One of the most recognizable features of the Samsung Galaxy Watch line is the physical rotating bezel on the outside of the display, which gives users a physical input device with which to interact with their watch. The rotating bezel has always felt like Samsung’s secret weapon in the smartwatch battle. It is, without question, the best input device.
No one, not even Apple’s crown, comes close. But in a surprising turn of events, Samsung may actually get rid of this fan-favorite feature with the upcoming Galaxy Watch 5 lineup. Recently, we discovered a third variant of the Galaxy Watch 5 with a monstrous battery which should fix all the battery problems users have with current wearOS-powered devices.
And this new watch could be named either the Galaxy Watch 5 Ultra or Watch 5 Pro. But now, Sammobile reports that there won’t be three variants of the Watch 5. Instead, there will only be two. Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Ultra or Pro. That means Samsung is getting rid of the Classic lineup. Now, this also implies Samsung is possibly getting rid of the physical rotating bezel along with it. Sammobile isn’t sure about whether or not any of the two variants of the Watch 5 will feature a rotatable bezel, so there’s still hope.
But if Samsung is indeed getting rid of it then it would be a very stupid idea in my opinion. As I’ve said, the rotating bezel sets Samsung watches apart from the competition and it’s actually really quite useful. I get it that Samsung has replicated the feature with a touch bezel but the thing is it’s not as precise. It’s very easy to overshoot the app you’re trying to select and it’s nowhere near as satisfying as a physical dial.
So I hope Samsung keeps the feature for at least the Watch 5 Ultra or Pro. Sammobile also reports that Samsung will offer the Watch 5 in two sizes while the Watch 5 Ultra will be offered only in One. And both of them will run a new version of One UI Watch on top of Wear OS 3. With that said, live images of Google’s first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch have been leaked.
Apparently, a Google engineer accidentally left the watch in a restaurant similar to how the iPhone 4 was leaked back in 2010. Although the iPhone 4 leak was totally unintentional, I can’t say the same with the Pixel Watch. Anyway, the watch itself looks amazing. Kinda like the Watch Active 2 but with a more round finish. It looks like the watch is totally bezel-less but that’s not the case. It actually has the same bezels like the Galaxy Watch 4.
We also have an image of the watch sitting next to a 40mm Apple Watch and a 46mm Galaxy Watch. And it’s about the same size as the Galaxy Watch. Unfortunately, the guy who leaked it wasn’t able to fully boot up the watch to see how the user interface might look. When he tried turning it on, a white Google logo appeared and nothing happened after that. Google will launch the Pixel watch at Google IO on May 26th.
