We may be in a global lockdown but it looks like Samsung is pressing ahead with its Galaxy Watch smartwatch sequel regardless.
A Samsung smartwatch (spotted by Sammobile) has hit Chinese regulators – codenamed the SM-R840 and SM-R850. For those who follow this kind of thing, those monikors clearly refer to Samsung’s range of smartwatches, and have been named in Galaxy Watch leaks in the past – although we don’t know whether this will be a Galaxy Watch 2 or Galaxy Watch Active 3.
Two codenames points to two sizes, so we’re likely looking at the similar 40mm and 44mm to the existing Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 or the 42mm/46mm versions from the original Galaxy Watch.
We’ve also seen R845 and R855 models mentioned, which should be the LTE equivalents.
So what do we know? The answer to that is (still) not a great deal.
We know from previous certifications that we’re likely to see the device in black, silver, and gold.
And it seems rumors we previously reported about storage being upped to 8GB will happen – great news for those enjoying Spotify offline syncing, which has been supported for a few generations of devices now.
And it seems the battery will increase in size, from 247mAh on the Active 2 to 330mAh – which seems unlikely to majorly change longevity from the current 36(ish) hours – but could power new, current smartwatch features.
And from the way the smartwatch wellness industry is moving, that will likely be further elements of 24/7 tracking.
Samsung has never been a brand to shy away from adding new features, so we’d expect to see something that competes directly with the Apple Watch Series 5. We’d expect ECG, sleep tracking, blood oxygen and blood pressure – for which Samsung recently won clearance from the Korean health authority.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 has always enjoyed an always-on display too, so Samsung already has the jump on Apple in terms of battery life.
But given Apple seems to be dabbling with even more potent health tracking stats ahead of its Series 6 launch later this year, we wouldn’t bet against Samsung taking a deeper look at stress tracking as part of its wellness offering.
That’s as well as building upon things like Spotify support to compete with Apple Music on the Apple Watch.
This is all speculation, but we’d also hazard a guess that we won’t have to wait too long.