This year’s Apple Watch Series 9 is likely to adopt a more powerful CPU thanks to an enhanced silicon architecture based on the A15 Bionic system-on-chip (SoC) first found in the iPhone 13, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman via the Power On Discord.
According to Gurman, the rumored S9 system-in-package (SiP) is an entirely “new processor” and not expected to be a rebrand of an existing Apple Watch chip. This claim is significant since the Apple Watch received its last performance boost as far back as 2020 with the debut of the S6 SiP inside the Apple Watch Series 6. From then on, all Apple Watch models have effectively utilized the same chip architecture for the past three years despite rebrands, including the S7 chip in Apple Watch Series 7 and the S8 chip powering the latest generation Apple Watch Series 8.
The current S8 chip in the Apple Watch Series 8 features a 64-bit dual-core processor based on the A13 Bionic chip powering 2019’s iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro lineup. It delivers speeds up to 20% faster than the S5 chip found in Apple Watch Series 5, but it has begun to show its age as watchOS matures. An S9 chip based on the A15 bionic chip would likely deliver a remarkable CPU performance boost and improved efficiency. Improvements to silicon performance-per-watt could lead to battery life gains as well.
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With watchOS 10 expected to include drastic improvements, including a new widget-based user interface, and this year’s Apple Watch lineup rumored to look nearly identical to previous models, Apple could offer a notable performance boost for the Apple Watch Series 9 to offset its dated hardware appearance.
