Gadgetory

Samsung's new flagship smart watch takes a step towards the conventional while also keeping the complexity but that convergence comes at several costs is the gear s2 with all of them I'm Jules along with pocket now we're about to find out in our video review so remember that gear s yeah that chunky thing it was an amazing massive capability the shape of the device drew from Samsung's preferences for a band form screen and you could surf the web on all 2 inches of it simply put the gear s2 went on a diet the fit and finish well our unit sports a black stainless steel case with Gorilla Glass 3 at the winning combination against most bruises and bumps tack on a comfy and well-made gray elastomer band Samsung was cognizant enough to provide two sizes plus ip68 rated protection against dust and water and eva of a petite elegant and yet fierce entry into the 2015 wearables calendar on the watch case you'll find three methods of interaction with the device the buttons back in home are for regressing through the UI of course the glass covers up a touch display Super AMOLED collectible in bright conditions and well beautiful you can tap on and swipe across it but there is that rotating bezel at first I wondered about the usefulness of translating a classical pocket watch a vestige into a part of a thing that you put apps on but then I realized the satisfaction I got when it spun the wheel the assurance of a hardware click that registers absolutely in the OS something like klutzy fingers can easily mess up with so little real estate swipes are swipes not jitters this bezel may be a believer the innards on our standard Bluetooth model are relatively modest though thorough while the engine on this thing is pretty small it does carry the typical slate of sensors that are well rounded wearable at this price should have and also has three connectivity options including NFC Samsung decided to use a Qi cradle solution to charging some we can appreciate one thing we have to appreciate though is the to our zero to fall wait a little longer than average but for an overnight soaked or at work - what's the difference really complete Samsung exclusivity isn't the case anymore for the gear s2 you can now pair some Android phones that aren't galaxy branded to the watch the barrier comes when you try to install the necessary gear manager app there's actually a device compatibility document floating around it's not an exclusive list of 34 though as my hallway p8 Lite can attest but much more capable devices capable beyond Samsung's RAM and software requirements aren't compatible with that we've been trying to get answers from Samsung on this and we'll update when we hear from them if we do but for this video review we're focusing on our experience with the device pair to a Galaxy s6 edge+ owners have recently released or recently updated galaxies have the best bets for meeting - a gear s2 if you're trying your luck however keep your receipt you might need to make a return the interface itself is fairly simple if just a bit dense from the top you have your vital stats and toggles including for music do not disturb and of brightness notifications go on the left widgets like alarms as health heart rates they go on right you can add subtract or reorder them as you please though there aren't any third-party ones the microphone on the s2 is designated for s voice voice the dictation and voice memos while you can connect a bt headset to the watch the only calls you'll make are on your phone looking at pizza places scheduling meetings and messaging your pals stuff like that works about 90% of the time it's not the best money but it works you can also send canned or dictated SMS messages through your watch but the wow factor goes to the keyboards either bezel rotation based or t9 GLaDOS back in some fashion right back to more basic SmartWatch facets there are 15 watch faces preset several of them can be styled to your preference two of them are from Bloomberg and CNN the two also have dedicated apps on this two if you want to consume your market and international news rather inconveniently you'll likely be thrown at to your phone if you want to read an entire story but if a 100 award summary should suffice for you say for a coffee break it fits the bill it's especially great to have the bezel for scrolling here you'll definitely find yourself in SLO Vil on heavier apps like maps or heaven forbid love early bird but everywhere else you go you'll get there in buttery smooth fashion helping out in that fashion is a double tap of the home button you can assign it to whatever app or function you want including the recent apps screen to get back to say a timer.you started which is better than this you'll be three or four swipes away from the timer when you want to check how much time is left there's a good variety of apps in the Gear App Store however poorly organized it is beyond the watch faces that saturate the categories you'll find a small set of apps with a good set of features you can get away with navigation on here tick off a few things on your to-do list and even consume YouTube with squinty and eyes in general Samsung has a ways to go in getting its ecosystem game together against Android wear and pebble it's a good start but it's only a start from third to first party several native app features on this - like navigating on maps or routing music controls to the watch rely on auxiliary services you have to install when you open them up the first time a lot of the notifications you choose to receive are just as actionable on the watch as on Android wear it'll receive the full text of Gmail messages long as they may be to scroll through but they only have an archive button on the bottom extra actions including reply and delete are heading to the right and require a swipe to acts it's not exactly intuitive but all of the Swiss Army knife is there another basic aspect power with the battery rated at 250 million hours the watch did surprise us with its promised two days of use minimum my daily routine admittedly doesn't have me outside for very long so the average two and a half to three day life cycle I got might be a result of my habits but that's with an always-on watch face notifications a lot of music switching and a good bit of exercise tracking if you do find yourself in dire straits there is a power saving mode that swaps all the functionality of the gear s2 except for notifications call directing and messages two days is very attainable if you're really going to town on this thing less so so will the gear s2 be the SmartWatch you turn to well by itself if there's a whole lot on the table but the compatibility issues and some overbearing cruft on the software might tempt you to compare and contrast with other platforms other watches for cheaper or for more expensive still durable wrist-worn granularity is one of those rare things you think pretty cool to have but when you find yourself wanting it you do want it bad the one thing I would drop to my knees a big for at this point just to have this product rise out of contention are cell antennas it was one bulb Samsung major from the gear s that said hey you don't need a phone if you don't have one today go on to the completeness of what content s2 can provide consumption is not ideal yet it's good as gold if you've left your daily driver at home the extra fifty bucks for a device and change per month for 40 service on a gear s2 is definitely worth it in the end for our 300 dollar Bluetooth only model the gear s2 provides an adequate SmartWatch experience in great form it just would be our first choice you can find the full text review on pocketnow.com also keep updated on Jaime Rivera's logging of s health on the gear s2 that's coming soon keep updated at Jaime underscore Rivera on Twitter we should also stay connected on our pocket now social sockets 2 for the pocket now team I'm Jules long at green point zero on Twitter we'll have more later