The Samsung Galaxy Buds X wireless earbuds will indeed be bean-shaped, as confirmed by the new Galaxy Wearable app. And the app also confirms that Samsung’s next smartwatch will be the Galaxy Watch 3.
That’s all thanks to some digging by XDA Developers, who found assets in the Galaxy Wearable app that pointed towards the Galaxy Watch 3 nomenclature and showed how the next Galaxy Buds will sport the previously leaked bean design. The assets don’t shed a lot of light on the products themselves, but they do at least reveal that there are new Samsung wearables to look forward to.
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The Galaxy Buds X, or Galaxy Buds 2, promise to be a decent upgrade over the Galaxy Buds Plus. The next Samsung earbuds promise active noise cancellation and an overall improvement in sound, as well as a suite of fitness features, such as a fitness guide to keep track of distance covered, calories burned and heart rate changes.
The change in design from the circular aesthetic to a bean-like shape could further add to the comfort of the earbuds, and potentially make them easier to wear when exercising outdoors or at the gym. However, competition is stiff in our best wireless earbuds list, so the Galaxy Buds X might need to pull something more out of their sleeve to compete with the likes of the AirPods Pro.
Galaxy Watch 3 confirmed
We’d already heard that Samsung’s next smartwatch could be called the Galaxy Watch 3 rather than the Watch 2, which could cause confusion with the Galaxy Watch Active 2. But the Galaxy Wearables app helps confirm it and lend weight to the rumors we’ve seen so far.
From what we know so far the Galaxy Watch 3 is expected to come in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm, shaving off a millimetre from the previous Galaxy Watch models. But more interesting is the return of the rotating bezel that can be used to navigate the smartwatch’s user interface. We’ve used such rotating bezels before and found that they work rather well on circular smartwatches and avoid the need for precise taps on a small wrist-mounted screen.
Other expected Galaxy Watch 3 specs include onboard GPS, 8GB of storage space, 5ATM-rated water resistance, and a Gorilla Glass DX display to withstand the rigors of daily life. Blood pressure monitoring could also jump from the Galaxy Watch Active 2 to the Galaxy Watch 3, which could beef up its health-tracking functionality.
With the Apple Watch 6 coming this year with rumored features such as blood oxygen monitoring and stress-tracking, Samsung will need to pull out all the stops with the Galaxy Watch 3 if it’s to compete with Apple’s class-leading smartwatch.
