Samsung is prepping a new smartwatch based on Google’s soon-to-be revealed Android Wear software – and it’s called the Samsung Gear Live.
Samsung hit the smartwatch space fairly hard at MWC 2014 with its Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit devices which all ran the company’s own operating system, Tizen, unlike the Android-powered Galaxy Gear it launched the previous year.
But now it’s going back down the official Google route, according to Alt1040.com and SamMobile. According to the information, the wearable will feature a 1.63in Super AMOLED touch display, a 1.2GHz processor with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of onboard storage capacity, a heart rate sensor, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 300mAh battery cell. Like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Gear Live (note the absence of the Galaxy brand name) will be IP67 certified for water and dust resistance.
SamMobile speculates that Samsung will simply take the existing Gear 2, load it with Android Wear and give it a new name, which is certainly possible as Samsung has been known to pull similar tricks in the past (the Windows Phone based Samsung Ativ S springs to mind as an effective clone of its contemporary Andorid-based Galaxy S counterpart). If this is the case it will likely be the Gear 2 Neo, however, as Android Wear is currently not thought to support cameras and the regular Gear 2 has one, while the Gear 2 Neo does not – there’s also no mention of a camera in the leaked spec.
The publication also notes that Samsung recently trademarked the Galaxy Wear name, so perhaps we will see Samsung’s Android branding appear in some form.
Google is expected to reveal much about Android Wear at the Google I/O conference, which kicks off later today (July 25). That will likely include demonstrations on devices, so maybe the Gear Live could make an appearance. In terms of an announcement/release, we can only speculate, but Samsung is already thought to be unveiling the Galaxy Note 4 and a “premium” version of the Galaxy S5 at IFA 2014 in Berlin, Germany, this September. Previously it also announced the original Galaxy Gear at this event as it paired with the Galaxy Note 3, so perhaps we’ll see a similar schedule again this year.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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