Gadgetory

what is going on guys lon here from Android authority and Samsung is back at it again this year with a trio of new wearables the gear to being the biggest of the three and the successor to the original Galaxy gear did Samsung get it right this time let's take a look and find out this is the Samsung gear 2 all right so here it is the Samsung gear 2 the successor to the original Galaxy gear but this time around without the galaxy branding there were a lot of flaws with the original Galaxy gear but Samsung is looking to rectify all of that with the gear 2 starting with the hardware it's still comprised of metal on both the face and the clasp which gives it a very premium look and feel with textured black bands which are now removable whereas on the original they were not just from the hardware alone the gear 2 feels much more refined in comparison to the original it still has an industrial look without trying so hard to look industrial with visible screws it's smaller more compact and lightweight and they've done a much better job at concealing the watch's actual Hardware make the gear 2 look a little more like a normal watch like the camera module for example which no longer protrudes from the watch itself or the speaker which is now hidden on the underside of the watch face versus being on the metal clasp and the power button which also doubles as a home button has been moved to the front even the charging accessory is a lot smaller now it's not that big bulky awkward to use charger that we saw with the Galaxy gear and if you're wondering just exactly how small here it is next to a quarter and a microSD card it's got some new hardware as well like the inclusion of the IR blaster to control your TV and a heartrate monitor just like the Galaxy s5 and also like the s5 the gear 2 has been bumped up to ip67 certification meaning it is dust and water resistant up to 30 meters the display hasn't changed much if at all so there's not much to really say about it it's still a 1.6 3 inch display with 320 by 320 resolution and it's very bright and vivid making it very easy to see outdoors it's a nicely sized display making it very comfortable to glance at small bits of information without making the watch larger than it really needs to be if you're wondering exactly how big the gear 2 is in comparison to a normal watch it's really not that big at all here it is in comparison to a few G shocks that I own and if anything the gear 2 is smaller and practically every dimension it's also very light coming in at 68 grams making it very comfortable to wear for long periods of time I can't imagine anyone out there right now wanting to buy a wearable based on its internal specs but if you really want to know it is a slight bump from the original with a 1 gigahertz dual-core processor 512 megabytes of RAM and 4 gigs of internal storage the performance is smooth and responsive whether you're swiping or opening up apps and very seldom did I ever find myself having to repeat a tap or gesture because it didn't register the camera on the other hand is still pretty much more of the same coming in at a whopping 2 megapixels like I mentioned earlier it's much better integrated into the body of the watch but don't expect much from it after all we're talking about a 2 megapixel camera on a watch here if taking pictures or recording short clips from your watch is important to you then the gear 2 is definitely the one to get you can also have the files automatically transferred to your phone for easy viewing as far as the battery it is rocking a 300 milli amp hour battery which doesn't sound all that big but it is a watch after all and so far the battery life has been great I typically get about three days out of it before I have to reach our so it seems pretty solid as far as I'm concerned there's not a whole lot you can do in terms of battery management except for keeping the screen brightness low but even at relatively high brightness you should still be able to get a reasonable amount of time out of this watch before having to recharge it one of the biggest shifts from the Galaxy gear to the gear 2 is the software the gear 2 is running on Samsung's own Tizen platform whereas the Galaxy gear ran Android but the overall functionality is still pretty much the same you still have all the same basic apps like the dialer contacts email the ability to check your notifications and for better or worse Samsung's own s voice is still present here as well Samsung has also been really big on pushing fitness for the last year or so and on top of the heartrate monitor that I mentioned earlier there's also an entire exercise app for measuring running walking cycling and hiking and how many calories you've burned you've also got a pedometer to measure your steps and I'm not sure if it's a connectivity issue or just a bug but intended to freeze a lot and all of a sudden your steps would just skyrocket so it's hard to really gauge how accurate the pedometer actually is and if you want you can also monitor your sleep which I actually did just wants to see exactly what it was measuring turns out not only does it measure how long you sleep but how long you lay motionless while you sleep some apps that I found useful and I think most people will too is define my device and MIDI controller would find my device not only can you use it to locate your phone but to watch as well through Samsung's own gear manager app provided the two are still connected and in range with MIDI controller you can control your music on your phone directly from your watch so you can pause play and skip tracks and it doesn't have to be from Samsung's music player either I used it for google play music and it worked great and it was actually rather convenient the gear 2 is available now for $300 through various outlets and whether it's worth that money is going to be purely up to you as it is only compatible with Strictly Samsung devices but it does offer a lot of functionality that other smartwatches don't so there you have it for the Samsung gear 2 and personally I think Samsung got it right this time the gear 2 definitely feels much more and polished in comparison to original in pretty much every way and it's everything the original Galaxy gear should have been with much better hardware and a lot of extra functionality but that's pretty much it hopefully you guys enjoyed this video and if you did please feel free to give it a thumbs up down below and also subscribe to android authority as well that is also down below and once you're done doing all of that make sure to check out the site at android authority comm and as always thank you so much for watching and keep it locked on android authority as we are your source for all things Android