market for a new smartwatch, keep reading to find out if the Apple Watch Series 9 is worth the investment.

Apple Watch Series 9 review 2024

In September, Apple unveiled the Watch Series 9, which is considered to be the least significant update ever released by the company. Although Apple doesn’t anticipate users upgrading their device annually, it’s hard to ignore that the key selling points of the smartwatch are its carbon neutrality and double tap gesture, making it feel like an older model being marketed as new. When I initially acquired the Apple Watch, I was astounded by its design, user interface, and features – it was truly overwhelming. The device exuded a sense of polish, fluidity, and vibrant colors that can only be associated with Apple’s renowned craftsmanship.

However, after the initial excitement wore off, I discovered that the user experience was below average. The Watch’s main functions are spread out among multiple apps, and the features are poorly executed with supposedly smart functions being quite unintelligent. And this is without even mentioning the extremely poor battery life. In my personal opinion, the Apple Watch Series 9 is nothing more than a shiny piece of rubbish. Allow me to explain why.

Apple Watch Series 9 review Details

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Apple Watch Series 9 review Design and build

Before we proceed, let’s take a moment to examine the hardware that you will be wearing on your wrist. The appearance of this device is truly remarkable. Apple has earned a reputation for its superb hardware design, and the Apple Watch is a perfect example of this. The Watch 9 comes in two different sizes – 41mm and 45mm. First, you decide which model you want to go for. After that, you have the option to choose between an aluminum or stainless-steel version.

Next, you select the band bundle that suits your preference. Lastly, you make a choice between GPS or GPS + eSIM capabilities. I opted for the Apple Watch Series 9 45mm Aluminum with GPS, specifically the black one with the Sport Loop textile band. Despite being one of the more affordable options available, it still exudes a sense of luxury. The screen is almost bezel-less, which immediately catches your attention. Additionally, its Retina display with a pixel density of 326ppi provides exceptional sharpness for a smartwatch. The display is protected by a gently curved tempered glass. The casing comes in two options: aluminum with a matte finish (as shown in the picture) or stainless steel with a glossy finish.

On the left side, you will find the speaker, while the digital crown and side button are located on the right side. It is possible to change the orientation of the Watch if desired. The digital crown, a distinctive control feature on these watches, operates seamlessly and delivers exceptional haptic feedback. The haptic feedback system on the Watch as a whole is truly impressive. At the base of the Watch, you’ll find a blend of ceramic and sapphire-crystal glass housing all the sensors. Initially, the Sport Loop band felt inexpensive, but its durability deserves praise. Apple has undeniably crafted a long-lasting product. Despite enduring various challenges, even after two months, it still appears brand new. The Apple Watch Series 9 is not only resistant to water and dust but also swim-proof. It has a sturdy construction and distinctive design, which undoubtedly makes it a flagship-grade and expertly executed device.

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Hardware

The Apple Watch Series 9 utilizes an upgraded S9 system-in-package (SiP) that contains 60% more transistors compared to the previous S8 series chip. It features a GPU that is 30% faster and a new 4-core NPU. As a result, the operating system will experience improved speed in terms of animations, and according to Apple, it is expected to provide a battery life of up to 18 hours per day. I must admit that the interface and interactions will be noticeably quicker; there is no doubt about that.
One major advantage of the new S9 SiP is its ability to process Siri requests directly on the device. This results in significantly faster outcomes since there is no need for data to travel to and from the cloud.

Additionally, Apple guarantees a 25% increase in voice dictation accuracy. Another noteworthy improvement is that Siri now has access to your Health data, making it more convenient than ever to monitor important metrics. However, if you are not accustomed to giving voice commands to your watch, you may find this upgrade unnecessary. The S9 also introduces a new feature called the Double Tap gesture. This highly promoted pinch gesture involves tapping twice by bringing your thumb and index finger together in mid-air. Its functionality relies on the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, which detect changes in blood flow and wrist movement. With Double Tap, you can conveniently play or pause music, snooze alarms, navigate through widgets, and answer or end phone calls.

The software needs to understand how you utilize this gesture and enable even more extensive usage. In terms of sensors, the Apple Watch is equipped with a wide range of them – blood oxygen, electrical heart sensor with ECG, optical heart sensor with high and low heart rate detection as well as irregular rhythm detection, sleep tracking, temperature sensing, compass, altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light.

In addition, the Watch Series 9 comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, and NFC capabilities. It also offers the option for 4G LTE connectivity through eSIM. Furthermore, the Watch 9 features a new UWB chip that enhances location tracking. With this chip, you can locate and ping your paired iPhone with even greater precision. Additionally, there is improved integration with HomePod speakers. Undoubtedly, the Watch Series 9 is packed with advanced technology. However, it falls short of delivering the seamless experience I had anticipated.

Software

The Apple Watch is widely regarded as the top choice among smartwatches worldwide. It is often hailed as the best option available in this category. However, there are two aspects that have raised concerns – its software and battery life. With the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple has incorporated cutting-edge technology to make it stand out in the market as the ultimate smartwatch. However, after using it for two months, I can confidently say that it is possibly the least intelligent among the popular smartwatches currently on the market.

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Basically, the Apple Watch is a jack of all trades and master of none.

To begin, you will need to establish a connection and set up your new Watch using the Watch app on your iPhone. Through this app, you will have the ability to personalize various settings, configure notifications and app behavior, as well as customize the watch faces. Over time, Apple Watch OS has made significant progress since its initial release, resulting in a wide range of watch face options. While some designs remain straightforward, others offer more advanced features. It is worth noting that half of the available watch faces support Complications, which are small widgets that display real-time information such as weather updates, calendar events, moon phases, and dates.

Regrettably, despite the abundance of watch faces available, a majority of them are uninteresting or immature in design. There are those that are completely unattractive and impractical, while others may be visually appealing but lack functionality, not even allowing the addition of a date due to their deliberate lack of support for Complications. Surprisingly, I invested three hours in personalizing the supposedly flawless watch face featured below, only to achieve a result that is passable at best. And this marks my first disappointment!

It remains frustrating that third-party watch faces are not yet supported by the Apple Watch. The latest watchOS 10 is installed on the Apple Watch Series 9, providing a renewed appearance for apps and introducing new watch faces such as Snoopy and Palette. Additionally, it offers advanced features like Cycling and hiking modes, as well as updated Health functionalities that encompass mental and vision health. I will give it to Apple; they know how to make great app interfaces, and all system apps, such as World Clock, Weather, Fitness, Maps, Mail, Calculator, Phone, Messages, etc., look great and are optimized for watch use. Pressing the digital crown will display the app list. The default view is a grid, which is a clever design choice. Navigating through the app list can be done using either the crown or touch controls.

Similar to iOS, there are mini versions of Control Center and Notification Center available on the Apple Watch. Additionally, swiping on the watch face will reveal your large widgets. The Apple Watch also has its own dedicated App Store with miniature versions of popular apps. These features serve as the fundamentals of the device.

Now, let’s discuss the issue of subpar user experience. Consider this scenario – despite being the most technologically advanced smartwatch available, it lacks the ability to display your step count in numerical form and instead only presents it through graphical rings. This can be considered a significant drawback. Personally, I am used to easily checking my step count numerically, so I find this exclusion quite frustrating. The fact that I have to navigate to another application and sift through various information just to view my step count is far from being user-friendly.

Furthermore, I find the so-called automatic smart features to be rather unintelligent. Take Sleep, for example. Can you believe that unlike other companies’ 30-dollar sports bands, the Apple Watch does not have built-in sleep detection? Instead, you must set up a sleep schedule for the Apple Watch to attempt to detect your sleep during that specific time period.

Curiosity piqued about the consequences of an afternoon nap? Allow me to enlighten you. In such a scenario, your trusty Watch would step in and protest by vibrating, urging you to be more active, rise from your slumber, take a few breaths, and hydrate yourself with some water – all in an effort to rouse you from your midday snooze. However, I eventually decided to disable these smart reminders, as I strongly believe that nobody should be compelled to adhere to a rigid sleep schedule merely for the sake of sleep tracking.

The Apple Watch’s sleep tracking feature, which is lazily implemented, has become my third disappointment. However, there is more to this story. At this point, I was already losing faith in the Apple Watch. Nevertheless, as a tech reviewer, I persevered. Unfortunately, I then encountered the subpar sport tracking capability.

I have found that the automatic sport detection only functions occasionally. Additionally, the sports modes are also inaccurate as they only display general statistics like calories burned, heart rate, and elapsed time without any sport-specific information. For example, there is no count for rope jumps or hits in boxing. This issue is further highlighted by the fact that there are other bands and watches available at a lower price range of under $100 that offer more accurate and comprehensive statistics.

However, the vital information is scattered across various sources, making it inconvenient for users to access all the relevant data in one place. Additionally, Apple’s Health app on the iPhone has become overcrowded, further complicating the organization of information.

Moving on to communication and notification responses, these aspects hold significant importance, especially for me. The notifications are presented in an appealing manner, and Bluetooth calls offer good sound quality. Moreover, there are pre-set responses available on the keyboard, allowing users to send a quick thumbs-up message.

However, the keyboard on these watches is still relatively new and is only offered in a limited number of languages. Therefore, if you don’t use English, German, Spanish, Dutch, or French, you won’t have any luck. If you attempt to use the English keyboard to type in another language, you will have to struggle with the autocorrect and built-in swipe gestures. This gives the impression that text input is not fully developed as a feature – it shouldn’t be difficult to add more languages, so why restrict it to just five? And that concludes my fifth strike.

I have tried other watches, such as Huawei, and although it had a less advanced two-way communication system, it excelled in all other aspects. Unlike the Huawei watch, it did not require me to manually indicate when I wanted to sleep or exercise. Moving on to the double-tap feature, which was supposed to be the standout feature of the Series 9. Apple introduced it about a month and a half after the initial release, and unfortunately, I cannot say that the wait was justified.

The reason why I was disappointed with the wait was that the Double Tap feature was already present on previous Apple Watch models, accessible through the Accessibility settings. Apple simply removed this feature from the Accessibility options, rebranded it as a Smart feature, and promoted it as a new headline watch feature. Although it functions properly, I personally did not enjoy using it due to its slow performance. Furthermore, I do not consider this as a negative aspect worth acknowledging.

Battery life

Moving on to the battery life, it is extremely poor. This is undoubtedly the most negative aspect of the Apple Watch. It is worth noting that Apple promotes the Watch for its supposed ability to last a full 18 hours in a day. However, considering there are actually 24 hours in a day, this falls short of expectations. It almost seems as though Apple intentionally avoids supporting sleep tracking by making it highly inconvenient to use. In fact, if your battery level drops below 35%, you cannot even utilize the sleep tracking feature.

In order to extend the battery life, I decided to reduce the functionality of some of the smart features on the watch. I disabled heart rate tracking every minute and other features such as Harmful Noise detection. By also disabling the Always-on Display, limiting workout and notification checks to about 30 each, tracking one night of sleep, and only enabling all-day health tracking during workouts and sleep. I was able to achieve a battery life of 40 hours. However, it should be noted that achieving this level of battery life required disabling several tracking features, so it may not be considered significant.

If you utilize GPS, receive calls on the watch, and use texting and health features more frequently. The Watch Series 9 will have a battery life of no more than a day – approximately 12-14 hours at most. This is assuming that the Always-On Display (AOD) feature is disabled. Such limited battery life is certainly unacceptable and warrants a sixth strike. The Watch 9 is known for its quick charging capability. It only takes approximately 15 minutes on the charger to replenish around half of its battery. However, a complete recharge from a low battery level of around 10% typically takes about 50-60 minutes.

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Verdict

Hello, start your day with a deep breath and hydrate yourself. Take a moment to relax, get up and move at a slower pace. Break into a run and remember to breathe. Finally, wind down and go to sleep. It appears that Apple believed I needed a wearable device to remind me how to live life. It’s surprising how quickly we’ve reached this point.

The irony is not lost on me as I purchased this watch using my own money. Unfortunately, the new Apple Watch does not live up to expectations. There is no trace of the usual Apple magic here; it simply feels like a money-making venture with underdeveloped technology. Despite being the most expensive and popular smartwatch on the market. I found it just as disappointing as the first one I reviewed eight years ago.

There is an overwhelming number of apps with a multitude of features spread across them – ECG, Noise Detection, Activity, Blood Oxygen, Cycle, Reminders, Maps, Mail, Double Tap, Widgets, iPhone controls, Medications, Memoji, Shortcuts, Mindfulness, Photos, Remote, Calculator, Flashlight... Additionally, I noticed that several of the sports modes were overly simplistic. Ultimately, I abandoned many of the features either because they drained the battery or because I found them excessively bothersome.

Eight years ago, I disliked the first Apple Watch because of its poor battery life. Now, I have an even stronger dislike for the current model due to its similar shortcomings and lack of convenience. In other words, it tries to do everything but excels at nothing.

Despite being meticulously designed and featuring top-notch UI designers, advanced chips, sensors, and a high-quality display, it is not worth tolerating its flaws. I can confidently say this after using smartwatches from various other brands. To save yourself time, frustration, and energy. I recommend considering alternatives such as Xiaomi, Amazfit, Huawei, Garmin or any other brand. Not only will you be happier with your choice, but your wallet will also appreciate it.

Apple Watch Series 9 review 2024 FAQ’S

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