Samsung’s newest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, comes with many new features, but one feature that stands out is the new heart rate monitor that we have never seen on any other smartphone. This new feature might seem to be something invented by Samsung, but did you know that you can get the same heart rate monitor feature on any smartphone out there?
How to monitor heart rate from any smartphone
If the smartphone that you’re using comes with a camera and an LED flash, which most modern smartphones come equipped with, then you can measure heart rate with the help of an app like Heart Rate Monitor from Runtastic.
This app is available for Android and iOS, and produces results very similar to Galaxy S5’s internal heart rate sensor. In fact, in the video at the end of this article, we can see the comparison of heart rate monitors between the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5S.
Dom from Macmixing found that the feature in the Galaxy S5 might just be all a marketing gimmick. The Runtastic Heart Rate app from Runtastic too produces almost identical results, and that too on any smartphone out there with a camera and LED flash. So if you’re opting to get the Galaxy S5 just for this new sensor, then instead, try out this app on your existing smartphone and be happy with it.
As you’ll see from the video below, both the Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5s, neither of which have any such heart rate sensor, produce results close to the Galaxy S5. A dedicated sensor might be a cool idea, but there’s nothing special about, at least that’s what this test reveals.
Download Runtastic Heart Rate app for Android from here, and for iPhone from here.
