TECHNO SMARTWATCH NEWS

Smartwatch News

It’s all happening, as the big boys get ready to strap their latest offerings onto our wrists so we can supposedly run our lives – and assess our health needs – any time day or night. Great news? Maybe not, says Chis Partridge

Smartwatch fans are on tenterhooks at the moment with rumours swirling about new models from Apple and Samsung, and Google about to enter the market.

The most important new watch is undoubtedly Google’s Pixel Watch, given the search giant’s history of producing very powerful hardware as a testbed for its software.

Teaser images from Google’s recent developer conference show a circular face, a rounded body and a side button, but little more detail. What is certain is that it will incorporate a lot of fitness tech from specialist maker Fitbit, which Google bought recently for $2bn. The main health sensor will probably be the Fitbit heart rate monitor which measure blood oxygen levels and ECG readings. It may even measure body fat percentage.

Google worked with Samsung on the latest iteration of Wear OS, the version of Android for phones and other wearables. Wear OS devices can be tightly bound to Android phones, bringing popular features such as Google Pay, Google Maps and Google Assistant to your wrist.

However, Wear OS is now incompatible with Apple’s iOS so smartwatches now fall into two nonspeaking camps, as iOS has never been able to talk to Android. It is a bit sad, but as time goes by it seems that we consumers must choose between the Apple and Android universes and never mix and match.

Who’ll be first?

The Pixel Watch will launch this autumn, probably at roughly the same time as the Galaxy Watch 5 from Samsung.

Rumour has it that three models will be launched including a topof-the-line Pro version with a larger screen and a bigger battery, plus an ultra-robust glass and case. The other models will be a mid-range Classic and a more affordable, smaller device.

But the main buzz has centred on the Apple Watch 8, probably launching in September.

Apple’s smartwatch is easily the most popular such device, outselling the nearest rival, Samsung, by a factor

of three, though Samsung’s market share is growing as Huawei’s declines in the wake of its expulsion from the Android community. Will the Watch 8 be a major upgrade from last year’s Watch 7? Rumours say not. There may be a more powerful processor, but a bigger battery to eliminate the need to charge the watch every night is being discounted, as is a bigger screen. Even health monitoring features such as skin temperature measurement (for tracking fertility), blood glucose levels (for diabetics) and blood pressure monitoring (for athletes) seem to be off the menu for the time being. In fact, most interest is focussing on the possible launch of a new Watch SE for the budget-conscious user, and a rugged watch for sportspeople. Here’s where I need to make a personal statement. I’m not a big fan of smartwatches. They are very stylish and all, but the screens are too small to be of much practical use except for notifications of incoming messages or new cute cat vids on TikTok. It seems now that we consumers In fact, if you are not careful must choose between the Apple your expensive wrist-jewel can degenerate into a machine for and Android universes and never driving you nuts with beeps every mix and match. few minutes. When Steve Jobs announced the first Apple Watch, I admit my initial reaction was irritation that the guy who had made the wristwatch obsolete by creating the iPhone should now have the effrontery to suggest we all spend a fortune on a new watch that would need to be charged every night.

Of all the places to mount a miniature computer, the wrist is about the most awkward. Looking at the screen close-to means holding your arm at a very uncomfortable angle, making using it to make phone calls a painful experience.

One of the most hyped features of the average smartwatch is the ability to monitor health and fitness. Nowadays all the main brands can count the steps you take, tell you how many calories you are burning, measure your heart rate and detect sleep apnoea.

But how accurate are they, really?

You would think counting steps would be easy, but because smartwatches are attached to your wrist rather than your ankle they tend to interpret hand movements as steps which is not very helpful. Clever software helps but step counts are rarely more accurate than plus or minus 10 per cent.

Calorific burn is particularly difficult to measure accurately without specialist scientific equipment, but smartwatches claim to do it by complex algorithms that estimate the power you have been putting in and thus the energy you have expended. The result is less impressive than you might think - some estimates put the accuracy of smartwatch calorie counts as plus or minus 30 per cent, which is barely better than sticking a finger in the air and guessing.

Even the heart rate monitor is less than 100 per cent accurate. They work by shining infrared light into your wrist to illuminate your pulse, which is fine

in theory but the sensor can be put off by skin colour, hairy wrists and even how tightly the watch is strapped on. Much better results are gained by a heart monitor on a chest Some estimates put the accuracy of strap, but the only people who smartwatch calorie counts as plus wear them are professional athletes or professional or minus 30 per cent, which is barely hypochondriacs. better than sticking a finger in the air In fact, the only thing that smartwatches do better than and guessing. phones is making contactless payments - a masterful sweep of the wrist over the terminal and the job is done. So if all you want to do is tell the time, get a nice wristwatch.