Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo: watches on steroids

Let us look what the more advanced model can do: Gear 2. The watch looks definitely better than its predecessor that is Galaxy Gear. It has a metal-plastic housing, covered with a slightly convex glass. The camera’s lens went from the strap to the body of the device, but the strap – unfortunately – is still made out of a material. The device is nicely crafted, but the looks is still discussable.

I will leave the assessment of the style to you; I will only add that this is a device rather for men. On a small, feminine hand Gear 2 looks rather caricature. The watch should be durable – and it is. The only element that is being scratched during a usage is the metal buckle of the strap. In comparison to the previous generation this element got a lot thinner – but the buckle is still not the thinnest. The watch is waterproof – it can last 30 minutes on a depth of a one meter. We can take a shower with it, but diving – not necessarily.

Gear 2, based on a Tizen system, offers a wide variety of possibilities. It has a built-in heart-rate meter, a step-meter and… a remote for a manual control of AV devices. The obvious function is the possibility to manage the phone’s music player, and displaying certain notifications as well. What is important, we can run an appropriate application on the phone from the level of the notification = for example to respond to an e-mail. The watch has a built-in autonomous music player… unfortunately, it does not have an earphones’ socket – it can only be used with Bluetooth earphones.

The watch can record videos and take photos as well – but its possibilities are not impressive. A photo can have a size of 1920x1080 pixels, and the movie – 1280x720, but the length of the clip can only have 15 seconds max. The effects of the built-in camera can be seen below:

Samsung Gear 2: sample videos recorded with the watch video: GSMchoice.com, via YouTube

But this is not the end of this gadget’s possibilities. Gear 2 can manage voice calls as well! It is a form of a wireless loud speaking set – and a complex one as well. We can not only take, but also receive a call – without taking the smartphone out of the pocket. What surprised me the most is the quality of the sound. I was expecting it to be poor – but, what a surprise – it was really good. We can talk by Gear 2 even in a noisy surrounding. In addition – we have an S-voice function and a recorder. They work without any problems, just like other functions.

During tests the watch did not freeze once, and the only thing that I can complain about is the imperfect motion sensor. The display should light-up when we are raising our hand to look at it. In practice – it lights up in least expecting moments, and in order to check the time – I must vigorously move my hand – or simply press the only button that is on the housing. This button can have assigned additional functions – double clicking it will run a selected app – like the camera. I cannot complain about the watch’s display. The 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display works well even in a sunny day, though it is worth switching it to an “outdoor” mode. Then it is brighter, but it kills the battery faster as well. The battery – in my case – had to be charged every second day. Nice…

Gear 2 technical data:

• Display: 1.63-inch, 320x320 pixels
• CPU: dual-core
• Memory: 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of ROM
• Camera: 2 Mpx
• Sensors: heart-rate meter, accelerometer, gyroscope
• Battery: 300 mAh
• Dimensions and weight: 58.4x36.9x10 mm; 68 g