The Samsung Galaxy Gear has arrived. As you all know the gang at EdsAppFactory like to keep up to date with latest tech and gadgets. They have just reviewed the Galaxy Gear over on Techland.time.com. Here’s a summary of what the Techies over there think.
The Good News
Its a SmartWatch packed with wonderful features and a great spec. It’s big, it’s awkward looking, it’s cool and the guys at EdsAppFactory think it will go a long way! This SmartWatch has a lot of stellar stuff crammed in under the hud.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear has a 1.63-inch AMOLED display (320-by-320) resolution, an 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and an incredible 4 GB of internal storage and that’s not all. On board located on the wrist strap is a 1.9 mp camera and a built in speaker. A microphone enables calls to be made over a bluetooth smartphone connection.
Notifications are a huge feature of the Galaxy Gear as it will inform users of calls, text messages, social alerts and much more. An excellent feature of the Galaxy Gear is Samsung’s S Voice Virtual Assistant. Users will have the ability to enter calendar notes, dictate those ever important texts and set alarm entries. Hands free capability is enabled through the users smartphone for voice connection.
This SmartWatch is an App Developers dream. Included is a stopwatch app, remote music playback, a pedometer and also support for the ever popular fitness Apps, MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper. More Apps will roll out, that’s for sure! (edsappfactory are all over it).
Now for the Bad News
The Galaxy Gear has restricted compatibility and will only engage with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and upcoming Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. This is only going to be the case at launch. Software updates after launch will enable the Galaxy Gear to run with the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. At the moment its not looking likely that Samsung will support other phones even those on the Android Platform.
The price itself is going to prove a bone of contention amongst potential users. A staggering $300 has been reported by Bloomberg. This is double the cost of a Pebble and also more expensive than many contract phones.
Battery life is a major headache in our opinion. Samsung are claiming the Galaxy Gear will power through a day, but thats it. The Pebble or Sony’s future SmartWatch 2 will last a few days before charging. Now for the really annoying bit. CNET are reporting that you won’t be able to direct charge from a traditional charger. You have clip The Gear into a Docking Unit which charges through a micro-USB (Really?). Forget to take the dock to work with you, sorry you won’t be charging til you get home! Epic fail.
To make things worse Engadget are telling us that The Galaxy Gear ‘feels a bit sluggish’, this can be very apparent in some of the Apps available or swiping down to activate the camera.
So what do we think
EdsAppFactory are going to sit on the fence with this one. Although the Galaxy Gear is showing great promise and innovation, there still appears to be room for some significant improvements. As long as the price remains the wrong side of competitive and the technical issues are yet to hit the ironing board, the jury remains non responsive in this case. This technology of Wearable Devices is quite young and will hit the high streets soon. Users will determine the market, they always do!