Gadgetory

up until now I've been using LG's version of their Android wear wearable but on my doorstep this morning I got the Samsung version of it so it's Josh of agarn from Android Authority what's going on everybody and it's time to unbox and give my first impressions on the Samsung gear live alright and the packaging of the Samsung gear live is very similar to the kind you would find on general Samsung devices with this would ish cardboard apparently made from sustainable materials so that's always kind of nice it kind of makes every single Samsung device kind of a little bit droll because you expect it to come in a box like this but that's not what we're here for we're here for what is underneath the front the top cover so let's go ahead and do that and there is the Samsung gear live this is again Samsung's version of the Android wear device in the shape of a gear SmartWatch you probably are familiar with the gear the gear to the gear 2 neo all of those and what I already noticed when I did the first look at the gear alive is that it takes on the best parts of the gear ecosystem well not only does it have the look of the regular gear 2 or gear 2 neo because there's no camera but it also uses as you're going to see right here the latch on way of putting on the device to your wrist there's no like weird latch right here basically it's just two pins that go into the cuff over here and then it's really easy to put on so you'll see a little bit better what that means in a second when I put this on my wrist and give you my first impressions and do the setup but this you take the watch out of here and there is some plastic actually a lot of plastic all around the entire thing but we'll just put that aside for a second we have the charger right here which is actually a wall charger it's not a microUSB into an adapter and then from here we have a small connector that latches on to the back not particularly the best way of charging something I do like the LGG watch is flat flat profile where you'll be able to put the watch right on to there but this you have to snap onto the back of the watch in order to get to charge we'll take a look at that a little bit more in a bit but at least for me I'm not the biggest fan of it and I wasn't on the other gear devices alright and here we are with the actual watch itself now there is a lot of plastic on here that we have to get off and I'm just going to go ahead and do that right now comes all the way around the band comes out to the front then we're just going to go ahead and rip that area off and the plastic on the back should come right off like that and there you go the Samsung gear live like I said it pretty much looks like a gear from the previous gear to gear 2 neo the gear before it but it has the band that is much like the gear fit little bit plastic there I'll take that off and basically it's just a couple of nubs that go right into this band right here on the other side and that is a lot better to me than the system that they had in place for the gear one the gear 2 and the gear 2 neo I do like this particular type better so we're just going to go ahead this just looking around the device real quick you do see that there is that heart rate monitor on the back along with the charging pins that you're going to see and I'll go ahead and demonstrate real quick what that looks like basically you get the connector pins and you just have to snap it on to the back and you can hear that snap right there so that's what it looks like you can't really lie this thing flat it does look pretty awkward and it does feel pretty awkward too I will admit but you just connect the micro USB a charging cord into that port and after that when you're done you just snap it back off I have been hearing some reports that certain users have been noticing that the mechanism that snaps onto the back here has been breaking so you might have to take that into consideration when you're trying to charge your gear live so just kind of be careful with it it looks like I actually held the one button that's over here on the side as you can see right there there's the button and we're going to get into the operating system right now alright and looking at the actual setup right now I have Android wear open right now and it is connected to my LG G watch at the moment but I will usually just be able to pair it with a new wearable as you can see right there so let's go ahead and hit English right here and it says to install Android wear on there which I do already just say except to everything and it will start searching for the device and there it is gear live and the connection should be fairly easy just hit pair on both the set up is nice and quick everything should be all set and I already have applications that are installed on my phone so they should be getting synced over to the watch right now and the experience for the most part should be the same the only thing that will be different for the most part is that I can check my heart rate using this and it will sync to Google fit which is the apparatus that is on Android wear in order for you to track your steps but also your heart rate in the case of the gear live because it's the only SmartWatch at the moment that has the heart rate monitor for Android wear all right so I have the gear live right here I'm just going to go and put it on to my wrist I have removed my LG G watch so I will be using this over the next couple days as I do my review on the G watch which I pretty much know what to be able to say there but as you can see right here it says it's downloading at the moment all of the applications and probably updates to this particular watch itself so we won't be able to use it right away but I can give you my first impressions as far as the feel of the device because Android wear aside from the heart rate monitor on the bag is going to feel largely the same so let's just go ahead and throw this on now the curve of the actual device allows for a curve on the band and that's why the band thankfully has just those two nubs that will just snap right in and right there that way it will fit pretty easily I'm not going to lie it is pretty nice and comfortable not to say that's more comfortable than the LG G watch actually do think they're both pretty comparable in terms of their fits but the gear life gets a couple of points because that curve does make it easier to put on and those knobs do make it easier to put on as well but that's really just a personal preference after that the curve does contour to the wrist pretty easily and I am looking forward to using this over the next couple days because it's going to give me basically the the experience that I have been fostering on Android wear on the LG G watch except I'm just going to do it on here that's the nice part about Android wear is the fact that you will be able to have it no matter what SmartWatch you use as long as you use Android wear the application and you use one that's compatible with it and yeah it does feel really nice you have this rubbery feel right here on the plastic band and then as far as the finish on the watch goes it does have a pretty premium feel it actually looks pretty nice the only thing that's missing is a little camera right here at the front so you won't be able to take pictures with this like on the gear too but nonetheless that's not the focus of the gear live obviously it's all about Android wear and that's what we're going to be seeing right here on the gear live in an upcoming review so keep it tuned to Android 34 all the best coverage and remember to check out the coverage from my colleagues in Android Joe J's Kevin the tech ninja and of course lawn after that make sure you drop us some likes on our videos and to subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and once you're done with all that head on over to android authority comm because we are your source for all things Android