Samsung Galaxy Watch5 skin temperature sensor finally works

The Samsung Galaxy Watch5 and Galaxy Watch5 Pro arrived in August 2022 with an infrared sensor for skin temperature measurement that didn’t work.

The company got the feature certified in February, and today, over eight months after the launch has enabled skin temperature measurements. The sensor also allows for skin-temperature-based cycle tracking, which users had to do manually up until now.

The biggest hurdle in front of Samsung was regulatory approval, but now it obtained the CE marking for Europe, the FDA approval for the United States, and the MFDS's blessing in its home market.

Roll-out has officially begun in South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and 29 other European markets - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

The cycle tracking feature was developed together with Natural Cycles - a company that has an approved birth control app, and it gives more detailed insight users' menstrual cycles. There’s also the regular skin measurement, although wrist-based temperature is not directly comparable to readings we get from medical thermometers.

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