News & Reviews:   Samsung Smartwatch

Showing off more Samsung curved displays is the Samsung Gear Fit, which appears to be the company's entry into the growing list of health tracking smart bands. Like the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch the Gear Fit also displays notifications and incoming calls or messages but does away with any camera feature. While it offers a pedometer, timer, heart rate sensor, accelerometer and other health tracking the Gear Fit does have a fairly sensitive wide and narrow 1.84-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with very nice colours. As usual, it can be used as a bluetooth companion device but can also operate on it's own as a health tracking smart band. The Gear Fit is also IP67 certified so it can take some rain, dust and rough weather with ease.  The full tech specs of the Samsung Gear Fit can be seen below:

• 1.84” Curved Super AMOLED (432x128)
• Supports Bluetooth v4.0 LE
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Heart Rate
• 23.4 x 57.4 x 11.95 mm | 27g
• 210 mAh battery (Typical Usage 3~4 days, Low Usage up to 5 days)
• IP67 Dust and Water Resistant

At the ongoing MWC 2014, Samsung revealed their next generation smartwatches the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo. Major differences with the original Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch include the fact that both new smartwatches are running Tizen, Samsung's mobile operating system and the fact that the camera has been moved to the chassis and not the strap. A new IrLED blaster lets you control your TV and other devices. Both smartwatches have more or less the same tech specs and features except that the Galaxy Gear 2 Neo doesn't have any camera. Check out the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and Galaxy Gear 2 Neo tech specs below:

• Samsung Galaxy Gear 2
• 1GHz Dual Core Processor
• 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display (320 x 320 pixel resolution)
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB storage
• 2MP camera (auto focus, 720p at 30fps video recording)
• 36.9 x 58.4x 10.0 mm | 68g
• 300 mAh battery
• Supports heart rate sensor, pedometer, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, IrLED sensor, Noise Cancellation
• IP67 Certified Dust and Water Resistant
• Charcoal Black, Gold Brown and Wild Orange

According to recent rumours, the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch could be getting a refresh at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2014 set to happen at the end of the month. What is really interesting is that instead of the Android operating system it is using, the new refresh could be using Samsung's Tizen operating system. Both Android and Tizen are designed to be scaled down to devices with limited hardware but Tizen seems to be something Samsung could be more familiar with. No news if the refresh could also mean a pricing refresh as well but many are expecting the Samsung smartwatch to make it's appearance at the Unpacked event coming up soon as it would make a good companion device to the Samsung Galaxy S5.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch offers the most amount of features around but one of the main reasons it didn't really take off in Malaysia was it's RM999 price tag. Recently Samsung cut down the price of the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch in India down to $120 (RM397), with the original initial pricing set at an even higher $365 (RM1208). Samsung has not given any official announcement on a global cut-down in pricing for markets like Malaysia yet but since India got it, China, Malaysia and other Asian markets will probably follow soon after. The price cut is also indicative of what could be coming as well, as many are expecting the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch or S Band bracelet to be revealed in 2014. No specific Malaysia release dates just yet, but we're expecting it to come in or after the end of February 2014.

While Samsung's Unpacked invite all but announced the coming of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it still didn't offer much in terms of tech specs or features. Rumours have cropped up from Eldar Murtazin who says he knows the exact details. According to him, the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have a 5.24-inch display with 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution (2K display) which would give it a world's first record with 560ppi pixel density. Other features include a 3200 mAh battery, 32GB / 64GB storage, a 16MP rear camera, 3.2MP front camera and two versions with either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 or Samsung Exynos 6 processor and chipset. The Samsung Galaxy S5 is expected to arrive with a companion S Band bracelet and not a Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch. Last but not least, do take this rumour with a healthy dose of salt, as Eldar Murtazin has been wrong about the Galaxy S5 before.

A Korean report recently quoted a Samsung spokesperson who hinted that we may soon see a pair of Samsung smartglasses, ahead of the consumer version of Google Glass, which has already come out for developers and first-time adopters. According to the report, we could see the still-unnamed Samsung smartglasses at the latest IFA which should be happening around September 2014. The report says that the Samsung Smartglasses will have the same functions as the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, although we hope it won't have the same crippling battery life and compatibility limitations. Below is the exact quote from the report:

It will be interesting to see which companies get better stakes in the race for smart glasses. Players definitely want to enjoy a ‘first-mover’ advantage in this new and highly lucrative market [...]

Wearable devices can’t generate profits immediately. Steady releases of devices are showing our firm commitment as a leader in new markets …

While the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch probably offers the most in terms of functionality for any smartwatch currently on the market one of it's main limitations was that it only works with certain Samsung smartphones. This short compatibility list included the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Note 2, S4 and S3 with Android 4.3 firmware. However, this is no longer the case as Smart Watch Fans have come up with a guide showing how to make the Galaxy Gear smartwatch work with a Nexus 5 smartphone. It may require you to download some files, extract them and rename them, but there isn't any arduous programming or too-technical stuff to do to make it work. Do bear in mind that most of the apps work, except for S-Voice and Weather. Other smartwatch fans are saying that they have also made the Galaxy Gear work with the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, provided that it is the pure vanilla Google Edition version.

Jumping on the gold coloured smartphone bandwagon? Then Celcom's recent offer for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Rose Gold Edition should interest you as you can now get the phablet in Rose Gold White or Rose Gold Black at Celcom from RM1538. In addition to this, Celcom are even throwing in a free Moschino casing (worth RM189) along with a Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch at just RM288 (the standard retail price for the Gear is RM999). The initial Celcom Samsung Galaxy Note 3 deal is still the same with 12-month, 18-month and 24-month contracts for the Celcom First postpaid plans. Just for your information, the free Moschino case is only available from 28 January 2014 with the whole deal valid up until 28 February 2014. Check out the table and links in this article for more details.

Samsung's Lee Young Hee, Executive VP of the Mobile Division certainly likes to drop plenty of teasers for Samsung products in his quotes with this one concerning the next Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Confirming that the still unnamed smartwatch which could turn be named the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 would be unveiled with the Samsung Galaxy S5 by April, he said:

“When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved. Health-care related functions will be the most inherently tied functions to future wearables. We see a very big potential from there.”

The first generation Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch really didn't wow us despite it currently being the most feature-filled consumer smartwatch available. It cost too much, lasted just a bit more than 24 hours and still had to rely on your smartphone to use most of the apps. So when rumours that Samsung could be coming out with a 2nd version surfaced we're still a bit skeptical about the whole Samsung smartwatch thing. As it is, rumours are saying that the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and another wearable to be called the Samsung Galaxy Band could be revealed at MWC 2014 in February. Tech specs and features are very limited but the Galaxy Gear 2 is expected to have a flexible screen while the Galaxy Band would be a health tracker much like the Nike FuelBand. No details on pricing or Malaysia release dates but if they do get revealed at MWC 2014, we'll probably see them in Malaysia sometime in 2014. For now, check out the whole bunch of flexible display tech from Samsung's own Display group below. Do watch out for a FuelBand like bangle smartwatch in the video.