Samsung Galaxy Gear Review

Camera
The camera is quite awesome if you think about it. It’s a 1.9-megapizel BSI auto-focus camera that can do both picture and 720p quality video (up to 15secs). The photo size is either 1,392 x 1,392 (1:1) to 1,280 x 960 (4:3). The awesome thing is, this camera is right there on your wristband, and all it takes is one flick from the top of the screen to the bottom to activate the camera.

6

S Voice
This is the Dick Tracy feature galore. If you’re already used to S Voice on your Samsung phone, then this will be nothing new. I found myself rarely using the S Voice since I’m not a big SIRI nor S Voice user, I’m still a touchy feely kinda guy with my phone. With the gear though, I had to try it, and it was honestly a hit or miss. You can tell S Voice to opens apps, make calls, send texts, schedule appointments, set alarms and timers and ask what time it is in other cities.

Notifications
Notifications are honestly an awesome thing with this watch, and if you use S Voice, you have a nice package deal. Samsung wanted to “keep your phone in your pocket” mantra with the Galaxy Gear, and they sure do for me a good solid 80% of the time. The cool thing is, you can customize what notifications you want send to the gear, for me I have all my business, calendar, texts headed to the gear. The only drawback though is that for Gmail, you can’t read the email on the Gear, but it gives you a one click which opens (unlocks as well) and goes straight to your Gmail to read that email, and this is most standard for most apps right now since Samsung is still kinda locked tight with its apps.

3

Wrap-Up
This being a short review of my experience with the gear, I would say that this is still spendy if you don’t use it a lot. You can create your own home screen with custom background pictures, but as of right now and Samsung still keeping a lock on what apps hit their market, I would say to save your hard earned money until this watch is more open to open development and Samsung launches some tweaks to some other things. Don’t get me wrong, I love the watch, I use it every day for all my texting purposes, and I just love the fact I don’t have to pull out my phone to see what made it vibrate. Spending $300 on that, yes, it’s a little much, but I went ahead and pulled the trigger and am just eagerly awaiting when more apps will be released and this watch unlocks its full potential. On a side note, developers are creating apps for it which you have to download on your own at your own risk, but not many good ones available just yet though. I would have to give the Samsung Galaxy Gear a 7 out of 10 score.

rating7 10 small

Pros:
• Receive notifications without checking phone
• The camera being very accessible
• Incredibly comfortable on my wrist

Cons:
• Lack of apps due to Samsung keeping close tabs on who they bring aboard
• Battery life only lasting about a day and a half
• A little pricey for what you get now, but once Samsung unlocks their store to open development, the watch is worth every penny