Samsung Gear S Review

Because it has to go curved at some point.

I used the original Galaxy Gear for a bit over a month and all that determined was it just wasn't a very good smartwatch, but first timers aren't usually perfect. I wasn't ready to give up on this smartwatch idea just yet so I went out and upgraded to Samsung's second newest smartwatch. This rather large, curved wrist computer is called the Gear S and it's a wildly ambitious attempt to make the smartwatch more relevant, but does it actually do what it's predecessors failed to do?

Size compared to a Galaxy Gear.

The Gear S is discontinued now with the release of the Gear S2 but it's not that old having been released in November of 2014. I mean as modern tech goes, your device can't even be a year old and it gets replaced. The build quality is good, most of the device is plastic and the only bit of metal is on the edges and the clasp. And this device is pretty huge, probably the biggest smartwatch on the market. It's body is a bit bigger than that of the first Gear and nearly the whole thing is occupied by this 2" inch curved AMOLED screen which is pretty great, but if you have small wrists, this thing is going to look funky as hell on you unless having over sized wrist jewelry is your type of thing. Honestly though, if these screens get any bigger than this, it's just going to look stupid in general but the Gear S2 changed to a smaller round screen so it's got that covered. The device is rated IP67, same as the Galaxy S5 which means it can handle a fair amount of liquid punishment but water can still kill it at higher depths and/or pressures.

The microSIM port open next to the HR monitor and charging contacts.

Along with the large screen, you also get a heart rate monitor which actually gives you a reason to wear the device and I'll touch more on the that later. What's also really cool about the Gear S is that it doesn't require a phone to work like the old device. Why? Because it is a 3G phone! The Gear S takes a microSIM and it allows you you talk and text without the need for your phone to be in your pocket. So the idea is, you go to the gym but you don't want to have your giant Note 4 sloshing around in your pockets, you just leave the phone at home and take the Gear S. I have not set this up yet and it costs like $5 bucks extra or something like that a month on T-Mobile, which isn't bad, and I just might do it. Without the 3G activation, it pairs to your Samsung phone over Bluetooth like normal, but the device still does require the phone for downloading apps and watch faces, something that should be capable on the watch itself by now, so it's not totally independent of your phone.

Screw industry standard.

Unlike the first Gear there is also no hardware in the bands so they are totally removable. The speaker is moved up to the body and the camera is gone but that feature was pretty pointless anyways. The OEM band is made of  type of rubber plus the stainless steel clasp, and with the curve of the watch body, it's actually pretty comfortable in the long run. I will note that the OEM band makes a bit of rubber squeaking when you put pressure on the band in some areas. While this might entice you to replace your bands, the Gear S only takes these proprietary bands and not the industry standard ones like the Gear 2 did. While now you can surely get a band you like off Amazon with no hassle, it's kind of a stupid move and it feels a bit like a money grubbing tactic, but it might have to do with the size of the device.

Please kill yourself charging cradle.

Along with the proprietary bands, Samsung decided to do this stupid crap again and use a charging cradle. This cradle kind of sucks, its not locking like the old Gear but it uses little plastic tabs to hold the device in place and I've read reports of them breaking at times. This hasn't happened to me yet but seriously Samsung, at least make the goddamn cradle a magnetized one or just make the watch take microUSB; the Chinese did it with their shitty Gear 2 clone, it's not that hard. I don't want to have to carry around an extra piece of plastic just to charge my watch if I need to. It's stupid. Stop it. On a better note, the battery life is significantly improved and I was able to push three days with it on a single charge. Granted this was doing very little with it but if you pushed it with more intensive software it gets roughly a day. Overall not bad, still worse than a real watch but that's what you have to expect when you get a smartwatch.

Apps page open. It holds apps. Go figure.

So the hardware is better because it has less nonsense going for it, everything is bigger, more powerful, and what was deemed unnecessary like the camera, is gone. Remember how I said the old Gear had a case of screen burn? Samsung actually helped remedy that and made the digital time change position when ever the watch is woken up by gesture. That way it's not in the same spot 24/7 and it won't kill the pixels in that area. Awesome. As for software, it runs of Tizen which has been criticized for being too ill supported by third parties but if you intend on playing Asphalt 8 or checking your Facebook in full on this thing, you need to re-think yourself. The screen may be big for a watch but it's still only two inches. I downloaded Opera Mini onto the Gear S and yes it's really cool that it works and all but trying to read my blog on it for example is like trying to read my blog designed for ants. If you are the tech savvy type, people are working on porting full blown Android 5.0 and Android Wear to the Gear S. They aren't totally stable yet but if you hate Tizen, just be aware there are options on the horizon.

No idea if this is normal for someone who just downed a bottle of Orangina.

The heart rate monitor runs off the S Health app which features a pedometer, sleep tracking, UV tracking, and heart rate of course. Unfortunately the monitor only runs continuously in exercise mode so you have to do it manually otherwise. The monitor also requires you to be still and even then, it's readings can seem a bit spotty at times, being an optical sensor it's not really too surprising. This is a loss against the FitBit HR range which do all this automatically but the sensor is still optical. The rest of the features work roughly the same as the old Gear like the phone which again only runs on speaker, and S-Voice texting with some improvements, however you do get a keyboard and with a screen of this size, it has very good spell check to cover your bases. You still get notifications like normal but you can also load MP3 files onto the device and use Bluetooth headphones with it. It's very versatile in terms of what it can do but there are some, more specialized devices that work a bit better.

Watch faces are vastly customizable.

The Gear S is a definite improvement over the old Galaxy Gear, it feels more useful and standalone unlike it's predecessor which was too overly dependent on the phone to be that useful. Tizen runs pretty well and some may say it lacks support, it has enough features out of the box and more are might be available on the Gear App Store if more is what you really need. It's downsides are less but still numbered, like the charging cradle, the size of the device for smaller wrists, the proprietary watch bands, the Samsung device only pairing, and it's somewhat iffy fitness tracking. It's a much better attempt from Samsung at building a good smartwatch and it really isn't bad at all, there's just still some features about it that need to improve like fitness tracking or die off like the cradle. The real problem with the Gear S and and almost all smartwatches in general is that they seem to be completely unnecessary regardless of how good or bad they are. Most of them require the phone to work and while the standalone watch is a step in the right direction you just really don't need one when you have a phone that does everything already. At $350 bucks the Gear S isn't hard to recommend because of it's flaws, it's just because you really don't need it to begin with.

The Gear S is discontinued but it can be found for $350 and less also depending on carrier.