We've been waiting for the first circular smartwatch from Samsung for quite some time now. Codenamed ‘Project Orbis‘ internally, the Gear A smartwatch runs a version of Tizen platform, and is expected to be officially announced either during the company's event on August 13, or during IFA 2015.
Now, we have received some more information about multiple variants of the Gear A. According to the information that we've received, the Gear A has at least three variants – SM-R720, SM-R730, and SM-R732 –, and all of them have the word ‘Orbis‘ in their internal codenames. The SM-R720 is internally known as the Orbis S1, the SM-R730 is called the Orbis S2, while the SM-R732 is internally known as the Orbis Classic.
It is possible that Samsung is trying to do what Apple did with the Apple Watch by launching multiple variants of its smartwatch. It might launch multiple variants of the Gear A with differences in connectivity options as well as style, and maybe build materials.
The South Korean electronics giant has already revealed some information regarding its upcoming Gear smartwatch including a rotating bezel for navigation and some launch partners who will have their apps ready before the announcement of the Gear A. Not only did Samsung release the SDK to developers, it has also started testing mobile payments through its upcoming smartwatch.
As we reported earlier, the Gear A smartwatch is expected to feature a circular Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 360 x 360 pixels, an Exynos 3472 processor, 768MB RAM, 4GB of onboard storage, Bluetooth v4.1, Wi-Fi b/g/n, cellular connectivity (in some variants), NFC, a heart-rate sensor, and a 250 mAh battery. Do you think that Samsung can make a smartwatch that is better than Android Wear watches or the Apple Watch?
