I demand BangleJS3!

Also I'd say Bangle 2 is not ugly at first sight so it is definitely not "apple-like" rectangular shape

I agree, Bangle.js 2 is more similar to Amazfit Bip smartwatches.

Definitely from a technical standpoint, round watches are a total pain - you still need to store and transmit a square buffer even for the round screen, so you're wasting 1/4 of your memory and bandwidth.

I can see the appeal of round watches, but I think that for Bangle.js where we're trying to be quite 'down to earth', round isn't a great fit.

And yes, I'd love a bigger display and smaller bezel too, but display choices are pretty limited. For some reason, 1.28" screens seem kind of a standard for transflective displays. There might be some ST7301 based ones coming out at some point, but I haven't seen anything yet

you still need to store and transmit a square buffer even for the round screen, so you're wasting 1/4 of your memory and bandwidth.

Actually it is a bit of pain but it is doable, if you store the circle as lines with variable length and keep size (or accumulated offset) of each line (which is even symmetrical) you can save the memory. then the pixel location in the framebuffer is not y*width+x but something like yoffsets[y]+x. when sending over spi it is sent by lines so is not that much slower. Did not do it in the end but was thinking about it for the G5 watch (454x454 resolution). 454*454=206116, 3.14*227^2~=161802
So I would save about 21.5% of memory - a bit less with some rounding/byte padding. Not that much actually but still something.

Oof. Yes, I guess that's doable!

On the Starfield watch we did I just used the whole buffer but I used the corners to store extra data. So as the hands moved we stored what was in the background behind them in the corner of the screen so we didn't have to redraw everything - it worked quite well.

The best feature of Bangle.js 2 is the memory LCD in my opinion. You don’t need to tilt, touch or press a button to check time, date, steps or any other info you’d like to see if you have set up your clock and widgets. I have used TicWatch pro GPS for a while and I loved their dual screen with the LCD on top of the color screen. That really saves a lot of battery and finger or wrist interaction. So if there will be the next versions, I’d like to keep the same or better(bigger) memory LCD.
Speaking of the size of the screen, if there is any LCD about 1.4-1.5 inches, that would be perfect. I found those tiny fonts are hard to read even with my reading glasses on.
I’ve been using my Bagle.js 2 a couple of months now and I love it.

There is for example https://ifan-display.com/product/1-2-inc­h-round-transflective-tft-lcd/ which is a round 240 by 240 pixel display with relatively small borders. At 1.2" it is a bit small but generally square 176x176 pixel Bangle 2 apps would fit in this with only a few pixels cut off at the corners. So there would be a way to use the "legacy" apps without changes on a round display.
Personally I like square better just for ease of app development.