With the Galaxy Gear, Samsung is jumping headfirst into the smart watch space. But is the timing correct?
As we discussed in our hands-on impressions of the Galaxy Gear in both New York and Berlin, the product holds a lot of promise. But it also holds many potential challenges.
Available at AT&T, Verizon, U.S. Cellular, T-Mobile, Sprint and select consumer electronics stores, the Galaxy Gear costs $299.99. Samsung is one of the first major players to fully embrace the smart watch space. By bringing a product to market before its competitors (namely Apple), Samsung is clearly hoping to take an early chunk out of what many of us believe is the next big trend in gadgets: wearables.
As a big fan of the Pebble smart watch, I was unsure of what to think of the Galaxy Gear. After using the Galaxy Gear (paired with a T-Mobile Galaxy Note 3), I think Samsung has some great ideas and concepts that are marred by what feels like premature execution.
Design and Feel
Last month, I spent 800 words eviscerating the design of the Galaxy Gear — not to mention kvetching about its seemingly anti-women aesthetic. I'm prepared to make a slight mea culpa: The Galaxy Gear isn't as ugly as I originally feared.
Fashion, is of course, subjective, but the overall look (something I'm going to call "neo Dick Tracy") has its charms. The bright, 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display is the focal point of the device and it's flanked by a metal bezel and housing with exposed screws. This is connected to the non-removable band, which holds the 1.9-megapixel camera.
Let's talk a bit about the band. First, good news for those of us with small wrists: On its tightest setting, the Galaxy Gear will fit without sliding up or down the wrist. This is essential because the Galaxy Gear isn't a lightweight watch and any slack makes using the device while typing on a computer, well, untenable.
In not-as-good news, the band is uncomfortable. It's stiff and making the watch fit so tightly (at least on my wrist) seems to suffocate the skin. It's odd to feel your wrist getting sweaty inside a watch. The clasp that connects the band is nice and secure, however.
If you can adjust the watch so that it has a bit of room on your wrist, the overall comfort increases tremendously. Still, it's important to know this is a heavy watch — and not in a "this is an expensive TAG Heuer" kind of heavy. It's a heavy, borderline-awkward piece of wearable tech.
I'm just going to say it: The Galaxy Gear feels like a very 1.0 product in terms of its physical design. Samsung has a great track record with quickly iterating its designs, though, and I feel confident that future Samsung wearables will look a lot better.
Setting Up, Connectivity, Charging
Setting up the Galaxy Gear is relatively simple. For now, it requires the use of the Galaxy Note 3, but future support is coming to the Galaxy S4 and other select Galaxy handsets.
After enabling NFC on the phone, simply pair the watch (while fitted in its charging pod) with the phone by tapping the two back-to-back. This pulls up an installer for the Gear Manager, an app that manages the connection between the phone and watch.
The setup process initiates the Bluetooth setup screen. Just approve the connection on both the phone and watch and you're done. This is very easy, stymied only by the awkwardness of the charging pod, which holds the NFC connection for the watch itself.
From the Gear Manager, you can select watch faces, install and configure Gear apps and adjust notification settings.
The Galaxy Gear connects using Bluetooth Smart (a.k.a. Bluetooth 4.0 "low energy"), and the watch alerts you with a vibration when you lose connection with the phone. Once you're back in range of the phone, the watch automatically reconnects, no re-pairing required.
With the Pebble, I initially had some problems re-pairing the smart watch with Android devices (this has since been fixed via software updates). This was absolutely not the case with the Galaxy Gear; it re-paired and reconnected with the Galaxy Note 3 with absolutely no problem.
The Galaxy Gear charges in an interesting (but frustrating) way, via a snap-on charging pod. The pod has a microUSB port that can be connected to an included wall charger (or used with any other microUSB cable) and the watch snaps in using charging contacts on the back of the device.
I found it difficult to quickly get the watch in and out of the the charging adapter, and the stiffness of the band makes accessing the NFC on the back awkward. Fortunately, you don't need to pair the device over NFC very often. I'm not opposed to the idea of a charging adapter for the watch, and a dock actually makes sense; I just don't like the design.
Apps, Usage, Battery Life
Rather than being-button driven like the Pebble, the Galaxy Gear has a full capacitive touchscreen. The good news is that navigating the watch is a breeze — once you get used to the gestures.
Double tapping with two fingers brings up settings and battery stats. Swiping down from the top goes back a page, swiping left or right goes through menus. Yet the back behavior isn't always intuitive.
One frustrating aspect is actually displaying the time. To conserve battery life, the Galaxy Gear's display is not always on. Unfortunately, the accelerometer basically requires that you bring the watch up to your face to turn on. The sensor isn't very accurate and it didn't work more often than it did, requiring a press of a side button. That's a shame, as a quick flick of the wrist to turn on would be useful.
Apps
As I said in my Pebble review, apps are the real catalyst for all wearables and truly elevate a product like a smart watch from simple gadget to true "companion" device.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear comes with several built-in apps and functions. In addition to telling time (naturally) and showing the weather, the Gear delivers SMS messages from a phone, can control media playback on the phone and serves as a way to initiate and answer phone calls. It also has the ability to take photos, record voice memos and dictate messages via S Voice.
Beyond the built-in applications, Samsung also has a wide array of third-party apps from big names and small developers alike. Evernote, Path, Line, Snapchat, Runkeeper, Runtastic, Pocket, Banjo and Highlight are just some of the companies with apps already available for the Galaxy Gear. Companies including TripIt have announced plans for apps.
Although Samsung's app ecosystem already has lots of big names, I'm not convinced that all of the apps have a real purpose. For instance, as much as I enjoy services such as Pocket, I don't see the real benefit of accessing that content and the text-to-speech function in the smartphone app from my wrist.
Likewise, I don't know if the position of the camera on the Galaxy Gear is such that it actually makes sharing photos or reading wine labels worthwhile. Cool as a trick, yes. Actually useful? I'm not sure.
That said, there are some applications that are extremely well suited for a smart watch. Voice and chat apps, including Snapchat, have instant utility on the Galaxy Gear — especially with the built-in microphone and S Voice functionality.
Beyond obvious choices such as fitness apps, which work great on a smart watch, I love the potential of location-based apps. Imagine getting a buzz on your wrist when you're within a few blocks of a restaurant you like or a location you've mapped on your phone.
As an active TripIt user, I also look forward to that app's arrival on the Gear because it promises easy access to boarding information, baggage claim locations and one-tap access to calling a hotel or airline.
I'm less impressed with some of the built-in features, especially when it comes to notifications. One of the best parts of the Pebble is that you can get a visual notification of what's happening on your smartphone. This is especially great on Android — which allows great customization of those alerts.
Unfortunately, notification support on the Galaxy Gear is limited to the built-in text message app (or one of the many third-party chat apps) and Samsung's email client. You can get notifications from other apps on the device, but unfortunately they simply sayl "for details, view this notification on your mobile device." So if I use the Gmail Android app, I can't see who emailed me or the content of the email without first pulling out my phone. Useless.
The same is true for Twitter and Facebook mentions. Fortunately, a third-party developer has already created free QuickView apps for Twitter and Facebook, but why not support Androids's built-in notification system?
I'm sure this will improve over time, but it's frustrating to see this feature at launch. Pebble got it so right, yet it's crippled on the Galaxy Gear.
Battery Life
Call it low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life on the Galaxy Gear. After hearing Samsung claim "a day" of use, I was worried the watch would be dead before bedtime. Despite tons of usage, I found that I can get about two full 24-hour days of battery life on the watch. No, that's not as good as the week delivered by Pebble, but it's not terrible.
Assuming you can get in the habit of docking the Galaxy Gear in its charger before bedtime, I think most users should be fine.
No Killer App
My biggest problem with the Galaxy Gear is that I don't yet see its "killer app" — that one thing that makes it unique beyond other devices and options. While the camera is interesting, it's really more of a gimmick.
Initiating phone calls from the phone is nice, as is sending voice notes to Evernote. But it's not what I would call a device-defining feature.
The Pebble, which is designed as a sports watch, makes apps such as RunKeeper really stand out. The design of the Galaxy Gear is such that I wouldn't necessarily want to run or bike with it — and it's certainly not waterproof. It also doesn't feel durable enough to sustain sports and fitness as a primary activity.
Without that killer app, I'm not sure that the features of the Galaxy Gear are enough to support the tradeoffs in style, not to mention its price and device restrictions.
A Question of Price and Compatibility
Even with its usability shortfalls and problematic notifications, the Galaxy Gear faces two major hurdles for mass adoption: device support and price.
First, let's talk cost. At $299.99, the Galaxy Gear will set you back twice as much as the Pebble. Yes, it's a more advanced device. Yes, it has a beautiful color touchscreen and a camera. No, I don't think those features are $150 better than the Pebble.
I could see the $300 price working if the device were more of a fashion statement. If you're Samsung's target market and you like the look of the watch as jewelry, I have less of an issue with the price. As a gadget, however, I think this is $100 too much for what it offers.
This is even more true since the Galaxy Gear only works with the Galaxy Note 3 at launch. Yes, support for other Galaxy devices is coming — but this limits the potential of the watch by large margin.
I actually don't have a problem with Samsung restricting the Galaxy Gear to Galaxy owners. After all, Galaxy is a brand now. That said, I'm worried about how support for the Galaxy Gear will roll out to other Galaxy devices. (Seriously, how hard would it have been to also include support for the Galaxy S4 at launch?) This is complicated since it's the wireless carriers who issue firmware updates — and maybe Samsung can offer a way to get support to older devices via a manual software installation process — but launching on just one device screams of "we're not ready."
The Lowdown
What's Good
Looks and feels better than some pundits (i.e., moi) proclaimed
Great quality screen
Strong app support out of the gate
What's Bad
Expensive, especially when compared to the Pebble
Requires Galaxy Note 3 (and select Galaxy devices in the future) to work
Charging is awkward
Bottom Line
There are a lot of good ideas with the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but the execution feels unfinished and the overall experience is searching for purpose.
Photos: Mashable, Christina Ascani; Screenshots: Samsung, Path
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