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The Apple Watch Series 6 could boast these major upgrades and killer new features

Updated: Jul 31, 2020, 6:14 AM

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The Apple Watch Series 6 could boast these major upgrades and killer new features

While rumors of various iPhone 12 production delays have been running rampant essentially ever since it first became clear that the coronavirus pandemic would cause ripples throughout the supply chain, we've heard very little so far about any possible disruptions in Apple's traditional smartwatch release schedule.

That most likely means we'll be seeing the Apple Watch Series 6 unveiled sometime in September and commercially rolled out later that month, but because 2019's Series 5 didn't change much about the 2018-released Series 4, we're extremely curious what the Cupertino-based tech giant might have in the pipeline in terms of 2020 upgrades.

For the most part, we don't expect drastic design changes... this year either, so if you're still dreaming of a circular Apple Watch with a less "techie" feel, you'll just have to wait another year... or ten. Under the hood, however, the Series 6 could well revolutionize what we've come to expect from the world's best-selling wearable device family... again, taking yet another huge leap towards becoming an all-encompassing health monitoring powerhouse.

That's at least according to Nikias Molina, a relatively well-known YouTuber with an unproven track record as a leaker. Naturally, that means you should keep your salt shaker nearby, although for what it's worth, Jon Prosser, who does have a stellar track record as an Apple leaker, seems to bolster Molina's credibility.

A more powerful chip, longer battery life, and sleep tracking (at last!)

Let's start with an easy prediction, shall we? According to the aforementioned tech vlogger, as well as history and common sense, the Apple Watch Series 6 will come packing a homebrewed S6 processor. Set to follow in the footsteps of last year's S5, 2018's S4, and so on, this will undoubtedly be faster than all its forerunners, although the actual magnitude of its performance boost remains unknown.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the S6 SoC also needs to be significantly more energy-efficient than its predecessors, as the Apple Watch Series 6 is expected to raise the battery life bar to finally support sleep tracking functionality. This is one of the very few features most Android-compatible smartwatches offer that the Apple Watch does not, which the company has been reportedly working on fixing for quite some time now.

Battery life was always the biggest hurdle preventing Apple from catching up to the competition, but Cupertino may have cracked the puzzle and found a way to keep the Series 6 going through a full day's work and night's sleep without completely emptying the tank. Let's just hope the solution is not to make the smartwatch considerably thicker and bulkier to accommodate a larger cell.

A major new sensor and a welcome expansion of the health monitoring toolset

While the above features could certainly provide some meaningful user experience improvements, the true innovation of the Apple Watch Series 6 is likely to come from its built-in pulse oximeter and mental health abnormalities detection.

This is actually not the first time we're hearing about such game-changing plans, but it wasn't clear last time around if these features were indeed headed for the Series 6 model or a later generation.

As it turns out, Apple could enable the groundbreaking technology of measuring your blood oxygen levels directly from your wrist with the aforementioned pulse oximeter as early as this fall, although FDA clearance is obviously required and that might still lead to a delay of some sort.

The pulse oximeter and the mental health abnormalities detection technology will be closely connected, mind you, and the advanced heart rate monitor already built into existing Apple Watch devices will also play its part in taking care of both your body and mind with things like fall detection, high and low heart rate notifications, and possibly even anxiety and panic attack alerts. Let's see Samsung and Fitbit try to compete with that.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.