Vote now: Do we need a thermometer in our smartphones?

Earlier this month, a 40-second leaked video showed some exclusive details about the upcoming Pixel 8 Pro, and one of the most interesting features seemed to be the built-in infrared body thermometer. We don’t know whether or not this feature will actually be coming to the final product, if it’s true or completely bogus, but let’s think about it for a second.First of all, this alleged IR thermometer works differently from the sensor you’d find on smartwatches. Most smartwatches rely on skin temperature sensors that require contact with your skin (they use thermistors, electronic elements that change their resistance depending on the temperature).

There’s another point to be made here: the temperature at your wrist can vary widely, making such measurements not very useful. The IR thermometer in the Pixel 8 Pro seems to be working like the medical contactless thermometers, and taking your body temperature at the forehead is much more accurate (the most accurate temperature readings are taken with a rectal thermometer, but we don’t think these are coming to smartphones anytime soon).

Let’s cut the technical stuff and say that the temperature sensor in the upcoming Pixel 8 Pro will be as accurate as a medical-grade contactless device. Do we actually need such a feature on our smartphones? Maybe during the COVID pandemic this functionality could’ve been a game-changer, and maybe Google started working on it back then. But what about now? Do you think it’s useful or just a gimmick?

Vote in our poll, and share your feverish comments down below.