The Samsung Gear S2 SmartWatch is the latest wearable out of Samsung since its initial debut a couple of years ago with its first Gear smartwatch. I must say that Samsung’s famous wearable has come a long way since the large rectangular monster of its first generation cousin. Back in those days, it was mainly the technology geeks (like myself) who would be seen wearing Samsung’s wearbles. Today, however, the target market landscape has changed – The Samsung Gear S2 SmartWatch now actually looks like a true high end time piece! Nice job Samsung!
I finally decided to get my hands on one of these watches when I upgraded my phone to the Samsung Galaxy S7. The store clerk showed off the watch to me as I was about to buy my Galaxy S7. Initially I was apprehensive, but then she showed me the rotating bezel that controlled the on screen navigation on the watch face where all of the installed applications could be viewed and accessed. In short, I was impressed, and out came my credit card.
The Samsung Gear S2 comes in a variety of colors like dark grey, rose gold (my wife’s favorite) and platinum plated – to name a few. Now, I must stress the fact that is seems as though Samsung created the watch first and then reverse engineered it to be a smartwatch because to the naked eye it really does look like a normal high end time piece. I even put one of the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatches next to my Citizen Eco-Drive Watch and they both looked like regular watches.
When it comes to all of the available input controls on the smartwatch, in addition to the rotating bezel, there is also a touch screen as well as Home and Back buttons located on the right hand side of the watch face.
The watch also comes preinstalled with an array of useful applications that you would normally find on a typical smartphone like the following:
- Instant Messenger – Read and reply to messages that come through on your smartphone right from your smartwatch.
- Phone – Make and receive phone calls directly on your watch. You will need to have the phone in close proximity for this to work, however.
- Buddy Interface – There is even a Buddy interface where you can have mini pictures (head shots) of your most used contacts that you can simply touch to immediately start a phone call or send a text message to.
- Calendar and Scheduler – This application syncs with the calendar on your Android smartphone. Never miss an important meeting or that dentist appointment for that exciting root canal.
- Email – Sync with the email on your smartphone, and yes, you can send and receive emails right from the Gear S2 smartwatch.
- Maps – A GPS on your wrist, nice.
- Media player (for music) – The sound will come through the speakers of your Android smartphone and you can control the tracks being played and volume through the application on the watch.
- Samsung S Health app – Use the S Health application to track and measure your heart rate, coffee and water intake. This app can also measure the oxygen levels in your blood. Thanks to the built in sensors located in the back of the smartwatch.
- Stopwatch – Standard stopwatch feature that you would normally find on a standard watch.
- Weather – No longer do you have to log into your smartphone to check the latest weather widget update. Simply check the weather status on your watch.
- Alarm – Samsung made sure that the Gear S2 SmartWatch comes with all of the standard typical watch features like your basic alarm application.
- Photo Gallery – Thanks to the 360 x 360 (302 pixel per inch or ppi) touchscreen you are able to flip through your favorite photo galleries right on your Gear S2 watch. For all of your older folks reading this blog post would agree that Dick Tracy himself would be proud of this watch.
- Timer – Great for when you have to time those hard boiled eggs on a Saturday morning for breakfast.
- Find My Phone – This great feature helps you find your smartphone when it is buried under your pile of weekend laundry by using your Gear S2 smartwatch as a remote control that can make your smartphone vibrate and beep.
- Settings – Simply manage your settings by simply turning the watch bezel and tapping on the watch’s touch screen.
On your smartphone you can download the Gear Manager application to manage your Gear S2 SmartWatch. The Gear Manager normally comes installed on the latest Samsung smartphones like the Galaaxy S6 and S7 series phones.
After playing around with the watch I noticed that you can have up to three pages installed application icons which gives a grand total of about 30 applications that can be installed on the watch at any given time. There is also a vast library of additional applications that can be downloaded for the Gear S2 from both the Samsung online application store as well as the Google Play store as well.
Below is a high level overview of some of the Gear S2 technical specifications:
- The Gear S2 comes in two flavors: the Gear S2 and the Gear S2 Classic and they both have Bluetooth connectivity.
The Gear S2 Specifications:
- The Gear S2 measures in at 42.3 x 49.8 x 11.4 millimeters when measured as width x height x depth and weighs in at a mere 47 grams.
- It is powered by a powerful mini Exynos 3250 microprocessor and is powered by a 250 mAh rechargeable battery via wireless inductive charging. In simple terms this means that the smartwatch does not need to be connected to any wires to be charged. Samsung has included a wireless charging dock with the Gear S2 as well.
The Gear S2 Classic Specifications:
- The Gear S2 Classic is a little smaller in surface area at 39.9 x 43.6 x 11.4 millimeters when measured as width x height x depth and is a little lighter than it’s larger cousin, weighing 42 grams.
- It has the same Exynos 3250 processor and 250 mAh battery.
Both watch models also have gorgeous 1.2 inch full circular sAMOLED (302 pixels per inch) touchscreens.
Looking at memory capacity the Gear S2 watched come with 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of ROM whereby about roughly half of the ROM is available for other applications and media (i.e. about 1.9 GB).
The Samsung Gear S2 is IP68 compliant so it can get a little wet and is dust resistant (for example when worn outdoors in light rain). From a connectivity perspective the Gear S2 does come with Bluetooth version 4.1 connectivity, has built in Wi-Fi as well as Near Field Communications (NFC).
There is also a built in acceleromter, Gyro, Heart Rate Monitor, Barometer as well as an ambient light sensor. For the Maps application to work there is also a GPS radio.
Imagine all of the above technology crammed inside this smartwatch. Really impressive Samsung!
When you buy the Samsung Gear S2, inside the box you get the following:
- Gear S2 SmartWatch
- A second watch band. This comes in very handy because after time the watch band that has the holes usually gets worn, just like the watch bands of typical watches.
- Wireless charging dock.
- Power adapter which provides power to the charging dock.
- Quick start guide.
In summary, this is a great wearable that is not just compatible with Samsung phones that have Android version 4.3 and higher but it also works with any non-Samsung phone that has Android version 4.4 and higher.
By the way, you can even download various watch faces and customize the look of your Gear S2 to your needs. That, in itself is a real game changer.
Checkout my YouTube videos below where I do an in depth review of the Samsung Gear S2 and feel free to checkout Amazon below if you want to buy one of these smartwatches for yourself.
Get the Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch (Black Classic) from Amazon here. Get the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Smartphone from Amazon here.
Get the Garmin FENIX 3 100m Smartwatch from Gear Best here. 