ZDNET’s key takeaways
- I wore the Apple Watch Series 12 on a run.
- I wanted to test it against a gold-standard Polar chest strap.
- I also tracked its heart-rate sensing against a Pixel Watch 5.
Apple’s twelfth-generation smartwatch arrived last Wednesday, and while it may look the same as the previous iteration, it has a few heart-healthy changes under the hood that make it stand out.
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I’ve been wearing the Apple Watch Series 12 for a week, and updated heart rate sensing (powered by Apple’s Health Sensing System) is the feature that stands out to me. Even better, it comes on both the Series 12 and Ultra 4.
This system is at the heart (pun intended) of Apple’s new Readiness score and longevity features arriving later this year. These sensors are stronger than previous generations, and they allow the Apple Watch to take more frequent heart rate and heart rate variability measurements.
For example, the Series 11 and Ultra 3 took heart rate measurements every five minutes and HRV measurements every two hours. Now, those measurements are taken every five seconds and every five minutes, respectively. This increased frequency makes it possible to measure the two HRVs Apple now provides and the daytime Vitals feature, and gather more robust health data for longevity features like Health Age (coming soon).
My heart rate accuracy test
The Health Sensing System is a key element of Apple’s health wearables future, with best-in-class sensors that finally bring the tech giant’s breadth of trackable biometrics closer to its nearest competitors, namely Oura, Whoop, Garmin, and Google.
In fact, Apple claims the Health Sensing System on both the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 makes the watches the most accurate heart-tracking wearable devices on the market. I tested that capability on a recent run through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where I wore my Apple Watch Series 12 on one wrist, my Pixel Watch 5 on the other, and the Polar H10 chest strap, a gold-standard heart rate monitor and the reference for Apple’s recent Heart Rate Accuracy Study.
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I alternated between walking and running every ten minutes to see how the sensors captured the rises and falls of my heart rate as I swapped between high-intensity runs and slower walks. I did this session for an hour.
After my run, I learned that the Apple Watch was just a hair more accurate than the Pixel Watch when tracking heart rate. As I went into each interval, all three devices tracked fairly closely within the same heart rate range, but Apple gets a bit closer to the Polar H10’s peak by only a few beats per minute.
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Each health tracker said my average heart rate during the workout was 132 bpm. The Apple Watch Series 12’s mean absolute error was 1.9 bpm, while the Pixel Watch 5’s was 5.3 bpm. The Apple Watch had a .998 correlation to the Polar H10 chest strap, while the Pixel Watch had a .943 correlation. Each recovery transition, the period in between my runs and walks, drove the gap between the Pixel Watch and Apple Watch. The Apple Watch paced closer to the chest strap, while the Pixel Watch lagged.
A taste of Audio Intelligence
The Apple Watch’s Smart Stack includes Shazam, a feature that lets the device constantly listen to music around you and opt to save the results to your Apple Music library. Users must enable the feature to be always on, which some might be skeptical of. I tried the feature and found it to be simple and convenient.
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The Apple Watch Series 12 arrives in its classic light gold, midnight black, silver, and a new dark bronze color that I’m partial to. The device has the same battery capacity as last year’s Series 11, which gives you about a day’s worth of use. The revamped Health app arrives later this year, and I look forward to testing it out and offering up my full review once it launches.
ZDNET’s buying advice
Because many of the Apple Watch’s most exciting features (the new Health app, Siri Recap, and Live Rewind) don’t come out until later this year, and because I only got one day to assess my Readiness score from the Series 12, I’m abstaining from providing an extensive recommendation on whether or not you should buy the Apple Watch Series 12. That assessment will come later, once every feature is thoroughly tested and used.
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But a week with the Apple Watch Series 12 has been promising. Siri is quicker and more responsive, so pinging the assistant to set timers or gather information feels faster and more useful than before. The health features I tested prove that Apple is upping the ante with both the Series 12 and Ultra 4’s suite of trackable health metrics. The best part for users is that many of these new metrics are free (for now), while competing devices charge a subscription to access similar data.
You are getting a highly accurate health-tracking smartwatch with intelligent touches that make it easier and more approachable to use, whether you need to respond to a text, identify a song, track a workout ahead of marathon season, or dive deeper into your health.
Editor’s note:I’ll have a more comprehensive review of the Apple Watch Series 12 once I’ve had more time to thoroughly test it.
