2014 was supposed to be the year of the wearable. While 2014 did see a whole slew of wearables hit the market and to a lesser degree, gain some mainstream acceptance, wearables didn’t take off like many thought they would.
One reason is that even though there’s a lot of momentum in the category - for many people, they just found that the trade offs of having a wearable didn’t outweigh the benefit having one would bring to their daily lives.
Here’s the Samsung Gear S, one of the first wearables from a mainstream manufacturer that has a built-in SIM card slot which allows it to get a data connection even when your phone isn’t around.
Is built in wireless the killer feature that wearables have been waiting for? Let’s check it out:
Design:
Front and center is the 2”, curved SuperAMOLED display. It has a resolution of 480x360 with a pixel density of 290PPI.
While large for a wearable, the 2” screen is much smaller than a typical smartphone screen so you tend to hold it closer when you’re looking at it. With that in mind, the 290PPI doesn’t look quite as sharp as it would if the screen were 5” and holding it further away.
Otherwise, it’s a good looking display with excellent viewing angles and pleasing colour. By default, it’s usually white text on a black background with some coloured icons. Since AMOLED displays light each pixel individually, a mostly black display draws less power than a display that’s all white.
Unlike the Note Edge, the curved display on the Gear S fits the design perfectly. It’s really sleek and makes the Gear S feel much smaller than it really is.
I think it also makes the Gear S more comfortable to wear.
Below the screen is the home button which is flanked by a UV and light sensor.
You have to use an attachment that snaps on to charge the Gear. The attachment has a MicroUSB plug on it.
I found that it usually took a bit of fighting to get the charger snapped in. Ditto for when I tried to take it off. This makes it hard to charge the Gear S if the lights are off like they would be before you go to sleep.
I wish Samsung had put a charging coil on the back like Motorola did with the Moto 360.
Aside for the charging contacts, there is also a heart rate sensor on the back along with the Nano SIM slot.
Samsung includes a spudger which you’ll need to pop the Nano SIM card out.
The Gear S itself pops into the included watch band like the Gear Fit does.
That means it doesn’t take ‘regular’ watch straps.
While not much to look at, the included strap is comfortable.
The metal clasp adds a touch of class.
I don’t know about you, but I think that while the Gear S is a sleek device, it’s not a looker. Yeah, the curved screen is striking but in the end, it’s still looks geeky in a bad way. Given the choice I’d pick something with a round face. For me, form goes over function when it comes to a watch.
Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC running at 1Ghz, with 512MB RAM, 4GB of storage with support for Bluetooth 4.0 and the Pièce de résistance, a built-in HSPA phone.
I noticed that Samsung has removed the infrared blaster and camera from the Gear S. Both these features can be found on the older Gear 2. This is not a big loss as they’re not features I’d typically use on a watch anyways.
If you get the Gear S wet don’t worry, it’s water resistant.
Using the Gear S:
By default, the Gear S screen has a 10 second timeout plus it leaves the HSPA off. If you’re used to wearing a watch then you’ll want to change the screen time out so that it never shuts off. You see the Gear S uses the gesture of you whipping out your arm and twisting it towards you to figure out when to turn the screen on. The problem with this is that a) it almost never works and b) when it does work, you need to wait a second or 2 before the screen turns on.
Despite all the hardware crammed into the Gear S, it has just enough juice to make it through the day. If you’re wondering how the Gear S can manage this with the screen on 100% of the time it’s because it uses a simple wire frame watch face when you’re not using it.
Since AMOLED screens only draw power when they’re lit and since each pixel is lit individually the simple watch face doesn’t draw too much power. When the screen turns on the watch face fills into a fancier looking one.
Speaking of watch faces, while I don’t think the Gear S is a looker, the included watch faces are pretty interesting. I like how the pedometer goal shows up as a watch complication.
You’d think that having HSPA built-in would be a big drain on the battery but the Gear S rarely uses it so the impact of having it on is minimal. Really, the only thing the Gear S uses HSPA for is for making calls, sending and receiving texts, grabbing news and weather (on demand) and for voice commands when your phone isn’t around.
The menus basically work like this: On the clock screen, pulling down from the top brings up status screen where you can also adjust volumes.
Pulling up from the bottom brings up the main menu. When you do this there’s a link to view running programs.
On all other screens pull down from the top goes takes a step back while you tap to choose.
It’s not a difficult device to use but I occasionally got ‘lost’ where I’d lose track of where I am in the menus.
Included with the Gear S are the following apps:
- Phone
- Contacts
- Messages
- Schedule
- Settings
- Navigator
- S Health
- Running
- Music Player
- News Briefing
- Weather
- S Voice
- Alarm
- Gallery
- Find My Device
To use the Gear S, you must have a supported Samsung Android phone because you need Samsung’s Gear Manager which is only found in their app store to set it up.
If you don’t have a supported phone handy, you won’t be able to use most of the Gear’s functions plus it's needed to customize certain functions.
The Gear S connects to your phone via Bluetooth - I used a Galaxy Note 4.
Once you do set it up, the built-in HSPA modem does allow for a little bit more autonomy from your phone than other smart watches.
You can make calls and send and receive texts straight from the Gear S. Since the Gear S is meant to be paired to a phone, you’re probably wondering how it’s able to reconcile calls and texts between it and your regular phone.
Well, if your phone is close by and you make calls with the Gear, then the Gear acts as a Bluetooth headset.
There’s actually a built-in speaker. While it’s not extremely powerful, it’s loud enough to be usable indoors if it’s not too loud. It also has decent RF performance. I guess a wrist is a more RF friendly environment than a pocket.
If your phone isn’t around, you can still make calls with the Gear S but those calls won’t show up on your phone’s call history.
You can actually type out texts using an on-screen keyboard. It actually works better than I thought it would but given the size, you're better off using it only in emergencies.
Anyways, if you want to send a text you're better off using the built-in S-Voice speech recognition. As far as I know, S-Voice takes your commands and sends them to Samsung for processing - Ergo, if you don't have a data connection it won't work.
It seems to work well enough but I found it would activate for no reason at times.
S Health allows you to view information collected by the built-in pedometer.
While there’s an email program built-into the Gear S, you have to have your phone close by to use it. It’s not able to fetch or send emails on its own.
There is 4GB of storage so if you’re going to go out running, you can connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones and use the Gear S as a music player. While changing songs or adjusting the volume with the Gear is a pain, you can always use your headphones to do this. If you’re desperate you can also use the built-in speaker to listen to music.
While you can download new apps to the Gear S, I didn’t find any that interested me. All I used it for was to get notifications, and for the pedometer.
Do you need the Gear S?
The way I see, a Smartwatch is pointless if you have to touch it more than two or three times. After all, if it takes you this long to get to your information, you might as well whip your phone out of your pocket.
To me, a Smartwatch is just there to help me decide whether I should leave my phone in my pocket or take it out. I think Samsung realizes this and has designed the Gear S to be more of a smartphone companion that can spend short periods of time away from a phone, not something that’s trying to replace it.
While the built-in HSPA allows some autonomy from your phone, you lose out on some key functionality so you don’t want to stay untethered for too long.
When it comes to technology, I want it to simplify my life. Having to get a second SIM card just for my watch has the opposite effect.
In the end, while the Gear S is an interesting piece of hardware, it’s not able to use its extra hardware to make itself more useful. If you’re thinking of a Gear S, you might as well just pick up a different wearable that can give you notifications and function as a pedometer like the Gear Fit or even the older Gear 2 which has a metal body to boot.
2.5 Howies out of 5.
Pros:
- Large curved display
- Display looks nice
- built in HSPA is cool
Cons:
- Charger is a pain to attach
- Too complicated
This article was originally published in forum thread:
Our Samsung Gear S review
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howard
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