Apple Watch Series 8 review – stay fit, healthy, safe and connected

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• VERDICT

The Apple Watch Series 8 continues to be a must-have accessory that can help keep you fit, healthy, safe and connected. It is the best smartwatch you can buy.

Apple Watch Series 8 puts so many capabilities on your wrist and continues to be an essential accessory for so many customers for their health and wellness and to keep them connected and safe.

This year, Apple has made Apple Watch Series 8 even more capable with new health sensors and apps to keep you connected to what matters to you.

Series 8 how does the same design as the previous model which includes a 41mm or 45mm edge-to-edge Always On display.

One of the main new features is temperature sensing which uses two sensors – one on the back crystal and another just under the display.

This configuration improves the accuracy and reduces the bias from the outside environment.

The temperature sensors can be used to help monitor your nightly slumber with Sleep Focus and Sleep Tracking.

The watch needs five straight nights to establish its baseline.

Your body temperature varies from night to night and can be affected by things like exercise, jetlag, sleep, alcohol consumption and illness so being able to track nightly changes can give you a strong insight into your overall health.

But it’s the new Cycle Tracking feature that’s standout for the Apple Watch Series 8 and can provide the most accurate readings of the menstrual cycle.

Tracking temperature changes for those who ovulate offers even deeper insights into the menstrual cycle.

Being able to monitor changes in temperature can help reveal the biphasic shift – this is the increase in temperature that happens in response to changing hormones after ovulation

Before the most common way of tracking temperature changes was with a thermometer and a journal.

But now Apple Watch series 8 makes this all so much easier.

Having these hyper accurate readings can be useful for those planning to start a family.

Users who wear their Apple Watch Series 8 with Sleep Focus turned on will receive retrospective ovulation estimates after going through two menstrual cycles.

Even if you’re not trying for a baby monitoring cycle deviations can also reveal other health conditions including fibroids, polycystic ovarian syndrome and thyroid disorders.

It’s also possible to export your cycle history as a PDF to share with your doctor or gynaecologist.

And, of course, all this data is encrypted on your device and only accessible with your passcode, Touch ID or Face ID.

The other new feature for Apple Watch Series 8 is Crash Detection which is possible thanks to a new motion sensor and a sensor-fusion algorithm.

If you’ve been in a severe car crash the Apple Watch will automatically connect you to emergency services as well as notify emergency contacts.

During development, Crash Detection was tested in professional crash labs in all kinds of passenger cars and in four crash scenarios – head-on, rear-end, side impact and rollover.

Crash Detection is also available in iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro.

Apple Watch Series 8 has an all-new redesigned Compass app which lets you set waypoints while BackTrack can utilise your GPS location to find your way to your starting point.

On the health side, Apple Watch Series 8 includes ECG, heart health notifications and blood oxygen.

Fitness-wise, there are advanced workouts which can now capture running form metrics like vertical oscillation, stride length and ground contact time.

And you can also see all this data in a different way with Workout Views that offers information like elevation, running power and splits.

And if you want to really get serious about your fitness, Apple Watch Series 8 can also let you set heart rate zones, race route and pacer.

And triathletes will love the new Multisport mode can switch between swim, bike and run automatically.

On the battery side, the new Low Power Mode can stretch battery life to up to 38 hours.

In this mode, it turns off Always On display, background heart rate and blood oxygen measurements.

But it still has Fall Detection and activity tracking even in this low power mode.

If you already own an Apple Watch Series 7, there’s probably not much reason for you to upgrade but if you are new to Apple Watch or coming from an older Apple Watch then you’ll enjoy a world of difference.

The Apple Watch Series 8 is available now and starts at $629.

VERDICT

The Apple Watch Series 8 continues to be a must-have accessory that can help keep you fit, healthy, safe and connected. It is the best smartwatch you can buy.