Samsung Unveils Galaxy Gear Smartwatch

MojoKid writes "The smartwatch race heated up today, as Samsung showed its Galaxy Gear smartwatch at the Samsung Unpacked event in Berlin. Samsung's take on such a device has been eagerly anticipated. Samsung announced the Galaxy Gear as a companion to the new Galaxy Note 3 (or any Galaxy device). The Gear lets users make and receive calls hands-free with the built-in speaker, and it notifies you of any incoming texts, emails, and alerts and gives you a preview of whatever is coming through. A Smart Relay feature will display the full content on your Galaxy device. The Galaxy Gear sports an 800MHz processor and 1.63-inch display (320x320) AMOLED display with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a speaker, and two microphones with noise cancellation. There's a 1.9MP camera with a BSI sensor and autofocus, and it connects via Bluetooth 4.0 + BLE. Sensors include an accelerometer and a gyroscope. Samsung plans to launch the smartwatch in October for $300."

Kitchen Sink with a Wristband

[Sponge Bath]

Samsung should have contemplated this longer before shoving it out the door. Deliver useful things a smartphone can't and nothing more then you'll have better battery life and something stylish instead of that bulky thing.

Fire Sale

[spire3661]

Cant wait until this thing tanks and I can pick one up for cheap. This thing was made as a hedge in case anyone else came out with a watch, at least Samsung would be poised to compete. I believe wearable computers are in our future, just not in this very obvious form. Give me something that looks like a real watch, with DAYS of battery, and useful functions that dont require a larger device to run it all the time.

Re:not good enough

[MrHanky]

Like they said, it's a fashion accessory. Did you see the presenter at the event, with those hideous white glasses? Fashion. So they made a giant, cumbersome watch with insultingly poor battery life and some crazy advanced technology that they couldn't find any practical use for. Fashion. You wouldn't understand. Neither do I.

ugly

[JustNiz]

Its quite ugly not to mention far too bulky.
I'm not sure what benefit having this could provide anyway.
Can anyone provide a credible use-case?

Re:Snake Pliskin Style!

[michelcolman]

Actually, you'll be alerting local crooks you have a smartphone AND a $300 smartwatch. And best of all, they can see it all the time because the thing is on your wrist, visible to everyone, instead of in your pocket most of the time.

Re:Expensive

[michelcolman]

A watch that works for 10 hours?! So you take it off the charger when you get up in the morning at 6am, and it stops working at 4 pm? Or you have to take it off during lunch break so it can recharge?

So basically, you can look at your watch to check your messages, but you end up having to dig your phone out of your pocket to see what time it is because the watch battery went dead? Something tells me they didn't think this through.

Re:Expensive

[Monoman]

Exactly. This thing need Power over Bluetooth so it can charge wirelessly while connected for data. ;-)

Re:Expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

And a $10 timex will do the same thing. Like the other douches buying $900, you did just to prove how douchy you are on the douche scale.

Re:Expensive

[c_jonescc]

$900 for a Swiss Quartz watch is not cheap. It's a very good price for a mechanical, though even a good mechanical from a less luxury brand is closer to $600 often.

Re:Wristband phone

[Anonymous Coward]

How much does samsung pay for comments like yours?

Re:Expensive

[msobkow]

You'd think they have learned from Blackberry's experience with their tablet to realize just how uninterested people are in "companion" devices.

samsung: 10 hour battery and time not visible

[goombah99]

What sort of watch only runs for 10 hours and when you glance at it doesn't show the time till you activate it?