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."

Re:Casio

[Anonymous Coward]

Not as cool as the 1977 HP-01 calculator watch. Red LED display! Stylus to press the buttons! Ultimate nerd cool, and gorgeous. Still drawing multi-$k prices on ebay. Somehow I doubt you'll be able to give Samsung's device away 36 years from now.

Re:Expensive

[ackthpt]

For the watch market, 300$ is actually pretty cheap. Should we expect lower prices because this watch does more/others things and/or things differently?

The last watch I bought in Europe cost ~$900. It costs $70 alone for a battery replacement and cleaning, every two years.

Wristband phone

[Animats]

This is just round one. Samsung also has a flexible display technology, and a patent application for a phone with a flexible display that wraps around the wearer's wrist. That has a lot more promise.

A wristband phone can offer much more vertical space. than a watch-like clunker. Wristbands can be wide or narrow, and can be made to look like jewelry. Twisting your wrist can control scrolling. Much more convenient than carrying a brick in your hand, and doesn't look so dweebish.

This could be the beginning of the end for round-cornered brick smartphones.

Re:Expensive

[cheater512]

Remember it is a OLED screen so it uses zero power to display black.
I saw an awful lot of black in it's UI.

Re:Expensive

[iamhassi]

Calculator watch battery lasted several months. This lasts several hours. Calling the Galaxy Gear a calculator watch is a insult to the calculator watch.