Whether you like it or not, it seems this fall will be all about the smartwatch. This morning, following LG’s tease of the round-faced (but awfully named) G Watch R, Samsung has unveiled the curved Gear S — the first major smartwatch with its own 3G connection, allowing it to send/receive calls and generally act as an internet-connected smart device without being paired to a nearby smartphone. And on top of all that, it seems
×Apple will unveil an iWatch alongside the iPhone 6 at its September 9 event. Is the world ready for a standalone smartwatch? Do we even have the battery technology to allow a 3G smartwatch to run for more than a few hours?
The Samsung Gear S is the company’s first standalone smartwatch, using a built-in 3G connection to make/receive calls and texts, and to pull down notifications, emails, and so on from the internet. The Gear S, like the Gear 2 and Gear Neo, runs the Tizen operating system. The smartwatch will come preloaded with S Health, Nike+ Running, and Nokia’s Here maps for navigation. There are a ton of sensors that allow the Gear S to act as a fitness band, as well as something that vaguely resembles a very small smartphone. With Google wading into the wearables arena with Android Wear, I have a feeling that ×Tizensmartwatches won’t be around for long.
Samsung Gear S, in white
On the hardware side of things, the Gear S has a curved 2-inch Super AMOLED 480×360 screen — similar to the curved screen of the ×Gear Fit, but larger and higher resolution. There’s a dual-core 1GHz SoC, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a 300 mAh battery — which ×Samsung claims will give you two full days of “typical usage.” While the Gear S can exist on its own, ×Bluetooth is also available for the usual smartphone-smartwatch pairing, and there’s a WiFi radio on board, too. The strap isn’t removable, but the whole thing is IP67 certified (dust and water resistance).
Samsung Gear S, features. (Click to zoom in)
The big play here, then, is the idea of a standalone smartwatch. Rather than being forced to have a smartphone in your pocket, the Gear S could be your only smart device. Pair the Gear S with a Bluetooth headset, and you actually have a pretty awesome setup for business and on-the-go types — as long as you don’t need to do too much reading, of course (surfing the web on a smartwatch isn’t very fun).
The problem with the standalone smartwatch idea, though, is battery life. Samsung says the Gear S’s battery is good for two days of use — but with a 300 mAh battery, you probably won’t get more than a few hours if you use the smartwatch like an actual smart device. If you just want your smartwatch to show you the time and your notifications, then yes, current battery tech can get you two or three days of use. Throw in some actual work, though — like maintaining a 3G radio connection, or calculating turn-by-turn navigation — and you’re back down to just a few hours. I think we’re still a year or two away from chips and batteries that will allow for smart, useful wearable computers that last all day.
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LG G Watch R, round-faced Android Wear smartwatch
The Gear S goes on sale in October. There’s no word on pricing yet, but it’ll probably be around $300, like the Gear 2. The round-faced LG G Watch R (pictured above) is due in the “fourth quarter.” Funnily enough, both smartwatches might be beaten to market by Apple’s iWatch, which is now expected to be unveiled on September 9. We’ll talk more about that later today.
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