Apple Watch Series 8 Review in progress: My Thoughts After Wearing It for a Week
So far, it's hard to tell how the Apple Watch Series 8 compares with the Apple Watch Ultra -- or upcoming competitors. But I decided against testing the car-crash feature, for obvious reasons.
The Apple Watch Series 8, starting at $399 (£419, AU$629), joins the temperature sensing wearable pack with a new temperature sensor of its own. Temperature-sensing wearables have been a trend these past few years, from the Fitbit Sense to the Oura Ring, Amazon's Halo band and Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5. A few weeks ago, I got sick and a little ring on my finger let me know my temperature was elevated. So, in my experience temperature reading isn't just another check-the-box feature.
Also, this isn't the only new Apple Watch, though. The lower-cost Apple Watch SE and more expensive Apple Watch Ultra make a broad range, going from $249 up to $799 and beyond.
This year, with three new Apple Watches, the challenge is knowing which one to get -- if any.
After wearing Apple's latest watch on my wrist for less than a week, it's hard to tell. The Series 8 looks identical to last year's Apple Watch Series 7 and has most of the same features. New to the 8 is its temperature sensor, along with improved gyroscope and accelerometer motion sensors that are now able to detect car crashes and make SOS calls in the event of an emergency.
I didn't test the car-crash feature, for obvious reasons. And, as of the time of this article publishing, I've only just had my nightly temperature data start to appear. Both features could very well end up being useful over time, but how useful remains to be seen.
The best part of the Apple Watch this year is its software improvements. WatchOS 9 adds a number of extras that are really great: a compass app that now tracks your steps via GPS to help you navigate back home during hikes, medication tracking, multistage sleep tracking and a low-power mode that shuts down some functions to extend battery life. But you don't need a new watch for these; a free update to WatchOS 9 could give you these upgrades and make you feel like you already have a new watch.
Apple's approach to improving its watch over time has been a steady accumulation of upgrades -- an always-on display one year, blood oxygen the next, a slightly larger display and now temperature sensing. Skipping a bunch of years between upgrades can end up adding a lot of new features in one big bunch, but anyone who has a Series 7 will have a hard time justifying the purchase.
Temperature sensing
Apple's temperature sensor measures skin temperature, similar to how other wearables work. It also measures air or water temperature (water temperature readings can show up in some apps that use the sensor). The sensor looks at relative temperature change, showing relative increases or decreases in degrees, but not an absolute temperature like a thermometer.
The measurements are collected at night while sleeping, and it takes five days for the watch to collect enough data to establish a starting baseline. (According to Apple, the baseline temperature will keep calibrating over time.) From that point on, the measurements only show up in Apple's Health App on the iPhone, under Skin Temperature. I could check the chart and see what my temperature changes were, but Apple's not currently alerting wearers of changes on their wrist, or any other way. The measurements also aren't being used for any sort of Readiness or Wellness score, like companies such as Fitbit and Oura are already doing. Apple is likely going to spend the next year, at least, trying to figure out how to surface that data more. In the meantime, maybe you want to wait before deciding if the sensor plays into the value of the watch.
One more immediately useful area for temperature-sensing data is ovulation tracking, another new watch feature. Similar to how Fitbit and Oura already work, the temperature shifts are used to track fertility cycles, as well as possible interruptions. CNET will test this over the next few months, much as we have with other trackers. And a word about privacy for this type of data: Apple says its Health data remains encrypted on the user's account and in iCloud, and if two-factor authentication is turned on, no one else can access it.
2022-09-15 21:58:31
