Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 will allegedly take a note from the Pixel Watch with curved glass

According to a new report, Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch 6 will move back toward a design with curved glass, just like Google’s Pixel Watch.

Ice Universe says that Samsung is planning to re-adopt a curved glass design on the Galaxy Watch 6, which is due out later this year. That would be in stark contrast to Samsung’s past few smartwatch releases, which have largely stuck with only flat panels. The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 4 before it both shipped with completely flat glass over the display, with the newer model adopting sapphire.

Related: Galaxy Watch 5 Review: Wear OS’ best gets just a little bit better

It wasn’t all that long ago, though, that Samsung was using curved glass on smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 and its predecessor both utilized glass that was curved along the edges, though not to a particularly dramatic degree.

How Samsung decides to implement curved glass on the Galaxy Watch 6 really remains to be seen, but it’s highly likely that it won’t be to the same intensity as Google’s Pixel Watch. Where Google’s watch uses curved glass to create a “dome” shape, it’s a reasonably safe bet to assume Samsung is using the design to hide the bezel on its smartwatch, much like it has on smartphones in the past. Apple, notably, also uses curved glass on the Apple Watch, which is undoubtedly also inspiration for the move.

We don’t know much else about the Galaxy Watch 6 at this point, but the smartwatch is likely to make its debut later this year, perhaps alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5.

More on Samsung:

• Galaxy Watch 5 now uses its temperature sensor for cycle tracking
• Samsung’s new Galaxy Book 3 laptops are even better connected to your phone
• Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Stellar battery life, disappointing camera