Samsung is reportedly considering a return to the square form factor for its Galaxy Watch wearables line.
According to Sammobile, Samsung is looking to bring back its square smartwatch design. It doesn’t supply a time frame for when this switch might happen, and it’s not even clear whether the forthcoming Galaxy Watch 7 will be square or circle.
The report does claim that the move is “enthusiastically being considered internally” over at Samsung HQ, and that the switch is “very much on the cards”. All of which makes it sound like this could be more than mere dabbling with prototypes.
Some might suspect that the immense success of the square (well, squircle) Apple Watch might have something to do with Samsung’s reasoning here. However, it’s worth remembering that Samsung did get onto the whole square smartwatch thing almost two years before Apple.
Anyone who remembers Samsung’s smartwatch debut in 2013 will recall that the Samsung Galaxy Gear (pictured) was, in fact, square. It was only in subsequent smartwatch releases (starting with the Gear S2) that the South Korean company moved towards the circular design language that we see today in the Galaxy Watch 6.
How avid fans of Samsung’s rotating bezel design will react to having their favourite tactile input method taken away from them once again remains to be seen. Presumably Samsung will be working on a Digital Crown equivalent as we speak.
