Apple brings edge-to-edge screen and EKG monitoring to Watch Series 4

The Apple Watch Series 4 gets official and Apple is calling it the “intelligent guardian for your health.” The company has revamped its smartwatch and brings the first biggest change in the wearable since it first launched in 2015. It’s thinner but there are now 40mm and 44mm models with edge-to-edge displays that are 35 percent and 32 percent bigger, respectively. Apple takes advantage of this new bigger displays by allowing as many as eight complications on the screen for one of the new watch faces.

On top of expanding the display, Apple uses more ceramic and sapphire, which has also helped improve cell reception. The Digital Crown on the Cellular versions now sport a red ring instead of the glaring red dot. The crown for all models have been redesigned to provide haptic feedback. The speaker has been designed to be 50 percent louder and the microphone has been moved to improve call clarity.

Apple also improves internals and puts a 64-bit, dual-core S4 processor into the Apple Watch. The company says this makes it twice as fast as previous models. And there is a new accelerometer and gyroscope system that can detect if you suffered a hard fall. And it can even prompt automatically an emergency alert or it’ll place a call in your stead if it detects your immobile for around a minute after the fall.

The biggest feature though is the inclusion of a built-in electrocardiogram (EKG), making this the first EKG product offered over the counter, directly to consumers. In the US, it’s received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to be used as a medical device. To read your vitals, you need to put your finger on the crown to create a closed circuit with the sensor at the bottom of the case. It’ll take around 30 seconds to complete the entire process. This allows the Watch to track your heart’s condition and see if there are any irregularities. The wearable tracks your heart’s rhythm and detects irregularities like atrial fibrillation. It’ll record its findings in the Health app, which you can share with your doctor.

Battery life is the same yet better. It gets the same 18-hour battery life but Apple claims you get six-hour run for when you use it outdoors. Apple Watch Series 4 will run on watchOS 5, which will be made available starting September 17.

Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 4 start on Friday, September 14 and will be made available the week after on September 21. As shown through the live stream, the Cellular models will be made available through Bell, Telus, and Rogers. Starting price for the GPS model is at $519, while the GPS + Cellular model has a starting price of $649. You can get the watches in familiar aluminum and stainless steel colors but there is also a new gold stainless steel model as well as new Nike+ and Hermès models. If you own old bands, you can still use them with the new models, too.