It seems that Samsung has beaten Apple to the starting line with its latest smartwatch.
Today, the company hosted Samsung Unpacked, its annual event where it shows off its latest hardware about a month before Apple hosts its customary iPhone and Apple Watch event in September. It appears that Samsung wanted to get ahead of expected features with the Apple Watch Series 8 because it announced similar features today.
During the event, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Watch5, its competitor to the upcoming Apple Watch Series 8. The latest generation of the Galaxy Watch adds larger and more accurate health sensors, a bigger battery, and enhanced durability.
Dr. TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics, touted the watch's ability to not only tell users about their health but "coach them on their journey."
“We’re dedicated to giving our Galaxy Watch community the tools, data and resources needed to not only understand their overall health and wellness better, but to coach them on their journey. With Samsung’s groundbreaking BioActive Sensor, we’re empowering users with the most complete picture of their health-related insights yet."
Samsung did it first!
In addition to those other new features, the new BioActive Sensor also adds in a temperature sensor. Samsung says that the sensor will be able to detect both ambient and body temperature.
With an increased surface area and more direct contact with your wrist, Galaxy Watch5 tracks health metrics now with even greater accuracy than Galaxy Watch4. Plus, its powerful 3-in-1 BioActive Sensor works in combination with the other sensors of Galaxy Watch5 series, including the newly introduced temperature sensor, to provide users with an in-depth understanding of their wellness. The temperature sensor uses infrared technology for more accurate readings, even if the temperature of your surroundings changes. This opens new possibilities for developers to expand their health and wellness options and for users to take advantage of all-new experiences.
Apple is also rumored to be adding a temperature sensor to the Apple Watch Series 8. Just today, a patent leaked showing off the technology that is expected to come to Apple's watch.
We'll have to see what kinds of features Samsung and Apple are able to cook up with their competing technologies, but one thing is for sure: we all stand to win from companies competing on offering better health-related features for their users.
The seventh generation of the Apple Watch adds a larger display, more durable screen, and faster charging.
