ooks like Samsung might be pulling the New Coke/Coke Classic switcheroo on us. After ditching the much-loved rotating bezel on last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 — even the ludicrously chunky Pro model — it looks like it’ll be coming back again this year for the Galaxy Watch 6.
Given the rotating bezel was last seen on the Galaxy Watch 4 “Classic”, it feels Samsung may really embrace the finer details of Coca Cola’s cautionary tale with its branding, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Word of Samsung’s reverse ferret comes from the reliable leaker OnLeaks, shared with MySmartPrice. As you can see from the render above, the physical rotating bezel is back, complete with its slightly ridged edge. It looks a little thinner than before, which means you won’t have to sacrifice any screen space (rumours says 1.47in) for the fun of a twiddly bezel.
Why would you want a rotating bezel? Well, not only does it give you something pleasingly tactile to fiddle with in the post fidget-spinner world, but the bezel lets you select apps and adjust settings. It’s a hell of a lot less awkward than tapping tiny app icons on such a small screen. Especially for the sausage fingered amongst us.
Elsewhere, SamMobile says that the Galaxy Watch 6 will feature the Exynos W980 chip — an upgrade to the W920 processor that Samsung has used for the past two generations. That should give us around a 10% speed boost, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but wearables don’t have anywhere near the heavy lifting demands of modern smartphones, so that shouldn’t be too big of a deal.
We’re probably a few months from Samsung revealing what’s up its figurative and literal sleeve. The company is expected to reveal its new foldables in late July, so it may decide to announce the next generation of watches then. Or it may conclude that more events means more press attention and decide to go later. Watch this space.
