You know how Apple will design something that nobody really knew they needed but then suddenly that thing becomes pretty much mandatory for living life itself? (See: Mac, iPod, iPhone.) Well, they’re trying it again. With the latest Apple Watch, they’re packing a 24/7 health monitor into a watch that can also do pretty much everything a phone can do (even when your phone’s not around).
The new sensors on the back of the Series 6, working in tandem with the app, can measure your blood oxygen level and you can take an on-demand ECG reading similar to a single-lead (two electrode) electrocardiogram by putting your finger on the crown. For fitness tracking, sleep monitoring, and providing some pretty unprecedented data to your doctor, this health monitor-on-the-wrist could very well make us healthier. It certainly helps that the Series 6 also comes with three free months of Apple Fitness + and has an Activity Rings app that not only encourages you to keep moving, but also lets you share your steps and activities with friends, for that always-crucial communal motivation.
While the strap is often just a pretty footnote to the new Apple Watches, the Solo Loop with its absence of a clasp adds that streamlined, seamless look the watch has been missing. The Braided Solo Loop (pictured above) is even more impressive with its combo of silicone threads interwoven with recycled polyester yarn filaments.
Like the last Apple Watch, the display is always on, but now it’s even brighter outdoors — even when your wrist is down, so you can peek at your progress without raising your arm. Series 6 has the sleep-tracking and watch-face configuration/sharing that debuted with the just-released Watch iOS 7 software update — capabilities that will no doubt shine brightest in the latest hardware release. A release that will know exactly how excited it makes you the moment you put it on.
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