First Impressions of the Samsung's flagship smartwatch
Rather than follow the Moto 360 with a round faced watch, Samsung has pushed its own avenues with the Gear S. The wearable features a large, 2-inch display which is curved to fit with the natural arch of your wrist.
Samsung’s fifth smartwatch attempt in just 12 months, it appears that the company is, at least in some respects, finally edging in the right direction. Unnecessary cameras have been removed and the Tizen OS has been drastically improved. However, with 3G connectivity thrown in for standalone calling, a few Samsung-isms remain.
Here's our initial thoughts on the Gear S.
Samsung Gear S: Design
Bulky is how I would describe the Samsung Gear S after first use. The 2-inch, 480 x 360 pixel display is pleasingly crisp and bright, but just too big for the wrist. As an average sized man with average sized man wrists, I found the watch overpowering.
Like many existing smartwatches – such as the LG G Watch R and the Moto 360 – this is a blokes only watch. The blocky, neoprene straps keep the oversized screen stable and secure, but do nothing to create an air of luxury.
That doesn’t mean this is a bad looking smartwatch, however.
Yes the Gear S might lack the classic (round) watch styling of the Moto 360, or the pleasingly refined allure of the Apple Watch, but it is easy on the eye – in its own way. It does look like a condensed smartphone, though. With its rectangular form, heavy bezel and centralised home button, it resembles a shrunken phone more than an enlarged timepiece.
Samsung’s efforts at making the Gear S appear a little more watch like have fallen short, too. The digital dials are tacky attempts at mimicking a true watch. Unlike some of its rivals, which have favoured a subtle, refined, almost understated approach, the Korean manufacturer has opted for a different route.
I found many of the Gear S’s pre-installed watch faces to be brash and over the top. They are the digital equivalent of a cheap Rolex knockoff.
Samsung Gear S: Features and Performance
Samsung is keen to show it is not totally reliant on Google. We’ve seen this in the smartphone space and now it is being echoed with the company’s wearable efforts, too. Unlike the Samsung Gear Live, the Gear S has shunned Google’s Android Wear OS in favour of Tizen.
The result isn’t that bad, either. With Android Wear devices already appearing very samey, the Tizen foundations of the Gear S offer something a little different. The standard swipe interface is the same, but by forging its own route, Samsung has been able to add a bit of personality to the UI.
A 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM kept menu navigation and application launches smooth and fuss-free during my time with the device.
What surprised me most about the Gear S is that the watch’s newly introduced touchscreen QWERTY keyboard isn’t actually that bad. Yes, the keys are tiny, but Samsung makes it work. Now you can respond to texts or emails in more detail than the awkward pre-set responses.
I found the keyboard to be highly responsive and accurate, even with my clumsy fingers. What’s more, when the inevitable misplaced keystroke snuck in, the watch’s predictive text quickly corrected the mistake.
But I'm less certain about some of the other additions. Top of the list is a dedicated 3G SIM slot for wrist-based calling. As well as being unnecessary, this is a costly addition. The watch requires its own dedicated SIM and calling plan to make use of these capabilities. Unfortunately, due to restrictions on the demo device, I was unable to test the Gear S calling handing abilities at this stage.
Like the Sony SmartWatch 3, the Gear S offers 4GB of internal storage. This allows for some freedom from the synced smartphone. One possible use is the ability to store music directly on the device, ideal for when wanting tunes, but not your smartphone, when heading out on a run.
Fitness is a key component to the Gear S, too. As well as running Samsung’s S Health software, the IP67 dust and water resistant watch boasts a heart rate sensor built into the watch’s rear.
During early tests, as with the sensor on the Galaxy S5 or Gear Fit, I found this to be infuriatingly temperamental and fussy. Readings, when eventually offered, were sporadic. Immediate retests offered wildly varying results. This offered no reassurance as to accuracy, though this could improve in final versions.
A 2-inch display, 3G connectivity and jazzy new UI are all great, but Samsung – like most players in the wearables space – have once again overlooked arguably the most integral element of such a device – battery life.
A 300mAh Lithium-Ion battery is included and said to offer two days staying power on a single charge. Although I was unable to fully test this during my time with the device, with this being a based-cased scenario, expect nightly trips to the charging cradle to be an infuriating by-product of Gear S ownership.
First Impressions
In a slow, roundabout way, Samsung is edging closer to getting a smartwatch right. The Gear S, despite some obvious issues, is a notable step up on the Gear 2, but still lacking that killer punch. While it might take Samsung another few years to finally crack the wearable nut, for now progress is at least something.
Read More: Apple Watch vs Android Wear