Sony Corporation is reportedly preparing of a new breed of smartwatches, with a face and wristband made of e-paper, Bloomberg reports. The exact words used to describe the innovative products did not actually mention e-paper, mostly used as a display for e-book reading devices, but a “patented material that allows the entire surface area to function as a display and change its appearance”. The product could be released as soon as next year, the reports say.
Such a device would have a series of advantages over its traditional LCD and OLED displays. For one, it would consume much less power, offering the device a much bigger battery life (as we all know, displays are the components that consume the most power in case of such smart devices). Besides, it would allow the device to have a much larger usable area – given that the material would cover both its face and the wrist band. The innovative product is reportedly under development of a new division created by Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai, with the goal to “fast-track” promising products, and the new smartwatch will be the first results of the effort.
Sony has released its latest smartwatch – simply called SmartWatch 3 – this September. The product features a 1.6″ LCD display with a 320×320 pixel resolution, a quad-core ARM A7 processor, 512 megabytes of RAM, 4 gigabytes of internal storage and a series of sensors and communication options one would expect from such a device. The gadget has a 430 mAh battery, offering it a two day battery life under normal use. The product is waterproof, available with a black and a yellow wrist strap, and works with Android 4.3 and Android Wear. It is priced $249.99 in the US. Its most notable competitor will be Apple Watch, set to be released in the first part of 2015, with its price point currently not specified.