Longshine Technologies, a Chinese ODM, has developed a product that marries the analogue and digital worlds. The circular Halo smartwatch has an analogue face and transparent OLED touchscreen.
Currently in the prototype stage, the Halo 1 is a smartphone companion device, while the Halo 2 has 2G connectivity and a SIM card slot, and can be used as a standalone device.
Because a transparent display is used, there have been compromises in the colour depth and screen resolution, Longshine told Mobile Geeks. The Halo 1 has 8-bit colour and 96 x 96 resolution. The digital display is turned on through a button on the left of the watch, appearing to float over the analogue face.
Android is used on the watch, although not the new Android Wear OS. Instead, Longshine’s Halo is based on Android 2.3. The OS runs on an ARM-based processor from Intel (XMM 2231), clocked at 300MHz. There is 512MB of storage, and apps for messaging, calls (Halo 2 only) and music are pre-installed, as well as a pedometer, compass and stopwatch. Battery life is expected to be three days – primarily because the display does not need to be always-on. A magnetised USB adapter is used to charge the watches.
