Rumours have been swirling that Samsung might be moving to make an Android-based smartwatch, perhaps even a WeaerOS device. Now thanks to the team at XDA it looks like we can at least confirm that a WearOS devices were in some sort of development.
Meet Merlot, the watch not the wine. Fragments of code found in the Exynos based Samsung Galaxy S20 released a reference to a DEvice codenamed Merlot whit the take WearOS included. That’s fairly strong evidence that someone was mucking around with an unknown WearOS device.
Now, it’s a long walk from a fragment of code to a released product but this is the best indication we have that Samsung might indeed be ready to release another WearOS device. We have to admit, we’d be excited by that.
WearOS has stood on the sidelines of greatness partly due to a lack of hardware leadership by Google, partly because a lack of good wearable SOC’s and partly because there have been more compelling options. If Samsung is releasing a device in the Galaxy Watch range, that is an indication that at least the SOC problems might be over.
While we impatiently wait for the WearOS device we have been dreaming of we will sit here and eat our grains of salt.
