Samsung’s next Gear 360 camera has recently passed through the FCC, which could signify that Samsung may be announcing a new model of the 360-degree camera at their upcoming Unpacked event that takes place on March 29th. The FCC documents don’t reveal a ton of information about the new camera and while the Label Information document does show what the label looks like that will be placed on the bottom of the device as well as its model number, which is listed as SM-R210, it doesn’t list any information about what the device actually is.
Having said that, the Test Report document does, and displays that the device in question is a Gear 360 camera. Since the model number for the original Gear 360 is different from what’s listed in these FCC documents and considering Samsung announced the original model at last year’s Mobile World Congress in February and that it’s already launched, this is a new model but it isn’t necessarily the previously rumored Gear 360 Pro that is thought to be announced alongside the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, although the SM-R210 model number has been mentioned before in with the Gear 360 Pro so it’s likely that this may be that device.
While these documents don’t usually hold a lot of information about the device sometimes they do include images. There aren’t any live images included here, but the SAR report document in the filing does have a 3D rendered image of the shape of the device which depicts what consumers should expect in terms of the new design that Samsung is going for with their second generation Gear 360 camera. Based on the render, Samsung may be moving away from a camera that stands on its own based on the extendable legs, and transitioning into a camera that is held in the hand by the user instead complete with a solid handle as the base of the unit. If this is the case it would give users more control over what is seen by the camera and therefore what ends up getting recorded as they could change the position of the camera at any time. There’s no indication that the render is exactly what the final product would look like, but it gives users an idea of what Samsung’s plans have been.
