Samsung has had one iconic design feature for the better part of a decade now, with its rotating bezel. However, it seems that may finally be coming to an end, as the Galaxy Watch 5 series is apparently set to do away with the rotating bezel entirely.
Galaxy Watch 5 Pro won’t have a rotating bezel.
There are three Samsung smartwatches in the pipeline for later this year. The Galaxy Watch 5 series would consist of two sizes of the same smartwatch, with the Galaxy Watch 5 “Pro” set to offer a sizable upgrade to the battery and physical size.
Unfortunately, though, it seems that the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro won’t have a rotating bezel. Reliable tipster Ice Universe says on Twitter that the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will “disappoint” in reply to a tweet about the rotating bezel. That means the feature likely won’t be present on that upcoming wearable, even though it was originally expected to come.
While one variant losing the feature normally wouldn’t be cause for any doom and gloom, it does seem that the entire Galaxy Watch 5 lineup will be missing the rotating bezel. Another previous report made it pretty clear that the “Classic” design is going away with this next release.
Is this the end for Samsung’s rotating bezel?
Sadly, this seems like it might be the end of the iconic rotating bezel, at least in its physical form. Samsung still has the “virtual” version, which uses a touch-sensitive bezel around the screen on its normal Galaxy Watch 4. There’s no reason to believe the Watch 5 won’t do the same.
However, this wouldn’t be the first time the rotating bezel’s future has been in question. In 2019, Samsung released the Galaxy Watch Active series, which were the company’s first smartwatches in almost five years without a rotating bezel. Instead, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 introduced the touch-sensitive bezel to fill the gap.
Samsung did eventually bring the feature back, though, with the Galaxy Watch 3 offering a rotating bezel in 2020. And of course, the Galaxy Watch 4 series kept the feature going, with the “Classic” option retaining the rotating bezel. In its previous Tizen OS, Samsung designed the entire operating system around navigating with the bezel, while Wear OS is a bit less reliant on that option in particular. Wear OS 3 with Samsung’s One UI Watch skin is just as easy to use without a rotating bezel, so it isn’t entirely surprising that Samsung wants to ditch the option.
Will you still be willing to buy a Galaxy Watch 5 if it lacks a rotating bezel? Let us know in the comments!
More on Samsung:
- How to install Google Assistant on your Galaxy Watch 4
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro tipped to use sapphire glass and titanium
- You can already sign up for the first Galaxy Watch 4 beta program
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