AI News Feed
Market watch
VMware Explore coverage: private cloud modernization becomes foundation for production AIGoogle to Invest Record $15 Billion in AI Infrastructure in FinlandGoogle Open-Sources Mantis, a Skills Toolkit That Lets Coding Agents Find, Reproduce and Patch VulnerabilitiesTheCUBE to Cover AI ROI in Contact Center Summit on Sept. 11Suno Ships v6, Its First AI Music Model Built With Record Industry BackingPlaydate Season 3 to Launch October 8 With Eight Games at $39
VMware Explore coverage: private cloud modernization becomes foundation for production AIGoogle to Invest Record $15 Billion in AI Infrastructure in FinlandGoogle Open-Sources Mantis, a Skills Toolkit That Lets Coding Agents Find, Reproduce and Patch VulnerabilitiesTheCUBE to Cover AI ROI in Contact Center Summit on Sept. 11Suno Ships v6, Its First AI Music Model Built With Record Industry BackingPlaydate Season 3 to Launch October 8 With Eight Games at $39
Companies

Apple Unveils Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 With S11 Chip, Ceramic Case Option

Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 on Sept. 9, adding audio transcription and summary features, upgraded health tracking and a ceramic case option, while holding starting prices at $399 and $799.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-10 11:22

The largest differences between the new watches and their predecessors come from the S11 processor, which The Verge reports supports Apple Intelligence features and more detailed health and fitness programs. The Ultra 4 also extends battery life to a claimed 50 hours on a single charge, up from 42 hours on the Ultra 3, and to 84 hours in low-power mode against 72 hours previously. The Series 12 keeps the same estimate as the Series 11, up to 24 hours with 38 hours in low-power mode.

The Verge lists the Series 12 at $399 in aluminum, $699 in titanium and $899 in ceramic. The Series 11 was priced at $399 for the GPS version and $499 for the cellular model. Both Ultra generations are listed at $799. Sizes are unchanged: 42mm and 46mm for the Series 12, and 49mm for the Ultra 4.

Case options widen for the smaller watch, which now comes in aluminum, titanium or ceramic; the Series 11 offered aluminum and titanium only. The new models are slightly heavier. The Verge reports the ceramic Series 12 at 42.8 grams for the 42mm version and 52.9 grams for the 46mm version, while its comparison table lists the 42mm ceramic model in a range of 41.7 to 42.8 grams. The 42mm aluminum Series 12 is listed at 32.2 grams for GPS and 31.5 grams for cellular, and the titanium version at 36.5 grams. The Ultra 4 is 63.0 grams in natural titanium and 63.1 grams in black, up from 61.6 and 61.8 grams on the Ultra 3.

Displays carry over largely unchanged. Both generations use Always-On Retina LTPO3 OLED wide-angle panels with peak brightness of 2,000 nits on the Series models and 3,000 nits on the Ultra, and a minimum brightness of 1 nit. The Series 12 raises the 42mm resolution slightly to 374 by 449 pixels from 374 by 446, while the 46mm version stays at 416 by 496 and the Ultra stays at 422 by 514.

Durability and connectivity also stay close. The Series watches are water resistant to 50 meters and the Ultra models to 100 meters, with all carrying an IP6X dust rating; the Ultra is additionally tested to MIL-STD 810H. All four watches offer 64GB of storage, Wi-Fi 4 on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.3 and a second-generation ultra wideband chip. The Ultra adds precision dual-frequency GPS and 5G. Fast charging remains listed at 80 percent in about 30 minutes for the Series and about 45 minutes for the Ultra.

Health tracking is identical across the two generations, according to the comparison: sleep and cycle tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates, a third-generation optical heart sensor, ECG, hypertension and blood oxygen monitoring, plus notifications for sleep apnea, hypertension and high, low or irregular heart rhythms. Both generations also share Siri, Apple Pay, single tap, double tap and wrist flick gestures, and both store 64GB. The software divides them, with watchOS 27 on the Series 12 and Ultra 4 and watchOS 26 on the Series 11 and Ultra 3.