Samsung has been using Tizen for its smartwatches for years, but that might change this year as the company is rumoured to be adopting WearOS.
There has been a lot of speculation and back-and-forth on the operating system Samsung’s next smartwatch is going to be running. For many years, Samsung Gear smartwatches have run on Tizen, the company’s own operating system, with rumours often surfacing that the next version would run Wear OS instead. Now there is a new update of sorts that says Samsung’s upcoming ‘Galaxy Watch’ may, after all, run WearOS and not Tizen. The rumour also says that it might come with a blood pressure monitor built in.
The report is courtesy Ice Universe, a leaker with notable credibility when it comes to Samsung products. According to his tweet, the upcoming Samsung smartwatch will not only be a departure in terms of the OS, but also name. It won’t be called ‘Gear’, but will instead be simply named ‘Galaxy Watch,’ bringing the nomenclature in-sync with the company’s Android smartphones. New “UX interaction” is on board, which isn't surprising given that this will be the company's first use of Android Wear / Wear OS in years.
More interestingly, the Galaxy Watch is said to also house a blood pressure monitor, a first for a Samsung smartwatch. Samsung does hold a patent for a blood-pressure monitoring method that does not involve an inflatable cuff, and that might be seen used in the upcoming watch. However, Samsung would not the first to introduce a smartwatch with a blood pressure monitor as Asus’s Vivowatch BP which was unveiled at Computex 2018 in Taipei is the first of its kind. The Asus Vivowatch BP has currently only been unveiled, with no word on availability or price, but we do know that a smartwatch with blood pressure monitoring exists. The Vivowatch BP uses ECG and PPG sensors to provide real-time blood pressure measurement in just 15 seconds.
The leak, unfortunately, does not present us with a clear picture on the launch timeline of the next Samsung smartwatch. It is possible that it might be unveiled alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 since that is the next big event coming up for Samsung, but there’s no knowing for sure.
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