The 2023 model of the Apple Watch, the Series 9, does not revolutionize this product line, but offers some thoughtful new features. On the menu: a very versatile double touch, greater ease of finding your phone and a screen twice as bright.
We had the Apple Watch Series 9 on our wrist for a week, but could not test its main new feature, double touch, announced for an upcoming update “in October”. Those in a hurry, including us, were able to fall back on a “beta” update on October 4 to get a taste of it. That’s it, it’s done, with the risks of instability that these preliminary versions pose.
Double touch is a very simple function, which allows you to send commands by double tapping your thumb and any other finger on the hand that wears the watch. You have to raise your wrist towards you, tap twice quickly and the magic happens to, for example, answer a phone call.
It works pretty smoothly, say 9 times out of 10. It takes a bit of experience to double-tap fast enough by raising your wrist enough. It allows you to interact with the watch if your other hand is occupied by a dog leash, a grocery bag, a baby or a spatula in front of your sauce. We could also add a steering wheel or bicycle handlebars, but that would be illegal.
Useful ? A little. In addition to our extensive testing for this review, in one week we urgently used this feature twice, to stop a timer and answer a call.
There’s another interesting use: double-tapping brings up and then scrolls through a series of apps, from your next appointment to news to weather to fitness to music to texts.
This function is enabled, Apple says, by the Series 9’s new super-powerful chip, the SiP S9. This chip now allows Siri to respond locally to all queries, except those asking for information on the internet. We actually found that Siri started up faster and seemed more nimble at issuing queries. Unfortunately, this voice assistant remains quite erratic in French and makes a lot of errors when dictating.
Another new feature, the function to find your phone is now more precise. Not only does it ring your phone, but it allows you to find it if it is within a radius of ten meters, with a sort of compass that tells you gradually if you are getting closer. Apple, obviously, did its homework and found that this function was one of the most used.
The other big hit, the timer, has been redesigned and offers a clearer interface. Finally, the maximum brightness of the watch is now 2000 nits, double that of the Series 8. You can clearly see the display, even in direct sunlight.
Other new features have been brought by the new operating system, WatchOS 10, to which all Apple Watches since Series 4 have access. The one that impressed us the most is the automatic detection of the bicycle, and the possibility of responding by a “yes” or “no” when Siri asks if you want to record the activity. We can stick two Apple Watches together to transfer our contact information and see a photo or avatar of the person calling.
Ah yes, Apple now offers a rather spectacular pink case.
WatchOS 10 brought a complete redesign of the behavior of the watch when you turn the crown. Instead of seeing the available applications scroll through, we now get a series of certain displays. We still haven’t gotten used to it.
In terms of battery life, the Apple Watch Series 9 does no better than previous models, 18 hours in always-on mode, 40 to 48 hours in more economical mode.
Obviously, the Apple Watch remains reserved for the Apple tribe and is not compatible with Android phones.
At first glance, there’s not a huge difference between the Series 9 and the most recent previous models. A three- or four-year-old Apple Watch owner won’t see a clear incentive to upgrade to the 2023 model.
But we have many notable improvements with this new watch, the best to accompany an iPhone, it should be noted. With double touch, increased brightness, more efficient localization and Siri in local mode, we have additions which, without being overwhelming, are welcome.
