It’s hard to believe, but even though no one has been wearing an Apple Watch Series 5 for terribly long at the moment (not even two months yet) we’re already starting to see rumors about next year’s Apple Watch model starting to trickle out.
TF International Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo, probably the industry’s most reliable and well-connected Apple insider, is predicting via a new research note he’s released that the Apple Watch 6 will not surprisingly be faster as well as offering even better water resistance than its predecessor. Additionally, faster Wi-Fi and cellular speeds might also make for even better wireless transmission.
Per Kuo’s research note, which has been reviewed by MacRumors, all of the above will be helped along by Apple switching to liquid crystal polymer or liquid crystal polymer material for the circuit boards in next year’s watch, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2020. That’s compared to the Series 5 models and earlier generations using a different material called polyimide.
As noted by Appleinsider, liquid crystal polymer is an inexpensive material with electrical properties that make it useful for things like motherboard connections as well as antennae. It has low resistance, making it useful as a small connection between the components inside an Apple Watch and is also stable across a range of temperatures. Kuo, meanwhile, has also said that three firms, Dongshan Precision, Avary Holding, and Flexium Interconnect, will end up being the main suppliers of liquid crystal polymer for the Apple Watch Series 6.
In terms of what else we could be in store for with the 2020 edition of Apple’s signature wearable, earlier rumors have suggested MicroLED displays as well as the possibility of sleep tracking, though we’d probably need to see more battery improvement for that to be viable. An improved S chip might also show up next year.
Apple announced the Watch Series 5 at its product event in mid-September, with release happening later that month. The watch was launched alongside the iPhone 11, with the new generation of the wearable featuring display tech that allowed Apple to bring always-on functionality to the smartwatch, among other features.
