Samsung Orbis: round smartwatch with Exynos 7420 on board?

According to a new rumor launched by the South Korean media, Samsung is currently working on a new round smartwatch codenamed Orbis (SM-R720). Unlike most other smartwatches currently out there, the Samsung Orbis is said to be based on Tizen, and not on Android Wear.

At the moment, Samsung is leading the emerging smartwatch market with 1.2 million devices shipped in 2014, although the Apple Watch - set to launch on April 24 in various markets across the globe - will surely prove to be a disruptive element for the smartwatch market as we know it. According to the South Korean media, the Samsung Orbis will be designed from the ground up to compete against the Apple Watch.

The new rumor suggests that, in order to create the ultimate smartwatch, Samsung will equip the Orbis with an in-house Exynos 7420 chip, the same octa-core chip that's being used by the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. Granted, this may seem like a strange decision given that smartwatches don't need as much processing power as a flagship Android smartphone does, but the rumors suggest that it's not the processing prowess that Samsung wants to integrate in the Orbis. Instead, the South Korean manufacturer is said to adopt the Exynos 7420 in order to take advantage of the chip's power efficiency. Some voices in the tech blogosphere suggest that Samsung could end up under-clocking the Exynos 7420 to further limit power consumption.

The 64-bit Exynos 7420 SoC is manufactured using a 14 nm technology in partnership between GlobalFoundries and Samsung. According to Samsung, the Exynos 7420 consumes about 35 percent less energy compared to 20 nm chips while providing 20 percent more processing power.

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