3D renders of Samsung’s forthcoming smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, have emerged online thanks to leaker Evan Blass and 91Mobiles, a month ahead of their anticipated launch in August.
The renders show the two watches from each angle and line up with other leaked facts about the two devices.
Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is the more premium of the two and the whispered successor to last year’s Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The alarming news is that the rumors about the watch no longer featuring a physical rotating bezel seem to be true — there’s no sign of the fan-favorite mechanism in these renders. There’s also only mention one model size, 45mm, rather than the two sizes we saw last year (46mm and 44mm).
There’s the standard Galaxy Watch 5, which includes a more straightforward design. It’ll reportedly be found in two sizes; 44mm and an unspecified smaller size. Both it and the Watch 5 Pro will reportedly feature a pair of physical buttons to the right of their screens, have the option of LTE connectivity, GPS support, and 5ATM of water resistance — meaning they can survive at a depth of 50 meters for up to 10 minutes at a time.
Both watches will run Google’s WearOS 3.5, skinned with Samsung’s One UI Watch 4.5. A previous report suggested they’ll support quicker 10W fast charging rather than the 5W charging of their predecessors.
Both watches could be announced next month as part of Samsung’s annual summer Unpacked event. They’ll reportedly be joined by a new set of Galaxy Pro earbuds and new Flip and Fold foldable devices.
Wear OS is a version of Google’s Android operating system developed for smartwatches and other wearables. By pairing with mobile phones operating with Android version 6.0 “Marshmallow” or newer or iOS version 10.0 or more recent with limited aid from Google’s pairing application, Wear OS integrates Google Assistant technology and notifications into a smartwatch form factor.
Wear OS supports Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE connectivity and various features and applications. Watch face styles include square, round, and rectangular. Hardware manufacturing associates include Asus, HTC, Intel, Broadcom, Fossil, LG, MediaTek, Imagination Technologies, Motorola, Qualcomm, Samsung, New Balance, Huawei, Skagen, Polar, TAG Heuer, Suunto, and Mobvoi.
Over 720,000 Android Wear smartwatches were dispatched in the first six months of availability. On 15 March 2018, Wear OS had 10 and 50 million application installations. Wear OS accounted for 10% of the smartwatch market in 2015.
In January 2021, Google finished its acquisition of wearables manufacturer Fitbit. Upon its announcement of the buy in November 2019, Google’s head of hardware Rick Osterloh noted that it would be “an opportunity to fund even more in Wear OS as nicely as introduce Made by Google wearable gadgets into the market.”
At Google I/O, Google announced a significant update to the platform in May 2021, internally known as Wear OS 3.0. It comprises a new visual design inspired by Android 12 and Fitbit exercise tracking features. Google also unveiled a partnership with Samsung Electronics, collaborating with Google to unify its Tizen-based smartwatch platform with Wear OS. In addition, it has committed to using Wear OS on its future smartwatch products. The underlying codebase was upgraded to Android 11. Wear OS 3.0 will be obtainable to Wear OS devices operating Snapdragon Wear 4100 Qualcomm system on chip and will be an opt-in upgrade needing a factory reset to install.
Wear OS is able to synchronize notifications from a paired device and support voice control with the “OK Google” hotword and gesture-based input. Wear OS blends with Google services such as the Google Assistant and Google mobile services (having Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Pay) and third-party watch apps from Play Store. From the watch face, the user can swipe up to get their notifications, down to a fast settings panel, from the left to view their personalized Google feed, and the right to view Google Fit. Via Google Fit and similar applications, Wear OS supports ride and run track. Furthermore, devices containing heart rate sensors can perform a reading on-demand or at intervals throughout the day. In addition, the watch can control the media being played and streamed on paired devices.