Samsung Gear S
Samsung announced its new curved-display smartwatch last week, but today we were able to get up-close and personal with the new wearable. Unlike most smartwatches, the Gear S has two very special features. The first is a curved 2-inch, AMOLED display, and the second is 3G connectivity, allowing the smart watch to be used independent of a smartphone.
The curved display measures in at a 260×480 resolution, and under the hood you’ll find a GPS sensor, an accelerometer, gyroscope, UV detector, barometer, and heart rate monitor, alongside 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM. It’s all powered by a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor and Tizen, Samsung’s own mobile operating system.
The Gear S has a 3G radio in it, so it can actually operate without a tethered phone giving it network access. This cuts battery life significantly of course, but as I was speculating on Twitter, smartwatches might be able to get away with ‘only’ one-day battery.
I like the conceptual design of this watch as well. My hypothetical iWatch is basically a band that has an integrated — seamless — curved display. The Gear S’s face is not too far off what I imagine. The main difference here is that the screen is still separated from the band — I think the iWatch would be made such that it look like all one part, with the screen inline to the body.