Samsung Has Three New Smartwatches — Including One That Curves Around Your Wrist
Samsung wants your wrist again, like it did last summer. Yeah, it wants your wrist again. Like it did last year.
Back in September, Samsung took its first dive into wrist-worn wearables with the Galaxy Gear. A mere six months later, the company is back with not one but three follow-ups: the Galaxy Gear 2, the Galaxy Gear 2 Neo and the Galaxy Gear Fit.
That’s two smartwatches and a wrist-worn fitness band, extending Samsung’s wearable reach into the realm currently dominated by fitness trackers the likes of Fitbit and Nike’s Fuelband.
Samsung’s smartwatches connect to your smartphone via low-power Bluetooth connectivity and can both deliver notifications from your phone to the watch and let you perform certain activities from your wrist on your phone. The first Galaxy Gear was criticized for its lack of performable functions and lackluster battery, which Samsung hopes it has addressed with these three follow-ups.
As its name implies, the Galaxy Gear 2 is the direct successor to the company’s first smartwatch. The device doesn’t mark too many huge improvements over its predecessor — rather, it irons out some of the biggest sticking points of the first one.
(Image: Reuters)
Size was far and away the biggest downside of the first Gear, compared with smartwatches like the Pebble. Samsung’s going a bit far by referring to the thing as “slick” — it’s still a bit bulky — but it does mark an improvement over the first Gear, making it a much more wearable wearable.
Samsung solved the size issue by moving the camera, speaker and mic to the edges of the watch around the screen, rather than the strap. That also means that, unlike the first version, you’ll be able to swap out straps to match your outfit — or whatever other smart device you might be wearing at the time. Samsung also added an IR sensor, which will let you control most televisions from your wrist.
The Neo 2, meanwhile, drops the camera altogether. The device is a budget companion to the Gear 2, also dropping the metal design for a plastic version. Those changes should add up to a $100 price difference between the two devices. Otherwise, the hardware is the same on both, each sporting a 1.63-inch display, the same size as the Gear 1.
The battery has been bumped up quite a bit, now lasting three days — three times the length of its predecessor. The device also features remote control functionality and is now compatible with 17 different Galaxy devices. When it was launched, the first Gear worked only with the new Galaxy Note.
The real surprise here is the release of the Gear Fit. With the device, Samsung makes the leap into the super-popular world of fitness bands. The big news here is the inclusion of a curved AMOLED display, which brings smartphone notifications to the front and wraps around your wrist more naturally.
(Image: Reuters)
That means that the device doesn’t just track your activity, it also serves as a mini-smartwatch. The device weighs a mere 29 grams and, like the Gear 2, features swappable bands. It features a built-in heart-rate monitor and pedometer — as do both of the Gear 2s.
All three will launch on April 11.
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