According to Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, the Apple Watch Series 8 will ship with a body temperature sensor. The sensor would extend the device’s health tracking capabilities, something the Apple Watch Series 7 failed to accomplish.

Gurman shared this information last week in his Power On newsletter. “You can expect some new health-tracking features in this year’s Apple Watch,” he wrote.

Besides the regular Apple Watch Series 8, the body temperature sensor is expected to make its way into a new rugged edition of the smartwatch. Unfortunately, the lower-end Apple Watch SE, which is also scheduled for release later this year, is unlikely to get it.

The body temperature sensor won’t function like a traditional thermometer and give on-demand readings. Instead, it will alert the user when their temperature increases by a certain number of degrees above their baseline, which can vary from person to person.

It’s likely that Apple has decided to go with this approach to body temperature detection because it doesn’t require the sensor to be highly accurate.

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Gurman also stated that other hardware changes would probably be minor. The Apple Watch Series 8 will probably use the same chip as the previous two models because Apple’s chip development team has been focused on the new M2 chips.

The use of the aging chip could keep the price of the Apple Watch Series 8 the same as the Apple Watch Series 7 despite the rising inflation and supply chain bottlenecks all tech manufacturers are currently experiencing.

On the other hand, Apple didn’t hesitate to increase the base price of the new MacBook Air from $999 to $1,199 when it announced the device in June 2022, so it’s possible that it won’t hesitate to increase the base price of the Apple Watch as well.