What is new with the Apple’s latest Watch and AirPods announcements?

Apple had its biggest devices launch event last evening on Tuesday, unveiling the latest iPhone 17 series lineup. However, while iPhone 17 series have already been discussed about, here is your comprehensive guide on the watch models and earbuds that were unveiled alongside the iPhone 17 series at Apple Park.

Apple Watch: What incremental upgrades are seen with the latest 3 models of Apple Watch so launched

Apple Watch Series 11 was launched that is set to debut with watchOS 26, featuring liquid glass, improved and more responsive watch faces, enhanced on-device Apple intelligence, wrist flick gestures, and workout buddy.  

The watch is set to come in 7 case finishes with options for aluminium and titanium. Some of these included Space Grey, Jet Black, Rose Gold, Silver, Natural, Gold, and Slate.

However, what makes the Apple Watch stand out is its 24-hour battery and a stronger Ion-X glass that gives the device its water, dust and crack resistance.

The price for this Watch Series 11 will start from ₹46,900

Pre-orders for all these launches have opened from last night and will be available from September 19.

Meanwhile, the more affordable Apple Watch SE 3 will come in two aluminium case finishes including Midnight and Starlight.

The standout feature for this S10-powered watch, like Watch series 11, gives sleep score, sleep apnea alerts, ovulation estimates, and wrist temperature. The affordable watch gets Always-On display, on-device Siri, and faster charging like its more expensive alternatives.

Another interesting upgrade for all the Apple Watches includes the 5G accessibility with more durable glass. The Watch SE 3 claims to remain in action for 18 hours. Price for this model starts from ₹25,900.

Finally, the sturdier and the most premium Apple Watch Ultra 3 comes in just two titanium cases but has its largest and brightest-ever display with dual-precision GPS. This makes the watch all the more useful for the adventurous and athletes. The watch claims to remain alive for 42 hours. Prices for this Watch Ultra 3 starts from ₹89,900.

Some other common shared features among the latest launched watches include sleep tracking with sleep score and bedtime routines, ECG, heart rate alerts, vitals monitoring (respiratory rate, wrist temp, blood oxygen, sleep duration), cycle tracking with ovulation estimates.

Apple launches AirPods Pro 3; but is it worth it?

The tech giant unveiled its latest earbuds Apple AirPods Pro 3 that are priced at ₹25,900 for India. This time the AirPods are coming with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) giving users more control of their audio. The ANC this time is four times better than the original AirPods and give twice better performance than AirPods Pro 2. Like other audio wearables, the device comes with adaptive audio and a transparency mode, with multiport acoustic architecture for spatial listening, deeper bass, vivid vocals, and dynamic head tracking.

It claims to have features for loud sound reduction, conversation boost, background sounds for safer listening. These AirPods have been prepared following Apple’s 10,000+ ear scans, the company claimed. In order to improve the form factor of the pods, Apple’s foam-infused ear tips come in 5 sizes (including XXS), these pods have become smaller and even have IP57 sweat and water resistance.

While nothing drastically new, the AirPods Pro 3 have the beta feature of Live Translation that translates real-time conversations in multiple languages including English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish for now with Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese coming soon.

With ANC listening, the AirPods can last up to 8 hours and for 10 hours in Transparency mode.

Analysts told Fortune India that there could have been more to the Apple Watches if not the AirPods.

“[I] would have loved to hear more on watches especially when Apple watch completed 10 year. AirPods Pro 3 looked impressive. Overall, Apple gets one more year to get things aligned on AI and that should be an important one,” says Tarun Pathak, VP-Research, Counterpoint Research.

Yet, as always, the hype around Apple products fuels its strong sales, especially with the festive season approaching in India.

“Our market assessment indicates that Apple is poised for a strong festive season in India, supported by older-generation iPhones and, more importantly, the all-new iPhone 17 series, which departs from the incremental hardware updates of recent years,” says Prabhu Ram, VP - Industry Research Group (IRG), CyberMedia Research (CMR).

So, while there’s always room for more, the Apple craze somehow manages to fill it all.