HTC's Android Wear smartwatch project might still be alive

Rumors of HTC's dip into the smartwatch realm go all the way back to 2015, when we first heard of a device codenamed "halfbeak". After that initial wave of excitement, little was actually heard of the alleged wearable, until today. Out of the blue, a working HTC-branded unit was spotted in a rather extensive photo set on Weibo.

HTC halfbeak

Even back in 2015, little information about halfbeak actually got out. The device was either in way too early stages of development of very well hidden. Most sources did, however, suggest a flat tire style display, with a resolution of 360x360 pixels and a development parthership with Under Armor.

HTC halfbeak

It appears now, well over a year later, the cooperation has apparently endured, as one of the photos clearly shows the Under Armor logo on the back of the unit. As for the flat tire design - it is now replaced with a much more contemporary round panel. This does add some credibility to the theory that we are, indeed, looking at a recent development prototype, not something, someone dug up from storage.

HTC halfbeak

Then again, the latter might be true as well. After all, it is also worth noting that the unit appears to be running on an older 1.x Android Wear version. This strikes us as somewhat of a red flag regarding authenticity, since Android Wear 2.0 should be officially released only a few days from now and thus be the development platform of choice for any upcoming Wear hardware.

We will just leave it at that and let you decide for yourself whether to wait on halfbeak at MWC 2017, or not.

Source (in Chinese) | Via