Even though the Moto 360 was late out the gate compared to Android Wear devices like the Samsung Gear Live or LG G Watch, it’s still considered a first gen Android Wear device. While there’s a lot that we loved about the Moto 360 — as mentioned in our review — it did come with its fair share of shortcomings and thus, there was still plenty of room for improvement in a followup.
With OEMs introducing quality watch designs with solid aluminum builds, the Moto 360 is no longer the only fashionable — or most durable — Android Wear device on the market. We got a sneak peek at what Motorola could have planned for a Moto 360 followup after a Lenovo CEO posted an image to social media of what appeared to be an all new smartwatch housed inside a soft briefcase (Lenovo bought Motorola last year for $2.91 billion). Other than that brief look, not much else is known. That is, until today.
We received a tip from a popular app developer who recently noticed a mysterious Motorola-built Android Wear device pinging his Android developer console from Mundelein, a city not too far from Motorola’s HQ in Chicago, Illinois. The device carrying the codename “Smelt” and is reportedly running Android 5.1 and carries a screen resolution of 360 x 360. While we’re not too familiar with the word “smelt” outside the context “whoever smelt it, dealt it,” Webster’s also defines it as “extract (metal) from its ore by a process involving heating and melting.” Interesting.
Currently, Motorola’s only Android Wear device is the Moto 360 and only makes sense that this mysterious “Smelt” could be their replacement/sequel/followup for 2015. If that definition is anything to go by, we could be looking at a device that’s even more premium or luxurious than last year’s Moto 360 and that recent Lenovo leak seemed to show a device that follows this definition. At the very least, it might be better built (the plastic back on ours has already begun cracking). We’ll keep our eyes peeled for details.
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