The South Korean tech giant's next-generation smartwatch is rumored to called the Samsung Gear A. It is internally known as "Orbis," sports a round display, and a rotating bezel. This time, a new report claims that the upcoming wearable will come in at least three variants.
Given the significant overhaul that Samsung has implemented to its 2015 smartphone lineup, there's a lot of reasons to believe that the company will also apply the same strategy to its smartwatch models. On Tuesday, Samsung-watchdog SamMobile reported that the device maker is testing a handful of Samsung Gear A variants. However, it is not clear as to how many will actually reach the market.
The site mentioned that test devices are codenamed Orbis S1, Orbis S2, and Orbis Classic, tagged with the model numbers SM-R720, SM-R730, and SM-R730, respectively.
There's no official word on how the three variants will differ from each other. However, it's possible that Samsung could offer them in different designs, build materials, color schemes, and even connectivity options (e.g. Wi-Fi or cellular) at various prices, just like how Apple has done with its new Apple Watch.
Earlier this year, Samsung already provided hints about an upcoming round smartwatch when it released an updated software development kit (SDK) for new Tizen-based smartwatch models. The updated SDK, which teases the company's "next generation of the Gear device," was released prior to any official product announcement.
Previous reports indicated that the Samsung Gear A will have 1.65-inch circular Super AMOLED display with 360x360 resolution. It will be powered by the company's in-house dual-core Exynos 3472 processor running at 0.2GHz. There's also a Mali-400 MP4 graphics processor clocked at 45 MHz, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, and a 250mAh battery. Bluetooth 4.1 is reportedly built-in and there will also be a variant with Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n support. The device is said to be running a special version of Samsung's Tizen OS and not Google's popular Android Wear OS.
Another interesting feature aside from the round display is the supposed integration of a rotating bezel ring. If proven to be accurate, this will give the Samsung Gear A an innovative edge as it will provide users a more interactive way to navigate the watch's OS. Some tech watchers suggest that this screen-surrounding mechanism will function similarly to the Apple Watch's digital crown, allowing users to scroll through content via a physical twist instead of finger taps.
SamMobile previously predicted that Samsung's round circular smartwatch will be launched at MWC 2015 back in March. We all know now that Samsung Gear A was not introduced at the said event. However, with the Apple Watch already being officially revealed on March 2015, we can expect the Samsung Gear A to launch before this year ends. GSM Arena noted that it could be during Samsung's upcoming Unpacked event on August 13, or at the IFA 2015 in Berlin which will happen in a few weeks.
