The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
You may not expect much from your watch beyond keeping time but that may be about to change. Just as your mobile phone evolved from serving as a telephone to serving as a computer, your watch may be evolving as well. The question will be: how much do you want your watch to do?
Samsung has announced the Galaxy Gear, a smartwatch that will usher in a new era of smartphones. The Gear has many more capabilities than previous smartwatches, accelerating the evolutionary process.
Like its predecessor, the Pebble watch, the Gear alerts you to important notifications so you don’t have to pull out your phone to know what’s going on every time your phone rings, buzzes or vibrates. But the Gear goes beyond being a second screen for your phone with built in features that reduce the number of times you will actually need to hold your phone. The Gear is the watch that goes the farthest in being a watch for both James Bond and Dick Tracy.
Gear Compatibility
At its launch the Gear will be able to connect to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet (2014 edition). Updates to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, S3 and S4 are due in October to make those phones compatible with the Gear.
Hardware
The watch comes with a 1.63″ color screen packed with pixels. The Gear is made of stainless steel and comes in six colors so those with a passion for fashion can express their personality in their color choice: Jet Black, Mocha Gray, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Rose Gold, and Lime Green.
The watch comes with an accelerometer and a gyroscope, so it can detect movement and track your runs and workouts.
The stated battery life is 25 hours so you should last a day with out needing to recharge but you will need to plug it in every night. No word yet on how much the battery life of the Note 3 will be diminished by its connection to the Gear.
The watch strap does more than affix the device to your wrist. A 1.8MP camera is embedded into the strap so you can take pictures and video with the Gear and have them sent to your phone. If the word “espionage” is in your job description, this may be the perfect watch for you.
The strap is also equipped with a microphone so you can use voice commands to operate your watch, giving new meaning to the phrase, “Talk to the hand.”
Using the Gear
The watch isn’t a phone itself but connects to your Note 3 so the two can function together. Just a tap of the watch to your phone and they sync together.
The screen of the Gear is similar to the screen of a smartphone. You tap and swipe to activate and move between apps. You can also use voice control to search, use apps, set an alarm, place a call, send a text message or find out about the weather forecast. The Gear syncs with the information on your phone so you can access your calendar and contacts from your watch.
No need to fumble for your phone to answer a call. Lift your wrist to your ear and speak into the watch.
In the unlikely event that you ever want to use the Gear to tell time, you can choose from 10 different pre-loaded watch faces. More watch faces will be available in the Gear app store at launch.
Smart Relay
The phone and Note 3 work in unison so when you actually do pick up your phone, the phone will open to the app you were using on the watch. For example, if you were reading an email on your watch, the email app will automatically open when you turn on your Note 3.
You can program the watch to lock your phone if you wander more than 1.5 meters away from your Note 3. The Gear can also unlock your phone when your watch is close by the phone. You can also use your watch to locate your phone by commanding the phone to beep, illuminate and vibrate.
Apps
The watch becomes even more powerful when you load apps onto it. Over 100 apps for the phone will be available at launch from the Gear app store, including standards such as Evernote, eBay, TripIt, and apps for fitness, weather, photography, and more.
Availability
The Gear will be launched on the same date as the Note 3, September 25, because after all, why would you want one without the other? The price of the Gear will be $299 and will initially be available in over 140 countries.
Your Thoughts
Are you excited for the new Galaxy Gear? Do you wish the Gear were compatible with more phones? Would you get a phone because it was compatible with the Gear? Which feature of the Gear is most exciting to you? Do you have less respect for the watch you’re wearing now? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Looks awesome indeed 🙂
Sleek and smart is the word for Gear I think. Not that I am all that much of a person who goes in for the latest stuff and remain pretty happy with my ‘old is gold’ concept with a lot of my things – watch included, but just to see it is a real pleasure. Not to mention where technology has reached today!
It’d be interesting indeed if you can speak through the watch itself and really don’t need a phone for the same thing, but I wonder if you can dial and do the other things as well, or perhaps the screen must be too small for that.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, you can place a call from the Gear. You can use voice command or access your contacts from the watch to place the call.
I am very curious to see whether smartwatches become the norm as much as smartphones and tablets have. People are very curious about my Pebble watch so smartwatches seem to be a novelty still.
The iPad lost its novelty status very quickly, but I think it might take a bit longer for smartwatches to become popular. The more smartwatches do and the lower the price becomes the more we will see them on people’s wrists.
Hi Carolyn,
I think this is a step in the right direction. Your watch talks to your phone, the phone talks to your computer and your computer talks to a supercomputer, then the supercomputer works a robot that goes to work for you while you sit at home drinking Martinis, shaken not stirred by a second robot!
I did see a Android thingy a phone and tablet, it could have been the Note 3, I like the zoom camera. I might be tempted if the price comes down! I’ve spent over 700 pounds today so I’m in stingy mood from now on. Thank God the stock market is being nice to me!
Hi Mike, I like your idea for a smartwatch! If you developed an app for that, it would be a big seller! :-bd
You probably didn’t see a Note 3 because that hits the market on September 3. I’m thinking you saw the Note 2 which is another great phone.
Watch out Carolyn! Pretty soon we won’t even need our phones anymore. Not if they’re incorporating a lot of this into your watch.
When I first saw this I immediately remembered the Pebble watch you shared with us before but this one is a lot nicer looking. The face itself is so much prettier although I don’t like watches with really big faces.
I’m sure there are plenty of people though eager to get their hands on this gem. My goodness, there definitely is going to be a war going on over this technology. One always trying to outdo the other. Should be interesting.
HI Adrienne, Yes I would love to do a comparison article on the Gear versus the Pebble. It’s a little bit like comparing an Kindle ereader to an iPad. The Pebble watch has an eInk screen in black and white so it has a much longer battery life than the Gear. But the Pebble doesn’t do nearly as much as the Gear does. The Pebble can sync to iPhones and Android phones while the Gear is very limited in the devices it can sync to.
Because of the limitation in compatibility with phones, the Gear may not sell as many watches as the Pebble. But if Samsung can figure out a way to get the Gear to sync more broadly, it could have a big hit on its hands!
Oh dear, Carolyn – things are just getting smaller and smaller – as someone who finds a smartphone too fiddly, I don’t think I’d cope very well with this! It’s all getting very James Bond, isn’t it? I think the technology’s amazing and I can see this will be a big hit, but I don’t think I’ll be queueing up for one 😉
With best wishes from your resident dinosaur 🙂
Hi Sue, Lol, actually this watch may make using a smartphone easier. You may never have to touch your phone if you just rely on the watch instead. Just lift your wrist to your ear when you want to make a call. That could be very cool, or very weird. 😕
Weird, Carolyn – definitely very weird! It’s going to look weird, too – we’re all going to look as if we’re mentally ill, wandering around talking to ourselves!
Hi Sue, I bet when people first used telephones they looked weird talking on their phones. And when people first used cameras, they probably looked weird to others.
Being on the cutting edge of tech often means sacrificing an appearance of normalcy. Ask anyone who is wearing Google Glass right now. 🙂
So, it seems that Samsung has taken the pole position in the smartwatch race. I like its ability to sync with other devices and its design does look attractive.
Hi Frank, Yes, I like the look of the Galaxy Gear too, especially the colors. But I wish it synced across the board with all Android devices and with iPhones and Windows Phones. Its price and limited compatibility may limit sales but the tech is very exciting.
That’s look awesome 🙂
Pretty soon, we will have watches that can control cars (I always wanted one those..Tell my watch “Get me my car” and ta da the car comes to pick me up :D).
Camera lens looks kind of cool, but it would be weird when you try to take photos with it 😉
But, what’s the purpose, anyways? You can do the same things with your smartphone (on a bigger screen).
Plus, $229 seems a little too much for a watch 😉 What’s the primary purpose of a watch?Tell time, they seem to forget that.
Anyways, good to see all this 🙂 Thank you for the preview, Carolyn 😀
Hi Jeevan, I don’t have a Galaxy Gear (it’s not out yet), but the Pebble watch that I’ve been using for six months has come in very handy. I don’t have my phone by my side all the time (shocking, I know) so when my watch vibrates, I’m alerted to calls and text messages I might have missed otherwise.
When I’m not wearing my Pebble (it happens sometimes), I definitely miss it.
If the Galaxy Gear worked with my phone, I would definitely be tempted to get it.
Good shot for Apple 🙂 will wait for Apple to have something different than gear.
Hi Michele, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, it will be interesting to see if Apple introduces an iWatch any time soon.
Hi Carolyn,
Wearable computing is no doubt the latest tend of the technological world….Samsung outclassed its top rivals like Apple and Google by launching the Galaxy Gear….but however there are a few similar products already in the market such as Sony Smartwatch 2, Pebble etc…..I’m looking forward to see more of these in the days to come….
Hi Aditya, Yes, the Galaxy Gear definitely takes smartwatches to a new level. It will be interesting to see what follows. Will Apple have an iWatch eventually? Time will tell! 😉
I love Gadgets and you blog containg so lot of stuff related to gadgets which attract me to read more post.Nice site you have.All the best friend 🙂
Hi Sanjeev, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you like this blog as I am a big fan of gadgets too. Please do come back and visit soon!
Thanks Carolyn Nicander Mohr for reply.Yeah sure .Its one of my fav. place where i can be updated with new gadgets 🙂
Excellent, Sanjeev. 🙂
what the OS from this??? i must have a galaxy phone to use thus smartwacth???
Hi Kata, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, the Galaxy Gear will only be compatible with the Note 3 initially and then will be compatible with the Note 2 and S3 and S4 after a planned update in October. Samsung has not announced any compatibility for the Gear beyond those phones, so don’t plan on getting the Gear if you have an HTC, Nokia, iPhone, BlackBerry, LG or other phone.
This is another exciting offer from Samsung. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you like it, Jeremy!