What you need to know
- Apple Watch Series 8 is expected to debut later this year.
- The next Apple Watch could be about to get some impressive new health features.
- Reports suggest temperature detection accurate enough to pick up a fever may be on the way.
Your Apple Watch may soon be able to tell if you're running a fever.
In the latest edition of Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter, the reporter says that temperature detection is coming to both the regular and rumored rugged edition of the Apple Watch Series 8. The next generation of the Apple Watch SE, which is also rumored to launch this fall, will reportedly not receive the feature.
You can expect some new health-tracking features in this year's Apple Watch. In April, I reported that Apple has been aiming to add body-temperature detection to its Series 8 model, assuming the capability passes muster during internal testing. I now believe the feature is a go for both the standard Apple Watch Series 8 and a new rugged edition that's aimed at extreme sports athletes. It's unlikely to be available in the new version of the lower-end SE, which is also coming this year.
According to Gurman, the feature will give a more general reading rather than an exact temperature. Such a feature would, however, be able to detect if the wearer is running a fever and point them to a dedicated thermometer for a more accurate reading.
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. It could then recommend talking to your doctor or using a dedicated thermometer.
The new watch is expected to be upgraded to the S8 processor, but that upgrade isn't expected to increase performance. Perhaps, like the M1 and M2, the S8 could focus more on efficiency and get us all some better battery life. There is also rumors of some updates to the displays.
Other than the body-temperature reader, other hardware changes will probably be minor. As I mentioned earlier, the new models are likely to offer the same processing power as the Series 6. There's also been internal chatter of updated displays in the new high-end models. I'm hoping they're brighter.
If those upgrades don't sound interesting enough for you to wait around for the Series 8, you might be more interested in upgrading to the Apple Watch Series 7 with its larger display and support for fast charging.
If that's the case, check out our list of the Best deals on Apple Watch for Prime Day 2022.
Bottom line: I love the Apple Watch Series 7, and its small upgrades make for a big difference on most previous models.
