Juicy new details regarding Samsung’s forthcoming Gear A smartwatch have been uncovered, thanks to the arrival of the software development kit (SDK).
The device – which Samsung calls “The Next Gear” – is said to feature a metal chassis and a round face. It will also sport a rotating bezel that can be used to scroll through pages, zoom in and out and adjust settings such as brightness and volume.
Samsung has made the Gear A’s display slightly better than its Gear S predecessor. It has a 1.18-inch screen running at 360×360 with a pixel count of 305PPI – an improvement of 5 pixels per inch.
Perhaps the biggest piece of information enclosed within the dev kit is the fact that the device won’t be running on Android Wear, as many expected. Samsung has again opted to use its own Tizen platform, which could prove to be a deal-breaker to many users who have come to know and appreciate how Android functions.
In terms of internals, the SDK tells us to expect Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular support from the device, though it will reportedly only be 2G. That’s a downgrade over its predecessor, which offered up 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA. The watch will also boast a heart-rate monitor, accelerometer and gyroscope.
The omission of any sort of meaningful stand-alone connectivity options likely indicates that the Gear A will need to be paired with a smartphone or tablet/phablet in order to fully function.
The device is expected to get its full official reveal at IFA 2015, which gets under way in September. We’ll keep our ears to the ground for more information in the meantime.
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