Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Series 9 review: Quiet evolution

Note: This feature was first published on 1 October 2023.

Solid but unexciting

Can you believe the Apple Watch has been with us for 8 years now? I can remember the day when it was first announced and that makes me feel very old. Apple has nailed the category more or less by now, so for the past couple of years, its watches only received incremental updates that are nice to have but won’t fundamentally change the way you use your watch. This year is more of the same, I’m afraid. Anyone expecting the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9 to be a huge improvement over last year’s watches should look away now. Even so, there could still be something about them that might entice you.

The TL;DR version:



The updates to this year’s watches may not be the most exciting, but they do improve the Apple Watch user experience in meaningful ways. 

S9 chip and going pink

Arguably the biggest update to this year’s watches is one that you can’t see, and it’s their chips. Powering the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Series 9 is Apple’s new S9 SiP (system-in-package). This is significant because Apple hasn’t updated its watches’ chips since the Apple Watch Series 6 of 2020. The Apple Watch Series 7 and 8, and the first-generation Apple Watch Ultra all used renamed versions of the Series 6’s S6 SiP.

Unsurprisingly, the S9 SiP is the most powerful Apple Watch chip yet. Apple is a bit coy on how much faster it is, but it did say it contains 60% more transistors and has a GPU that is 30% faster. And these watches do feel appreciably faster than last year’s models. The difference isn’t night and day, but apps do launch faster, animations appear more fluid, and the whole watch just feels a tad more responsive.

The S9 SiP is crucial because its additional performance allows the Ultra 2 and Series 9 watches to do several things that were not possible on older Apple Watches. The most significant is that common Siri requests can now be executed entirely on-device. This would mean speedier responses by Siri since requests no longer need to go to the cloud, which could be slowed by poor Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. And it works, simple requests like starting a workout, a timer, the stopwatch, or getting an ECG reading, are completed significantly faster. 

This on-device processing of requests will also enable Siri to give you access to your health data. You couldn’t do this in the past because requests had to involve the cloud, which presents a security and privacy risk. With this, you’ll be able to ask Siri things like how long you slept, what’s your resting heart rate, and so on. However, this feature isn’t available yet so I couldn’t try it. Apple says it will be available later this year.

The S9 SiP also has a new 4-core Neural Engine that is better at machine-learning tasks. Specifically, Apple is claiming up to 25% more accurate dictation because the Neural Engine can run larger models. For the requests that I normally make and for dictating short messages, I don’t really see much of a difference. In my experience, Siri’s accuracy is mostly fine and it’s noise from your surroundings that’s more of a problem.

As for design, you’ll struggle to tell the difference between this year’s watches and last year’s. They look and feel identical. You can still tell the difference with the Series 9 because it has “Series 9” etched into the caseback, and there’s also a new pink aluminium version. There’s no way you can do the same with the Ultra 2 because it just says “Ultra” on its caseback. Despite rumours of an all-black finish for the Ultra 2, the Ultra 2 still comes in the same natural titanium finish.

As bright as the sun

The only physical difference is their displays. They are brighter this year. The Series 9’s display maximum brightness is now up to 2,000 nits, while the Ultra 2 goes up to a whopping 3,000 nits. In most situations, the difference is hard to appreciate. But if you happen to be outside on a very sunny day, you’ll find the displays on these new watches easier to read. This is very apparent on the Ultra 2 – it’s completely legible even in direct and very harsh sunlight. 

Despite the brighter displays, Apple says battery life remains the same, which I found to be accurate in my time with the watches. The Series 9 still requires daily charging and the Ultra 2, if you are not doing any kind of extreme workouts, can be charged on alternate days.

On the topic of displays, the Ultra 2 gets a new watch face called Modular Ultra. To be clear, this watch face isn’t exclusive to the Ultra 2, it’s available on the first-generation Ultra too. As its name suggests, it’s like Modular but on steroids. Apart from the time, you can configure up to six circle complications, a main complication in the middle, and the edge of the display can be used to show your elevation, depth, or simply the seconds. It’s a very fun watch face to customise and highly useful. 

Double tap: A new way to interact with your watch

Another notable update to this year’s watches is a gesture feature called double tap. It’s designed to help you use your watch when you only have one free hand. To trigger, simply raise your watch to wake it and tap your index finger and thumb together. It wasn’t available at launch and was recently only enabled after Apple released the watchOS 10.1 update. 

As you'll see in the video below, it can be used in various ways: to call up and scroll through your smart widget stack, play and pause tracks, answer calls, reply messages, answer and end calls, snooze an alarm, and more. Apple has a more exhaustive list of what it can do here, but really, the best way to use it is to just experiment with it. A small icon showing the action appears at the top of the screen whenever you double tap and it shakes if it’s not applicable in the context of what you are doing. It’s by no means a groundbreaking feature, but one that’s nice to have if you are using an app that supports it.

Admittedly, double tap is similar to AssistiveTouch in some ways, but there are a number of important differences. Double tap is enabled by default, runs system-wide, and is designed for contextual use. AssistiveTouch, on the other hand, requires set-up, works with a wider range of gestures, and was really designed for people to navigate their watches single-handedly. Apple also says that AssistiveTouch is more power-hungry as the feature is powered by the CPU. Double tap, however, was trained to run off the S9’s new quad-core Neural Engine, which partly explains why this feature is only available on the new Ultra 2 and Series 9.

Precision Finding

The Ultra 2 and Series 9 watches come with new second-generation Ultra Wideband (UWB) chips, which enable Precision Finding when used with a new iPhone 15 series phone. This is incredibly useful if you frequently misplace your phone and have difficulties finding it even with the existing Find iPhone feature of the Apple Watch. Check the feature out in action in the TikTok below.

With Precision Finding, if you ping your phone through the Control Panel, your phone emits a loud audio cue as usual. And once you get close enough, a compass-like graphic appears on your watch to give you precise directional guidance, coupled with distance estimates, to your phone. If this looks familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it in the AirTags before. It’s fool-proof and lets you find your phone in mere seconds even if you happen to leave it in the most obscure corners of your home. I live in a typical HDB apartment and had no problems with its range. Precision Finding worked even if I hid my phone in the opposite corner of the house.

Closing thoughts and buying advice

Before discussing my thoughts on these new watches, let’s take a look at how much they cost. Happily, Apple did not increase the prices of its watches this year. The Apple Ultra Watch 2 still starts at S$1,199, which makes it a bit of a value buy (more on this later), and the Series 9 still starts at S$599 for the smaller 41mm aluminium version and S$649 for the larger 45mm aluminium version. Since the Series 9 is available in so many variants, here’s a handy table that captures all of their price points.

My buying advice, as ever, remains the same. Upgrade only if you have an Apple Watch that’s three years old or older – that means anything older than a Series 6 – and definitely don’t upgrade if you own last year’s Apple Watch Ultra.

I say this because Series 6 watches still have the smaller display, the old S6 SiP, and lacks features such as faster charging, stronger front crystal, advanced female health tracking, and crash detection. Upgrading to the new Series 9 would therefore be a significant step up. 

As for the Ultra 2, upgrading from last year’s OG Ultra will only get you the faster S9 SiP, and the above-mentioned features such as Double Tap and Precision Finding (only with an iPhone 15 series phone), which I don’t think are terribly good reasons to go out and splash S$1,199.

Also, if you an eyeing the Series 9 in stainless steel, take a moment to check out the Ultra 2 too, because you might be surprised to learn that it only costs S$80 more than a 45mm Series 9 in stainless steel. The Ultra 2 has all the capabilities of the Series 9 but comes in a sturdier case, has a larger display, and a considerably longer battery life. Assuming you don’t mind the way it looks, it could be the better value buy.

Certain things could be improved. Battery life remains an issue. No matter how you look at it, having to charge daily or on alternate days is not great. And I would really love a better way to charge it. Seeing that the new iPhones are now all USB-C, having a USB-C port would be ideal, although I’m fully aware that trying to waterproof it would be an engineering nightmare. 

What’s remarkable to me is that even after all these years, nothing comes close to their build quality, performance, and integration of features. You could make a strong case for the Apple Watches being so good that nobody even bothers to try. The bottom line is this: the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch to buy if you are an iPhone user. It has been true for the past couple of years and it’s certainly true this year. Just don’t buy one if you have a relatively new one.

<img alt="" src="https://cassette.sphdigital.com.sg/image/hardwarezone/bfcb527069b741f5b016dd7eb45b744a15dbee396281476575b32606ccd66933" style="height:224px; width:350px" title="Apple Watch Series 9 ">	Click to see the score breakdown
	Click to see the score breakdown

Note: You can find the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.