The Samsung Galaxy Gear is one of the many smart watches that can connect to your mobile device. In this case the Galaxy Gear is able to connect with numerous high end Samsung devices. So far the Galaxy Gear has been a huge success and is slowly turning into the favorable smart watch for all Android powered devices, but how does it stack up against the competition? Smart watches such as the Sony Smart Watch 2 and the Pebble aren’t very well known but have been some of the most successful when it comes to smart watches. With the ability to read text messages, take voice memos, count your steps and take pictures for $300.00 is this device really as good as Samsung claims it to be?
The Galaxy gear is actually a very stylish device for its purposes. It has an all aluminum body, a rubber wrist band, a 1.63 inch screen and a 1.9 megapixel camera. Although to some people the device may be a little too big and chunky, however for its purposes I think it can be forgiven. It’s not even a dull device either as it can come in black, beige or grey and for those who like more color, there’s orange, green and yellow. The watch does not come with Wi-Fi or 3g/4g connections; it can only connect through Bluetooth. This is a major downfall as most people don’t even like have Bluetooth turned on their device as it is a major battery drain. Bluetooth can connect the two devices up to a distance of about 150m; from there the watch will vibrate notifying you that you have disconnected with the device it was once previously paired up with. As with the Pebble and the Sony Smart watch 2, the Galaxy Gear’s main use is to notify you of happenings on your phone. With text messages, you’ll be able to receive and reply using S Voice but with emails and Twitter notifications, there’s no preview. You’ll only be told that you need to check your phone and deal with it there.
Inside the Galaxy Gear you’ll find an impressive 512MB of RAM and also 4GB of storage. For a device that performs pretty basic tasks the RAM seems a slight overkill but it does mean that the Galaxy Gear is blisteringly fast; swiping through the menus and opening apps with ease. The battery life is another disappointment with the Gear. Samsung quotes 25 hours typical usage time on a single charge and up to 150 hours stand by. It doesn’t even come close to the Pebble that can manage three days general use on full charge. Another disappointment is the fact that you can’t charge the watch directly, instead having to use the charging case.
Overall the Samsung Galaxy Gear isn’t something that you cannot live without, its main use is to notify you of what’s happening on your phone through a quick glance at your wrist. It seems as though the more you use it the more useless it becomes as you can quickly do the same things and more by just reaching into your pocket. The camera is a nice add-on but even then you can’t even use it for anything than to just show off. Nothing in the Samsung Galaxy Gear is really worth the price tag and the fact that it’s utterly dependent on another Galaxy device means that you have to commit yourself to Samsung just for the watch to be of some kind of use. This is definitely NOT the next product to beat, it’s just Samsung looking around seeing what works and what doesn’t. Although, a great marketing tool for techno geeks!
