Apple Watch Series 9 Review: Double Tap is Magic! 🤯

The Apple Watch is the world’s best selling watch for good reason. It’s become an indispensable companion that not only helps keep you connected, but also more aware of your health and fitness goals. But with each new model doubts arise. Has Apple pushed its iconic wearable to the limit? Is there anything groundbreaking left to add? I’ve been using the new Apple Watch Series 9 for just over a week now. And I can definitely say that Apple has put together an upgrade that’s more impressive than we’ve seen over the past two years as it pertains to the

Apple Watch. The highlight here is the new double tap gesture, which lets you control your watch like magic. And I know Apple calls everything magical, but being able to control your Apple Watch without touching it or even speaking to it really feels like a magic trick. But more on that later. First, let’s get into the unboxing. As you can see here, in addition to the Series 9, Apple did also send over one of the new Nike sport watch bands, which we will take a look at too. Getting into the Series 9 itself, you just remove

this outer jacket and on the inside you’ll find two boxes. One for the Apple Watch itself and the other is the band that you chose to come with it. Opening this up, we’ve got the Apple Watch Series 9 in

midnight aluminum. The fast charging cable is braided here, which matches the braided USB-C cables that Apple is including with the iPhone 15 series. Now, if this means that Apple is done with the rubbery white plastic cables from now on, That is fantastic as the braided cables are really nice. The aluminum Apple Watch itself has a ceramic

back and Ion X glass on the front. If you want Sapphire crystal instead, then you’ll wanna get the stainless steel model. The band included here is the midnight color as well, matching up nicely with the Apple Watch itself, as you can see here. And despite both being called midnight, the Apple Watch casing really does look like it’s black while the band is more of a really dark blue. Now I mentioned that Nike sport band a moment ago. This one has an updated cool look as they’re using recycled sport bands to make these. Those flecks of

color you see in the bands are actually pieces of older sport bands, giving the Nike sport bands a nice unique look. I like it. Next, let’s talk about one of the most important aspects of any watch, the display. The display on the Apple Watch Series 9 received a major upgrade. It now reaches an incredible 2000 nits of maximum brightness which is double that of the Series 8 and equal to the brightness of the original Apple Watch Ultra. This means that using the display in bright sunlight is truly effortless. Even better, even with a display that’s

two times brighter, the Series 9 still delivers the same 18 hour battery life as before. So, and in addition, the display can also dim down to an ultra low one nit of brightness when in sleep mode. This allows the screen to be visible in a dark room without disturbing your sleep while also preserving battery power. Next, let’s talk more about that double tap feature. This is one of the most exciting new Apple Watch features in years. The double tap gesture lets you control your Apple Watch by just tapping your thumb and index finger together in

a similar manner to how you select something in the Apple Vision Pro. No need to touch the display. Now, since double tap is coming later and isn’t available at launch, Apple sent me a separate review unit, which has an early build of double tap in order for me to test it out. That’s what you’re seeing here on this pink Apple Watch Series 9. So as you can see, you simply double tap your index finger and thumb together and the built-in accelerometer and new four-core neural engine detects the unique wrist movement pattern. This gesture can be

used to play music, answer calls, stop timers, advanced notification widgets, and much more. It’s especially useful when your other hand is tied up holding something. The double tap gesture makes interacting with the Apple Watch quicker and more convenient. Now, one other thing on this, I’ve been seeing some questions from you guys as well as to why this is only available on the Series 9 when similar gesture controls are available as assistive touch accessibility features on earlier Apple Watch models. Now the answer here is that while the gesture might be similar, how they work behind the

scenes is very different. Assistive touch gestures are designed for accessibility needs for people who can’t use or don’t have another hand to operate the Apple Watch. It runs on the main CPU of the watch, which ends up consuming battery power as a background process and requires specific customization for all the different actions that you would do with the gesture. This can be a compromised experience for users who don’t require it. The gestures are also prompted in the Apple Watch interface whenever they’re available to the user. This is different from Double Tap, which is implemented as

part of watchOS 10 and runs on the new neural engine on the S9 SIP, making it much more power efficient and optimized for all users of the Apple Watch. There’s no setup, there’s no customization process, and no prompting the user when there was a double tappable gesture available. Up next, let’s talk precision finding. Have you ever spent 15 minutes searching for a lost iPhone in your home? The Apple Watch Series 9 aims to eliminate that with the new precision finding feature. Just go into the control center and ping your iPhone, and now it’ll use the

integrated second gen ultra wideband chip to show you the precise distance and direction to your paired iPhone, even if it’s in another room. As you get closer, haptics and audio cues will guide you directly to your iPhone. This takes the experience of misplacing your iPhone from frustrating to kind of fun. Then there’s on-device Siri. Now, Siri requests are processed directly on the watch itself, rather than needing to connect to the cloud. This means faster response times, improved accuracy, and greater privacy. You can even access your personal health data now, like sleep, heart rate, medications, and

more using just your voice for the first time. The more powerful neural engine makes dictation up to 25% more accurate too. Now I use Siri all the time on my Apple Watch, mostly for smart home control and to dictate messages. And the difference here is very noticeable. Of course, this is all powered by the new S9 system and package. Now while the Apple Watch does get a new SIP each year, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it gets a faster CPU each year. So here for the first time in three years does. The Apple Watch Series

9 delivers up to 60% faster performance than the previous model, thanks to its dual core CPU and up to 30% faster graphics from the GPU. The S9 also has Apple’s most advanced four core neural engine as well, which is critical for machine learning tasks like detecting the double tap feature, as I mentioned just a minute ago. The Series 9 has lots of other great additions too, like new experiences for cycling workouts, mindfulness, and tracking time spent in daylight exposure. Oh, and also a huge milestone, any aluminum series nine or SE paired with a sport loop

band is actually carbon neutral, which is a first for any Apple product. The company is clearly committed to greatly reducing its environmental impact, which I think is something we can all appreciate. From game-changing additions like the double tap gesture and on-device Siri to an even brighter always on display and enhanced S9 chip, the Series 9 delivers. It retains everything people love about the Apple Watch, like 18 hour battery life and comprehensive health sensors, while continually pushing us into the future. I think it’s safe to say the best smartwatch in the world just got even better

with the Apple Watch Series 9. Thanks for watching as always guys, I appreciate your support. I’m Andru Edwards and I will catch you in the next video.