Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 & next Galaxy Buds reportedly to come with temperature tracking

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and next Galaxy buds will reportedly be able to accurately track a person’s temperature around the clock. The devices are expected to land in August.

With each subsequent year the Galaxy Watch is becoming better and better at tracking your health and fitness. The current generation brought a faster processor, more internal memory, body composition measurements, better sleep management, along with a Wear OS 3.0-based operating system. Plenty new on offer as can be seen from the list.

We are expecting generation 5 of the watch to land sometime this summer. Samsung has been pretty regular at dishing out a new watch each year. But rumours and leaks have been scarce so far on the upcoming device. In fact, there were hardly any.

Temperature tracking on Galaxy Watch 5 and next buds

The first rumour comes courtesy of ETNews, a Korean-based publication. Their sources reveal that Galaxy Watch 5 will land this August, and that it will offer a brand new feature – a thermometer function to check a person’s temperature from the wrist.

We’ve seen more and more brands adopting this feature. No surprise, really, considering that up to a few weeks ago COVID-19 was the biggest news item around. Numbers catching the virus are still high but with much of the population vaccinated the effects are milder. Nevertheless, you can still catch COVID-19 and this is where a temperature function on Galaxy Watch would be useful.

According to ETNews, this is precisely why Samsung is introducing the feature. It will, apparently, be able to detect early signs of COVID-19 and be useful for tracking other infections and colds, as well as ovulation cycles.

The company has conjured up a technology that can precisely measure body temperature. The report says the readings are not affected by external factors such as direct sunlight and exercising. It is for this reason that companies such as Samsung and Apple have been putting off the temperature function until now. It was not possible to measure it with great accuracy. The hurdle has apparently been overcome now.

The tech seems a step up from other solutions such as Fitbit’s. Their devices track a person’s temperature variation. So each day you get a graph on how the temperature varied along with a figure quantifying how much your were off your baseline.

Essential reading: Best fitness trackers and health gadgets

Furthermore, ET News claims that Samsung will add the temperature function to its next set of Galaxy Buds. This will use a slightly different technique which measures temperature by detecting infrared wavelengths emitted from the eardrum.

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