Gadgetory

as we said in last week's comparison the Samsung gear live is probably the more attractive of Google's first to Android wear smartwatches it's also got the better screen and the lower price tag but is this new accessory and the new platform which powers it worth your money or your time let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the Samsung gear live this isn't our first dip in the SmartWatch pool we've covered several risk born accessories since pebble reinvigorated the space last year so the fundamentals are known to us in addition to telling the time a SmartWatch exists mainly to allow you to keep your phone in your pocket for longer to free up your hands for life while still keeping you plugged into what's going on via smart notifications the gear live has no trouble tossing notifications at you from hangouts to emails to pedometer stats to all the third-party notifications you could ask for there's a card for it and in the new Android wear platform the cards stack up vertically in what's supposed to be an intelligently arranged order buzzing your wrist with a gentle vibration as they arrive and you can swipe horizontally to act on those notifications or swipe the other way to dismiss them all the while the gear live is telling you the time with one of many available watch faces on its Super AMOLED display which is colourful and crisp and offers an always-on mode so you don't have to tap on it to see the time it's not the easiest to see in direct sunlight but it's serviceable raising the watch illuminates the display and perks up the Snapdragon processor and that's where Android wears bonuses come to the forefront when the screen is on all you need to do to initiate actions on the watch is speak to it saying OK Google will activate listening mode and you can tell the watch to send a message ask what's on your agenda take a memo even translate words into other languages you can also dictate replies to messages you've received and launch apps third-party titles are limited to just a handful at the moment but by and large they're very well polished and they offer a lot of hope for the future of this ecosystem from flash cards to ordering food to summoning a taxi there's simple and powerful stuff here and that's all just from the launch developers the maps plug-in is also impressive letting you navigate from your wrist and you can also control media you're listening to from songs to podcasts to the FM radio there's no shortage of raw capability here unfortunately that capability comes at a cost in quality not in terms of the hardware we actually quite like the gear lives subtle but classy silver styling and it's reassuring weight on the wrist and even the much criticized changeable wrist band works well for us exercise buffs will also appreciate its heart rate sensor and water-resistant housing the shortcomings are mainly in software where Android wears first generation routes become apparent some of it is easy to look past the card based interface takes some getting used to the pedometer is too generous and Google now still doesn't understand some commands which should be elementary what's the battery level but others are more serious the voice prompt forces you to rush through your inputs not even giving you enough time to think before it's dispatching a message sorry period shooting watch footage period now see you got to wait longer so I can finish some sentence shooting G watch footage period we'll take a second to get in now you got it you gotta let me think what voice dictation on an Android phone gives you plenty of time so we're not sure why Google felt the need to build in a shorter window on the watch in addition to that sometimes SMS messages just don't send there are other usability problems too cards appear in no particular order changing positions often and if you clear one it's not always easy to get it back also if you want to access a third-party application manually you need to scroll through literally every other option it's like Google intentionally buried the manual app list to get you to talk to the watch but it's not always convenient or appropriate to talk to your watch thankfully there's already a third-party app to address this which works well and also bodes well for future community sourced patches maybe one of them will allow users to better leverage the long press on the side button which right now only functions as a shortcut to settings and hopefully one comes along to solve the problem of the watch waking up when it's not supposed to the only real hardware deficiencies are a tendency toward image retention or burn in on the AMOLED display and also something you can hopefully avoid by being extra cautious the gear lives charging cradle is reportedly pretty fragile which becomes even more critical when you consider that you'll be charging it at least once every two days and more probably every single night even if you're good at putting the screen to sleep with the palm gesture and even if you disable the always-on clock the gear live sucks down a lot of battery every day 7 days of testing the gear live with several Android smartphones has us convinced of a few things it's attractive and Kay but not so pretty or powerful as to overcome Android where's handicaps like most smartwatches the notifications it brings do add convenience but the additional features Google tries to deliver are either inconsistent or teases that redirect you to the phone even when that's not really necessary if the gear live brought the beauty and novelty of other forthcoming Android wear devices we probably give it some more slack but as is this is basically a more attractive gear to powered by an undercooked platform geeks will love it and we expect it to quickly improve over time watch out for the after the buzz on this one but for now the Samsung gear live is hardly a must buy accessory see our full Android wear review later this week at PocketNow and our Android wear vs. pebble and G watch versus gear live comparisons on YouTube right now follow us on social media so you don't miss more wearable coverage from pocket now most importantly thanks for watching we'll see you next time