Apple Watch Series 9 review: the best smartwatch for iPhone users (2024)

Yes, the latest Apple Watch Series 9 is an iterative upgrade to the already-fantastic Apple Watch Series 8, but its improvements in speed and hands-free capabilities make it a worthwhile buy if you’re making the leap from a much older model or a more basic competitor.

It’s a brilliant smartwatch for its iPhone integration, high-end health tracking, and convenience. While research shows that users can get bored of dedicated fitness trackers, we’ve found that it becomes second nature to stick with a well-integrated watch, and we like getting our notifications sent straight to our wrist while also having a wide range of watch faces, watch straps, health and fitness integrations and smart features available to us.

At a glance, there’s not much of a change between the newest Apple Watch and its predecessor. It’s a similar story when you’re comparing the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 models and in general, we’re finding that the latest tech brings minor upgrades rather than setting out to reinvent existing products entirely. What this means is that we recommend this watch while still recommending the Apple Watch SE, Series 7 and Series 8, which you can find still in stock or refurbished.

The most significant change to the newest Apple Watch is on the inside, and that’s with its new processor, called the S9 SiP. It’s made to deliver an increased number of on-device capabilities, which makes both this and the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 the smartest watches ever made by the manufacturer, with the most noticeable upgrade being how much more you can do hands-free.

The chip enables faster processing for the Siri voice assistant, managing requests like starting workouts, beginning timers and adding reminders without needing to send them to the internet (which inevitably slows the operation). The S9 SiP is also what enables the handy “double-tap” gesture, a clever way to control your watch one-handed – and something that isn’t coming to older models.

There’s also a new “ultra-wideband” chip within the Series 9, and this enables far more precise iPhone finding features. If you misplace your phone, this watch won’t only make the handset emit a noise so you can locate it, but it’ll also give you specific guidance to lead you to your iPhone if it finds its way behind your bookcase. We know hunting down a lost phone is one of the key features of the watch for some people, and this is an appreciable upgrade.

The other noticeable change is an increase in screen brightness. The display on the Series 9 can get you up to twice the brightness, depending on the conditions. Its peak brightness in bright sunlight will mean it’s easier to read the time, glance at those incoming texts and see what’s coming up in your calendar without having to find a shaded area.

In the darkest conditions, the watch face is also legible at a new lower brightness level, meaning you can check the time while in the theatre without annoying everyone else around you. These are small quality-of-life improvements, but they’re enough to make this an overall better watch than the Series 8. However, beyond this, little has changed so we wouldn’t tell Series 7 or 8 owners to rush out and upgrade.

Lastly, there’s a slight change to the range of colours. In addition to the Midnight (dark navy), Starlight (champagne), silver, and red aluminium shades, you can now pick up the Apple Watch Series 9 in a fetching pastel pink aluminium shade. Opting for stainless steel? It comes in gold, silver, or graphite.

• Sizes: 41mm, 45mm
• Operating system: WatchOS 10
• Processor: Apple’s S9 SiP
• Colours: Aluminium: Midnight (dark navy), Starlight (champagne), silver, red and pink; Stainless steel: Gold, silver, or graphite
• Battery life: Up to 18 hours of normal use
• Weight: 31.9g for 41mm size, 38.7g for 45mm size
• Water resistance: Yes, IP6X and WR50 ratings for dust and water resistance up to 50 metres

The design of the Apple Watch is the same, and it continues to offer the same excellent sensors that you’ll find in the prior Series 8 (the majority of which are also in the Series 7, too). That means it has a heart-rate monitor, sleep tracking, fall alerts, loud noise monitoring, blood oxygen detection, ECG readings, and a body temperature sensor. Its screen is still crack-resistant, and it has the same car crash detection feature that we hope you’ll never need to use. The stated battery life is also the same.

While it’s a subtle change, we have noticed the display improvement during our weeks of using the Apple Watch Series 9. In the brightest conditions, we’ve had no problem reading the screen and although that’s not a major issue compared to more recent Apple Watches, it’s the sort of thing that you’ll really notice if you’re upgrading from a much older model like the Apple Watch Series 4 or 5.

The low brightness capability is a feature we’ve found useful in real-world testing. As ever, a slight scroll of the digital crown awakens the screen, showing your screen at a low brightness that you can see without distracting anyone around you. We’ve found this handy for checking the time before our film started at the cinema or while reading on our Kindle in bed before going off to sleep. There are more situations than you might realise when you’d prefer your watch face to be at a lower brightness.

We’ve got to admit that before using the Apple Watch Series 9, we didn’t get all that much use out of Siri on our watch. While it’s an appreciated addition, we used to find it took just a little too long to load and having to send queries to the cloud is significantly slower. We’d call the Series 9 the best hands-free Apple Watch due to just how much we’ve found ourselves talking to Siri for quick requests that it processes on the watch itself.

When dashing out the front door in the morning we now ask Siri to “start an outdoor walk” as we head to the train station, and we’ve asked it to add items to our shopping list, pause our music, start timers and more. Overall, the latest changes have got us using this existing feature of the Apple Watch that we’d previously found unreliable. So far, we’ve had zero issues with Siri understanding us or taking too long to react.

Of course, Siri won’t deal with every single request on the device but it is faster when tackling all queries. If you ask it to check the weather, fetch information from the web or identify the song currently playing in the coffee shop, it will still need to send the request to the internet to gather that data.

The other main update that makes the Series 9 so convenient and hands-free is its “new” double-tap gesture, which is also available on the updated Apple Watch Ultra 2. Something similar to this was available as an accessibility feature in previous Apple Watches, but it’s now integrated seamlessly thanks to the S9 SiP available on the latest models. It allows you to control the watch with a simple double pinch of your thumb and forefinger (although it works with your thumb and other fingers too), offering you an easy way to dismiss a timer or alarm, cycle through the new widget stack in WatchOS 10 and start your workout when your watch prompts you by noticing you’re on a strenuous walk.

This makes it possible to control certain aspects of the watch with a single hand, something we’ve found useful when we’re holding a cup of coffee in our right hand, or a shopping bag. In our tests, the gesture is reliable and responds every time, but unlike the extra capabilities added to Siri, we don’t always find ourselves remembering to use it. For some Apple Watch wearers, it may become an essential way to interact with the watch, but others might end up forgetting about the feature.

WatchOS 10 transforms the way that the Apple Watch works with the addition of glanceable widgets that are available when you scroll the digital crown, swipe on the display or use the double-tap gesture. Collectively, this widget display is called the “Smart Stack” and we think it’s great for seeing your progress on your daily activity goals, a currently playing track or podcast, whether you have any unread messages, the weather conditions and your upcoming calendar events. In the weeks since this software update launched, we’ve found the widget display invaluable.

This software upgrade also improves the design of several apps on the watch, making them more colourful and including more information. We especially like the designs of the weather app, the sleep app, the world clock and the main activity app interface. As with any Apple Watch update, there are a handful of new watch faces (we like the minimalist “Palette”, with colours that change throughout the day) and a few more features peppered throughout, including the ability to log how you’re feeling to track your state of mind in the Health app, upgrades to hiking and cycling, and integrations with offline maps that you can save for later from your iPhone.

It’s an excellent set of changes to the operating system, and because it’s available for every model from the Apple Watch Series 4 onwards, it will help you to feel like your older watch is new again.

The Apple Watch Series 9 starts at £399 for the 41mm model and from £429 for the 45mm model. The good news is that, just like with the recent iPhone updates, this is a slightly more affordable price than its predecessors launched in 2022. Upgraders picking the Series 9 will save £20 compared to the launch price of the Apple Watch Series 8.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 remains a much more expensive option, starting from £799. We’d only recommend this for adventurers and athletes who will make use of its extended battery life and powerful additional features for rugged outdoor use including exploration-ready operating temperatures, high-altitude performance and loud built-in siren.

The Apple Watch Series 9 is yet another fantastic Apple Watch model that offers minor upgrades over its predecessor while continuing to deliver the tight integration with the iPhone that the wearable is known for. We’ve found ourselves finally using more of the watch’s capabilities now that Siri is faster and more reliable, and the double-tap gesture is super handy when we remember about it. Some of the most significant upgrades come in the form of the software update to WatchOS 10, which is available to many of us with older Apple Watches.

We’d recommend this upgraded watch if you’re coming from an older Apple Watch SE, or a Series 5 or 6, and it’s also a great premium smartwatch if you’re after a change from your ageing activity tracker. However, if you’ve got an Apple Watch Series 7 or Series 8, stick with your current wearable until there are enough substantial upgrades to justify a new purchase.

If you’re looking at this as your first-ever Apple Watch, we’d recommend also considering lower-cost refurbished models or the savings possible by getting the 2022 edition of the Apple Watch SE, which is an affordable pick that lacks the always-on display and ECG, blood oxygen, or temperature sensors. It’s an otherwise terrific option where the display will wake when you raise your wrist, and it offers the same casing sizes, water resistance and 18-hour battery life.