The timepiece comes with enough new bells and whistles to shake up the wearables market, which has quickly become saturated in recent years, and also includes heavy-hitting competition such as the Apple Watch.
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Samsung hasn’t announced pricing and availability yet, but the company says it’s going to showcase the watch at the IFA conference in Berlin, which starts on September 3.
Samsung tends to do its own thing, and its approach to the smartwatch market is no different. The Samsung Gear S2 classic will be available in a black case with a leather band. Interestingly, though, both versions of the Gear S2 are larger than their Apple Watch counterparts. In theory, you could use this device to make mobile payments and control other NFC-enabled devices.
Samsung says it is working with app developers to ensure that there are a number of apps available for the Gear S2 at launch. The Gear S2 runs Tizen, which has been tweaked to fit the smartwatch interface and optimized to suit the 1GHz dual-core processor that’s inside the device.
The Samsung Gear S2 will be available in a Dark Gray case with a Dark Gray band and Silver case with a White band.
The watch is IP68 certified which means it’s totally dust-proof and also protected against moistures even when immersed in water for longer times. The display of the smartwatch is a 1.2 fully circular Super AMOLED unit with a resolution of 360 x 360 pixels and 302ppi. This will reportedly allow users of the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch to make and receive calls directly from their wrist. The Gear S2 3G comes with the same support for Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC but also offers standalone 3G connectivity through an e-SIM. The difference between the two is that the Gear S2 Classic will feature “an elegant Black finish with a matching genuine leather band”. The applications on the Gear S2 can be viewed with unbelievable clarity so that users don’t miss notification pop-ups. Preset text, voice Input, emoticons, keypads will be on hand as well, just like Android Wear and the Apple Watch’s OS. On the battery side, the Gear S2 features a 250mAh cell for “two to three days of typical use”, according to the company.
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New fitness functions on the Samsung Gear S2 will encourage consumers to stay healthy and active. “Given Samsung’s history of making its latest wearable devices compatible only with Samsung’s top models and almost exclusive reliance on Tizen, the company has limited its potential reach”.
