A new version of the Pebble smartwatch is right around the corner, and a leaked image—first posted by 9to5Google and found on Pebble’s own servers early Monday—may give us a glimpse of what to expect.
The originally leaked image reveals a redesigned chassis and a color display, which would be big departures for Pebble. Its current offerings have sharper corners and a two-tone e-paper display. Other rumors suggest new features, such as voice, which has been long overdue.
See also: Swatch’s Smartwatch Is No Threat To Apple—But Pebble Should Look Out
Fortunately, it won’t take much time until we know how many of the leaks and rumors pan out. The company is on the verge of announcing new hardware and software, and a countdown clock on Pebble’s homepage can be seen ticking down to 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what could be heading our way.
Color Display, Microphone, and a New OS Rumored
According to 9to5Google, the leaked image (featured, above) showed a new version of the Pebble watch with a yellow screen.
A person close to Pebble claims that the image is not legitimate. However, ReadWrite confirmed the file’s appearance on Pebble’s server this morning. Since then, the image has changed, with the link now pointing to an entirely different file.
As of this writing, the replacement now shows a very different sort of pebble (below).
Last week, 9to5Google covered other rumored features for the smartwatch, including a thinner design, a microphone for use with “Nuance voice recognition software,” a better backlight, and a revamped operating system developed by the team that created Palm’s webOS. (Ironically, the latter may wind up in a new LG smartwatch). The report also says that the next version of Pebble will run on a Cortex M4 processor and feature a 6-axis gyroscope.
See also: What Pebble Needs To Get Right With Its New Smartwatch Platform
Pebble recently released a firmware update for its current smartwatch models that allows for some Android Wear compatibility. Since many Android Wear apps use voice commands, it would not be entirely surprising to see the new Pebble come packing a microphone. And whether or not the leaked image is the real deal, it seems long overdue for Pebble to embrace the world of color displays.
No touching!
A touchscreen display, however, is conspicuously absent from the rumors.
One might think Pebble would go the touchscreen route to keep up with the forthcoming Apple Watch. Then again, maybe the company is leaving it out to maintain its long-lasting battery life—certainly one of the device’s strongest selling points.
The likelihood that Pebble would sacrifice that seems slim to none, but we’ll find out when the countdown clock hits zero tomorrow.
Images courtesy of Pebble
