I’ve been a tech journalist and reviewer for about eight years, and in that time I’ve had most Apple Watch models on my wrist at one point or another. I’ve always loved how Apple’s wearable looks, and how it’s an extension of the iPhone in all the ways that matter, making it easy to triage notifications, check the weather, control music, and more.
It’s also been an ideal fitness companion since I began using one with the Series 0 back in 2015, but while my current Apple Watch Series 11 is a fantastic device, I’ve been testing alternatives — and there’s one thing many of them do that Apple Watch doesn’t… until now.
Apple Watch is finally getting the feature I’d buy a Fitbit for
In case you missed it, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will introduce a new ‘Readiness’ feature to watchOS.
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The idea is that if you’ve had a rough night of sleep, have had a lot of stress, or just haven’t been moving much, you’ll get a lower score, which suggests you’ll probably want to take it easy.
On the flip side, if you’re well-rested and have been smashing your workouts with energy to spare, you’ll get a higher score to help push you to keep it up.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been begging, on this very site and elsewhere, for Apple Watch to take a leaf out of Fitbit’s book. The best Apple Watches excel at making fitness tracking easy and accessible to all, and this felt like the biggest missing piece of the puzzle after years of very welcome improvements.
How does it work?
Apple went to great lengths to highlight that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 offer the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable (which presumably includes the best smart rings, too). A big part of this is a revamp to the underlying sensor technology that Apple Watch uses, with the new hardware checking for heart rate readings 60 times more frequently than last year’s models, as well as 24 times as many HRV readings at night.
Because there’s a lot more data to work with, Apple’s algorithms and the S11 chip are able to more accurately determine your readiness score. It also ties into the Vitals app, which arrived with watchOS11, to allow you to more easily spot patterns and trends in health data, and understand how your body is responding to exercise and daily life.
So, will I put my money where my mouth is? It’s hard to say. I moved from the original Apple Watch Ultra to an Apple Watch Series 11 last year, and absolutely love my current wearable. That makes it hard to justify the upgrade, as much as I’ve been banging the drum for this feature for almost a decade. Maybe next year…
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