The Apple Watch Series 8 and the rumored “rugged” Apple Watch will offer a new fever-detecting sensor when they launch this fall. The new Apple Watch SE will lack this feature.
The news comes via Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, who back in April reported that Apple was planning to add body-temperature detection to the next generation of Apple Watch. Gurman shared some more information about the new feature in his weekend Power On newsletter, unfortunately, it seems, the capabilities may not live up to people’s expectations.
Gurman explains that the body-temperature detection won’t give a specific reading, as you would expect with a thermometer. Instead it will alert you if it thinks you have a fever.
“The body-temperature feature won’t give you a specific reading—like with a forehead or wrist thermometer—but it should be able to tell if it believes you have a fever,” he wrote.
“Other than the body-temperature reader, other hardware changes will probably be minor,” Gurman states, indicating that processing power of the chip will be no better than that of the Apple Watch Series 7 and even the Watch Series 6. However, he does note that there may be a brighter display.
Gurman details some of the reasons why this year’s Apple Watch will not offer any major new features. He notes that Apple’s chip development team has been focused on the Mac chips at the expense of other areas, he also suggest that using the same Watch processor will help Apple keep costs down at a time when the company is being affected by rising inflation, the ongoing chip shortage, and manufacturing delays. Gurman also discusses the lack of new features coming to the second generation AirPods Pro in the same newsletter, as discussed here: Don’t expect much from 2022 AirPods Pro – Gurman.
Read more about the upcoming Apple Watch Series 8 in our complete guide to the 2022 Apple Watch. We also have this guide to the Apple Watch SE 2.
