According to rumors, there are three massive Apple smartwatches destined to launch in 2022, and the Apple Watch 8 is the flagship of the trio. We’ve heard a few leaks about what features it might bring, and one seems super likely.
This is body temperature tracking, which would be able to tell if you’re too hot or running a fever – while some smaller leakers have been predicting this feature for some time now, Apple’s prolific leaker Mark Gurman (opens in new tab) added his name to the list, which gives a lot of weight to the prediction.
In the latest entry in his Apple newsletter, Gurman says the Apple Watch Rugged Edition might get this feature too, but the Apple Watch SE 2 probably won’t – those are the other two wearables expected this year.
That’s something you’d expect, really – the rugged wearable is expected to be a tougher spin on the Apple Watch 8, while the Watch SE 2 will likely be based on the company’s older smartwatches rather than the newer versions.
Analysis: A Boring Update?
In the same bulletin, Gurman mentions that there won’t be many other major upgrades to the Watch 8 – it’s expected to have an older chipset, so it won’t be more powerful, although Gurman says it could get a brighter display.
Apple is in a bit of a chipset crisis right now, and it looks like the iPhone 14 won’t be getting a new one either.
If current leaks are to be believed, the Apple Watch 8 may not be a major upgrade to the Watch Series 7 and will only appeal to people who have a much older Apple Watch (or don’t have one yet).
But that’s okay – Apple has so many products on the way that we don’t really need them all to be big and flashy. And for big fans of wearables, the Rugged Edition (or Extreme Edition, as some hope it’s called) could be the real flagship model anyway.
So we’ll wait until the end of the year to be sure, but we expect the iPhone 14 and iPad Pro 2022 to bring the biggest updates.