Samsung officially outs Tizen-based Galaxy Gear 2 and Galaxy Gear 2 Neo smart watches
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.
