STACK #204 Oct 2021

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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data and deliver it as a percentage to easily identify how the sleep rated.

WHERE’S YOUR HEART AT? Your heart rate can be influenced by many factors including how fit you are, medicines, age and stress levels. A healthy heart should register a resting heart rate of between 60-100 beats per minute (BPM). Some professional athletes can have a resting heart rate as low as 40 BPM. To check the accuracy of your smartwatch heart rate reading, sit quietly for ten minutes and then count how many times your heart beats over 30 seconds. Double the number and that’s your resting heart rate score. Generally, the lower the score, the more effectively your heart is working.

Fall detection - Fall detection is an important feature for anyone who is at risk of a fall. That could be an older relative living alone, someone with a medical condition which makes them prone to falls, or an athlete out trail-running alone. A smartwatch that incorporates this feature automatically shares your location with emergency workers or pre-installed close contact numbers when a heavy fall is detected. Good diet Eating well and maintaining a good diet promotes both physical and mental wellbeing, and meal planning, healthy eating habits and calorie counting are all important factors in this arena. Smartwatch apps can

Sleep tracking - We all know that decent sleep is linked to better general health overall and improved mental wellbeing, so there are certainly benefits in using technology to track your sleep. Older wearables relied on wrist movement to determine the quality of sleep,

but now companies lean more on the data ascertained from a heart rate reading through the night. Some smartwatch brands collate this FIVE HEALTH TRACKERS be used to log and track calorie intakes for every meal, taking the science out of mealtime.

If you're in the market for a smartwatch with good health monitoring and tracking, here are five that are worth considering.

Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Not only does it look good, but the new Galaxy Watch4 is packed with the essentials that you need to track your day. The watch comes in two different designs and four sizes, with tracking for 95 different activities. From a health monitoring perspective, it has it all, from stress and sleep tracking to ECG functionality, blood oxygen, calorie burn and heart rate. The Galaxy Watch4 also offers seamless integration with your other Samsung products such as the Buds2 or the new Galaxy Fold3.

Apple Watch 7 For six years now the Apple Watch has been beguiling its users with an array of accurate tech that tracks a host of fitness and health stats. The new Apple Watch 7 continues that offer with a larger, brighter display, increased fall detection and 33 per cent faster charging. The upcoming watchOS 8 update will also introduce a new suite of features.

Garmin Venu Sq A budget option from Garmin that brings all the features of a sports watch and health tracker in one neat package. This is a powerful smartwatch with six days’ worth of battery life, and covers all the essential fitness needs. It also provides the health insights and monitoring (sans ECG) that you’d expect at a higher price point. Fitbit Sense The Sense will cover just about everything that you want from a smartwatch: a big screen size, a battery that will last two days plus, voice assistance with Google Assistant and Alexa, and a bevy of fitness tracking options. On top of that, health monitoring is extensive, including ECG monitoring and stress tracking using electrodermal sensor technology.

Withings ScanWatch

Offering a more classic design, this hybrid smartwatch is both aesthetically pleasing and feature-packed. A huge battery will, according to Withings, last 30 days with normal use. All the health smarts are present, including heart rate tracking, ECG, blood saturation and sleep tracking.

34 OCTOBER 2021

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