It’s not just about smarts, anymore. Now, it’s about style, too.
That’s the message Samsung is sending in Year 2 of the great smartwatch experiment. It was just last year that the company started pushing the idea of the tech-loaded, smartphone-driven watch with the Galaxy Gear. It was a device that made a technological statement, featuring a camera, a speakerphone, and a powerful display, among things.
But with an oddly-placed camera lens on its wristband and a somewhat blocky design, it wasn’t the sexiest device on the market. And Samsung, in its never-ending chase-down of Apple, aims to change that this year with the Gear 2.
The new Gear is a little sexier and a little sleeker, right down to that trimmed-down name moniker. It’s a device that’s definitely about style, even if it brings more substance to the table, too. It doesn’t quite make the smartwatch a device that you have to have (maybe that will come in Smartwatch Year 3), but the Gear 2 is certainly a device that many will want.
It all starts with the look. Last year’s slightly oversized eyesore slims down, but gains functionality. Samsung packs a solid 2 megapixel lens, a heart rate tracker, an IR blaster (yes, you can control your TV with your watch) and Bluetooth music storage into a tiny, stainless steel module. It’s a simple, understated look that pairs solidly with athletic wear (yes, you can wear it to the gym), but doesn’t look out-of-place with a button-down, either.
The Gear 2 comes with one wristband, but you can easily swap it out to suit your style. Overall, it’s a far more attractive device, one that you can wear without feeling as if you’re toting a curiosity on your wrist.
But what you have on your wrist is tremendously powerful. The original Galaxy Gear was an intriguing device, one that seemed loaded with potential, but it suffered from a shocking lack of app support; there simply wasn’t a constant supply of programs to let the gadget evolve.
Maybe that’s why Samsung makes the Gear 2 a more impressive standalone device. You don’t need to download apps or games to make this device useful; it already packs a solid punch.
The goodness goes in myriad directions. As usual, you’ll need to pair the Gear 2 with a Samsung Galaxy device of some sort via Bluetooth, but that connection is more useful this time around. You can take and make phone calls from your Gear 2, using it as a Bluetooth headset of course, and this works exceptionally well in the car, thanks to an improved speaker.
The Bluetooth connection is used for something else, too: You can now load songs from your Galaxy device directly onto the Gear. The purpose for this seems near-illogical at first (why load songs onto a watch?), but it makes sense if you’re an athlete.
You can pair the Gear 2 with a set of Bluetooth headphones, enabling you to, say, run a mile with the Gear 2 playing music from your wrist, instead of needing to tote your comparatively ungainly smartphone with you. Heck, the Gear 2 even works better if you take it to the gym, and it’s much more convenient than your average MP3 player. In fact, I found the Gear 2 to be more useful as a workout tool than the lower-priced Gear Fit, which Samsung actually makes specifically for fitness fanatics.
The Gear 2 also comes equipped with the same heart rate monitor that’s on Samsung’s Galaxy S5, a brand of tech that’s based on hospital technology. Much like the Fit, it doesn’t work consistently, though, a minor annoyance.
Want more Gear gadgetry? Somehow, Samsung jams an IR blaster for universal TV remote handling into the Gear, quite a feat given the tiny size of this watch itself. The remote is pretty basic, and it can’t handle a surround sound, but for a TV and set-top box, it works well, and it’s quickly and efficiently customizable.
Add in a solid camera, and you have enough built-in features for the Gear 2 to easily become a part of your daily life. That’s critical, too, because the Gear 2, much like its predecessor, continues to suffer from a lack of apps. Increasingly, smartwatches must be viewed as standalone items, because the upside of a constant flow of apps simply hasn’t caught on.
There are other downsides to the Gear 2 as well. It only works with Samsung’s devices, so those of you who love your HTC One M8 can just sit this one out. And while battery life has been improved impressively, you’re still charging from a tiny charging piece via USB; that piece is easy to lose, and then you can’t charge your Gear 2 at all. Other devices, such as the Martian Notifier, are building the micro-USB port directly into the watch.