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It looks like all the rumors were true, folks — Samsung was, in fact, working on a follow-up to the original Samsung Galaxy Gear much sooner than we expected. The company has officially revealed their latest developments in the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Galaxy Gear Neo.
Samsung Galaxy Gear 2
While gaudy processor and RAM specs don’t quite have the same importance for smart watches as they do phones, it’s still important. The Galaxy Gear 2 slightly improves on the original with the following suite of silicon:
- 1.63-inch 320 x 320 AMOLED display
- 1GHz dual-core processor
- 512MB of RAM
- 4GB of internal storage
- 2 megapixel camera
- Pedometer, heart rate sensor, sleep cycle monitor and more
- Bluetooth 4.0 LE
- irLED
- Accelerometer and gyroscope
- 300mAh battery good for about 2-3 days of “typical” usage
And that’s the gist of it. It’s actually pretty advanced under the hood for a smart watch. So what else is new compared to the original? For starters, the camera is now part of the watch body instead of the strap, making way for interchangeable wrist bands. Samsung says those will be available in Charcoal Black, Gold Brown and Wild Orange. You’ll also be able to customize your home-screen backgrounds, watch faces and fonts.
Another big deal is the fact that Samsung’s smart watch platform is no longer based on Android — it’s all Tizen, baby. We’re not sure what this will eventually mean in terms of third party development and apps. It’s also worth noting that Samsung is still making these things a Galaxy-only affair, so don’t even bother if you don’t have some of their latest smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo
Specs, features and whatnot? All of the above, sans the camera. It’s literally the same watch otherwise, though Samsung is looking to offer up a slightly different suite of interchangeable wrist straps. They’ll be available in Charcoal Black, Mocha Gray, and Wild Orange.
Pricing and availability
No information on how much dough this’ll run you just yet, but we imagine Samsung will look to get back to that uncomfortable $300 price tag for the base model. The Neo is expected to cost a bit less, though we’re not sure how significant of a difference we’ll be seeing. Samsung says we should be seeing both launch worldwide starting this April.
No source?
The source is a press release emailed to Phandroid.com. I’d give you the login info, but that just wouldn’t be smart.
Just curious. Every site is posting without a source.
It is irritating that I can’t go direct to a Samsung site and see official statements on this.
Did the “press release” not mention that there’s no ‘Galaxy’ moniker for these smartwatches? It’s called the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. Guess that’s the bit where you weren’t being smart. Lol
Actually, they are dropping the galaxy moniker… It’s already been confirmed.
Lol
The battery life sucks, as well as tizen. No thanks.
What happened to the speaker? So no call function anymore?
Its on the main face, they moved all the tech out of the bands because they are now interchangeable. Great for 3rd party bands I guess. I want a glow in the dark band. Lol
If the NEO costs like 150-200$ I’d buy it, but if the Gear 2 is only priced like 50 dollars more I will go for that, the camera and flash(which also doubles as a flashlight) could be useful unless priced much steeper. I think the pricing might be like 200 for the NEO and 300 for the Gear 2 unless Samsung decides to overprice them like they did with the Note 3 accessories (pshhh 60 dollars for a plastic s-view cover that can’t even remain closed lol). The toq was just dropped to 250 on related news .
I guess we will see more and more Tizen devices from Samsung.
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Highly doubt it, smart watches have very limited functionality. They are just an extension of your smartphone. Sony’s smartwatch isn’t running Android nor is lg’s health band or qualcomms toq. When it comes to wearable tech its more about the battery life and lightness, using Tizen gives the gear 2, 3 times more battery life with a smaller battery while still keeping all the functionality. Now if they introduced a Tizen smartphone, then we can pull out the pitchforks.
Interesting. I would tryout Tizen smartphone
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FWIW, your “Sent from Diqus app for Windows Phone” sig is irritating. It takes up space and is off-topic. I’m sure you can find a setting to turn it off.
if the neo is $150 i would consider
I mean android wasnt realy optimized for Smartwatches so no big deal. As long as they will run good with android. I mean its only Samsungs but still. Its a start.
No one really wants this… Automatic pass.
Parting ways with Android for this killed any interest I had.
meh.
I haven’t seen anywhere if these smart watches have the functionality of a second hand or being able see the seconds.
Price it decently and make it waterproof and I might consider.
I will wait for Nexus watch it`ll be cheaper, just saying.
The best smartwatch just got better.
It was one of the worst before and now it’s just decent. There’s better options out there. (Although not as good looking at these, hardware wise)
And thus began the official self fragmentation by Samsung. Now that we know they exclusively run Tizen can we stop seeing articles about this Galaxy only device? Please and thank you.
Pebble Steel FTW
Yawn…
Smart watches are dead this would only be good for children otherwise what’s the point
Galaxy only is the deal breaker for me. I don’t want to get a new watch every time I change my phone.
The Samsung watch is getting better, however I’m waiting for:
* Battery. The life is 2/3 days. Battery life should be at least 1 month. Wireless charging isn’t available when I’m next to the computer. I already have to charge my Note 3 and tablets every 2/3 days.
* Price. 300 for a watch worn daily is kind of expensive. Up the specs to compare with the price! I guess the price is comparable to a chronometer running watch..
* Customization and software. No customizations for the way I live. Except for working out! Make me buy a watch I NEED, not want. There is not one video on youtube showing a NEED for this watch!
I’m purely speculating here but it seems this argument that samsung ditching android may have some truth to it. Maybe this is a slow experiment to see how it works / sells. I mean c’mon you guys don’t think android and apple can be the only 2 major players in the mobile OS arena forever do you? And Samsung has definitely built an army of consumers they think are devoted and loyal to their brand so the fact that tizen even exists shows they are up to something and I don’t think it will stop at the smart watch
Samsung is definitely cooking up something. It’s a smart move to push to software on the smartwatch first. I wouldn’t doubt we might see a low tier device running tizen.
Wish they would hurry and get the pricing out. I’m wondering about google’s smartwatch!
Correction: It isnt galaxy gear 2 its just gear 2
No galaxy coz it runs tizen
Does the Gear 2 actually have the heart rate sensor too? I thought that was only on the Gear Fit. Anybody know for sure?
These Gear watches I think are certainly the best looking smart watches on the market today, but I agree at least internal hardware/software wise there are some more attractive options.
Will the wristband be larger?
Yeah my #1 concern is whether or not the wristband will be larger as well. I had to return the first gen galaxy gear that I bought with my note 3 because it wasn’t large enough and they didn’t sell, nor had any intention of releasing anything to make the band larger. 1 more notch and I believe it would have been comfortable enough to wear.