Technologies

Apple Watch Series 9 Review: New Tricks Make for a Minor Upgrade

With Double Tap and a faster Siri, the Apple Watch Series 9 is slightly easier to use. But it otherwise has a lot in common with the Series 8.

When it comes to the new Apple Watch Series 9, which starts at $399 (£399, AU$649) and is available now alongside the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. That’s my biggest takeaway after spending a few days with the Series 9, which has an upgraded chip that powers faster Siri performance and new gesture controls called Double Tap.

It’s these additions that separate the Series 9 from last year’s Series 8, and they make the Apple Watch more convenient to use. But they’re not monumental enough to convince recent buyers to upgrade.

My time with the Series 9 so far suggests that new features like Double Tap may not show their usefulness right away. However, they could become helpful in the long run.

Double Tap takes some getting used to, and it’s not compelling enough on its own to justify buying the Series 9. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find myself using it to dismiss a notification and easily navigate back to my watch face here and there. (The version of Double Tap I tested was a preview, which I accessed on a separate review unit running an early software build of the feature.)

Siri’s most appealing update, the ability to answer health-related questions now that it can process data locally instead of in the cloud, isn’t coming until later this year. Yet if it works as promised, it could make the Series 9 a much more useful health tracker.

The Series 9 doesn’t have everything on my wish list. For example, I was hoping for longer battery life and the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button. But as is the case with the iPhone 15, it will be a solid upgrade for those with an older model. That’s especially true for frequent Siri users and those who primarily use their Apple Watch for exercise and wellness tracking.

Apple Watch Series 9’s new Double Tap gesture

An Apple Watch Series 9 on someone's wrist

Apple rarely adds new gestures to the Apple Watch, so I was eager to try Double Tap. Just as the name implies, you trigger this feature by tapping your index finger and thumb together twice. Doing so allows you to dismiss a notification, pause your timer or access widgets from the watch face, among other actions. It’s programmed to perform whatever the primary action in a notification is, whether that be casting aside your standard reminder or replying to a text message.

The Apple Watch already supported a similar gesture through its AssistiveTouch accessibility mode. But Double Tap is baked into the Series 9’s user interface across the board, and its chip enables the watch to support this feature all day without impacting battery life. The pinching feature that’s included as part of the watch’s accessibility options, meanwhile, is meant to be customized based on a person’s needs.

Double Tap has a bit of a learning curve, but that could be because I’m using an early version of it. I most frequently use Double Tap to dismiss notifications, stop timers and send text messages hands-free. This was particularly useful while brushing my teeth before bed, since I like to check the time and my exercise progress before hitting the sack. When a notification was blocking my watch face, I pinched my fingers together to dismiss it without having to put down my toothbrush.

It’s a simple use case, but one that highlights the promise behind Double Tap. Being able to dictate a response to a text message without touching the watch could also be useful in situations when my hands are full, such as when I’m cleaning, cooking or even gripping the subway pole during my commute to work.

My biggest issue with Double Tap, however, is that it just doesn’t feel intuitive yet. We’ve been conditioned to tap, swipe and speak to our devices over the last two decades. Even though Double Tap came in handy during that one instance while I was brushing my teeth, my instinct usually tells me to tap my watch’s screen. It’s going to take time to break that habit.

Double tapping can also look awkward to those who aren’t familiar with it. When I tested the Apple Watch Series 9 over the weekend, a friend began giving me strange looks when I started pinching the air with my fingers.

Double Tap doesn’t feel as game-changing as other user experience-related updates the Apple Watch has received over the years, like the Series 5’s always-on display. But who knows — maybe it’ll start to feel natural. After all, everyone thought AirPods looked goofy at first, but now they’re everywhere. Double Tap doesn’t feel like a reason to upgrade, but we’ll know more when the feature fully launches.

Siri gets a speed boost on the Series 9

An Apple Watch with Siri activated on someone's wrist

Another benefit from the Series 9’s new S9 processor is a faster Siri experience. Siri can now answer requests slightly faster for two reasons. First, certain queries that Siri doesn’t need to rely on the internet to answer, like setting alarms or timers, now happen on the watch. Dictation is also supposed to be up to 25 percent more accurate, which should mean Siri understands you correctly the first time.

Coming from the Series 8, I noticed a difference. I use Siri daily for setting alarms and timers, especially when I’m stretching before a workout. I often repeat myself when using my Series 8 or the Series 6 I bought roughly three years ago. That hasn’t happened as much on the Series 9 so far.

I also timed how long it took for Siri to respond to certain questions on the Series 9 compared to the Series 8. For this test, I only asked questions that Siri could answer without plucking an answer from the web. Siri was faster on the Series 9 in almost every scenario, as you can see in the table below.

Series 9 vs. Series 8: Siri response times

	Series 9 (in seconds)	Series 8 (in seconds)
«Set a timer for 5 minutes»	1.73	2.52
«Cancel my timer»	1.66	1.74
«Set an alarm for 9 a.m.»	1.81	1.93
«Start an outdoor walk»	3.39	3.32
«Stop my workout»	2.33	3.06
«Cancel my alarm»	1.94	2.2

Siri will soon be able to answer health-related queries, which should make it easier to quickly parse all the activity and health metrics your watch gathers throughout the day and night. But it won’t be launching until later this year.

I’ve been waiting for a feature like this because finding what I’m looking for in Apple’s Health app isn’t always intuitive. Manually logging activity data and finding specific metrics, like exercise minutes for the past week, can take a couple of taps. Using Siri should hopefully make queries like these much faster and more convenient.

It’s also nice to see Siri playing a larger role on the Apple Watch. Smartwatches aren’t ideal for long touchscreen interactions given their small size, so they present an opportunity for voice assistants like Siri to shine.

Apple Watch Series 9 is better at finding your iPhone

An Apple Watch Series 9 using the new Precision Finding feature on someone's wrist.

If you’re anything like me, the Apple Watch has been a godsend for tracking down your misplaced iPhone when it slips between the couch cushions. Apple made the watch an even more useful iPhone locator, thanks to the second-generation ultra-wideband chip inside. Not only can you ping your iPhone, but the Series 9 will show an estimate of how far away you are from your phone, along with a nudge in the right direction.

The catch, however, is that this feature only works if you have an iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Pro, since those are the only Apple phones to also have the new ultra-wideband chip. That means unless you plan to buy a new iPhone along with your Apple Watch, you won’t be able to use it.

To put the Apple Watch’s new Precision Finding feature to the test, I had a friend of mine hide my iPhone 15 in my apartment while I waited in another room. He chose a difficult hiding spot; tucked underneath my living room carpet, a place where my phone is never likely to end up, even by accident. But the Apple Watch pointed me to the exact corner where my phone was hidden almost immediately, and I was able to track it down in less than five minutes.

To be fair, the audible chime that my iPhone emitted when being pinged by my Apple Watch also played a big role in helping me find it. That feature is already available on existing Apple Watches and iPhones. But being able to see how many feet away I was from my phone added an extra layer of confidence that I was looking in the right direction. This could be helpful if I lost my phone in a noisy environment like a restaurant.

The new chip also brings tighter HomePod integration, allowing you to see media suggestions at the top of your watch’s widget stack when you’re within 4 meters of the device. While these new features are limited to those who own the iPhone 15 or a HomePod, I’m glad to see Apple finding new ways to put ultra-wideband to use. It’s something I’ve been hoping to see in future Apple Watches, as I wrote back in 2022.

Same health and wellness as the Series 8

The Series 9 inherits the same health and safety features as the Series 8. That includes the ability to take an ECG, temperature sensing, blood-oxygen detection, high and low heart-rate notifications, irregular heart rhythm notifications, sleep stage tracking, fall detection and crash detection. It’s also rated for the same degree of dust and water resistance as last year’s Series 8.

The Apple Watch’s broad selection of health metrics is exactly what you might expect of a smartwatch at this price, and it’s likely more data than most people need. But I’m still waiting for more features aimed at rest and recovery, a key area where other wellness and sports devices from brands like Oura, Fitbit, Garmin and Whoop excel over Apple. These gadgets can analyze bodily markers and activity trends to assess how well rested you are, which can be easier to decide whether it’s time for a workout or a rest day. However, Apple doesn’t charge a subscription fee to access all health insights, unlike Fitbit, Oura and Whoop, which require memberships to get the full experience.

No Action button and the same battery life as Series 8

The Apple Watch Series 9 on someone's wrist.

The Series 9’s theme is seemingly focused on convenience rather than new health features. That’s why I was hoping the Series 9 would gain the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button, a programmable key that lets you perform tasks like starting a workout or a stopwatch with just a tap.

While keeping certain features exclusive to the Ultra line is understandable given its higher price, the Action button feels like it should be part of the broader Apple Watch experience. The Ultra already has plenty of other features to distinguish it from the Series 9 and SE, including a bigger and brighter screen, longer battery life, a more durable design and a depth gauge, among other extras. The Action button would have fit nicely with the Series 9’s other upgrades aimed at helping you navigate the watch more easily.

The Series 9 has an always-on display, just like every flagship watch model since the Series 5, which is a key feature that separates it from the less expensive $249 Apple Watch SE. While the overall design is the same, Apple reduced its carbon footprint to make the Series 9 paired with a Sport Loop band the company’s first carbon neutral product.

It’s also rated for the same 18-hour battery life as the Series 8, which means it should last for one to 1.5 days on a single charge, depending on how you’re using it. On one hand, that’s impressive considering the Series 9 has a brighter screen and a more powerful processor.

But I wouldn’t mind sacrificing some of these new features, like a brighter screen or faster Siri, if it meant having longer battery life. I often find myself choosing between wearing my Apple Watch to sleep or leaving it on the charger overnight so that it’s ready to log my morning walk and afternoon workout. Having a battery that lasts for more than a day and a half means I wouldn’t have to make that decision.

Since I’ve been switching between my main Series 9 review unit and a separate unit with an early version of Double Tap, I haven’t been able to get a solid sense of the Apple Watch’s battery life. But I’ll update this review accordingly with more details.

Apple Watch Series 9: Final thoughts

The Apple Watch Series 9 against a gray background

The Series 9 feels like a minor upgrade over the Series 8. New features like Precision Finding and faster Siri performance make the Series 9 a better smartphone companion. But it’s not worth it unless you’re a first-time buyer or have the Series 6 or earlier.

Coming from an older watch like the Series 6, you’ll have plenty to gain. In addition to what’s new on this year’s model, you benefit from a larger screen with a keyboard, a temperature sensor and noticeably faster performance compared to a 3-year-old watch. If you have an Apple Watch SE and are craving more health metrics, the Series 9 is also a worthwhile upgrade.

Like many recent Apple Watch updates, such as the Series 8’s temperature sensor, there’s potential for the Series 9’s new features to evolve and become more helpful over time. It signals a promising direction for the Apple Watch, aligning with the tick-tock pattern Apple has seemingly followed over the last several years. Apple typically alternates between bringing new health sensors to the watch and launching updates related to convenience and the general user experience. This year happens to be the latter.

But right now, the Series 9 feels like a refreshed version of the Series 8 rather than an entirely new generation.

Technologies

The Future’s Here: Testing Out Gemini’s Live Camera Mode

Gemini Live’s new camera mode feels like the future when it works. I put it through a stress test with my offbeat collectibles.

«I just spotted your scissors on the table, right next to the green package of pistachios. Do you see them?»

Gemini Live’s chatty new camera feature was right. My scissors were exactly where it said they were, and all I did was pass my camera in front of them at some point during a 15-minute live session of me giving the AI chatbot a tour of my apartment. Google’s been rolling out the new camera mode to all Android phones using the Gemini app for free after a two-week exclusive to Pixel 9 (including the new Pixel 9A) and Galaxy S5 smartphones. So, what exactly is this camera mode and how does it work?

When you start a live session with Gemini, you now how have the option to enable a live camera view, where you can talk to the chatbot and ask it about anything the camera sees. Not only can it identify objects, but you can also ask questions about them — and it works pretty well for the most part. In addition, you can share your screen with Gemini so it can identify things you surface on your phone’s display.

When the new camera feature popped up on my phone, I didn’t hesitate to try it out. In one of my longer tests, I turned it on and started walking through my apartment, asking Gemini what it saw. It identified some fruit, ChapStick and a few other everyday items with no problem. I was wowed when it found my scissors.

That’s because I hadn’t mentioned the scissors at all. Gemini had silently identified them somewhere along the way and then recalled the location with precision. It felt so much like the future, I had to do further testing.

My experiment with Gemini Live’s camera feature was following the lead of the demo that Google did last summer when it first showed off these live video AI capabilities. Gemini reminded the person giving the demo where they’d left their glasses, and it seemed too good to be true. But as I discovered, it was very true indeed.

Gemini Live will recognize a whole lot more than household odds and ends. Google says it’ll help you navigate a crowded train station or figure out the filling of a pastry. It can give you deeper information about artwork, like where an object originated and whether it was a limited edition piece.

It’s more than just a souped-up Google Lens. You talk with it, and it talks to you. I didn’t need to speak to Gemini in any particular way — it was as casual as any conversation. Way better than talking with the old Google Assistant that the company is quickly phasing out.

Google also released a new YouTube video for the April 2025 Pixel Drop showcasing the feature, and there’s now a dedicated page on the Google Store for it.

To get started, you can go live with Gemini, enable the camera and start talking. That’s it.

Gemini Live follows on from Google’s Project Astra, first revealed last year as possibly the company’s biggest «we’re in the future» feature, an experimental next step for generative AI capabilities, beyond your simply typing or even speaking prompts into a chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It comes as AI companies continue to dramatically increase the skills of AI tools, from video generation to raw processing power. Similar to Gemini Live, there’s Apple’s Visual Intelligence, which the iPhone maker released in a beta form late last year.

My big takeaway is that a feature like Gemini Live has the potential to change how we interact with the world around us, melding our digital and physical worlds together just by holding your camera in front of almost anything.

I put Gemini Live to a real test

The first time I tried it, Gemini was shockingly accurate when I placed a very specific gaming collectible of a stuffed rabbit in my camera’s view. The second time, I showed it to a friend in an art gallery. It identified the tortoise on a cross (don’t ask me) and immediately identified and translated the kanji right next to the tortoise, giving both of us chills and leaving us more than a little creeped out. In a good way, I think.

I got to thinking about how I could stress-test the feature. I tried to screen-record it in action, but it consistently fell apart at that task. And what if I went off the beaten path with it? I’m a huge fan of the horror genre — movies, TV shows, video games — and have countless collectibles, trinkets and what have you. How well would it do with more obscure stuff — like my horror-themed collectibles?

First, let me say that Gemini can be both absolutely incredible and ridiculously frustrating in the same round of questions. I had roughly 11 objects that I was asking Gemini to identify, and it would sometimes get worse the longer the live session ran, so I had to limit sessions to only one or two objects. My guess is that Gemini attempted to use contextual information from previously identified objects to guess new objects put in front of it, which sort of makes sense, but ultimately, neither I nor it benefited from this.

Sometimes, Gemini was just on point, easily landing the correct answers with no fuss or confusion, but this tended to happen with more recent or popular objects. For example, I was surprised when it immediately guessed one of my test objects was not only from Destiny 2, but was a limited edition from a seasonal event from last year.

At other times, Gemini would be way off the mark, and I would need to give it more hints to get into the ballpark of the right answer. And sometimes, it seemed as though Gemini was taking context from my previous live sessions to come up with answers, identifying multiple objects as coming from Silent Hill when they were not. I have a display case dedicated to the game series, so I could see why it would want to dip into that territory quickly.

Gemini can get full-on bugged out at times. On more than one occasion, Gemini misidentified one of the items as a made-up character from the unreleased Silent Hill: f game, clearly merging pieces of different titles into something that never was. The other consistent bug I experienced was when Gemini would produce an incorrect answer, and I would correct it and hint closer at the answer — or straight up give it the answer, only to have it repeat the incorrect answer as if it was a new guess. When that happened, I would close the session and start a new one, which wasn’t always helpful.

One trick I found was that some conversations did better than others. If I scrolled through my Gemini conversation list, tapped an old chat that had gotten a specific item correct, and then went live again from that chat, it would be able to identify the items without issue. While that’s not necessarily surprising, it was interesting to see that some conversations worked better than others, even if you used the same language.

Google didn’t respond to my requests for more information on how Gemini Live works.

I wanted Gemini to successfully answer my sometimes highly specific questions, so I provided plenty of hints to get there. The nudges were often helpful, but not always. Below are a series of objects I tried to get Gemini to identify and provide information about.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for April 26, #1407

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,407 for April 26. Hint: Fans of a certain musical group will rock out with this puzzle.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough. The letters are fairly common, and fans of a certain rock band might get a kick out of the answer. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is one vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: Start letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter C.

Wordle hint No. 4: Rock out

Today’s Wordle answer is the name of a legendary English rock band.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a violent confrontation.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is CLASH.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, April 25, No. 1406 was KNOWN.

Recent Wordle answers

April 21, No. 1402: SPATE

April 22, No. 1403: ARTSY

April 23, No. 1404: OZONE.

April 24, No. 1405: GENIE

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Don’t be afraid to use our tip sheet ranking all the letters in the alphabet by frequency of uses. In short, you want starter words that lean heavy on E, A and R, and don’t contain Z, J and Q.

Some solid starter words to try:

ADIEU

TRAIN

STARE

NOISE

Technologies

T-Mobile Adds New Top 5G Plans, T-Satellite and New 5-Year Price Locks

The new top unlimited plans, Experience More and Experience Beyond, shave some costs and add data and satellite options.

Just two years after expanding its lineup of cellular plans, T-Mobile this week announced two new plans that replace its Go5G Plus and Go5G Next offerings, refreshed its prepaid Metro line and wrapped them all in a promised five-year pricing guarantee.

To convert more subscribers, the carrier is also offering up to $800 to help customers pay off phone balances when switching from another carrier.

In a briefing with CNET, Jon Friar, president of T-Mobile’s consumer group, explained why the company is revamping and simplifying its array of mobile plans. «The pain point that’s out there over the last couple of years is rising costs all around consumers,» Friar said. «For us to be able to bring more value and even lower prices on [plans like] Experience More versus our former Go5G Plus is a huge win for consumers.»

The new plans went into effect April 23.

With these changes, CNET is already hard at work updating our picks for Best T-Mobile Plans, so check back soon for our recommendations.

More Experiences to define the T-Mobile experience

The top of the new T-Mobile postpaid lineup is two new plans: Experience More and Experience Beyond.

Experience More is the next generation of the Go5G Plus plan, which has unlimited 5G and 4G LTE access and unlimited Premium Data (download speeds up to 418Mbps and upload speeds up to 31Mbps). High-speed hotspot data is bumped up to 60GB from 50GB per month. The monthly price is now $5 lower per line than Go5G Plus.

The Experience More plan also gets free T-Satellite with Starlink service (the new name for T-Mobile’s satellite feature that uses Starlink’s constellation of satellites) through the end of 2025. Although T-Satellite is still officially in beta until July, customers can continue to get free access to the beta starting now. At the start of the new year, the service will cost $10 per month, a $5 drop from T-Mobile’s originally announced pricing. T-Satellite will be open to customers of other carriers for the same pricing beginning in July.

The new top-tier plan, Experience Beyond, also comes in $5 per line cheaper than its predecessor, Go5G Next. It has 250GB of high-speed hotspot data per month, up from 50GB, and more data when you’re traveling outside the US: 30GB in Canada and Mexico (versus 15GB) and 15GB in 215 countries (up from 5GB). T-Satellite service is included in the Experience Beyond plan.

However, one small change to the Experience plans affects that pricing: Taxes and fees, previously included in the Go5G Plus and Go5G Next prices, are now broken out separately. T-Mobile recently announced that one such fee, the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee, would increase up to 50 cents per month.

According to T-Mobile, the Experience Beyond rates and features will be «rolling out soon» for customers currently on the Go5G Next plan.

The Essentials plan is staying in the lineup at the same cost of $60 per month for a single line, the same 50GB of Premium Data and unlimited 5G and 4G LTE data. High-speed hotspot data is an optional $10 add-on, as is T-Satellite access, for $15 (both per month).

Also still in the mix is the Essentials Saver plan, an affordable option that has ranked high in CNET’s Best Cellphone Plans recommendations.

Corresponding T-Mobile plans, such as those for military, first responders and people age 55 and older are also getting refreshed with the new lineup.

T-Mobile’s plan shakeup is being driven in part by the current economic climate. Explaining the rationale behind the price reductions and the streamlined number of plans, Mike Katz, president of marketing, innovation and experience at T-Mobile told CNET, «We’re in a weird time right now where prices everywhere are going up and they’ve happened over the last several years. We felt like there was an opportunity to compete with some simplicity, but more importantly, some peace of mind for customers.»

Existing customers who want to switch to one of the new plans can do so at the same rates offered to new customers. Or, if a current plan still works for them, they can continue without changes (although keep in mind that T-Mobile earlier this year increased prices for some legacy plans).

Five years of price stability

It’s nearly impossible to think about prices these days without warily eyeing how tariffs and US economic policy will affect what we pay for things. So it’s not surprising to see carriers implement some cost stability into their plans. For instance, Verizon recently locked prices for three years on their plans.

Now, T-Mobile is building a five-year price guarantee for its T-Mobile and Metro plans. That pricing applies to talk, text and data amounts — not necessarily taxes and other fees that can fluctuate.

Given the uncertain outlook, it seems counterintuitive to lock in a longer rate. When asked about this, Katz said, «We feel like our job is to solve pain points for customers and we feel like this helps with this exact sentiment. It shifts the risk from customers to us. We’ll take the risk so they don’t have to.»

The price hold applies to new customers signing up for the plans as well as current customers switching to one. T-Mobile is offering the same deals and pricing to new and existing subscribers. Also, the five-year deal applies to pricing; it’s not a five-year plan commitment.

More money and options to encourage switchers

The promise of a five-year price guarantee is also intended to lure people from other carriers, particularly AT&T and Verizon. As further incentive, T-Mobile is offering up to $800 per line (distributed via a virtual prepaid Mastercard) to help pay off other carriers’ device contracts. This is a limited-time offer. There are also options to trade in old devices, including locked phones, to get up to four new flagship phones.

Or, if getting out of a contract isn’t an issue, T-Mobile can offer $200 in credit (up to $800 for four lines) to bring an existing number to the network.

Four new Metro prepaid plans

On the prepaid side, T-Mobile is rolling out four new Metro plans, which are also covered by the new five-year price guarantee:

• Metro Starter costs $25 per line per month for a family of four and there is no need to bring an existing number. (The cost is $105 the first month.)

• Metro Starter Plus runs $40 per month for a new phone, unlimited talk, text and 5G data when bringing an existing number. For $65 per month, new customers can get two lines and two new Samsung A15 phones. No autopay is required.

• Metro Flex Unlimited is $30 per line per month with autopay for four lines ($125 the first month) with unlimited talk, text and 5G data.

• Metro Flex Unlimited Plus costs $60 per line per month, then $35 for lines two and three and then lowers the price of the fourth line to $10 per month as more family members are added. Adding a tablet or smartwatch to an existing line costs $5. And streaming video, such as from the included Amazon Prime membership, comes through at HD quality.

See more: If you’re looking for phone plans, you may also be looking for a new cell phone. Here are CNET’s picks.