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Apple’s iPhone 16 event saw the Apple Watch Series 10 get a big upgrade, over the year-old Apple Watch Series 9. This is what has changed between the wearable generations.

The 2024 update to the Apple Watch is a milestone, with its Series number finally ticking over into double digits. The Apple Watch is now on Series 10.

The rumor mill has spent a lot of time claiming there will be big changes inbound because of hitting the Series 10 name, and it got a lot right. This is a big upgrade for the Apple Watch after a few years of relatively muted updates.

This is how the Apple Watch Series 10’s specifications differ from its predecessor, the Apple Watch Series 9.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Specifications

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Case sizes, materials, and weight

The Apple Watch has been extremely consistent with its styling over the years. To the level that, just looking at it, you’d be hard pressed to recognize any real external difference between the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Series 8.

Apple’s continued use of a rounded square casing and display with rounded edges is par for the course where the Apple Watch Series 9 is concerned. As is its use of aluminum and stainless steel cases.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9: The Apple Watch Series 10 in Jet Black aluminum [left] and titanium [right]

To one side is a button as well as the Digital Crown, with the two used alongside the touchscreen and Siri to control the wearable.

The Apple Watch Series 10 pretty much uses the same aesthetic as the previous generations, but with some refinements.

One obvious difference is in sizing, as Apple has gone for bigger options with its milestone model. The Apple Watch Series 9 is offered in 41mm and 45mm sizes, depending on what the user wants on their wrist.

For the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple has gone to 42mm and 46mm sizes. This doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a fair bit of an upgrade at this small device scale.

Part of this style change is more rounded corners and a wider aspect ratio for the display. This allows for larger screens without requiring too much of a size gain for the casing.

There’s also a materials change. Out goes stainless steel in favor of titanium.

Both the Apple Watch Series 9 and Series 10 are water resistant to a depth of 50 meters (164 feet), and are deemed “Swimproof” by Apple.

The 2024 model is also Apple’s thinnest, with both sizes being 9.7 millimeters thick. By contrast, the Apple Watch Series 9 versions are 10.7 millimeters.

Weight-wise, the Apple Watch Series 9 in aluminum weighs 31.9 grams for the 41mm model and 38.7 grams for the 45mm version, with the cellular editions about a third of a gram heavier. The stainless steel variants are 42.3 grams and 51.5 grams respectively.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is bigger yet lighter than the Series 9 counterparts. The aluminum GPS models are 36.4 grams and 30 grams, depending on the size.

Curiously, the cellular-equipped versions are even lighter, at 35.3 grams and 29.3 grams respectively.

The titanium models are 41.7 grams and 34.4 grams, which make them a lot lighter than their stainless steel counterparts.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Display

The Apple Watch Series 9 has an Always-On Retina LTPO OLED display. One capable of up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness when pushed at one end, and just 1 nit of brightness at the other extreme.

For the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple went with an Always-On Retina LTPO3 OLED display. It has the same brightness capabilities as the Series 9, though it now uses a wide-angle OLED panel for better viewing angles.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9: The display in the Apple Watch Series 10 can be viewed at a wider angle.

Protecting the edge-to-edge display of the Apple Watch Series 9 is Ion-X front glass for the aluminum models. The stainless steel versions instead use a Sapphire front crystal.

The Apple Watch Series 10 also uses Ion-X front glass for the aluminum models. The titanium editions use Sapphire.

For resolutions, the 41mm Series 9 is 352 by 430 pixels while the 45mm is 396 by 484 pixels. This equates to a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch.

The larger 42mm Series 10 models have a resolution of 374 by 446 pixels, while the 46mm is 416 by 496 pixels. That’s still a pixel density of 326ppi.

The new models do benefit from having larger screens, approximately 9% larger than the Series 9 variants.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Processor

Running the show inside the Apple Watch Series 9 is the S9 SiP, a 64-bit dual-core chip made with 5.6 billion transistors. It has a four-core Neural Engine built in, but don’t expect ever getting on-device Apple Intelligence on that hardware.

The S10 SiP in the Apple Watch Series 10 was engineered for a thinner profile to match the new design’s more constrained space. It’s still a 64-bit dual-core chip, supported by a four-core Neural Engine.

Both chips also use the W3 Apple wireless chip, as well as a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Health and fitness

The Apple Watch Series 9’s health credentials start with the third-generation optical heart sensor and electrical heart sensor on the back. This, along with a temperature sensor, compass, altimeter, and motion-sensing hardware, helps power the fitness and health features of the wearable.

There’s the usual heart rate monitoring, including high and low notifications and some for irregular rhythms. The ECG app provides a lot more detail about your heart health when it comes to arrhythmia.

You have the built-in fitness tracking functionality for your workouts, as well as a Mindfulness app for when you’re not. You can also monitor your sleep so you can get a good night’s rest.

With the introduction of the Series 9, Apple added state-of-mind logging in the Mindfulness app, as well as on-device Siri requests. This also enabled Siri to access data from the Health app to answer your personal queries, without needing to use off-device servers.

For the Series 10, Apple adds in a few new health and fitness features to the mix.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9: The Apple Watch will now warn you if you suffer from sleep apnea

The headline addition is sleep apnea detection, monitoring for occasions where breathing stops during sleep. With over a billion people worldwide estimated to suffer from it, this could be a big lifesaver for Series 10 users.

Those who enjoy the wetter parts of the great outdoors also see some changes. The Apple Watch Series 10 includes a depth gauge that can measure down to 6 meters (19.6 feet) below the surface.

At the same time, a water temperature sensor will tell you that the sea really is “that cold.”

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Battery and storage

The Apple Watch Series 9 maintained the 18-hour battery life of the Series 8, which Apple refers to as all-day battery life. This includes the Low Power Mode that can boost the life up to 36 hours, albeit with a reduction in performance.

The Apple Watch Series 10 continues to offer the same 18-hour battery life, or 36 hours under Low Power Mode.

As usual, all Apple Watch models are recharged wirelessly using a magnetic puck. However, while you can go from 0% to 80% in about 45 minutes with the Apple Watch Series 9, the Series 10 can do the same in about 30 minutes.

The built-in storage of the Apple Watch Series 9 is 64GB, a capacity the Series 10 maintains. This is especially handy for keeping long Apple Music playlists on-wrist for extended workout sessions or long runs.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Other features

The Apple Watch Series 9 introduced a double-tap gesture, which allowed users to select options on the display, but without touching it. Instead, using the same wrist that it is worn on, and detects the user’s fingers tapping in the air.

While the Apple Watch Series 9 popularized the function, other older Apple Watch models could also do the same thing thanks to a watchOS update. Naturally, the Series 10 can do this too.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9: The side controls haven’t changed between generations

Apple Watch Series 9 also introduced more integration with HomePod and HomeKit, such as offering “Now Playing” control of the smart speaker. This reappears in the Series 10.

The Apple Watch Series 9 also brought with it “Precision Finding” for the iPhone 15 generation, so you could see the distance and direction of a misplaced iPhone in a room. The Ultra Wideband chip in the Series 10 can be used for this purpose too.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Price

The Series 9 with a stainless steel casing started from $699 for the 41mm model, $749 for the 45mm. The stainless steel models were GPS + Cellular editions by default.

Apple offered the aluminum Apple Watch Series 9 in Midnight, Starlight, Silver, Pink, and (Product) Red colorways. The Stainless Steel was sold in Graphite, Silver, and Gold colors, with Hermes editions adding in Space Black.

The aluminum Apple Watch Series 10 starts from $399 for the 42mm model, $429 for the 46mm. The GPS + Cellular versions are $499 and $529 apiece.

The Titanium variants of the Series 10 are $699 and $749, respective of size.

Apple has shaken up the color choice for the Series 10. Aluminum is available in Rose Gold, Silver, or Jet Black, while Titanium is offered in Gold, Slate, and Natural, as well as Silver for the Hermes editions.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9 – Which to buy

Apple’s refresh of the Apple Watch has been a long time coming, and turns out to be quite worth it. Enlarging the display without making the entire device too much bigger makes it an attractive proposition for newcomers.

For the more well-heeled, the move to Titanium may also be an attractive change.

Apple Watch Series 10 vs Apple Watch Series 9: The rear of the 2024 model.

The new health and fitness features are much-needed additions to an already comprehensive list. Sleep apnea notifications could help save even more people from a condition that they may not necessarily even realize they suffer from in the first place.

That said, owners of the Apple Watch Series 9 will probably be happy to keep hold of their timepieces for a while longer instead of shifting up a generation.

For previous Apple Watch generation owners, there’s a lot in play with the Apple Watch Series 10 that makes it a great choice of wearable. One certainly worthy of an upgrade.

Where to buy the Apple Watch Series 10 vs Series 9

The Apple Watch Series 10 is available to order now from Amazon and Best Buy. You can view the latest pricing and availability in our Apple Watch Series 10 Price Guide.

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