GoKawiilIn a new video, The Quantified Scientist’s Rob ter Horst compares the new Apple Watch Series 12’s heart rate sensor against a Polar H10 ECG chest strap. Here’s what he found.
Revamped heart sensor delivers
For the Apple Watch Series 12, Apple completely revamped the device’s heart sensor, which now measures heart rate every five seconds even when the user isn’t active.
In our review of Apple Watch Series 12, which you can read here, we found that the added data can provide more detailed insights into how everyday activities and moments throughout the day affect heart rate, such as hauling groceries, doing yard work, drinking an afternoon cup of coffee, or dealing with a stressful moment at work.
That said, Rob ter Horst from The Quantified Scientist YouTube channel published an in-depth look (via MacMagazine) at the Apple Watch Series 12’s new heart rate sensor during indoor cycling, running, and weightlifting, and compared its readings with those from a Polar H10 ECG chest strap.
All in all, the Apple Watch Series 12’s new heart sensor performed very well, particularly during indoor cycling, where its readings were nearly identical to the Polar H10 data.
During a running session, the Series 12 also performed well, with a 0.98 correlation with the chest strap (versus a near-perfect correlation of 1.0 during indoor cycling), though ter Horst noted some minor deviations at higher heart rates.
During weightlifting, which ter Horst notes is traditionally one of the hardest activities for wrist-based heart rate sensors, the Series 12 posted the lowest correlation of the three exercises tested, at 0.97. Even so, ter Horst said the result was “quite good” compared with the competition, placing the Series 12 above 85% of devices he has tested for weightlifting.
Compared with his longer-term testing of the Apple Watch Series 11, ter Horst said the new Apple Watch Series 12 delivered broadly similar heart rate accuracy overall, with the older model actually performing slightly better during running in his tests. It could be the case, ter Horst notes, that Apple is still tweaking its algorithms for the new sensor.
Finally, ter Horst also tested the Apple Watch Series 12’s step counter. He manually counted roughly 5,000 steps and found the Series 12 was generally spot-on or only slightly overcounted.
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