Could Blood Pressure Monitoring Be Coming to the Apple Watch Series 5?
Credit: @laobaiTD / Twitter
As reported by BGR, an uncorroborated and somewhat sketchy rumour from a Twitter user known only as Mr. White shows pictures of a pre-release Apple Watch with the theory that it might support blood pressure measurements.
While we know that Apple has been working on bringing blood pressure monitoring to the wearable device for several years, this particular leak might be best taken with a healthy dose of salt, particularly since despite being labelled as a pre-production device, the images shown appear to be of an older Apple Watch model — probably a Series 3 judging by the “42mm” case.
That said, although Mr. White isn’t quite as prolific as most of the leakers that we see, he has provided early looks at Apple products in the past which turned out to be mostly accurate. However, this particular post seems like pure speculation as he doesn’t explain why he thinks that the new Apple Watch would be able to handle blood pressure readings.
Apple Watch Series 5 Features
There’s little doubt that an Apple Watch Series 5 is coming and will likely debut alongside the new 2019 iPhone lineup in less than two weeks. However, we’ve heard very few substantial rumours about what the new device will include over the Series 4, and a report from Bloomberg last week suggested that changes would be “more muted” this year.
Of course, “muted” changes are still changes, so none of this rules out Apple having one or two surprises up its sleeve, and blood pressure monitoring could certainly be one of them, especially considering Apple’s heavy focus on health features. Still, as Bloomberg notes, Apple is prioritizing watchOS 6 more, which already adds new health features for all recent Apple Watch models, such as noise level detection and menstrual cycle tracking.
For the hardware itself, it looks like Apple will be focusing mostly on new finishes, such as bringing back the old ceramic edition that was dropped with the Series 4 last year, plus a new titanium casing that could possibly replace the stainless steel version or take a higher place as a premium finish, possibly even taking the top spot from the ceramic casing.
Last week we also saw a leaked photo on Slashleaks, captured from a private account of French Instagramer Steven Huon purporting to be of the Apple Watch Series 5. As expected, the design looks very similar to the Series 4, but the image shows the About screen with a model number of A2157 — one of the new models found in Apple’s latest filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission.
Unfortunately, since the Apple Watch shown in the photo looks virtually identical to a Series 4, there’s no way to know for sure if the photo is legit or simply been photoshopped to show the new model number. Still, with the final release so close, it’s not out of the question that the picture could be legitimate, and it doesn’t really tell us anything that we haven’t already heard elsewhere — that the outer casing will remain virtually unchanged with the Apple Watch Series 5.
